The Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Germany (Latin: Vicariatus Apostolicus Germaniae Septentrionalis), known for most of its existence as the Vicariate Apostolic of the Northern (or Nordic) Missions (Latin: Vicariatus Apostolicus Missionum Septentrionalium), was a Catholic missionary jurisdiction established on 28 April 1667.
On 7 August 1868, the occasion of completing separate jurisdictions for all of Scandinavia, the vicariate only continued to comprise small areas in Northern Germany and was thus renamed.
In 1582 the stray Catholics of Denmark, Finland, Northern Germany, Norway, and Sweden were placed under the jurisdiction of an Apostolic Nuncio to Cologne.
This was partially due to (1) secular rulers or governments repressing Catholic faith and clergy in their territories, which comprised the diocesan areas, (2) due to the fact that incumbent bishops had converted to Lutheranism, or (3) because the cathedral capitular canons, responsible for electing new bishops, had adopted Lutheranism and thus chose fellow faithful candidates, who thus de facto ascended the sees (typical for prince-bishoprics in Northern Germany).
The number of Catholics having increased in 1667, chiefly through the above-mentioned Prince of Calenberg, a vicariate Apostolic was established for Northern Germany.
He died in 1676, and was succeeded by the celebrated Danish convert Nicolaus Steno, who in 1680 was obliged to leave Hanover, was made Auxiliary Bishop of Münster, and in 1683 returned to the Nordic Missions.
The Northern Missions, viewed in a wider sense, included also the Apostolic Prefectures of Schleswig-Holstein, coinciding with the Prussian province of that name, of Denmark and of Norway, which were placed under separate prelates in 1868.
In the vicariate, corresponding mostly to the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, Catholics numbered about 79,400 (with 1,925,000 members of other confessional denominations), under 47 secular priests having care of 17 parishes and 17 mission stations.
The Prefecture Apostolic of Schleswig-Holstein had in 1909: 11 parishes, 31 mission stations, 34 secular priests, 35,900 Catholics, and 550,000 of other beliefs; 4 communities of Sisters of St. Elizabeth and 3 of Franciscan nuns.
The spiritual interests of the faithful were inadequately attended to owing to the extent of the parishes, the lack of priests, the poverty of the majority of the Catholics and in many places the hostility of the Protestant state or municipal governments.
The French Revolution and the Napoleonic regime brought great relief to Catholics in many cities and states; but the equality granted them by law in some countries was often merely theoretical.
At the reorganisation of Catholic affairs in Germany after the Napoleonic era (see Rheinbund), the greater part of the Northern Missions was added to adjacent bishoprics.
The date in the second column refers to the year, when last time a catholic bishop could effectively wield his pontificate, not an eventual later appointment or continued titulature in exile.
Also in the Kingdom of Hanover the diocesan areas of defunct bishoprics (Bremen, Verden) were assigned to the neighbouring existing dioceses of Hildesheim and of Osnabrück on 26 March 1824 (Bull "Impensa Romanorum Pontificum").
At this time all of Northern Europe formed separate Roman Catholic jurisdictions and had left the Nordic Missions: Simultaneously with the establishment of the Danish and Norwegian apostolic prefectures the Nordic Missions had been reduced to small member states in the North German Confederation (thus renamed to Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Germany on 7 August 1868), such as the Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg (part of Prussia as of 1876), the Hanseatic free cities of Bremen (without Bremerhaven), Hamburg (still with Cuxhaven) and Lübeck, the Principalities of Lübeck (capital Eutin), and Schaumburg-Lippe, and the British Island of Helgoland (joined Germany in 1891).