Johan Smits answers the question of how professors of theology as a central Protestant elite related to rising nationalism both on an institutional and on an ideological level. The author first focuses on the institutional dimension of nation building. This landscape and its constitutive actors and institutions are mapped by means of methods from social network analysis. Protestant associations and theological journals contributed to the genesis of networks which, indifferent to state borders, connected theologians to each other and to other Protestant elites. Bodies of church administration and theological faculties remained embedded in individual states. The author then addresses the ideological dimension of nationalist discourse in academic theology. The sub-discipline of theological ethics, which was a central part of nineteenth century theology, offered an ideal context for reflection on the position of the nation in a Christian worldview. The presupposed German people and the aspired-to German nation played an important role in the historiography of religion and theology. The case of writing the history of rationalist and supernaturalist theology shows that nationalist stereotypes helped to downplay the role of other nations and peoples and to shape the (religious) identity of the German nation. The relatively young discipline of practical theology contributed to including liberal and nationalist ideas and obtained a crucial position in reflection on the practices of religion and church.