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Stuttgart Declaration Of Guilt
The Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt (german: Stuttgarter Schuldbekenntnis) was a declaration issued on October 19, 1945, by the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (', EKD), in which it confessed guilt for its inadequacies in opposition to the Nazis and the Third Reich. Text The Declaration states in part: The Declaration makes no mention of any particular atrocities committed during the Third Reich or of the church's support for Hitler during the early years of the regime. One of the initiators of the declaration was pastor Martin Niemöller. History After the EKD conference at Treysa achieved some administrative unity, critics still found a lack of contrition in the church. Niemoller stated, with some frustration, that "you should have seen this self-satisfied church at Treysa." American representatives reporting from the Treysa conference voiced views similar to Niemoller. Robert Murphy, a career diplomat in the US State Department, commented: Other Americans we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evangelical Church In Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany (german: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheranism, Lutheran, Continental Reformed church, Reformed (Calvinism, Calvinist) and united and uniting churches, United (e.g. Prussian Union of churches, Prussian Union) Protestantism, Protestant Landeskirche, regional churches and Christian denomination, denominations in Germany, which collectively encompasses the vast majority of Protestants in that country. In 2020, the EKD had a membership of 20,236,000 members, or 24.3% of the German population. It constitutes List of the largest Protestant churches, one of the largest national Protestant bodies in the world. Church offices managing the federation are located in Herrenhausen, Hannover-Herrenhausen, Lower Saxony. Many of its members consider themselves Lutherans. Historically, the first formal attempt to unify German Protestantism occurred during the Weimar Republic era in the form of the German Evangeli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Barth
Karl Barth (; ; – ) was a Swiss Calvinist theologian. Barth is best known for his commentary '' The Epistle to the Romans'', his involvement in the Confessing Church, including his authorship (except for a single phrase) of the Barmen Declaration, and especially his unfinished multi-volume theological summa the ''Church Dogmatics'' (published between 1932–1967). Barth's influence expanded well beyond the academic realm to mainstream culture, leading him to be featured on the cover of ''Time'' on 20 April 1962. Like many Protestant theologians of his generation, Barth was educated in a liberal theology influenced by Adolf von Harnack, Friedrich Schleiermacher and others. His pastoral career began in the rural Swiss town of Safenwil, where he was known as the "Red Pastor from Safenwil". There he became increasingly disillusioned with the liberal Christianity in which he had been trained. This led him to write the first edition of his '' The Epistle to the Romans'' (a.k.a. Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1945 In Germany
Events in the year 1945 in Germany. Many events took place in 1945, including the change of the geographical map of Germany. Incumbents Pre-surrender Head of State: * Adolf Hitler (the Führer) (Nazi Party) until 30 April, then Karl Dönitz (President) (Nazi Party) to 23 May, then none Chancellor * Adolf Hitler (Nazi Party) until 30 April, then Joseph Goebbels (Nazi Party) until 1 May, then from 2 May Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk ''(leading minister)'' (non-partisan conservative) to 23 May, then none Post-surrender * Marshal Georgy Zhukov (Red Army), General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States Army), Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (British Army), and Army General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (French Army), commanders of the Allied Control Council Events January * January — American troops cross the Siegfried Line into Belgium. * 6 January — More than 80,000 Jews held captive by the Nazis are freed in Budapest, Hungary, by Russian soldiers. * 12 Jan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II Documents
In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique while others talk of a "plurality of worlds". Some treat the world as one simple object while others analyze the world as a complex made up of many parts. In ''scientific cosmology'' the world or universe is commonly defined as " e totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be". '' Theories of modality'', on the other hand, talk of possible worlds as complete and consistent ways how things could have been. ''Phenomenology'', starting from the horizon of co-given objects present in the periphery of every experience, defines the world as the biggest horizon or the "horizon of all horizons". In ''philosophy of mind'', the world is commonly contrasted with the mind as that which is represented by the mind. ''Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confessing Church
The Confessing Church (german: link=no, Bekennende Kirche, ) was a movement within German Protestantism during Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German Evangelical Church. See drop-down essay on "Unification, World Wars, and Nazism" Demographics The following statistics (as of January 1933 unless otherwise stated) are an aid in understanding the context of the political and theological developments discussed in this article. *Number of Protestants in Germany: 45 million *Number of free church Protestants: 150,000 *Largest regional Protestant church: Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union (german: link=no, Evangelische Kirche der altpreußischen Union), with 18 million members, the church strongest in members in the country at the time. *Number of Protestant pastors: 18,000 **Number of these strongly adhering to the "German Christian" church faction as of 1935: 3000 **Number of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denazification
Denazification (german: link=yes, Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by removing those who had been Nazi Party or SS members from positions of power and influence, by disbanding or rendering impotent the organizations associated with Nazism, and by trying prominent Nazis for war crimes in the Nuremberg trials of 1946. The program of denazification was launched after the end of the war and was solidified by the Potsdam Agreement in August 1945. The term ''denazification'' was first coined as a legal term in 1943 by the U.S. Pentagon, intended to be applied in a narrow sense with reference to the post-war German legal system. However, it later took on a broader meaning. In late 1945 and early 1946, the emergence of the Cold War and the economic importance of Germany caused the United States in particular to lose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warschauer Kniefall
The term ''Kniefall von Warschau'', also referred to as ''Warschauer Kniefall'' (both German for "Warsaw genuflection"), refers to West German Chancellor Willy Brandt kneeling and giving a moment of silence during a visit to a Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial in 1970. Incident The event took place on December 7, 1970, in Warsaw, Poland (which was then part of the Eastern Bloc), during a visit to a monument to the German occupation-era Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. After laying a wreath, Brandt unexpectedly, and apparently spontaneously, knelt. He remained silently in that position for a short time (half a minute), surrounded by a large group of dignitaries and press photographers. Brandt had actively resisted the early Nazi regime, and had spent most of the time of Hitler's reign in exile. The occasion of Brandt's visit to Poland at the time was the signing of the Treaty of Warsaw between West Germany and Poland, guaranteeing German acceptance of the new borders of Poland. The treat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophil Wurm
Theophil Heinrich Wurm (7 December 1868, Basel – 28 January 1953, Stuttgart) was the son of a pastor and was a leader in the German Protestant Church in the early twentieth century. Wurm was active in politics. He was a member of the Christian Social Party before World War I, and thereafter of the Citizens’ Party. He held a seat in the Württemberg State Parliament (german: Landtag) until 1920. As a young man Wurm was a prison chaplain, and became a parish pastor when he was 45. He progressed in the hierarchy of the Lutheran Evangelical State Church in Württemberg and became church president in 1929, with this office being retitled into ''Landesbischof'' (bishop of the regional Protestant church) in 1933. Like many churchmen, he initially favored the Nazi regime, but its church policy soon moved him into opposition. In September 1934 Wurm was deposed from his bishopric by Reich's bishop Ludwig Müller because of his views on church policy (including the Barmen Declara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential; his 1937 book ''The Cost of Discipleship'' is described as a modern classic. Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp. Bonhoeffer was accused of being associated with the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler and was tried along with other accused plotters, including former members of the '' Abwehr'' (the German Military Intelligence Office). He was hanged on 9 April 1945 as the Nazi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Council Of Churches
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Old Catholic Church, the Lutheran churches, the Anglican Communion, the Mennonite churches, the Methodist churches, the Moravian Church, Mar Thoma Syrian Church and the Reformed churches, as well as the Baptist World Alliance and Pentecostal churches. Notably, the Catholic Church is not a full member, although it sends delegates to meetings who have observer status. The WCC describes itself as "a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and sub-regional, national and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service". It has no head office as such, but its administrative centre is at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization's members include deno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regulation over public and private life. It is regarded as the most extreme and complete form of authoritarianism. In totalitarian states, political power is often held by autocrats, such as dictators (totalitarian dictatorship) and absolute monarchs, who employ all-encompassing campaigns in which propaganda is broadcast by state-controlled mass media in order to control the citizenry. By 1950, the term and concept of totalitarianism entered mainstream Western political discourse. Furthermore this era also saw anti-communist and McCarthyist political movements intensify and use the concept of totalitarianism as a tool to convert pre-World War II anti-fascism into Cold War anti-communism. As a political ideology in itself, totalitarianism is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betrayal
Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. Often betrayal is the act of supporting a rival group, or it is a complete break from previously decided upon or presumed norms by one party from the others. Someone who betrays others is commonly called a traitor or betrayer. Betrayal is also a commonly used literary element, also used in other fiction like films and TV series, and is often associated with or used as a plot twist. Definition Philosophers Judith Shklar and Peter Johnson, authors of ''The Ambiguities of Betrayal'' and ''Frames of Deceit'', respectively, contend that while no clear definition of betrayal is available, betrayal is more effectively understood through literature. Theoretical and practical needs Jackson explains why a clear definition is needed: Betrayal is both ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
