The Confessing Church (german: link=no, Bekennende Kirche, ) was a movement within
German Protestantism
The religion of Protestantism, a form of Christianity, was founded within Germany in the 16th-century Reformation. It was formed as a new direction from some Catholic Church, Roman Catholic principles. It was led initially by Martin Luther and ...
during
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
that arose in
opposition
Opposition may refer to:
Arts and media
* ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars
* The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band
* ''The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Comed ...
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
A free church is a Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church does not define government policy, and a free church does not accept church theology or policy definitions from ...
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 these strongly adhering to the "Confessing Church" church faction as of 1935: 3000
***Number of these arrested during 1935: 700
**Number of these not closely affiliated with or adhering to either faction: 12,000
*Total population of Germany: 65 million
*Number of
Jews in Germany
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
: 525,000
Historical background
German Protestantism
The Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire
After the
Peace of Augsburg in 1555, the principle that the religion of the ruler dictated the religion of the ruled (''
cuius regio, eius religio
() is a Latin phrase which literally means "whose realm, their religion" – meaning that the religion of the ruler was to dictate the religion of those ruled. This legal principle marked a major development in the collective (if not individual ...
'') was observed throughout the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
. Section 24 of the Peace of Augsburg (''ius emigrandi'') guaranteed members of denominations other than the ruler's the freedom of emigration with all their possessions. Political stalemates among the government members of different denominations within a number of the republican
free imperial cities such as
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
, the
Free City of Frankfurt
For almost five centuries, the German city of Frankfurt was a city-state within two major Germanic entities:
*The Holy Roman Empire as the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt () (until 1806)
*The German Confederation as the Free City of Frankfurt ...
, and
Regensburg
Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...
, made their territories de facto bi-denominational, but the two denominations did not usually have equal legal status.
The Peace of Augsburg protected
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
, but not
Calvinism
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...
. Thus, in 1613, when
John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg converted from Lutheranism to Calvinism, he could not exercise the principle of
''cuius regio, eius religio'' ("whose realm, their religion"). This situation paved the way for bi- or multi-denominational monarchies, wherein a ruler adhering to a creed different from most of his subjects would permit conversions to his minority denomination and immigration of his fellow faithful. In 1648, the
Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought pea ...
extended the principle of ''cuius regio, eius religio'' to Calvinism.
However, the principle grew impracticable in the 17th and 18th centuries, which experienced continuous territorial changes arising from annexations and inheritances, and the religious conversion of rulers. For instance, Saxon
Augustus II the Strong converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism in 1697, but did not exercise his ''cuius regio, eius religio'' privilege. A conqueror or successor to the throne who adhered to a different creed from his new subjects usually would not complicate his takeover by imposing conversions. These enlarged realms spawned diaspora congregations, as immigrants settled in areas where the prevailing creeds differed from their own. This juxtaposition of beliefs in turn brought about more frequent personal changes in denomination, often in the form of
marital conversions.
Still, regional mobility was low, especially in the countryside, which generally did not attract newcomers, but experienced rural exodus, so that today's denominational make-up in Germany and
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
still represents the former boundaries among territories ruled by Calvinist, Catholic, or Lutheran rulers in the 16th century quite well. In a major departure, the legislature of the
North German Confederation instituted the right of
irreligion
Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and a ...
ism in 1869, permitting the declaration of secession from all religious bodies.
The Protestant Church in Germany was and is divided into geographic regions and along denominational affiliations (Calvinist, Lutheran, and United churches). In the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, the then-existing monarchies and republics established regional churches (''
Landeskirche
In Germany and Switzerland, a Landeskirche (plural: Landeskirchen) is the church of a region. The term usually refers to Protestant churches, but—in case of Switzerland—also Roman Catholic dioceses. They originated as the national churches of ...
n''), comprising the respective congregations within the then-existing state borders. In the case of Protestant ruling dynasties, each regional church affiliated with the
regnal houses, and the crown provided financial and institutional support for its church.
Church and State
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular stat ...
were, therefore, to a large extent combined on a regional basis.
Weimar Germany
In the
aftermath of World War I
The aftermath of World War I saw drastic political, cultural, economic, and social change across Eurasia, Africa, and even in areas outside those that were directly involved. Four empires collapsed due to the war, old countries were abolished, ne ...
with its political and social turmoil, the regional churches lost their secular rulers. With
revolutionary fervor in the air, the conservative church leaders had to contend with
socialists
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...
(
Social Democrats (SPD) and
Independent Social Democrats (USPD)), who mostly held to
disestablishment
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular stat ...
arianism. When
Adolph Hoffmann
Johann Franz Adolph Hoffmann (23 March 1858 – 1 December 1930) was a German socialist politician and Prussian Minister for Science, Culture and Education.
Born in Berlin, Hoffmann worked as an engraver, and then as a gilder. He joined the S ...
, a strident secularist, was appointed
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
n Minister of Education and Public Worship in November 1918 by the USPD, he attempted to implement a number of plans, which included:
*cutting government
subsidies for the church
*
confiscation of church property
*abolition of
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
as a course of study in universities
*banning
school prayer
School prayer, in the context of religious liberty, is state-sanctioned or mandatory prayer by students in public schools. Depending on the country and the type of school, state-sponsored prayer may be required, permitted, or prohibited. Countries ...
*banning compulsory
religious instruction
A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...
in schools
*prohibiting schools from requiring attendance at
worship services
After storms of protests from both Protestants and Catholics, Hoffmann was forced to resign and, by political means, the churches were able to prevent complete disestablishment. A compromise was reached — one which favored the Protestant church establishment. There would no longer be state churches, but the churches remained public corporations and retained their subsidies from the state governments for services they performed on behalf of the government (running hospitals, kindergartens etc.). In turn, on behalf of the churches, the state governments collected church fees from those taxpayers enlisted as parishioners and distributed these funds to the churches. These fees were, and still are, used to finance church activities and administration. The theological faculties in the universities continued to exist, as did religious instruction in the schools, however, allowing the parents to opt out for their children. The rights formerly held by the monarchs in the German Empire simply devolved to church councils instead, and the high-ranking church administrators — who had been civil servants in the Empire — simply became church officials instead. The governing structure of the churches effectively changed with the introduction of chairpersons elected by church synods instead of being appointed by the state.
Accordingly, in this initial period of the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
, in 1922, the Protestant Church in Germany formed the
German Evangelical Church Confederation The German Evangelical Church Confederation (german: Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchenbund, abbreviated DEK) was a formal federation of 28 regional Protestant churches (''Landeskirchen'') of Lutheran, Reformed or United Protestant administration or co ...
of 28 regional (or provincial) churches (german: link=no,
Landeskirche
In Germany and Switzerland, a Landeskirche (plural: Landeskirchen) is the church of a region. The term usually refers to Protestant churches, but—in case of Switzerland—also Roman Catholic dioceses. They originated as the national churches of ...
n), with their regional boundaries more or less delineated by those of the federal states. This federal system allowed for a great deal of regional autonomy in the governance of German Protestantism, as it allowed for a national church parliament that served as a forum for discussion and that endeavored to resolve
theological
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
and organizational conflicts.
The Nazi regime
Many Protestants voted for the Nazis in the elections of
summer
Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...
and
autumn 1932 and
March 1933
The following events occurred in March 1933:
March 1, 1933 (Wednesday)
*The fictional defense attorney Perry Mason was introduced, along with his secretary Della Street, and detective Paul Drake, in Erle Stanley Gardner's novel, ''The Case ...
. This differed noticeably from Catholic populated areas, where the results of votes cast in favor of the Nazis were lower than the national average, even after the ''
Machtergreifung
Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...
'' ("seizure of power") of Hitler.
, or DNVP. – that idealized the past.
A limited number of Protestants, such as
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 Declara ...
,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and
Wilhelm Busch,
objected to the Nazis on
moral
A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. A ...
and theological principles; they could not reconcile the Nazi state's claim to
total control over the person with the ultimate
sovereignty
Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...
that, in Christian orthodoxy, must belong only to God.
German Christians
The
German Christian movement in the Protestant Church developed in the late Weimar period. They were, for the most part, a "group of fanatic Nazi Protestants"
[''Barnes'' p. 74] who were organized in 1931 to help win elections of
presbyters
Presbyter () is an honorific title for Christian clergy. The word derives from the Greek ''presbyteros,'' which means elder or senior, although many in the Christian antiquity would understand ''presbyteros'' to refer to the bishop functioning as ...
and
synod
A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...
als of the old-Prussian church (last free election on 13 November 1932). In general, the group's political and religious motivations developed in response to the social and political tensions wrought by the end of World War I and the attendant substitution of a
republican regime for the
authoritarian
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...
one of
Wilhelm II
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Empir ...
— much the same as the conditions leading to
Hitler's rise to power
Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...
.
The German Christian movement was sustained and encouraged by factors such as:
*the 400th anniversary (in 1917) of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
's posting of the
Ninety-five Theses
The ''Ninety-five Theses'' or ''Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences''-The title comes from the 1517 Basel pamphlet printing. The first printings of the ''Theses'' use an incipit rather than a title which summarizes the content ...
in 1517, an event which served to endorse German nationalism, to emphasize that Germany had a preferred place in the Protestant tradition, and to legitimize
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
. This was reinforced by the Luther Renaissance Movement of Professor
Emmanuel Hirsch
Emanuel Hirsch (14 June 1888 in Bentwisch, Province of Brandenburg – 17 July 1972 in Göttingen) was a German Protestant theologian and also a member of the Nazi Party and the Nazi supporting body. He escaped denazification at the end of the war ...
. The extreme and shocking
antisemitism of Martin Luther came to light rather late in his life, but had been a consistent theme in Christian Germany for centuries thereafter.
*the revival of ''
völkisch'' traditions
*the de-emphasis of the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
in Protestant theology, and the removal of parts deemed "too Jewish", replacing the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
with a dejudaized version entitled ''Die Botschaft Gottes'' (The Message of God)
*the respect for temporal (secular) authority, which had been emphasized by Luther and has arguable scriptural support (
Romans 13)
"For German Christians, race was the fundamental principle of human life, and they interpreted and effected that notion in religious terms. German Christianity emphasized the distinction between the visible and invisible church. For the German Christians, the church on earth was not the fellowship of the holy spirit described in the New Testament but a contrast to it, a vehicle for the expression of race and ethnicity".
The German Christians were sympathetic to the Nazi regime's goal of "co-ordinating" the individual Protestant churches into a single and uniform
Reich church, consistent with the ''
Volk
The German noun ''Volk'' () translates to people,
both uncountable in the sense of ''people'' as in a crowd, and countable (plural ''Völker'') in the sense of '' a people'' as in an ethnic group or nation (compare the English term ''folk'') ...
'' ethos and the ''
Führerprinzip''.
Creating a New National Church (''Deutsche Evangelische Kirche'')
When the Nazis took power, the German Protestant church consisted of a federation of independent regional churches which included Lutheran, Reformed and United traditions.
In late April 1933 the leadership of the Protestant federation agreed to write a new constitution for a new "national" church, the
German Evangelical Church (german: link=no, Deutsche Evangelische Kirche or DEK). This had been one goal of many German Christians for some time, as centralization would enhance the coordination of Church and State, as a part of the overall Nazi process of
Gleichschaltung
The Nazi term () or "coordination" was the process of Nazification by which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of German society and societies occupied b ...
("coordination", resulting in co-option). These German Christians agitated for Hitler's advisor on religious affairs,
Ludwig Müller
Johan Heinrich Ludwig Müller (23 June 1883 – 31 July 1945) was a German theologian, a Lutheran pastor, and leading member of the pro-Nazi "German Christians" (german: Deutsche Christen) faith movement. In 1933 he was appointed by the Nazi go ...
, to be elected as the new Church's bishop (german: link=no, Reichsbischof).
Müller had poor political skills, little political support within the Church and no real qualifications for the job, other than his commitment to Nazism and a desire to exercise power. When the federation council met in May 1933 to approve the new constitution, it elected
Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Younger as ''Reichsbischof'' of the new
Protestant Reich Church by a wide margin, largely on the advice and support of the leadership of the 28 church bodies.
[Bodelschwingh was a well-known and popular ]Westphalia
Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants.
The territory of the regio ...
n pastor who headed Bethel Institution, a large charitable organization for the mentally ill and disabled. His father, also a pastor, had founded Bethel. ''Barnett'' p. 33.
![Deutsche Christen Bekennende Kirche](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Deutsche_Christen_Bekennende_Kirche.jpg)
Hitler was infuriated with the rejection of his candidate, and after a series of political maneuvers, Bodelschwingh resigned and Müller was elected as the new ''Reichsbischof'' on 27 September 1933, after the government had already imposed him on 28 June 1933. The formidable propaganda apparatus of the Nazi state was deployed to help the German Christians win presbyter and synodal elections in order to dominate the upcoming synod and finally put Müller into office. Hitler discretionarily decreed unconstitutional premature re-elections of all presbyters and synodals for 23 July; the night before the elections, Hitler made a personal appeal to Protestants by radio.
The German Christians won handily (70–80% of all seats in presbyteries and synods), except in four regional churches and one provincial body of the united old-Prussian church: the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria right of the river Rhine ("right" meaning "east of"), the
Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover,
Evangelical Reformed State Church of the Province of Hanover the Lutheran
Evangelical State Church in Württemberg, and in the
old-Prussian ecclesiastical province of Westphalia, where the German Christians gained no majorities. Among adherents of the Confessing Church these church bodies were termed ''intact churches'' (german:
Intakte Kirchen), as opposed to the German Christian-ruled bodies which they designated as "destroyed churches" (german: link=no, zerstörte Kirchen). This electoral victory enabled the German Christians to secure sufficient delegates to prevail at the so-called ''national synod'' that conducted the "revised" September election for ''Reichsbischof''. Further pro-Nazi developments followed the elevation of Müller to the bishopric: in late summer the old-Prussian church (led by Müller since his government appointment on 6 July 1933) adopted the
Aryan Paragraph
An Aryan paragraph (german: Arierparagraph) was a clause in the statutes of an organization, corporation, or real estate deed that reserved membership and/or right of residence solely for members of the "Aryan race" and excluded from such rights a ...
, effectively
defrocking clergy of Jewish descent and even clergy married to non-Aryans.
The Confessing Church
Formation
![Remembrance Bekennende Kirche](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Remembrance_Bekennende_Kirche.Bekenntnissynode_1934.Berlin-DahlemGermany2007.jpg)
The Aryan Paragraph created a furor among some of the clergy. Under the leadership of
Martin Niemöller, the
Pastors' Emergency League (''Pfarrernotbund'') was formed, presumably for the purpose of assisting clergy of Jewish descent, but the League soon evolved into a locus of dissent against Nazi interference in church affairs. Its membership grew
[By the end of 1933 the League already had 6,000 members. ''Barnett'' p. 35.] while the objections and rhetoric of the German Christians escalated.
The League pledged itself to contest the state's attempts to infringe on the confessional freedom of the churches, that is to say, their ability to determine their own doctrine. It expressly opposed the adoption of the Aryan Paragraph which changed the meaning of baptism. It distinguished between Jews and Christians of Jewish descent and insisted, consistent with the demands of orthodox Christianity, that converted Jews and their descendants were as Christian as anyone else and were full members of the Church in every sense.
At this stage, the objections of Protestant leaders were primarily motivated by the desire for church autonomy and church/state demarcation rather than opposition to the persecution of non-Christian Jews, which was only just beginning.
Eventually, the League evolved into the Confessing Church.
On 13 November 1933 a rally of German Christians was held at the
Berlin Sportpalast, where — before a packed hall — banners proclaimed the unity of National Socialism and Christianity, interspersed with the omnipresent swastikas. A series of speakers addressed the crowd's pro-Nazi sentiments with ideas such as:
*the removal of all pastors unsympathetic with National Socialism
*the expulsion of members of Jewish descent, who might be arrogated to a separate church
*the implementation of the Aryan Paragraph church-wide
*the
removal of the Old Testament from the Bible
*the removal of "non-German" elements from religious services
*the adoption of a more "heroic" and "positive" interpretation of
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
, who in pro-
Aryan
Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...
fashion should be portrayed to be battling mightily against corrupt Jewish influences.
This rather shocking attempt to rally the pro-Nazi elements among the German Christians backfired, as it now appeared to many Protestants that the State was attempting to intervene in the most central theological matters of the church, rather than only in matters of church organization and
polity
A polity is an identifiable Politics, political entity – a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relation, social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize ...
.
While Hitler, a consummate politician, was sensitive to the implications of such developments,
Ludwig Müller
Johan Heinrich Ludwig Müller (23 June 1883 – 31 July 1945) was a German theologian, a Lutheran pastor, and leading member of the pro-Nazi "German Christians" (german: Deutsche Christen) faith movement. In 1933 he was appointed by the Nazi go ...
was apparently not: he fired and transferred pastors adhering to the Emergency League, and in April 1934 actually deposed the heads of the Württembergian church (Bishop
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 Christia ...
) and of the Bavarian church (Bishop Hans Meiser). They and the synodals of their church bodies continuously refused to declare the merger of their church bodies in the German Evangelical Church (DEK). The continuing aggressiveness of the DEK and Müller spurred the schismatic Protestant leaders to further action.
Barmen Declaration of Faith
In May 1934, the opposition met in a church synod in
Barmen
Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal.
Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...
. The rebellious pastors denounced Müller and his leadership and declared that they and their congregations constituted the true Evangelical Church of Germany. The
Barmen Declaration
__NOTOC__
The Barmen Declaration or the Theological Declaration of Barmen 1934 (German: ''Die Barmer Theologische Erklärung'') was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the German Christian movement. In the view of the de ...
, primarily authored by
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 Declara ...
, with the consultation and advice of other protesting pastors like
Martin Niemöller and individual congregations, re-affirmed that the German Church was not an "organ of the State" and that the concept of State control over the Church was doctrinally false. The Declaration stipulated, at its core, that any State — even the totalitarian one — necessarily encountered a limit when confronted with God's commandments. The Barmen declaration became in fact the foundation of the Confessing Church, confessing because it was based on a confession of faith.
After the Barmen Declaration, there were in effect two opposing movements in the German Protestant Church:
*the German Christian movement and
*the Confessing Church (the ''Bekennende Kirche'', BK), often naming itself ''Deutsche Evangelische Kirche'' too, in order to reinforce its claim to be the true church
It should nevertheless be emphasized that the Confessing Church's rebellion was directed at the regime's ecclesiastical policy, and the German Christian movement, not at its overall political and social objectives.
Post-Barmen
The situation grew complex after Barmen. Müller's ineptitude in political matters did not endear him to the
Führer
( ; , spelled or ''Fuhrer'' when the Umlaut (diacritic), umlaut is not available) is a German word meaning "leader" or "guide". As a political title, it is strongly associated with the Nazi Germany, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Nazi Germany ...
. Furthermore, the Sportpalast speech had proved a public relations disaster; the Nazis, who had promised "freedom of religion" in point 24 of their
25-point program, now appeared to be dictating religious doctrine.
Hitler sought to defuse the situation in the autumn of 1934 by lifting the
house arrest
In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...
of Meiser and Wurm, leaders of the Bavarian and Württembergian Lutheran churches, respectively. Having lost his patience with Müller in particular and the German Christians in general, he removed Müller's authority, brought ''Gleichschaltung'' to a temporary halt and created a new Reich Ministry – aptly named Church Affairs – under
Hanns Kerrl, one of Hitler's lawyer friends. The ''
Kirchenkampf
''Kirchenkampf'' (, lit. 'church struggle') is a German term which pertains to the situation of the Christian churches in Germany during the Nazi period (1933–1945). Sometimes used ambiguously, the term may refer to one or more of the follo ...
'' ("church struggle") would now be continued on the basis of Church against State, rather than internally between two
factions of a single church. Kerrl's charge was to attempt another coordination, hopefully with more tact than the heavy-handed Müller.
Kerrl was more mild-mannered than the somewhat vulgar Müller, and was also politically astute; he shrewdly appointed a committee of conciliation, to be headed by
Wilhelm Zoellner
Wilhelm may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm"
* Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
Other uses
* Mount ...
, a retired Westphalian
general superintendent who was generally respected within the church and did not identify with any one faction. Müller himself resigned, more or less in disgrace, at the end of 1935, having failed to integrate the Protestant church and in fact having created somewhat of a rebellion.
Martin Niemöller's group generally cooperated with the new Zoellner committee, but still maintained that it represented the true Protestant Church in Germany and that the DEK was, to put it more bluntly than Niemöller would in public, no more than a collection of heretics.
The Confessing Church, under the leadership of Niemöller, addressed a polite, but firm, memorandum to Hitler in May 1936. The memorandum protested the regime's anti-Christian tendencies, denounced the regime's antisemitism and demanded that the regime terminate its interference with the internal affairs of the Protestant church.
This was essentially the proverbial straw that broke the back of the camel. The regime responded by:
* arresting several hundred dissenting pastors
* murdering Dr.
Friedrich Weißler
(Georg) Friedrich Weißler (born 28 April 1891 in Königshütte, Upper Silesia; died 19 February 1937 at Sachsenhausen concentration camp) was a German lawyer and judge. He came from a Jewish family but was baptized as Protestant as a child. He b ...
, office manager and legal advisor of the "second preliminary church executive" of the Confessing Church, in the
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
* confiscating the funds of the Confessing Church
* forbidding the Confessing Church from taking up collections of
offertories
The offertory (from Medieval Latin ''offertorium'' and Late Latin ''offerre'') is the part of a Eucharistic service when the bread and wine for use in the service are ceremonially placed on the altar.
A collection of alms (offerings) from the co ...
Eventually, the Nazi tactics of repression were too much for Zoellner to bear and he resigned on 12 February 1937, after the Gestapo had denied him the right to visit some imprisoned pastors. The Minister of Church Affairs spoke to the churchmen the next day in a shocking presentation that clearly disclosed the regime's hostility to the church:
A resistance movement?
The
Barmen Declaration
__NOTOC__
The Barmen Declaration or the Theological Declaration of Barmen 1934 (German: ''Die Barmer Theologische Erklärung'') was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the German Christian movement. In the view of the de ...
itself did not mention the Nazi
persecution of Jews or other totalitarian measures taken by the Nazis; it was a declaration of