Confessing Church
Central Europe Germany Italy Spain (Spanish Civil War) Albania Austria Baltic states Belgium Bulgaria Burma China Czechia Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Japan Jewish Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Slovakia Spain Soviet Union Yugoslavia Germany Italy Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States The Confessing Church (German: Bekennende Kirche, pronounced [bəˈkɛnəndə ˈkɪʁçə] ⓘ) was a movement within German Protestantism in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all of the Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German Evangelical Church.
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.
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.
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 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 irreligionism in 1869, permitting the declaration of secession from all religious bodies.
[7] When Adolph Hoffmann, a strident secularist,[8] was appointed Prussian Minister of Education and Public Worship in November 1918 by the USPD, he attempted to implement a number of plans,[9] which included: 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.
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.
This differed noticeably from Catholic populated areas, where the results of votes cast in favor of the Nazis were lower than the national average,[12] even after the Machtergreifung ("seizure of power") of Hitler.
The idea of a strong authority and a close bond between throne and altar, of the kind that existed in the empire between 1871 and 1918, was in keeping with Protestant tradition.
Many ... [Protestants] had reservations about the democratic Weimar Republic and sympathized with political forces – such as the German National People's Party[13] – that idealized the past.
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".
[24] 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.
[28] 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.
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.
[32] 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.
The rebellious pastors denounced Müller and his leadership and declared that they and their congregations constituted the true Evangelical Church of Germany.
It fought first to keep its organizational structures intact, and then to preserve the independence of church doctrine, according to which the Christian commandments were not to be subordinated to Nazi ideology.... [yet] the adherents of the Church found themselves increasingly in a state of principled opposition to both the state and the German Christians...they opposed a faith that was blended with anti-Semitism and neo-Pagan heresies ...[such as] a "heroic Jesus" and a faith founded on race, Volkstum and nation.
[41] 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 of Meiser and Wurm, leaders of the Bavarian and Württembergian Lutheran churches, respectively.
The regime responded by: 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.
[44] Several members of the Confessing Church were caught and tried for their part in creating forged papers, including Franz Kaufmann who was shot, and Helene Jacobs, who was jailed.
[44] Many of those few Confessing Church members who actively attempted to subvert Hitler's policies were extremely cautious and relatively ineffective.
A Berlin Deaconess, Marga Meusel [de], showed courage and offered "perhaps the most impassioned, the bluntest, the most detailed and most damning of the protests against the silence of the Christian churches" because she went the furthest in speaking on behalf of the Jews.
Meusel and Bonhoeffer condemned the failure of the Confessing Church – which was organized specifically in resistance to governmental interference in religion – to move beyond its very limited concern for religious civil liberties and to focus instead on helping the suffering Jews.
