Hitler discretionarily ordered unconstitutional and premature re-elections of all presbyters and synod deputies in all the Protestant regional church bodies in Germany for July 23, 1933.
In these elections the Nazi Kirchenpartei[1] called Faith Movement of the German Christians gained an average of 70-80% of all seats in the presbyteries and synods.
), each led – according to the new law of September 6 – by a provincial bishop (German: Provinzialbischof) replacing the prior general superintendents.
[7] Only few parishioners and clergy, mostly of Reformed tradition, followed John Calvin's doctrine of the Kingdom of Christ within the church and the world.
[8] Among them were Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who demanded the church bodies to oppose the abolition of democracy and the unlawfulness in the general political sphere.
Herbert Goltzen, Eugen Weschke, and Günter Jacob, three pastors from Lower Lusatia, regarded the introduction of the Aryan paragraph as the violation of the confession.
In late summer 1933 Jacob, pastor in Noßdorf (a part of today's Forst in Lusatia), developed the central theses, which became the self-commitment of the opponents.