Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway,

Editor. University of British Columbia

Newsletter No. 11, December 1995

Contents

1. Request for information

2. Gertrud Luckner in memoriam

3. New Books

4. New publications to note

5. Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Nazi period

Dear Friends,

May I take this opportunity to wish you one and all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year, with all success for 1996. I am afraid that our list has now grown so long that I cannot send you individual messages for the festive season, but hope you will accept these anonymous but heartfelt greetings. We shall be particularly thinking of those of you who are taking part in the International Bonhoeffer Conference in Cape Town at the beginning of next month, (Littell, Moses, Schjorring, Burgess?) and hope you will get together to send me a report which I will then share with the whole list.

 
1. Request for information

Richard Pierard, Indiana State University wants your help as follows: “I have been asked to write an essay for a handbook on the research and literature of World War II to be published by Greenwood Press. The topic which the editor assigned me is “Christianity and the War in Europe”. What I am expected to do is a piece around 5000 words dealing with bibliography (books and articles) in English on this topic. There will be separate chapters on “the war against the Jews” and “the war and religion in the USA”, which means that my essay will be quite narrowly focussed. I have a good idea of the literature I want to discuss, but some of you may know of a good book or article which you would particularly like to see in such a reference work. If so, I would welcome your suggestions. I should add that the target audience is “college teachers and the general academic and serious amateur audiences interested in the war” rather than “experts in the war” as such.”

Many thanks,
Richard Pierard.
hipier@ruby.indstate.edu

 

2. Gertrud Luckner in memoriam

Michael Phayer, Marquette U. writes:

Gertrud Luckner, 1900-1995, the German Catholic who was one of her church’s foremost and energetic pioneers in Christian-Jewish relations, died in September at the age of 95.

During the Nazi era Luckner actively befriended Jews and helped them to escape during the Holocaust. She played a significant role as courier between the German bishops, warning them of the Nazi plans to persecute and deport Jews. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1943, she was sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp where she narrowly escaped being put to death on several occasions. After World War II, Luckner devoted herself to eradicating Christian antisemitism in Germany. She edited the magnificently informative Freiburger Rundbriefe, outlining all aspects of Christian-Jewish reconciliation, which she personally circulated to German churchmen Often viewed with suspicion by the Vatican, the Holy Office issued a Monitum regarding her work in 1950. As a new generation of bishops replaced those of the Nazi era, Luckner won supporters. By the beginning of the Second Vatican Council, German bishops acknowledged the faults of the church during the Holocaust – a fact which assisted the passage of the famous document, Nostra Aetate, which has done much to revise 2000 years of Christian antisemitism.

The state of Israel recognised Luckner as a Righteous Gentile in 1966. Eventually her own people, church and government bestowed local and national honours and distinctions on her. Alas! she could never be prevailed on to finish her autobiography.

 

3. New Books

Theodore Thomas, Women against Hitler: Christian Resistance in the Third Reich, Westport,CT: Praeger/Greenwood 1995, pp 216. $49.95US – see Doris Bergen’s excellent, but not uncritical, review on H-German Book reviews, 17th November 1995.

 

4. New publications to note

a) Mitteilungen der Evang. Arbeitsgemeinschaft fuer Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, Folge 15 (Oct.1995), available from Geschaftstelle, Schellingstr. 3VG, 80799 Munich.

Contents:

p.2-4 U v.Hehl, “Aufgaben, Arbeitsziele und Arbeitspraxis der Kommission fur Zeitgeschichte” (A report on the German Catholic Church’s Commission and its work).

p5-60 M.M. “Lichtenfeld, Lutherische Theologie in Barmen”. “Georg Metz und das Betheler Bekenntnis 1933”. (A lengthy summary taken from his forthcoming dissertation).

pp61-4 “Zur Kirchenpolitik der SED und MfS” (Conference report organized by Gauck Authority).

pp 65-7 “Die Kirche und ihre Archive” (Conference report and discussion of tensions between open access and protection of privacy in church archives today).

pp68-71 “Das rheinische und westfalische Kirche in der Nachkriegszeit” (Conference report on reorganization in this region).

b) German Studies Review: Special Issue. “Totalitaere Herrschaft und totalitaeres Erbe”, Autumn 1994, pp 101-11. “Rainer Eppelmann Opposition und Kirche in der DDR” (A personal report by one of the leading figures in the Church’s opposition to the E.German regime).

c) Central European History – forthcoming.

The following note is contributed by Doris Bergen:

“I reviewed Rainer Hering’s “Theologie im Spannunsfeld von Kirche und Staat: Die Entstehung der Evang-Theol.Fakultat an der Universitat Hamburg 1895 bis 1955”, and Rainer Laechele’s “Ein Volk, Ein Reich Ein Glaube: die “Deutsche Christen” im Wurttemberg 1925-1960″. Both are very worthwhile. Hering offers a detailed account of the creation of a Protestant faculty of theology in Hamburg, but along the way manages to tell his readers a great deal about the post-war church and the ways it both inherited the legacy of the past and tried to break new ground. Laechele’s book is a careful regional study which nevertheless illustrates some issues about the “German Christian” movement at the national level. He is surprisingly silent about the subject of antisemitism and German Christian efforts to “dejudaize” Christianity, so that his otherwise balanced work shows some peculiar blind spots. But his treatment is both very human and eminently readable”.

d) Historische Zeitschrift, Vol 261, No. 1, August 1995. pp 51 ff. O.R.Blaschke, Bielefeld. “Der Altkatholizismus 1870 bis 1945. Nationalismus, Antisemitismus und Nationalsozialismus”. “Aus Protest gegen des vatikanische Unfehlbarkeitsdogmen (1870) entstand die Bewegung und schliesslich die Kirche der Altkatholiken. Heftig umstritten, versuchte sich der Altkatholizismus nicht nur theologisch, sondern im Fahrwasser des Antiultramontanismus auch ideologisch von der “Vaticanaille” abzugrenzen. So bekannte er sich von Anfang an zum Nationalismus, lehnte den Antisemitismus dagegen entschieden ab. Doch langsam verkehrte sich die vom Liberalismus gepragte Haltung in ihr Gegenteil. Der Altkatholizismus diente sich schliesslich, infiziert von antisemitischen und volkische Ideen, bereitwillig dem Nationalsozialismus an.”

 

5. Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Nazi period

A recent upsurge in interest in the fate of the J.Ws during the Third Reich led to an all-day seminar held in November at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which included a slide lecture entitled “The Spirit and the Sword – Jehovah’s Witnesses Expose the Third Reich”. The text is now available from the Watchtower Writing Dept, 25 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, New York 11201- 2483. The speakers on this occasion included Christine King, Detlef Garbe (Director of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Museum) and Wulff Brebeck (Director of the Wewelsburg Museum). In addition a compilation was made of all the articles printed in English in J.W. publications during 1933-45, amounting to some 1600 pages, for which an index is now available. These show not only that the fate of the German J.Ws was very closely followed at the American headquarters, but also that the Nazi persecution of the Jews was well documented, as a result of the J.Ws biblically-based sympathy.

Many of these articles describe the sufferings of J.Ws in concentration camps with graphic detail.

Virtually all accounts of the German Church Struggle (including my own) have given very little attention to the J.Ws, possibly because of denominational bias, or because the numbers involved were relatively few. But this defect has now been splendidly remedied by the appearance of Detlef Garbe’s new book – see below. An English translation is much to be desired.

Detlef Garbe, Zwischen Widerstand und Martyrium. Die Zeugen Jehovahs im Dritten Reich (Studien zur Zeitgeschichte Vol 42). Munchen: Oldenbourg 1993 577 pp.

Detlev Garbe’s excellent history of the J.Ws is the first full treatment of this small sect’s fate during the Nazi period, combining extensive research into the remaining Nazi records with a sympathetic analysis of survivors’ testimonies. The result is a convincing scholarly description which supersedes all previous accounts. He rightly stresses the unique character of the Nazis’ hostility, which fully merits such a thorough treatment.

The J.Ws were the first religious group to be forbidden and continued to suffer unremittingly throughout the Nazi era. No other religious community demonstrated its resistance in so decidedly an uncompromising fashion, or so steadfastly refused to bow down to the Nazi wishes. Thousands were incarcerated in concentration camps, where their resolute determination to keep on witnessing to their faith gave them an extraordinary reputation, and even finally earned a grudging respect from Himmler himself.

Church historians have largely ignored this marginal group, baffled by the oddities of their religious beliefs, offended by their anti-clerical polemics, or confused by their inability to be counted as part of the wider Resistance Movement. Garbe skilfully depicts not only the extent of the Nazi persecution but also the reasons for this brutal mistreatment. Some Nazis believed the J.Ws were part of a communist conspiracy; others suspected them of being Jewish or American infiltrators. In any case the Nazi authorities proceeded promptly in 1933 to ban their activities throughout Germany – measures which were greeted with approval by the main-stream churches, who had long been aggravated by the J.Ws sectarian proselytism. The J.W. leaders protested that they were entirely unpolitical, and even got energetic representations made by the U.S. State Department on their behalf, which successfully regained their American-funded property and printing presses. But all future activities were prohibited. The members however refused to obey, or to make any compromises with Nazi ideology. Already by the end of 1933, the Gestapo reported widespread evasion of their edicts. Stronger measures were therefore taken.

Theologically the J.Ws had long been prepared for persecution by the “satanic” forces of the Church, especially the Roman Catholics, and the state. Repression only made them more resolute. This steadfast obstinacy only increased the Nazis’ determination to suppress the sect entirely, and gave them an explicitly political excuse to stamp out “subversive agitation”. Already in 1933 J.Ws were dismissed from their jobs in both the public and private sector, their pensions confiscated, and their livelihoods restricted. Their children suffered daily mistreatment in school for their refusal to join the H.J. or to give the “Hitler greeting”. In approximately 1000 cases, children were taken into “care” to preserve them from “religious fanaticism”, and were separated from their parents for years. Even more severe were the penalties inflicted on the J.Ws in 1936-8 after two nation-wide distribution of anti-Nazi pamphlets had been successfully and conspiratorially organised. By 1939 the Gestapo had arrested almost the entire leadership and sentenced them to lengthy terms of imprisonment in concentration camps, where they were further subject to degrading and brutal treatment and forced to wear the distinguishing “violet triangle”.

But the J.Ws recruited new leaders, often women, and carried on their witness, secretly and underground as best they could. Illegal pamphlets continued to be produced, calling for a total refusal to compromise with the “satanic” rule of the Nazis and their “gangster” associates, including the Pope. Martyrdom was openly welcomed as proof of their devotion to the coming Kingdom of Jehovah. The outbreak of war and the J.Ws unwavering determination not to take part in any military activities led to even more severe repression, and to numerous death sentences, not only for men of military age but also for women, often imposed by the notorious People’s Court. Doubts expressed by some of the justice officials were brutally overruled by Hitler himself in favour of exemplary deterrent measures against all such “defeatist traitors”.

Garbe comes to the conclusion, on the basis of his detailed examination of the official archives and the “Watchtower’s” careful tabulations, that previous estimates of the J.Ws’ total losses were set too high (including Conway’s!) He regards the J.W 1974 Yearbook as giving the most reliable figures. Out of 25,000 to 30,000 J.Ws in Germany in 1933, approximately 10,000 were imprisoned for longer or shorter periods; 2,000 were sent to concentration camps; approximately 1200 lost their lives, including at least 250 sentenced to death by the courts, principally for their conscientious objection to military service. Even if these figures are lower than previously believed, the fact remains that – apart from the Jews – the J.Ws were persecuted, proportionately, more severely and brutally than any other religious-ideological group.

JSC.

Wishing you all a very happy New Year
Yours sincerely,
John Conway
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway,

Editor, University of British Columbia

Newsletter No. 10, November 1995

Contents

1. Book Notices

2. 19th Century German Protestant Church History

3. Next issue

Dear Friends,

Now that I have returned from India, I am glad to resume our correspondence. Unfortunately I seem to have picked up a case of amoebic dysentery there, which is making life a bit tough. So it is good to have the chance to write to all my friends world-wide.

 

1. Book notices

Here are three new books on the French churches during the Third Reich, in three different languages, which I have not seen reviewed elsewhere:

a) Horsta Malinowski-Krum, Frankreich am Kreuz. Protestanten Frankreichs unter deutschen Okkupation 1940-1944, Wichern Verlag, Berlin 1993

b) John Hellman, The Knight-Monks of Vichy France Uriage 1940- 1945, McGill-Queens U.P., Montreal 1993

c) Charles Molette, Pretres,Religieux et religieuses dans la resistance au Nazisme 1940-1945, Fayard, Paris 1995

At the end of the 17th century, the Elector of Brandenburg built a church in Berlin for the Hugenots expelled from France by Louis XIV. By 1933 this congregation had become so assimilated that it had forgotten its origins as a persecuted minority, gave willing supported Hitler’s rise to power, and even approved the Nazis’ antisemitic campaigns. As an act of reparation, the present pastor Horsta Malinowski-Krum has provided for German readers a short lively account of how the French Protestants remained true to their Hugenot heritage despite all the sufferings imposed on them by their German conquerors during the second world war. French Protestants were, and are, a small elite minority. But, especially in the rural areas of southern France, the memory of the persecutions endured by earlier generations remained very much alive. Hence their readiness to resist for both national and theological reasons.

France’s defeat in 1940 led many Frenchmen to give their support to the policies of collaboration adopted by Marshal Petain and his henchman Laval. But the more resolute wing of the Protestants drew their inspiration from the witness of the German Confessing Church, and from the writings of its chief theological champion, Karl Barth. His younger disciples drew up in 1941 their Pomeyrol theses, which owed much to the earlier Barmen declaration, but which added an express condemnation of all edicts against the Jews, conspicuous by its absence in the German case. Their role as guardians of Christian morality and active critics of the government’s actions was matched by heroic service to the Nazis’ victims.

We are given the story of the intrepid rescue efforts for Jews, not only in Chambon-sur-Lignon, made famous by Philip Hallie’s “Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed”, but also in the internment camps such as Gurs. Madeleine Barot recapitulates the work of CIMADE, the Protestant youth group which actively organised escape routes to Switzerland. Several survivors, Jewish and Christian, record their experiences in the resistance movement. Pastor Roland de Pury recalls how he was dragged from his pulpit and imprisoned for months. Aime Bonifas spent two years in the brutal hell of Buchenwald. The book concludes with a moving poem written by a survivor of the women’s concentration camp, Ravensbruck. Here was costly discipleship and impressive witness to the strength of the Hugenot faith.

A large-scale history of the French Church and parish in Berlin during the Nazi years has been written by Ursula Fuhrich-Grubert, Hugenotten unterm Hakenkreuz (Veroff. d. Hist. Komm., Berlin no 85) 1994.

John Hellman who teaches at McGill presents us with another side of the story, namely an account of those Catholics who saw France’s national humiliation as an opportunity to bring the people back to the Catholic faith, under the leadership of a charismatic and aristocratic group of Knight-Monks, who founded a kind of training school/monastery at Uriage. The history of the Vichy years remains highly controversial, not least among those Catholics, who like Fr Molette (see below) would like to claim that all good Frenchmen were on the side of the Gaullist resistance. But in fact, there were numerous Catholic intellectuals, who wanted to reform society by getting away from the selfish individualism of the Third Republic, and by mobilising the idealism of youth for a totally new vision, drawn from ideas long hostile to the legacy of 1789. The Uriage school resulted from the dream of a new knighthood, a chivalrous order of the young, who would exercise leadership – the shock troops of the spirit. This venture was designed to celebrate their own religious culture’s authoritarianism, dogma, discipline, doctrinal coherence and dedicated celibate clergy-elites, even though with very apparent anti-democratic, anti-parliamentary, and even antisemitic overtones. Manly virility was a cherished virtue. They wanted to create communities which would neutralize the poisons of permissive liberalism, rampant individualism, communism and the erosion of spiritual values, while restoring prestige and influence to the Catholic Church. The Uriage graduates were to create the guidelines of, and become the leaders for, a post-liberal and post-Republican society. They enjoyed the full support of the Marshal.

John Hellman’s study is the first book in English to describe the activities of this ambitious, though fatally flawed experiment. The headquarters were in a seventy-room 12th century castle high up in the Alps, where the great knight-hero Bayard was supposed to have spent time. The man in charge, Captain Pierre Dunoyer de Segonzac, saw himself as the embodiment of the best mediaeval tradition, combining the military, aristocratic and spiritual values which he sought inculcate into his teams. The Catholic altruism which permeated the place had a strong social conscience, drawn from the writings of prominent Catholic intellectuals of the 1930s. Uriage saw itself as becoming the “spiritual university of French youth”. Daily life was a mixture of the soldierly and the contemplative. Both were needed to forge the destiny of the new France.

This promise of a kind of idealistic communism that, as in great orders of the Middle Ages, could transcend theological and political differences enjoyed a highly successful first year, was lavished with support from Vichy, and gave its cohorts great hopes for the future. But this backward-looking ideology, which hardly mentioned anything since 1789, and never spoke well of the Third Republic, was hardly likely to appeal to other groups – workers, peasants, women and Gaullists. Its absolute loyalty and total submission to Marshal Petain proved to be handicaps as the Vichy regime proved only too weak and compliant with the Nazis. After 1942, as the progressive deterioration of the Vichy experiment became obvious, so Uriage and its ideals disintegrated. The church hierarchy remained cool to what it saw as a state-directed totalitarian youth organisation. The more progressive Catholic intellectuals found no room for their more critical insights. Loyalty to Petain was not enough.

With the German invasion of southern France in November 1942, and Laval’s complete subordination to Nazi wishes, Uriage’s days were numbered. Segonzac withdrew to another mountain fortress, and dreamt of keeping alive the idea of a better national revolution. In late 1943 he secretly made his way to Algiers to see De Gaulle, who was not surprisingly cool to this Vichy supporter. But Segonzac returned believing that, now, De Gaulle was the saviour France needed, and urged his supporters to join the resistance and to lend their efforts to combat the danger of the communists, Americans and old-style Republican politicians.

Uriage graduates came to play significant roles in the post-war France, such as Beuve-Mery who led the newspaper Le Monde to world-wide fame. It was part of the need to educate Frenchmen to a new discipleship. As such its successes were striking,even though the legacy of its Vichy past and totalitarian temptation still reverberates.

John Hellman’s excellent analysis of this movement, though sometimes repetitive, is an important study of one section of French opinion, and its search for a deliberate French Sonderweg, which deserves to be better known.

Fr Charles Molette leaves no doubt that his sympathies are entirely with those French clergymen, monks and nuns who threw themselves wholeheartedly in the struggle against Nazism and its evil racist and anti-Christian policies. This short book is designed to expurgate the record of those Frenchmen, who by serving the Vichy regime, assisted the machinations of the nefarious Nazi anti- Christian ideology. Instead he seeks to honour those insufficiently remembered Catholic priests and nuns who took up the challenge to defend the “true” faith.

Two Nazi-imposed policies prompted the greatest display of such resistance – first, the Nazi brutality in rounding up and deporting the Jews, and second, the compulsory transfer of young Frenchmen to work in Germany. Fr Molette gives numerous examples of the mercy and charity extended towards the Jews, including those “righteous Gentiles” already recognised by Yad Washem in Israel, but suggests that there are many others still to be honoured. So too should be those priests who volunteered to accompany the young slave workers to Germany as well as those martyrs who died in Nazi concentration camps. According to his findings, 231 priests and nuns lost their lives at German hands, as well as 400 others deported to Germany, and 500 more interned in France. He also pays tribute to those, like the authors of Temoignage Chretien, who gave theological leadership against the insidious infiltration of Nazi ideas. Here was the truly Christian basis for the whole resistance movement, which he feels has been overlaid by purely political or national considerations.

Despite their undoubted sincerity and dedication, Fr.Molette’s style of hagiography makes his heroes seem uni-dimensional, like saints in stained glass. By contrast, John Hellman’s description of his knight-errant-monks portrays them as modern Don Quixotes, with their mistaken political romanticism and their delusions of mediaeval mysticism. His success in depicting the vagaries of modern French Catholicism is all the more commendable.

 

2. 19th Century German Protestant Church History

John Moses of Canberra has very kindly contributed the following review:

Oliver Janz, Burger besonderer Art. Evangelische Pfarrer in Pruessen 1850-1914, Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1994, pp. xv+615. No price given.

Much of German historical research since 1945 has been designed to answer the question, “In what ways were the Germans different from other Europeans?” The search for the roots of German “peculiarity” has, of course, encompassed the various professions. One thinks of the studies by Charles McClelland, Konrad Jarausch and Fritz Ringer, all of whom have focussed on aspects of German university life in the 19th and 20th century. Others such as Michael Kater and Paul Weindling have advanced knowledge of the German medical profession. Scientists and engineers have also attracted their investigators, and the behaviour of some theologians in the Third Reich has been explained by scholars such as L. S- Wenschkewitz and Robert Ericksen. Now, our knowledge about the Prussian-German pastorate as a discrete professional group has been vastly enhanced by this work by Oliver Janz, a former student of Prof. H. Kaeble at West Berlin’s Freie Universitat

Janz’s wide-ranging study is a milestone in the social history of the clergy as an “academic profession”. It is not only distinguished by its thoroughness, but also by its methodological rigour. An impressive range of archives has been consulted and most useful statistics compiled. All this is narrated in an unpretentious, accessible style. The work exhibits all the virtues of Sachlichkeit, no embroidery, only hard supporting evidence which illustrates the social transformation of the “first estate” in Prussia-Germany throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. This process saw the gradual diminution of a professional group which at the end of the 18th century enjoyed the highest prestige by virtue of the government duties it performed alongside of the normal clerical ones, to one of seeming insignificance a century later.

Janz notes that on the eve of the industrial revolution the pastors constituted beside the military, the judiciary and the public service one of the main pillars of Prussian social and political order. Indeed, at mid-nineteenth century every fourth university educated man in Germany was a Protestant pastor. As highly educated Burger the pastors had made significant contributions to German science and letters since the Reformation. Not only in theology and in the Church, but also through the education system and the public service, the sons of pastors were represented to an overwhelming degree right down to recent times. The cultural impact of this social group was enormous. It was a section of the Burgertum, however, which has been overlooked by historians, a deficit which Janz has now more than adequately made up for.

Burgertum is usually translated by “middle class” or “bourgeoisie”, but neither of these render the essential meaning of the German adequately. This is because in both French and English the terms have a distinct commercial connotation which is not applicable to the German situation until after the industrial revolution. And even thereafter in Germany one has to distinguish between Besitz- and Bildungsburgertum, i.e. the bourgeoisie of property on the one hand and education on the other. The pastors, while obviously part of the latter, increasingly formed a separate and distinctive sub- group during the evolution of the 19th century. It is Janz’s great merit to show how this happened.

As noted, prior to industrialization and urbanization in Protestant Germany, the pastorate occupied the dominant social position by virtue of their semi-government function in rural parishes. How did they lose it? Largely because by mid-century other professions were emerging which not only drew off young male talent to serve in alternative vocations, but also these in turn rivalled the clergy as the Honorationen (i.e. the local dignitaries) especially in the countryside. With the advancing modernization/urbanization of Prussia-Germany the professional group which had once exerted a virtual leadership monopoly in bourgeois society became increasingly marginalized. Its previously obvious influential status all but disappeared.

What Janz portrays is the evolution of a kind of intellectual- spiritual ghetto which on the surface seemed to be an irrelevance to the wider community. There were self-perpetuating theological faculties at the numerous universities which themselves, by virtue of the over-intellectualization of theology as a discipline, became alienated from the basis of the still religiously committed elements within the population. The so-called liberal theological enquiry pursued in the faculties contributed little to the pastoral needs of the relatively narrow hard core of church people and their particular spirituality (Frommigkeit), both in town and country. They required traditional ‘orthodox’ pastors, and these, increasingly, came to be trained in exclusively church-run seminaries with little or no contact with ‘university’ theology. As in all denominations, the gulf between the spiritually committed and the nominal adherents was great, and to the degree that the liberal (read: intellectualized) theologians manifested a spirituality, it was of an essentially different nature from that of the ‘ orthodox’.

All this is important for the history of Protestantism in Germany. The process of industrialization not only effected the marginalization of the clergy as an influential professional class, it precipitated a kind of schism within Protestant culture, which on the one hand was extremely scholarly and hence remote to the people in the parishes, and on the other led to the ghetto-ization of the parishes where only a Protestant orthodox piety could be practised. Interestingly, even at the universities, the theological students became largely isolated from the mainstream. The concentrated in Christian student fraternities, predominantly in the non-duelling Wingolf association, with the result that they were socialised differently from the law and medical students who did duel and who lived by the quasi military code of honour then in vogue.

Here, the re-production of “burgers of a special kind” became most evident. Even more so does it become evident when Janz investigates the social origins of the pastors and whom they married. By the mid-nineteenth century one third of pastors were the sons of pastors. Additionally, many were the sons of daughters of the parsonage, which was traditionally a place where extremely large families were raised. All this contributed to the development of a church-parsonage sub-culture which characterized the Protestant life of Germany, running parallel to the mainstream of the commercial and other educated bourgeoisie, but with very little over-lapping. The pastors’ enforced social isolation was compounded by an increasing loss of function (diminishing congregations) which tended to transform the pastor into a mere ‘parish manager’. Nevertheless, as Janz competently illustrates from his statistical analyses of all the above-mentioned relationships, the pastors formed a unique and enduring section of the German bourgeoisie. Because of their peculiarly Prussian- German Lutheran orientation towards the State, and the quasi bureaucratic way in which they ‘managed’ their parishes, this group made their own contribution to what has become known as the German ‘Sonderweg’.

Like Anthony Russell’s The Clerical Profession (1980), which investigates how the Church of England clergy were affected by similar social changes during the same period, Janz’s study is not concerned with the sacramental or liturgical functions of the pastorate, and does not investigate how, for example, they ministered or preached to their dwindling congregations. Theological issues are not touched upon here. The content of what they taught about the State is the subject for another kind of book But what has been unequivocally demonstrated is that, although the pastors lost both status and function over the decades, they remained in their self-perception a special kind of state official. By contrast to the English clergy, with whom many parallels can be identified, they remained a far more homogeneous group both socially and politically. In the Church of England before 1914 there were some 5000 priests affiliated with one of three Christian socialist groups. No comparable clerical pluralism existed in Germany. The pastors were infinitely more conservative, and the institutional church far more an arm of the State, than in England, and was at the base of what the Germans call cultural Protestantism. Although this Protestantism had long ceased to be a ‘people’s religion’, the history of the Landeskirchen where the monarch was ex officio the summus episcopus meant that Protestantism defined not only the ecclesiastical but also the political culture.

One would have wished, perhaps, for more investigation of the question of how, despite the apparent irrelevance of the church in everyday life in Prussia, because of its diminished status, Protestantism nevertheless retained its defining cultural hegemony. If, however, this question is to be answered, the scholarly world will have to start with this important study.

 

3. Next issue:

I hope to be able to send you another Newsletter before Christmas, which will feature the Jehovah’s Witnesses and much more!

In the meanwhile, do send in more contributions, and have a blessed Advent.

All the best,

John Conway
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway,

Editor. University of British Columbia

 

Newsletter no 9- October 1995

Contents

1. Notices from the International Bonhoeffer Society

2. Work in progress

3. Book notices

 

1. Notices (from the International Bonhoeffer Society Newsletter)

The Presbyterian Church U.S.A.’s July-August 1995 edition of Church and Society Magazine is a special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of Bonhoeffer’s death. It contains articles by the Bethges, Barbara Green, Bishop Schonherr and L Rasmussen, and can be ordered from Distribution Management Service, Presbyterian Church USA, 100 Witherspoon St, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396.

In connection with the International Bonhoeffer Congress in Cape Town next January 7-12, Explorations Travel of Atlanta is offering a special fare from Miami to Cape Town on Jan 4th, as well as two safari tours around the country. Contact: Explorations, 4200 Paces Ferry Rd, Suite 357, Atlanta GA 30339, 1-800-451-9630.

 

2. Work in progress

Kyle Jantzen of Montreal kindly sent us a resume of his paper delivered to the International Historical Congress:
“Getting the Message: German Protestant Pastors and their parishes during the Nazi era.”

The history of the Kirchenkampf is, on the Protestant side, the history of the conflict between the Nstional Socialist regime, the German land churches and the two main church-political groups, the pro-Nazi German Christians, who strove to establish a centralized Reich Church conforming to Nazi leadership principles, and the Confessing Church, which held to the purity of faith and doctrine, based on the Word of God and the Reformation Confessions. While scholars have interpreted the Kirchenkampf primarily at the national level, much less has been done to investigate its development within the individual land churches. In fact, very little attention has been directed at the effect of the national church struggle on local church life, especially in the smaller cities and the rural parishes. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the Kirchenkampf in three church districts: Nauen in Brandenburg, Pirna in Saxony, and Ravensburg in Wurttemberg. In particular it will examine the nature of the Kirchenkampf at the parish level, as demonstrated in the career of a prominent Wurttemberg pastor, Karl Steger. . . .

My conclusions point to a broader principle for religious historical research. It is not enough to interpret a church-state conflict such as the Kirchenkampf only at its highest level. In order to create a full and legitimate historical picture, the conflict in question must be followed down to its lowest levels, into the districts and the parishes. Only then can there be an understanding of its effect upon the ordinary Christians and citizens who comprise both the church and the larger body politic.”

(N.B. This last point has already been well made by Herwart Vorlander,NS-Staat und Kirchen als Thema des Historikers, in G van Norden ed., Zwischen Bekenntnis und Anpassung, Cologne 1985, and by Kurt Meier, Kirchenkampfgeschichtsschreibung, Theologische Rundschau 46 (1981) and 54 (1989) Ed.)

David Diephouse, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Mich. is in the early writing stage of a comprehensive biography of Wurttemberg bishop Theophil Wurm. His working title is: Between Fatherland and Kingdom of God – Theophil Wurm and German Protestant Identity, 1868-1953.

Michael Phayer, Marquette U, Milwaukee, Wisconsin is about half finished writing a book on The Catholic Church and the Holocaust 1940-1965.

Marion Grau of Tubingen is writing a short essay on the “Stuttgart Churches and the Jews”, and is finding the volumes by Rohm and Thierfelder, Juden-Christen-Deutsche very helpful.

 

3. Book notices

As a sequel to his earlier study, Erzbischof Conrad Grober und die nationalsozialistische Diktatur (Karlsruhe 1986), Bruno Schwalbach has now published Erzbishof Conrad Grober und die deutsche Katastrophe. Sein Ringen um eine menschliche Neuordnung, Badenia, Karlsruhe 1994. This consists largely of the official statements and pastoral letters issued by this bishop in the post-1945 years, and tributes after his death in 1948, in order to show his considerable efforts to alleviate the plight of his fellow Germans in their hour of need. Among these activities are printed the texts of various Persilscheine the bishop wrote on behalf of keen Nazis, whose behaviour he nonetheless found to be consonent with their Catholic beliefs, as well as his pastoral letter protesting the forcible evacuation of Germans from eastern Europe. The editor seeks to defend Grober’s sympathy for Heidegger and to excuse his insensitive treatment of those of his priests taken off to concentration camps, and even quotes with approval Grober’s own view of 1946 that “ich zu den bevorzugten Opfern des Nationalsozialismus gehorte und durch die Gestapo und ihre Helfershelfer seelisch mehr gelitten have als viele von jenen, die in Dachau misshandelt wurden oder starben” ! Given “Brown” Conrad’s well-known sympathy for the Nazi regime in 1933, it is interesting to find here the full text of his 1947 recollections “Meine Mitarbeit am deutschen Konkordat” (p. 120-183) Grober’s point of view is well summed up in his conclusion: “Wenn man in der Atmosphare der ersten Jahres des Dritten Reich noch hoffte and auch spater sich bemuht, das drohende Unheil aufzuhalten, das zuletzt auch einem Blindgeborenen die Augen geoffnet hatte, so erachten wir es fur vollig verkerht und sogar fur beleidigend und ungerecht, die Erkenntnisse der spateren Jahre auch fur die noch ungeklarten und heuchlerischen des ersten Jahrfunft vorauszusetzen. Oder was es ein Unrecht, was man kirchlichseits optima fide im Anfang der Hitlerherrschaft erstrebte?.” How far this kind of ecclesiastical apologia and hagiography will convince outsiders remains to be seen.

Peter Longerich, Hitlers Stellvertreter. Fuhrung der Partei und Kontrolle des Staatsapparates durch den Stab Hess und die Partei- Kanzlei Bormann, K.G.Saur Verlag, Munich 1992

This careful study of the office of Hitler’s Deputy examines the ways in which this party office sought to gain increasing control over all aspects of the Nazi state. The section on the churches (p.234-255) will be of interest to our members. Longerich points out that, in 1933, the Nazis had three contradictory ideas about how to deal with the churches. First, there was a policy for the synthesis of Nazism and Christianity by incorporating the churches into the new regime, as with the Reich Concordat, or the victory of the “Deutsche Christen” in the Protestant churches. But by the end of 1933, this gave way to a policy of neutrality, which would lead to an eventual separation of Church and State. But this in turn gave way to a much more hostile policy, which believed that the Churches’ day was done, and that they were destined to be replaced by the glorious apotheosis of Nazi ideology.

Hitler’s Deputy Hess, and even more so his deputy, Martin Bormann, were ardent advocates of this last policy. Longerich gives a detailed analysis of the various steps taken to achieve this end, which was only restrained by Hitler’s desire not to provoke the churches into active opposition. By a shrewd policy of administrative measures, little by little the churches’ position in public life was restricted or squeezed out, even during the war, when Hitler himself recognized the need for public harmony. This did not stop the radicals from attacking church property, church schools, the church tax, divorce and health laws, and of course all attempts by the churches to curry favour with the ruling party. In summary, Longerich states: “Es kann kein Zweifel bestehen, dass Bormanns Kirchenhass nicht hinter der antikirchlichen Einstellung Himmlers, Rosenbergs und Goebbels’ zuruckstand; zusammen mit diesen fuhrenden Naztionalsozialisten bildete er den radikalen Flugel in der NS-Kirchenpolitik. Bormanns Ausserungen uber die christliche Religion und die Kirchen zeigen eine Gehassigkeit, die sich durchaus mit seinen antisemitischen Ausfallen vergleichen lasst; beide Feindbilder verschmolzen in seiner Vorstellungswelt. Im Staats- wie im Parteibereich besass seine Dienstelle eine relativ starke Stellung in der Kirchenpolitik, die er konsequenz nutzte. Auch wenn Bormann seine kirchenpolitische Massnahmen offiziell mit der Zielsetzung einer “Trennung von Kirche und Staat” begrundete, so kann dies nicht daruber hinwegtauschen, dass fur ihn das Ausloschen der Religionsgemeinschaften das Endziel der NS-Kirchenpolitik bildete. (p.239-40). The text of Bormann’s notorious directive, stating unequivocally that “Nationalsozialismus und Christentum sind unvereinbar” will be found in Conway, Nazi Persecution, p.383-6.

Gunter Brakelmann, Zwischen Widerstand und Mitverantwortung. Vier Studien zum Protestantimus in sozialen Konflikten, SWIVerlag, Bochum 1994
” ” Carl-Ferdinand Stumm, Chrisstlicher Unternehmer, Sozialpolitiker, Antisozialist, Bochum 1993
” ” Krieg und Gewissen. Otto Baumgarten als Politiker und Theologe im Ersten Weltkrieg, Vandenhoeck,Gottingen 1991

Gunter Brakelmann is one of the more forceful and radically critical amongst our German colleagues. He continues to write against the main stream, as in these three books. The first seeks to show how some 19th century Protestants sought to come to terms with the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation of Germany by proposing new courses for Protestant witness in the increasingly “de-christianized” cities. They did not get far, since their superiors and the majority of their fellow Protestants still clung to the image of the rural parish where the church could follow its traditional course, slumbering under the sound of church bells ringing across the fields. But these men tried to see some alternatives to the growing dangers of secularisation intellectually and social democracy politically. At least they were aware of the problem. As Friedrich Naumann warned: “Keine Zeit und keine Kirche hat in kirchlicher Versorgung der getauften Massen verhaltnismaessig so wenig getan als unsere Tage und unsere Kirche… Wir evangelischen Deutschen muessen es uns vorwerfen lassen: Berlin ist die kirchlich verwarholseste Stadt auf der ganzen Erde”. The second and third of these books have been extensively reviewed inKirchliche Zeitgeschichte, Vol 6,no 2, 1993, p 585. The book on Baumgarten would seem to be necessary reading for all those who assume that German Protestantism lacked any critical approach to the excesses of German nationalism.

N.Stoltzfus, History Dept, Florida State U.,Tallahassee “Widerstand des Herzens” Geschichte und Gesellschaft, Vol 21,no 2, April-June 1995,p 218-247.

This excellent article describes the successful protest by German wives against the imprisonment of their Jewish husbands in Berlin in April 1943, and analyses the dynamics of the possibility of “resistenz” by such spontaneous demonstrators. Stoltzfus asks whether the churches could not have carried out the same tactics, not just to prevent the removal of crucifixes, or against euthanasia, but on behalf of the wider Jewish population. There were limits to the Nazis’ power, as this incident shows. The churches’ failure to call their followers to the same kind of defiant behaviour as taken by these wives remains a sore comment on their lack of human solidarity with their persecuted fellow Germans of Jewish origin. A personal note: I had a most pleasant visit from one of our members, Marion Grau of Tubingen, who resolutely promised to try and recruit more of our German fraternity to take up E-mail. She thinks this is largely a generational question, so we can’t hope for quick results. But if any of you know of Germankirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler who have E-mail addresses, I will be glad to send them an invitation to join us.

Another personal note: I shall be away on holiday in India for the next month. But don’t hesitate to send me messages to be stored on my computer, so that I can then resume our correspondence on my return and make use of your contributions.

Every best wish
John Conway,
Dept of History, UBC, Vancouver V6T 1Z1, Canada
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor.

University of British Columbia

Newsletter no 8 – September 1995

Contents

1. Conferences

2. Books

Dear Friends,

Most of you will now have started the new semester/term in the northern hemisphere, so I trust you will still have time to read the enclosed, which comes with best wishes for the new academic year.

I am glad to say that, at the 18th International Historical Congress in Montreal (see below) I was able to recruit some new friends for our Arbeitsgemeinschaft. I believe it would be very helpful to use one issue of this Newsletter to give an outline of Work in Progress, so that we can all become better acquainted with each other’s interests.

So may I ask each of you to send me a short statement, which I will collate together for this purpose, and will post whenever a sufficient number have been received. This is your Newsletter, so please find the time to send me something which may be of interest to us all.

 

1. Conferences

The 18th International Congress of Historical Sciences held in the Congress Centre, downtown Montreal from August 26th to Sept 3rd brought together some 2000 historians from Europe, North America, Japan and Australasia. Virtually absent were any representatives from China, Africa and the rest of Asia. Since all possible subjects were covered, there wasn’t much on our special interests, though Kyle Jantzen outlined his preliminary findings about three Evang. parishes in the Third Reich. We look forward to hearing more from him. A general discussion of present Holocaust research was interesting for its inclusive character, when the other victims of the Nazi mass murder programme were suitably remembered. In fact, it was notable that one distinguished Holocaust historian made the point that “too much emphasis has been placed on Christian antisemitism as a root cause of the Holocaust”. We can expect that this topic will be taken up further at subsequent conferences.

Forthcoming conferences:

7th International Bonhoeffer Congress, Cape Town, South Africa, January 7-12th 1996, under the auspices of Prof John de Gruchy, JDEG@socsci.uct.ac.za

26th Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, March 3rd-5th 1996, University of St Thomas, St Paul, Minnesota, organiser: Karen Schierman, 2260 Summit Ave, St Paul, Minn 55105. Topics include: The Holocaust and the Vatican, Educating the Clergy,Perpetrators Bystanders Victims Rescuers Survivors and much more

Commission Internationale d’Histoire Ecclesiastique Comparee (CIHEC) Regional meeting, Lublin, Poland, 2-6th Sept 1996 under the auspices of Prof Jerzy Kloczowski, whom I first met at the Oxford CIHEC meeting in 1974, and who one of the leading lights when CIHEC held its 1978 regional meeting in Warsaw in 1978. Was anyone else on our list there?

The title for 1996 is: Christianity in East Central Europe and its relations with the West and the East. There are to be six sections: Antiquity,The Middle Ages,Modern Times (6th-18th Century),The Nineteenth Century, The 20th Century, Atlas of Christianity. The programme looks most interesting, and more details can be obtained from Institute of East Central Europe, Czartoryski Palace, Plac Litewski 2, Lublin 20-080, Poland.

E-mail: europasw@golem.umcs.lublin.pl

 

2. Books

Although it is not new, I can recommend Gordon Horwitz, In the Shadow of Death, 1991, which is a study of the concentration camp of Mauthausen near Linz, Austria. I have seldom read a more desolate or terrifying study of brutality, hatred and murder. Actually Horwitz’s aim was to study the reactions of the people who lived around this camp and its dependencies, but the widespead amnesia or indifference meant that his surviving witnesses had little to report that was uplifting. In essence, his story depicts the appalling conditions and sufferings inflicted on the inmates, and the sad absence and/or incapability of the local population to do anything against the Nazi terrorism. A profoundly depressing book.

Alison Owings, Frauen: German Women recall the Third Reich, Penguin Books 1993.

This series of interviews with German women has much of interest, since Owings has been able to gather interviews from the whole spectrum including some still fervent admirers of Hitler. The role of the churches is a repeated theme, by no means all of it glorious. And although serious scholars may doubt how far Owings’s understanding of the Third Reich extends, the book has many insights which will be of interest to krchlicher Zeitgeschichtler.

On a personal note: to fill the time during my extended air trip to Montreal and back, I read Oscar Maria Graf’s Das Leben meiner Mutter, a wonderfully insightful account of the Bavarian countryside around the southern end of the Starnbergersee at the end of the last century. Particularly good were his observations on the religious practices and attitudes of the local peasantry, with their intense Catholic devotion, mixed with archetypal superstition and bigotry. I especially liked his pointing out that in 1866 on the occasion of the Prussian-Austrian war, provoked by Bismarck: “In jenen Jahren naemlich beteten die Leute in allen bayrischen Kirchen, der Allmachtige moege ihr Land vor diesem ‘finsteren, grundfalschen, verderbten luthrischen Antichrist’ gnadigst bewahren”. Alas, they lost.

Do please send me any short items you may want to, about your reading and/or experiences over the summer. I look forward to hearing from you all, especially about your research interests.

Yours sincerely
John S.Conway
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor.

University of British Columbia

Newsletter no. 7 – August 1995

Contents

1. Enquiry

2. H-Net.

3. Book Notices

a) Kurt Nowak and Gerard Raulet eds., Protestantismus und Anitsemitismus in der Weimarer Republik, Campus, Frankfurt 1994.

b) Roman Bleistein, Alfred Delp, Knecht, Frankfurt 1989, and Michael Pope, Alfred Delp S.J. im Kreisauer Kreis. Die rechts- und sozial-philosophischen Grundlagen in seinen Konzeptionen fuer eine Neuordnung Deutschlands. Veroff. d. Komm. fur Zeitgeschichte, Reihe B. Forschungen Bd 63, Mathias Grunewald, Mainz 1994 Reviewed by Michael Phayer.

c) Jacques Semelin, Unarmed against Hitler. Civilian resistance in Europe 1939-1945, Praeger, Westport Conn./London 1993.

d) Henri Fabre, L’eglise catholique face au fascisme at au nazisme. Les outrages a la verite, Brussels 1994, and Anthony Rhodes, The Vatican in the age of the Cold War, London 1992.

e) Hans-Dieter Schutt, Anna Rosmus – die ‘Hexe’ von Passau, Dietz, Berlin 1994.

f) Jerusalem

Dear Friends,

Welcome back – especially for those of us in the northern hemisphere, and I hope you have all enjoyed a period of rest and /or research before the beginning of the new term. This Newsletter will be somewhat longer, because of the large number of new books which have appeared, or which deserve notice. Many thanks to those of you who have sent in contributions. These are always welcome, in order to make this Newsletter as reciprocal as possible.

 

1. Enquiry:

Frank Baron, University of Kansas would like to have more information about a Professor Hans Schwerte. He writes: “An article appeared in the N.Y.Times on June 1st about the prominent Germanist Hans Schwerte who turns out to have been a former SS-officer. I am interested in his earlier history. Although he denies having taken part in medical matters, there is evidence that he had something to do with experimentations performed in Dachau. Can anyone provide more details?”

 

2. H-Net.

As most of you will be aware, one of the recent developments on the academic Internet is the institution of book reviews. H- German is now doing these twice a month. They will be of the same quality and comprehensiveness as those appearing in scholarly journals, and presumably by equally qualified reviewers. The great advantage to readers, authors and publishers is that they will appear months, even years, before the equivalent review in a printed journal. Indeed one can foresee the end of that genre before long.

Unfortunately German journals, with the exception of the Historische Zeitschrift, don’t do many book reviews (though Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte is trying hard!) Consequently German publishers don’t send out many review copies, and N. American journal editors have not always been able to get copies easily into the hands of reviewers. Theological publishers are even slower in responding to requests for review copies. And given the snail-like acceptance of computerization and hence E-mail in Germany, we may be a while before the kind of books of interest to our Arbeitsgemeinschaft will be so treated. But the possibilities might be worth exploring. Does anyone have connections with publishers such as Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in Gottingen, or Chr.Kaiser in Gutersloh?

 

3. Book Notices

A flood of recent books in our area would seem to indicate that our particular field is flourishing. Here are brief notices of those to hand.

a) Kurt Nowak and Gerard Raulet eds., Protestantismus und Anitsemitismus in der Weimarer Republik, Campus, Frankfurt 1994.

This selection of essays is the result of Franco-German collaboration in a series of conferences, and concentrates on the reactions within German Protestantism to the so-called “Jewish question” in the period of the first world war and its aftermath. As the editors point out, the debate was actually part of the wider repercussions within the church to what was perceived as the crisis of modernization. Conservatives from Treitschke onwards were ready to see Jews as sinister agents of change, a view greatly enhanced by the disasters of the first world war. Liberal Protestants were trying to find a suitable theological response, but the result was often cacophony and confusion. This was reflected in their attitudes towards Judaism. In particular the irreconcilable gulf between the advocates of assimilation to a German nationalist consensus, and those who tentatively argued for religious and social pluralism only widened in the 1920s. Some Protestant theologians were ready to accept a broader participation in society for assimilated Jews, and hence adopted a more open stance between the faiths in the constitutional, legal and employment fields. Nevertheless virtually no German theologian argued for a pro-semitic attitude in theology. Adolf von Harnack’s well-known belief that Judaism was destined to be replaced by the more modern presence of Christianity lingered long in liberal minds, since it fitted so well with their view of social, political as well as theological evolution. For their part, many German Jews were attracted by the individualism of Protestantism, and its openness to liberal debate and democratic reforms.

The chapters of Leo Baeck, Walter Rathenau and Ernst Troeltsch show their affinity, politically and intellectually. But the only Christian scholars to take Judaism seriously, who contributed significant works attacking the popular kind of vulgar antisemitism, were all supporters of Mission to the Jews and believed the Jews would sooner or later recognise that their due destiny lay in conversion. Wolfgang Wiefel presents as excellent chapter on the various N.T. scholars who dug deeply into its Jewish roots, but sadly admits that communication with Jewish scholars was non-existent. Instead we find the most prominent Tubingen N.T. scholar, Gerhard Kittel, giving his full support to the Nazi regime and drawing a line between ancient Israel and modern Jewry. The ambiguities of this unfortunate legacy are still reverberating today.

 

b) Roman Bleistein, Alfred Delp, Knecht, Frankfurt 1989. (contributed by Michael Phayer, Marquette U., Milwaukee)

This well researched exhaustive biography is well worth the time of those interested in resistance. Bleistein covers a great deal of ground: the Jesuit resistance circle in Munich and its relationship to the Kreisau Kreis; their efforts to get the bishops involved with the Kreis or at least to collaborate with it; Delp’s contacts with other resistors like the Scholls (meeting planned but they were already executed by that time) and with Stauffenberg. Delp differed from other Jesuits and bishops in that he did not oppose killing Hitler. Bleistein suspects this is because Delp knew what the Nazis were doing to the Jews. Did Delp know that Stauffenberg intended to plant a bomb at Hitler’s feet? Delp maintained at his trial that he did not know (but he was executed anyway in January 1945). Bleistein concludes that Delp and Stauffenberg had discussed the morality of assassination in general terms only. The book includes an interview with the prison guard who was assigned the duty of beating Delp with a spiked board to get him to divulge information.

Michael Pope, Alfred Delp S.J. im Kreisauer Kreis. Die rechts- und sozial-philosophischen Grundlagen in seinen Konzeptionen fuer eine Neuordnung Deutschlands. Veroff. d. Komm. fur Zeitgeschichte, Reihe B. Forschungen Bd 63, Mathias Grunewald, Mainz 1994

Michael Pope’s dissertation gives a comprehensive view of Delp’s contributions to the Kreisau Circle. It is not uncritical. He notes that many of Delp’s ideas were drawn from his earlier involvement in Catholic youth groups with their romantic idealization of Germany’s Catholic traditions. He was still in 1944 pursuing an organic view of society which had numerous anti-democratic and anti-pluralist overtones, and which now appear as utopian or even reactionary. Nevertheless he was a fearless defender of Catholic viewpoints who rightly rejected the allurements of Nazism as well as the shameful compromises of some of his Catholic colleagues and superiors. As such he is rightly honoured among the noble army of martyrs

 

c) Jacques Semelin, Unarmed against Hitler. Civilian resistance in Europe 1939-1945, Praeger, Westport Conn./London 1993

This essay by a French sociologist discusses the political limitations of non-violent opposition and non-compliance by civilians for “civilian” i.e. non-military reasons against Nazism. Semelin makes clear that there are wide variations in the concept of resistance and in the particular settings in each country. Nevertheless he affirms that the churches played a significant role, in such matters as the protest against the Nazi euthanasia decrees, whereby their mobilization of a “protective screen” could be deployed for moral reasons. But in the case of the murder of the Jews, such a tactic came to play in far fewer circumstances, revealing the fact that as a whole the Christian churches manifested contradictory attitudes which prevented adequate resistance or deterrent measures against the Nazis’ systematic and deliberate use of violence.

 

d) Henri Fabre, L’eglise catholique face au fascisme at au nazisme. Les outrages a la verite, Brussels 1994

Henri Fabre’s blockbuster is a splendid piece of polemic, which takes aim at the Catholic Church, the Vatican and Pope Pius XII in a tone of exasperation and vituperation for over 500,pages. As a rational atheist, he has no use for the hypocrisy, self-serving or prevarication which he believes characterized the church’s officials in their response to the Fascist and Nazi dictators. In particular he is dismayed by their perversion of the truth about the Catholic reactions to the Holocaust. He examines minutely the record not only of the Holy See, but also of the Church in various European countries, in order to demonstrate that the Church failed miserably to stand up for the Jews. He especially analyses the 11 volumes of Vatican documents, put out in response to the earlier charges made by Hochhuth and others. Here he seeks to expose the “outrages” against the truth, and to accuse the Jesuit editors of these volumes of gross hypocrisy. Needless to say, he has no sympathy whatsoever for the self-imposed silence of Pius XII about war-time atrocities, and instead denounces the Papacy for not protesting the Nazis’ crimes against the Jews on every possible occasion. His assumption that, had such a prophetic stance been adopted, more Jews would be alive today not only overestimates the potential power of the Papacy, but comes rather oddly from one who derides the institution with such acrimony. But he has certainly done his homework in subjecting the Vatican documents to a fine- toothcomb analysis.

Anthony Rhodes, The Vatican in the age of the Cold War, London 1992

By contrast, Anthony Rhodes’s sequel to two previous studies of the Vatican in this century is positive and affirmative. He accepts at face value the Vatican’s own view of its policies, overlooks or excuses its glaring failures, and sees the Papacy as a valiant champion of the free world in face of the Communist threat. He is well-informed but dispenses with footnotes. As well, his story stops short at the end of the 1960s, and fails to take the story up to its more fitting ending in 1989-90. But he does include chapters on Latin America which are an interesting innovation.

 

e) Passau:

Anyone who enjoyed the film “The Nasty Girl”, with its satirical portrait of the difficulties confronting researchers into recent German history, may want to note the appearance of the small book by Hans-Dieter Schutt, Anna Rosmus – die ‘Hexe’ von Passau, Dietz, Berlin 1994. This is an extended interview in which Ms Rosmus explains her reasons for wanting to expose the hypocrisy and break the taboos about the Nazi period which characterized the elite of Passau, including the clergy and professoriate. As a modern Savonarola, she is suffering much the same fate, and was last heard of in New York. A lively picture of an uncompromising searcher for truth.

 

f) Jerusalem:

Even though Jerusalem does not figure largely in the debates of contemporary church history, many of us will have been there. All, I believe, will not have failed to see how deeply the atmosphere of the city has been imprinted upon by the legacy of earlier disputes, not least amongst the various Christian denominations. One such legacy is to be found in the so-called “Garden Tomb”, that delightfully pleasant green oasis just north of the Damascus Gate. Its history and the resultant controversy is well described by Sarah Kuchev “The Search for a Protestant Holy Sepulchre. The Garden Tomb in 19th century Jerusalem”, J. of Ecclesiastical History, Vol 46, no 2, April 1995, pp 278ff.

This Newsletter has already grown like Topsy, so I will send it off now, and will continue with more book reviews and notes next month. Don’t hesistate to let me know what you have “discovered” this summer.

With best wishes to you all,

John Conway,
Dept of History, University of B.C.,Vancouver
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor.

University of British Columbia

Newsletter no 6 – July 1995

Contents

1. Conferences

2. Book Notices

 

1. Conferences

As most of you know, the initiative for our coming together stems from the German group, organized by Professor Gerhard Besier, now of Heidelberg (Wissenschaftlich-Theologisches Seminar, Kisselgasse 1, 69117, Heidelberg), which began to hold its annual conferences in 1989, and publishes the splendid journal twice a year, Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte.

The 1995 conference will be held in Heidelberg itself, from August 25th-27th, on the theme “The Churches, Southern Africa and the Political Context”. Several representatives of the new S.Africa will attend, to give special reference to the role of the churches and of theology in the present situation. In addition several of our German friends, such as Besier and A.Boyens, will present their views and reflect on the significance of the S.African experience for the wider context of contemporary church history. It is certainly to be welcomed that, for the first time, this conference has adopted a non-European theme. The papers should appear in Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, 1996 vol. 1.

 

2. Book notices

Jacques Picard, Die Schweiz und die Juden 1933-1945, Chronos Verlag, Zurich 1995 (Ronald Webster, York University, Toronto, has kindly supplied this short notice, as a prelude to his longer review in Holocaust and Genocide Studies)

The Swiss historian J.Picard has undertaken to provide both an encyclopedic and in-depth analysis of the war-time dilemmas and tragedies of the Swiss Jews and their involvement in Switzerland’s role as the pivotal point in the rescue of Jews in World War II.

The main themes are:

1) The horrible dilemma of Swiss Jews caught between the constant demands to provide their bona fides at home while feeling an active sympathy for the fate of Europe’s Jews under Nazi domination.

2) The role that Switzerland and its Jewish leaders played in disseminating news of the unfolding Holocaust, especially through the efforts of the Swiss Red Cross and the various Swiss legations in Nazi-occupied Europe.

3) The frustrating negotiations between the authorities and the Jewish leaders over the very restrictive Swiss immigration policies. Picard analyses here the questionable role of the Swiss police chief, Heinrich Rothmund, in initiating with the Germans in 1938 the notorious “J” stamped in the passports of both Swiss and German Jews.

4) The role of Sally Mayer, head of the SIG (Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund). While Picard criticizes Mayer for his increasingly authoritarian leadership style, nevertheless he sees him as a minor hero, attempting to do what he could under almost unbearable circumstances. Picard especially praises Mayer for his role as the American Joint Distribution liaison in Switzerland, after he resigned his post as head of SIG in 1943.

5) The role of the myriad local and national organizations operating on Swiss soil, devoted to Jewish and refugee questions – some 17 in all. A valuable source of informnation on these operations.

6) Picard provides fascinating insights into the policy of ‘financial blackmail’ perpetrated by the Swiss govt, whereby a mere 18,000 Swiss Jews were obliged, albeit with crucial aid from the Joint and other international organizations, to bear the lion’s share of relief work in Switzerland during the war – probably no less than 100 million Sw Frs between 1933 and 1952.

A very well researched and important book on a crucial issue.

Hansjacob Stehle, Geheimdiplomatie im Vatikan. Die Papste und die Kommunisten. This is an updated and slightly revised edition of his The Eastern Policies of the Vatican 1917-1979, Athens, Ohio 1981, which brings us up to date on events since 1989-90.

Rof Steininger ed., “Der Umgagng mit dem Holocaust. Europa- USA-Israel, Bohlau, Vienna 1994.” Here are the papers delivered at a conference in Innsbruck in 1992, with a fine galaxy of authors, including our own Mike Phayer, who gives an excellent account of the Vatican attitudes towards the victims of the Holocaust, especially after 1945, but suggests that their fate was never a priority for the Vatican leaders. Rather Pius XII set his sights on restoring diplomatic relations with the revived Germany, and thus safeguarding the 1933 Concordat, Only with the Second Vatican Council did matters improve. Various other contributors depict the state of Holocaust reception in different countries in the post- war period.

Bjorn Krondorfer, Between Remebrance and Reconciliation, Yale U.P. 1995 B, who now teaches in Maryland, describes his efforts to promote Jewish-American reconciliation through organizing youth seminars for “3rd generation” Ameican Jews and non-Jewish Germans, at which the question of intergenerational transmission of Holocaust memories and traumas is fully dissected. His initiative came from the fact that, as a post-war German, he was never confronted with this issue until he arrived in the USA, but he has now devised a constructive means of bridging the chasms of memory and geography.

Tony Kushner, The Holocaust and the Liberal Imagination, A social and cultural history, Blackwell, Oxford 1995. (To be reviewed in Albion). Kushner is the director of the James Parkes Library, and teaches, at Southampton University, and here gives a fine account of impact of the Holocaust on ordinary people in the democracies, principally Britain, with comparative looks at the USA. He examines the actions of these states in the light of popular responses.

He naturally highlights the fine efforts of James Parkes to arouse concern for the plight of the Jews during the war,and suggests that the leadership of the churches on this issue was praiseworthy, but not effective enough to overcome the political constraints of war- time circumstances. A thoughtful and sometimes provocative account.

ed.Stephen Batalden, Seeking God. The recovery of Religious Identity in Orthodox Russia, Ukraine and Georgia, Northen Illinois U.P., DeKalb 1993. In fact half this book deals with the history of Russian spirituality, as a background for the revival in the last few years. Highly informative, and well illustrated, this account provides an interesting companion to the books mentioned in my last Newsletter. Those unfamiliar with conditions in Russian Orthodoxy will learn a lot.

4) Contributions for subsequent Newsletters will be most welcome. Since most of you will be away or on holiday for August, I plan the next issue for early September, after I return from the International Historical Congress in Montreal. If anyone else is going, perhaps we could meet for lunch. Do let me know. Have a good summer.

Best wishes to you all,

John S.Conway,
Dept. of History, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z1, Canada
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor.

University of British Columbia

Newsletter no 5: June 1995

Contents

1. Conferences

2. New Books

3. The Vatican and the Jews

4. Contributions

 

1. Conferences:

David Diephouse kindly reported as follows: “Zwischen Weltkrieg und Wiederaufbau: Evang. Kirche in Wurttemberg 1939 bis 1948, Verein f. Wurtt.Kirchengeschichte, Ludwigsburg”, 18-20 May 1995.

This conference could have been just of local interest, but the centrality of the Wurttemberg Church and such leading churchmen as Landesbischof Wurm during the years in question gave it a broader interest.

The conference began with my own paper, as Wurm’s would-be biographer (and token international representative at the conference) which attempted to map out elements of continuity and change in Wurm’s world view after 1945. The conference as a whole was divided into two parts. About half the papers dealt with the war years and post-war military occupation, such as Siegfried Hermle on internal church government, and Eberhard Roehm on the church’s response to the so-called “Judenfrage”. Martin Greschat offered an interesting case study of church policy in the French zone of occupation, while Hermann Ehmer compared the impact of Helmut Thielecke and Karl Hartenstein. Martin Widmann aroused considerable debate with his positive evaluation of Hermann Diem’s work and of the Kirchlich-theologische Sozietaet.

The other half was devoted to post-war reconstruction, with papers on political party formation, school reform, and co-determination. The conference ended with a dramatic debate over the efforts by prominent church officials to rehabilitate a former SS Einsatzgruppen commander, condemned to death (later commuted) for his crimes in Russia. The emotionally charged conversation that ensued between/among the historians, theologians and Zeitzeugen present typified the complex interactions of memory and reflection that marked the conference as a whole – and served as a reminder, if one was needed, of how far kirchliche Zeitgeschichte is from being a detached, dispassionate academic enterprise. The above papers, among others, are included in the volume: Rainer Laechele and Joerg Thierfelder ed.s, “Das evangelische Wuerttemberg zwischen Weltkrieg und Wiederaufbau”, Stuttgart, Calwer Verlag 1995

 

2. New books

Stefan Grotefeld, Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze. Ein deutscher Okumeniker und christlicher Pazifist, (Heidelberger Untersuchungen zu Widerstand, Judenverfolgung und Kirchenkampf im Dritten Reich, Vol 8), Chr.Kaiser, Gutersloh 1995

Siegmund-Schultze was one of Germany’s leading figures in the fields of social reform, ecumenical affairs and the peace movement.

Despite his 60 years of service to his country and church, his career has largely been overlooked and his contributions forgotten. It is Grotefeld’s achievement that he has “rescued” this significant personality from an undeserved oblivion. But the title is somewhat misleading, since G. deals only with Siegmund-Schultze’s arguably least effective period, namely his years of exile after the Nazis expelled him as early as June 1933 until his return to Germany in 1947. G’s study is in fact one of a series, promoted by the late Prof. H-E Todt of Heidelberg, covering the Nazi years. So here we have a marvellously full and meticulously researched account of how this German patriot and pacifist tried to come to terms with the Nazi impact and aggression, undertaking relief efforts for refugees and trying to keep alive the cause of pacifism in such drastic circumstances. It is certainly the fullest account (420 p.) so far of the dilemmas such pacifists in Europe had to face as their cause was so obviously lost. Grotefeld is to be congratulated on his thorough elucidation of the enormous quantity of papers left behind by S-Schultze, now all in the Evang.Zentralarchiv, Berlin, and his sensible and careful evaluation of the evidence. A major contribution to our knowledge of those anti-Nazis forced into exile.

Dokumente zur Kirchenpolitik des Dritten Reiches, Bd III, 1935- 37, Chr Kaiser, Gutersloh 1994.

This is the third vol. produced by Carsten Nicolaisen and co- workers at the Evang. Arbeitsgem. f. kirchl.Zeitgesch. in Munich. It brings interesting documents from the Nazi government and party sources, together with a short introduction. Indispensable for a picture of the conflicts and tensions within the NSDAP over policy towards all the churches, and covers the period July 1935 to the crisis of early 1937, when Hitler suddenly ordered new church elections – later cancelled. To be continued presumably in subsequent volumes.

Helmut W.Smith, German Nationalism and Religious Conflict. Culture,Ideology,Politics 1870-1914, Princeton U.P. 1995 My review of this book appeared on H-GERMAN last week, so watch out!

An excellent study of the attempt by Prussian Protestants to capture the identity of the united Germany after 1870 for their ideology. Drawn mainly from the files of the Evang.Bund, Smith assesses very well the political consequences, and shows how the Catholics successfully resisted such a take-over bid, by appealing to their own different traditions, rival memories, another history, in formulating their own concepts of the nation’s identity.

Other new books:

Jurgen Manmann, “Weil es nicht nur Geschichte ist” Die Begrundung der Notwendigkeit einer fragmentarischen Historiographie des Nationalsozialismus aus politisch- theologischer Sicht, Fundamenaltheologische Studien Bd 2, LIT Verlag Munster 1995

ed. M.Bourdeaux, The Politics of Religion in Russia and the new States of Eurasia, M.E.Sharpe, Armonk, N.Y and London,Eng 1995. (Includes a chapter by our colleague, Bob Goeckel, on the Baltic States and the democratization process)

John Anderson, Religion, state and politics in the Soviet Union and successor states, Cambridge University Press 1994 (Covers the period from Khrushchev to present).

 

3. The Vatican and the Jews

On the HOLOCAUS-L recently, Prof. Stanford Shaw, Turkish and Judeo-Turkish History, UCLA, CA 90024, mentioned that he discusses the role of the Papal Nuncio, Angelo Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, in his book Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s role in rescuing Turkish and European Jews from Nazi persecution 1933-45 (N.Y.U.P.,N.Y./Macmillan, London 1992.) He explains how Roncalli helped the Jewish Agency and other Jewish organizations based in Istanbul in rescuing Jews in eastern Europe and Greece. See also: P.Hoffmann, “Roncalli in the 2nd World War” in Journal of Ecclesiastical HistoryVol XL (1989),pp. 74- 99; V.U.Righi, Papa Giovanni sulle rive del Bosforo (Padua 1971); R.M. della Rocca, “Roncalli Diplomatici in Turchia e Grecia 1935-44” in Christianesimo nella Storia Vol VIII/2 1987,p33-72.

Prof Ingrid Shafer, Dept of Philosophy and Religion, U. of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Chichasha, Ok 73018, notes that she is currently translating ed. W.Kunzemann, Judenstein: Das Ende einer Legende Innsbruck 1995. This book provides background, history and documentation of the official removal from pilgrimage status of a place near Innsbruck known as Judenstein and a chapel dedicated to the veneration of Anderl von Rinn, a three-year old boy allegedly murdered by Jews in the 15th century. “This book documents the ways of thinking and actions of people who over many centuries have excluded, stigmatized and killed Jews. It documents the guilt of the Church. . .which also psychologically prepared the way for the Holocaust. It also documents the work of those such as the present bishop of Innsbruck, Stecher, who are trying to work off the sad mortgage by setting the record straight, and are now dedicated to Christian penance and reconciliation with the people of Israel.”

 

4. Contributions

Please do not hesitate to send me any news and views which may be of interest to our Arbeitsgemeischaft. I will hope to report again in July.

Warm regards to you all

John S.Conway,
Dept. of History, UBC,
Vancouver V6T 1Z1,Canada
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor.

University of British Columbia

Newsletter no. 4, May 1995

Contents

1.”Christianity and Resistance” Conference, Birmingham, April 19-23 1995

2. 7th International Bonhoeffer Congress

3. Meetings

 

1. “Christianity and Resistance” Conference, Birmingham, April 19-23 1995.

This conference held last month in Birmingham University with the full title “Christianity and Resistance: National Socialist Germany 1933-1945”. A conference on Moral Responsibility and Citizenship. In memory of George Bell, Bishop of Chichester 1929-1957″ was the main occasion in Britain to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the deaths of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, his brother Klaus, his brother-in-law Rudiger Schleicher, and other members of the German Resistance at the Nazis’ hands in the last days of the war in April 1945. The meeting was splendidly organised by Andrew Chandler, a young member of the History Department, and proved to be a stimulating, academically scholarly, and yet sobering occasion.

Some 125 participants attended, including several from various countries overseas, Germany, U.S.A., Canada, Switzerland and New Zealand. Many members of the British section of the Bonhoeffer Society and numerous clergy, including 5 Anglican bishops, were present. I am glad to say that several of our fellowship were also present, so they may wish to add their comments and reflections.

The conference had two foci – first the moral dilemmas of the German Resistance Movement, and second, the response of the churches. On the former, Klemens von Klemperer and Beate Ruhm von Oppen gave thoughtful addresses about the moral climate in which the German Resistance had to operate, while Peter Hoffmann of McGill spoke feelingly about the various steps which led these men to the desperate attempt to assassinate Hitler. In addition, we had a unique presentation by two eye-witnesses, Chistabel Bielenburg and Marion Grafin Donhoff, who spoke of their personal experiences during this traumatic time Ursula Buttner from Hamburg gave a most excellent paper about the plight of those persons in “mixed” Christian-Jewish families. My own paper dealt with the question of why the German churches did not do more to resist, when I suggested that part of the reason lay in the loss of Christian credibility as a result of the mutually contradictory stances taken by the churches during the first world war. (Mirabile dictu, this was printed (almost in full) by the Church Times in its issue of April 21st, p. 5, including photographs they had somewhere dug up. If there is any interest, I could retype it for you in a subsequent Newsletter).

The second focus was on the Church in Britain, then and now. Erwin Robertson came to introduce his new little book on Bishop Bell and the Germans, which is useful in giving more detail than contained in Jasper’s biography, but hardly said anything new, or examined the question: why? More stimulating was the presentation by Frank Field, a prominent member of the Labour Party and MP for Birkenhead, who gave his “Political Reflections on Bishop George Bell” , and suggested that Bell might well have been an appropriate choice for the Archbishopric of Canterbury even earlier in his career, but that his well-known stance on the bombing of German civilians dished his chances in 1944, after the death of Archbishop Temple, and he was never given another chance. He speculated as to what kind of stance the Church of England might have taken in the post-war years if Bell had been in charge instead of Fisher. All very good stuff, but perhaps a closer acquaintance with Bell’s papers, now in Lambeth Palace Library, would have induced a more cautious assessment. The key-note speech in the final banquet was given by Shirley Williams, also a prominent member, formerly, of the Labour Party, and later of the S.D.P., and now a Baroness in the House of Lords as well as a Professor at Harvard. She spoke movingly about the dictates of conscience for resistance, and cited the example of her mother Vera Brittain, whose work during and after the first world war is certainly an inspiration for church members.

The conference concluded with a most moving service in Birmingham Cathedral, when the readings and service programme included references to those murdered 50 years ago, at which the Bishop of Birmingham, Mark Santer, preached. Unfortunately I was not able to be present at the final plenary when I believed some resolutions were agreed upon for church members’ guidance. If any of you brought this back and could share it, I would be glad to circulate it to everyone on our list.

 

2. 7th International Bonhoeffer Congress.

This will take place in Cape Town from January 7-12 1996, under the auspices of John de Gruchy (JDEG@socsci.uct.ac.za). Anyone who would like to offer papers should contact John, or write to the American contact, Prf. Michael Lukens, St Norbert Coll., DePere, Wisconsin 54115, lukemb@sncac.snc.edu

 

3. In the meanwhile Roland Blaich, Walla Walla College, Washington State USA attended a meeting of the Assoc. of Seventh-day Adventist Historians to read a paper on “Health Reform and Race Hygiene. Adventists and the Biomedical Vision of the Third Reich”. He has kindly sent us a summary of his paper as follows:

“A foreign sect that resembled Jews in many respects, German Seventh-day Adventists were particularly vulnerable in the Third Reich. Since Nazi leaders were advocates of health reform, German Adventists used their strengths in health reform asa basis on which to work with the Nazi state, and to court its goodwill. As the church joined the state in working for health reform, its “health message” underwent a transformation. German Adventist publications soon adopted elements of the Nazi biomedical/racist agenda as well. A curious path led from caritas, the caring for the weak and less fortunate, to endorsing elimination of the weak through eugenics, as the work of God. Collaboration with the state may have saved the church, but at what cost?” Must have been an interesting occasion. I wonder what the Adventists made of this episode?

I will be glad to hear from any of you who would like to contribute to subsequent Newsletters, and hope next time to report on some new books in this field.

Sincerely

John Conway
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor. University of British Columbia

Newsletter no. 3, April 1995

Contents

In Memoriam Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dear Friends,

For April 9th

Fifty years ago, on April 9th 1945, the noted German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was murdered by the SS-Gestapo in Flossenburg Concentration camp in southern Germany. His “crime” had been to be associated with the group of men who sought to overthrow the Nazi regime, culminatin in the traic failure of their attempt to assassinate Hitler on 20th July 1944. Bonhoeffer had become involved with this heroic Resistance group through his brothers-in-law, whose positions in the army and civil service had led them to their determination to put a stop to the Nazis’ criminal barbarities, if necessary by directly conspiring against Hitler himslef. The failure of their attempts and their subsequent executions for high treason deal a decisive blow to any hopes for an early end to the Nazi regime.

Bonhoeffer himself, out of a strong sense of national loyalty, had long opposed the anti-Christian and immoral deeds of the Nazis. As a theologian teaching at Berlin University, he had already spoken out against the Nazi perversion of the Gospel in 1933, and had been sent into banishment to be Chaplain to the Lutherna congregations in London. But then he was recalled to lead a clandestine and later illegal theological seminary for young pstors, and had been drawn in closer to more conspiratorial activities trying to undermine the regime.

In 1939, during a brief visit to the United States, he was offered the chance to stay there in safety. But he refused. “Christians in Germany, he wrote, will face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilisation may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilisation. I know which of these alternatives I must choose,. but I cannot make that choice in security”.

So he went back, and became involved in various secret moves, including one to smuggle Jews to Switzerland. He was arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion in April 1943, and so was not directly involved in the July 1944 plot. But his close ties to the conspirators led Hitler to order that on no account was he to survive the end of the war. In fact, only a few days after his murder, Flossenburg was liberated by the U.S.army.

While he was imprisoned, Bonhoeffer wrote a series of letters to his friend and pupil, Eberhard Bethge, then serving in th German army in Italy, which were smuglled out by a friendly warder. These letters were buried underground for reasons of safety, but later rescued and published under the title “Letters and Papers from Prison”. Bonhoeffer’s stimulating ideas about the future of Christianity, as seen from his prison cell, made a tremendous impression in the post-war world, and established his reputation as one of Germany’s most significant theologians of this century. Together with his important but unfinished work on Ethics, these writings presented a new and challenging view of Christian responsibility in a world of totalitarian dictatorships, and were to have a profound influence in later years, particularly in Communist-dominated East Germany.

But above all, it was Bonhoeffer’s faith which shines through. After the discovery ofnthe 20th July plot, Bonhoeffe, his brother, his uncle and two brothers-in-law were all aware that they would have to pay the ultimate price. His last word to the outside world was a request to a fellow prisoner to deliver a message to his long-time friend Bishop George Bell of Chichester. “Tell him that for me this is the end, but also the beginning of life. With him I believe in the principle of our universal Christian brotherhood which rises above all national interests, and that our victory is certain”.

Three months later Bishop Bell paid a fitting tribute at a memorial service in London. “As one of the noble company of martyrs of differing traditions, Bonhoeffer represents both the resistance of the believing soul, in the name of God, to the assault of evil, but also the moral and political revolt of the human conscience against injustice and cruelty”.

Fifty years later Bonhoeffer’s witness is still a valid testimony for the Christian church, not only in his homeland Germany, but world-wide. He is now remembered in the Anglican Calendar on his birthday, February 4th.

With best wishes
John Conway
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor. University of British Columbia

Newsletter no 1: March 1995

Contents

1. Introductions:

2. Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, Vol 7, no 2, 1994
Themenschwerpunkt: Kirche und Diktatur

3. Conferences

4. Auschwitz and other memorials

Dear Friends,

The response to my earlier circular letter of Feb. 17th has been so positive that I am encouraged to send you this Newsletter, and will try to keep in contact with you, possibly on a monthly basis.

I think it would be helpful to include various items such as new publications, notice of forthcoming conferences, archival information and research projects, and even (brief) book reviews. I welcome any contributions you may like to send in for inclusion.

I will also be glad, for those who agree, to circulate information about your research interests and your geographical locations. I will try and compile a complete listing of those so far connected and let you have this by separate posting. But I will also include brief introductions from time to time so that we can get to know each other, even if we have never met.

One obvious gap is the absence of our colleagues in Germany itself. Apparently there is a reluctance, or inability, there to take advantage of new electronic techniques. But if any of you are so linked to kirchliche Zeitgeschichtler in Germany and could share their addresses, this would be a great boon.

I will be glad to share collectively any information or views you care to send me for further distribution. So do let me hear from you..

 

1. Introductions:

Our most distant colleague is undoubtedly Mark Lindsey, Dept. of History, University of Western Australia, Nedlands 6009, Australia. He is a PhD student whose area of interest concerns the Christological foundations of Karl Barth’s response to Nazi antisemitism, as opposed to simply humanitarian motives.

 

2. Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, Vol 7, no 2, 1994
Themenschwerpunkt: Kirche und Diktatur

This issue contains the papers (with English summaries) presented at the KZG conference in December 1993, and concentrates on the churches in the former GDR.
Immanuel Geiss: “Der Holzweg der Deutschen Sonderwegs” (provocative!)
A.Boyens: “Das Gipfeltreffen Honecker-Schonherr”. Marz 1978
U.Haese: “Haltung der kath.Kirche in der DDR”
B.Schaeffer: ditto
W.Krotke: K.Barths und D.Bonhoeffers “Bedeutung fur die Theologie in der DDR” (thoughtful analysis)
M.Beintker: “Verhaltnis von Kirche und Staat in der DDR”
Also 120 pp world-wide bibliography for 1993-4 on Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte (very useful)

 

3. Conferences

a) The 25th Annual Conference on the Holocaust and the Christian Churches, Brigham Young U., Provo, Utah March 5th-8th 1995 (report follows in next Newsletter)

b) Christianity and Resistance, University of Birmingham,UK April 19-23 1995. Contact A.Chandler, Dept of History, U. of Birmingham, B15 2TT, U.K. (Will be reported on later)

 

4. Auschwitz and other memorials

The 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz has produced a flood of commentary, underlying which is the enduring question of how such sites of dehumanization and mass murder can or should be preserved for historical memory. Peter Monteath of Flinders U, Adelaide, has contributed an illuminating article on Buchenwald to the May 1994 issue of International History Review. Personally I found James Young, The Texture of Memory, Yale U.P. 1993 very stimulating reading. If anyone was interested, I could supply more references to the whole question of War and KZ memorials.

All the best
John S.Conway
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor. University of British Columbia

 

Newsletter 2 – March 1995 

Contents1. 25th Annual Scholars Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, Provo, Utah, March 4-8, 1995

2. Introductions

3. Book review

a) David Blackbourn, Marpingen Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Ninteenth-Century Germany, published by Oxford U.P 1993.

Dear Friends,

 

1. 25th Annual Scholars Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, Provo, Utah, March 4-8, 1995

The Silver anniversary conference of this organisation was held in the idyllic setting of the Salt Lake Valley in Utah under cloudless skies, with marvellous vistas of the snow capped mountains. However, the contrast was startling between the strongly moralistic (some would say rigidly puritanical) ethos of the Mormon community and the horrendous deeds of violence, death and dehumanization of the Holocaust, about which we heard during four days of a very full programme. Perhaps it was appropriate that, for the first time, this conference should be held at Brigham Young University, in order to help to overcome the “incomprehensibility” which many prominent Mormons expressed as their reaction to the Holocaust. Over three hundred persons registered, perhaps too many to avoid having overlapping sessions, or several papers which did not meet the appropriate academic standards. On the other hand, it was once again very valuable to hear the testimonies of some 25 survivors of the Holocaust, including several who related their experiences in concentration camps. An excellent innovation was the invitation to some 50 former U.S. army personnel who had participated in the liberation of these camps just 5o years ago. All of them, and their families were appreciative of this mark of recognition. The “Liberators” session provided a most interesting example of the difficulty of combining eye-witness testimony with the more critical analysis of professional historians. Historians are, of course, paid to be sceptical, and are well aware of the dangers of post-hoc elaboration and glorification. But, as Henry Huttenbach found, his well-founded account of the US Army’s battle plans in 1945, which, he contended, did not include any direct provision for the liberation of forced-labour or concentration camps, aroused great emotional revulsion from those who had actually been there. Despite his clear disclaimer that he was not casting aspersions of any individuals involved, the strong reaction against this dry-as-dust academic presentation evoked a clear emotional hostility against all such “demythologising” by professional historians. The impact of these terrifying events of 50 years ago was obviously still too strong to allow for any rational admission of the Army’s failure to forsee the need for support measures for the liberated victims, who naturally enough poured out their gratitude to their rescuers, even if the latter were only passing by in their pursuit of the enemy forces.

Several German participants took part in the conference, though unfortunately none of them was a church historian. However, there was one useful session on the German churches. Doris Bergen presented an interesting analysis of the “Deutsche Christen” and German missionary endeavours; Robert Ross updated his account of the American religious press’ descriptions of the Church Struggle; Ronald Webster of Toronto described the efforts of leading German protestants after the war to give not only pastoral care, but also political support to convicted German war criminals, largely from a mistaken nationalistic sympathy; and a young Polish scholar presented a well-researched paper on the religious affiliations of concentration camp guards, which confirmed our impressions that moral allegiances played virtually no role in the actions of such men.

Another fine feature of the programme was the perfomance by Al Staggs, a Baptist minister, of his 45 minute monologue on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This reenactment of Bonhoeffer in his prison cell uses the material to be found in the Letters and Papers from prison, as well as other pieces of Bonhoeffer’s writings. Staggs now perfoms this professionally all over the United States, in a most convincing and thoughtful production. It was an entirely appropriate way to mark our commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Bonhoeffer’s martyrdom which falls on April 9th. (I would be interested to hear of any other such commemorative events.)

Since this was the 25th anniversary conference, the opportunity was taken to pay tribute to the founders, Franklin Littell and Hubert Locke, who were presented with appropriate plaques of recognition at the main banquet. Their skilful overcoming of the innumerable difficulties involved in holding such conferences, peripatetically in different sites in the United States, and their fine upholding of the conferences’ main purpose of advancing the cause of reconciliation between Jews and Christians, despite the appalling record of Christian passivity and Jewish suffering during the Holocaust, were once again acknowledged and applauded.

Next year’s conference will be held on the first weekend in March in Minneapolis.

 

2. Introductions:

A new member to our list is Hubert Locke,Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. As mentioned above, Hubert was the co-founder of the Scholars’ Conference in 1970, when he was then attached to Wayne State University in Detroit. He tells me that he was once a policeman, but then came to the Chicago Theological Seminary to study theology, and was amazed to find, in the 1950s, that the discussions were almost all about German theologians, despite this topic being conspicuously absent from the curriculum.

This aroused his interest in the German Church Struggle, and led him to collaborate with Franklin Littell to relate these events with the Holocaust. His notable contribution on the German Church Struggle is to be found in the book he edited, The Church Confronts the Nazis, which was prepared for the 1984 conference in Seattle marking the 50th anniversary of the Barmen Declaration. But, in addition, his interest in his Afro-American heritage, and the deeply-felt parallels between the experience of exile felt by both blacks and Jews, has led to his writing a new book, The black anti-semitism controversy,(1994) which expresses his hurt and pain at the recent sad outbursts of black resentment against the Jewish people. I can commend it highly.

 

3. Book review

Very briefly: A splendid new book by David Blackbourn, published by Oxford U.P 1993, is Marpingen. Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Ninteenth-Century Germany. This is a fascinating account of a small village near Trier, where children “saw” the Virgin in a nearby wood in 1876. Blackbourn skilfully analyses the whole background of heightened religious feelings during the onslaught of the Kulturkampf and the economic depression of those years, and describes the heavy-handed reaction of the Prussian authorities against such ‘mediaeval obscurantism”. He steers an excellent line between sympathy and scepticism, and demonstrates very well how historians should deal with this troublesome matter of finding the right balance between demythologising and credulity.

Best wishes to you all

John Conway
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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