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The Present Stage of the ‘Kirchenkampf’ Enquiry1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Owen Chadwick
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge

Extract

The peculiar difficulty of contemporary or near contemporary history is less the privacy of archives than the excess. This is the more true concerning an age like that of Hitler, where the accidents of war, and the seizure of documents, followed by a consuming public interest, especially in Germany, have led some governments to open their archives before they would otherwise have considered it wise. The great collection of State (and other) papers in the Bundesarchiv at Coblenz already affords material for many enquirers for many years. The material for the Church struggle as it lies in archives was surveyed by John Conway, with a delightful description of the extraordinary confusion, and movement of papers hither-and-thither, caused by war and its aftermath. For obvious reasons the West managed to collect the most important papers. But no one should overlook the circumstances that documents and archives lie still inaccessible, or largely inaccessible, in the East. This is not peculiar to the documents of the age of Hitler, for students of the nineteenth century cannot yet gain access to the substantial Russian collections, even when these students hold chairs in the German Democratic Republic or in Poland and even when they work upon some ‘harmless’ and remote theme. The Polish archives are more available but are only beginning to be sorted and published. The Russian academy has much to do before it can make its resources more widely available.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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Footnotes

1

The present article records the position as at July 1972. It takes as a starting point the admirable survey by V. Conzemius, Eglises chrétiennes et totalitarisme national-socialists: un bilan historiographique; in Bibliothèque de la Revue d'Histoire ecclésiastique, fasc. 48, Louvain 1969. But see also the surveys by Jürgen Schmidt in Theologische Existenz Heute, 149 (1968); and by K. Meier in Theologische Rundschau, 1968, 120 and 237; J. S. Conway, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 1969, 4, 423 ff.

References

page 33 note 2 ‘Staatliche Akten zum Kirchenkampf, Archive und Bestände’, in Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Kirchenkampfes, 26: Gesammelte Aufsätze, ii (1971), 25 ffGoogle Scholar. Cf. the survey of the Bundesarchiv material by Heinz Boberach, ‘Das Schriftgut der staatlichen Verwaltung, der Wehrmacht und der NSDAP aus der Zeit von 1933–1945’, Archivar, 22 (1969), 137 ff.; H. Booms and H. Boberach (edd.) Das Bundesarchiv und seine Bestände, 1968.

page 34 note 1 For Wolf, see the portrait by Eduard Lohse, in Evangelische Theologie, May—1972, 277–91.

page 34 note 2 Dokumente zur Kirchenpolitik; zur Kirchenpolitik des dritten Reiches, Band 1: das jahr 1933, Munich 1971 Google Scholar.

page 34 note 3 Berichte des SD und der Gestapo über Kirchen und Kirchenvolk in Deutschland 1934–44, in Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte bei der Katholischen Akademie in Bayern, Reihe A: Quellen, Band 12, Mainz 1971 Google Scholar. (Hereafter cited as Boberach).

page 35 note 1 Boberach, xxx, 902 ff.

page 35 note 2 Boberach, xxxix; from Henkys, Reinhard, Die NS Gewaltverbrechen, Stuttgart 1964 Google Scholar.

page 35 note 3 Boberach, 23, 900; Zipfel, Kirchenkampf in Deutschland (1965), 296 n. 18; Conway, Persecution, 402.

page 35 note 4 Boberach, 933.

page 36 note 1 Boberach, 904–5.

page 36 note 2 Cf J. Ackermann, Heinrich Himmler als Ideologe, Göttingen 1970; with a weighty chapter on Himmler's attitude to ‘Germantum-Christentum’. Hostile to Christianity, but believing that men could not do without religion, and seeing that biological secularism was useless for the purpose, he went in for the revival of ancestor-cult, including the excavations at Quedlinburg to show that men of German blood lived there 5,000 years before. His geophysics (‘the world-ice-theory’) was not fond of international scholarship; the use of the forged Ura-Linden chronicle as authentic was but one of countless instances. Cf. Ackermann, 48–9.

page 36 note 3 Boberach, 921: 15 February 1938.

page 36 note 4 Boberach, xxxii; cf. Boberach, , Meldungen aus dem Reich, Neuwied and Berlin 1965 Google Scholar.

page 36 note 5 Boberach, 891.

page 37 note 1 Kirchliche Akten über die Reichskonkordatsverhandlungen 1333: in Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte bei der Katholischen Akademie in Bayem, Reihe A : Quellen, Band ii, Mainz 1969. (Hereafter cited as Volk).

page 37 note 2 Staatliche Akten... etc., Reihe A: Quellen, Band ii, Mainz 1969.

page 37 note 3 Hitler's viewpoint was already translated in John Conway's The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933–45, 1968, 40. Conway's book is well known as the best survey of the whole field. It should be noticed that the German translation of 1969, under the title Die Nationalsozialistische Kirchenpolitik, has been amended in certain respects, chiefly to take account of recent literature, and the first part of the introduction was rewritten for the German reader. It also contains an appendix of eleven unpublished documents. For shorter surveys, of a different character, see K. Scholder, Die Kirchen im dritten Reich in Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 10 April 1971, 3–31 ; Werner Koch (who was prominent in the Confessing Church), Kirche und Stoat im Dritten Reich, Kampen, 1971 Google Scholar.

page 37 note 4 Munich 10 June 1963, L. Volk, 62; cf. also L. Volk, Der bayerische Episkopat und der Nationalsozialismus 1930–1934 (Veröffentlichungen der Kommission fur Zeitgeschichte bei der Katholischen Akademie in Bayern), Reihe B, Forschungen, I Mainz 1965, 113.

page 38 note 1 Volk, 114.

page 38 note 2 Ibid., 5311.

page 38 note 3 Ibid., 162–4.

page 38 note 4 Ibid., 171.

page 38 note 5 Ibid., 231.

page 38 note 6 Ibid., 232.

page 39 note 1 For other work on the Concordat and its environment, see Heinrich Brüning's Memoiren, where the former chancellor takes an unfavourable view; Walter Bussmann, ‘Der deutsche Katholizismus im Jahre 1933’, in Festschrift für Hermann Heimpel, 1971, i.

page 39 note 2 Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte bei der Katholischen Akademie in Bayern, Reihe B: Forschungen 5, Mainz 1972 Google Scholar.

page 39 note 3 See above, 37, n.4.

page 39 note 4 Der Notenwechsel zwischen dem Heiligen Stuhl und der Deutschen Reichsregierung ii, in Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichle bei der Katholischen Akademie in Bayern: Reihe A: Quellen, Band 10, Mainz 1969 Google Scholar.

page 40 note 1 Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte bei der Katholischen Akademie in Bayern: Reihe A, Quellen, Band 6–7, Mainz 1969 Google Scholar.

page 40 note 2 Der Kampf um die Kirche im Dritten Reich, Lucerne 1935, English trans, entitled Hitler and the Christians, 1936. Gurian was one of the most interesting of the exiles: a child of Russian Jews, he grew up a Catholic under his mother's influence and was associated with Romano Guardini. He became a freelance journalist in the Rhineland. Suspect both as a Jew and a journalist, he emigrated to Switzerland in the spring of 1934. He was one of the first to call on the German bishops to come out of their silence and denounce Nazi crime, after the murders of 30 June 1934. Hurten (xxxv-vi) gives the literature, and promises a future full biography, which will be well worth while. For the whole context of such writing, see Wilhelm Sternfeld and Eva Tiedemann, Deutsche Exil-Literatur 1933–45: eine Bio-Bibliographie, Heidelberg 1962.

page 41 note 1 Die Vertreibung von Bischof Joannes Baptiste Sproll von Rottenburg 1938–45, in Verüffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte bei der Katholischen Akademie in Bayern, Reihe A: Quellen, Band 13, Mainz 1971.

page 41 note 2 Cf. also Doetsch, W. J., Württembergs Katholiken unterm Hakenkreuz 1930–35, Stuttgart 1969 Google Scholar.

page 42 note 1 Die Sittlichkeitsprozesse gegen katholische Ordensangehörige und Priester 1936–37, in Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte bei der Katholischen Akademie in Bayern, Reihe B : Forschungen, Band 6, Mainz 1971.

page 42 note 2 Die Kirchenkampf-Lage in Bayern nach den Regierungspräsidentenberichten 1933–43, in Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte bei der Katholischen Akademie in Bayern, Reihe A, Quellen, Band 14, Mainz 1971.

page 43 note 1 op. cit., 176.

page 43 note 2 Op. cit., 178.

page 43 note 3 G. Harder and W. Niemöller, Die Stunde der Versuchung, München 1963, 407–43; and cf. Witetschek, i. 97, 135 etc., ii. 197, 208, 312–26.

page 43 note 4 H. Baier, Die Deutschen Christen Bayerns im Rahmen der bayerischen Kirchenkampfes, in Einzelarbeiten aus der Kirchengeschichte Bayerns, lvi, Nürnberg 1968. There is an admirable general survey of the movement, on the evidence then available, in Kurt Meier, Die Deutschen Christen, Halle 1964. Cf. also Carsten Nicolaisen, ‘Die Stellung der Deutschen Christen zum Alten Testament’, in Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Kirchenkampfes, Band 26, Gesammelte Aufsätze, Göttingen 1971, 197220 Google Scholar.

page 44 note 1 Baier, op. cit., 19.

page 44 note 2 Ibid., 21.

page 45 note 1 Ibid., 25.

page 45 note 2 Ibid., 194.

page 45 note 3 Ibid., 302.

page 45 note 4 Ibid., 316–17.

page 45 note 5 Ibid., 328.

page 45 note 6 Die evangelische Landeskirche in Württemberg und der Nationalsozialismus (Stuttgart 1971-)Google Scholar. The second volume, to appear shortly, is entitled: Um eine deutsche Reichskirche, 1933, and runs from the first Reich meeting of the German-Christian movement in April 1933 to the meeting between Hitler and the Protestant Church leaders in January 1934.

page 46 note 1 Hamburger Beiträge zur Zeitgeschichte Band viii, Hamburg 1971. See also the Festschrift presented to Niemoller for his eightieth birthday in 1972, ed. K. Herbert.

page 46 note 2 Band 20 of the series of Arbeiten. In the same series Christian Luther published Band 21 on Das Kirchliche Notrecht, seine Thearie und seine Anwendung im Kirchenkampf 1933–1937, Göttingen 1969 Google Scholar. In Band 25 Neumann, Peter, Die Jungreformatorische Bewegung, Göttingen 1971 Google Scholar, treats the movement of the summer of 1933 from which grew Niemöller's Pastors’ Emergency League and thence the Confessing Church. In Band 24 Horst Kater considers the Reichskirche, and its problems during 1933–4, from a legal and constitutional standpoint ( Die Deutsche Evangelische Kirche in den Jahren 1933 und 1934, Göttingen 1970)Google Scholar. A weighty volume in the studies appended to the Arbeiten is that of Vorlander, Herward, Kirchenkampf in Elberfeld 1933–1945, Göttingen 1968 Google Scholar. A much less weighty but still useful study of another area is in Linck, Hugo, Der Kirchenkampf in Ostpreussen 1933 bis 1945, Nördlingen 1968 Google Scholar. Hans Otto Langer gives us a very slight treatment of a part of the history still requiring fundamental enquiry, the age of the church committees, in Der Kirchenkampf in der Ära der Kirchenausschusse (1935–1937) Bielefeld 1971. For the preliminary to further treatment see Leonore Siegele-Wensch-kewitz, ‘Politische Versuche einer Ordnung der Deutschen Evangelischen Kirche durch den Reichskirchenminister 1937 bis 1939’, in Zur Geschichte des Kirchenkampfes, Gesammelte Aufsätze, ii. 121–38 ( Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Kirchenkampfes, Band 26, Göttingen 1971)Google Scholar, Wilhelm Niemöller collected many useful earlier articles, on various aspects of the church struggle, in Wort und Tat im Kirchenkampf, Munich 1969 Google Scholar. The extent to which the needs of foreign policy affected the struggle is treated by Jacobsen, H. A., Nationalsozialistische Aussenpolitik 1933–1938, Frankfurt and Berlin 1968 Google Scholar.

page 47 note 1 Meier, 18.

page 48 note 1 Meier, 26.

page 48 note 2 Grüber, Heinrich, Erinnerungen aus sieben Jahrzehnten, Köln and Berlin, 1968 Google Scholar. Among the most important pieces of evidence is his memory of Berlin at the immediate end of the war.

page 48 note 3 Meier, 38.

page 48 note 4 Bishop Wurm's many protests to government on its tyrannical conduct were already well known through Hermelink's printing of the documents. They have received a modern and better edition at the hands of Dr. Gerhard Schäfer. Cf. Hermelink, H., Kirche im Kampf, Tübingen 1950 Google Scholar; Schäfer, G., Landesbischof D. Wurm und der NS Staat 1940–1945, Stuttgart 1968 Google Scholar.

page 48 note 5 A Hamburg unpublished thesis by Wolfgang Gerlach, ‘Zwischen Kreuz und Davidstern’, contains valuable, not to say controversial, material. Richard Gutteridge of Cambridge is preparing a thesis on the question.

page 49 note 1 For other aspects ofthis problem, cf. P. W. Ludlow, ‘Bischof Berggrav zum deutschen Kirchenkamp’ in Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Kirchenkampfes Bd. 26, Gesammelte Aufsätze, ii. 221–258; Lindt, Andreas (ed.), George Bell-Alphons Koechlin, Briefwechsel 1933–1954, Zürich 1969 Google Scholar, (Koechlin, born 1885, chairman from 1933 of the Kirchenrat at Basel, and prominent in the ecumenical movement); Freudenberg, Adolf (ed.), Les Clandestins de Dieu-Cimade 1939–1944, Paris 1968 Google Scholar ( German, ed., Rettet Sie doch, Zurich 1969 Google Scholar)—Cimade was a French parallel to the Büro Grüber for refugees, and also had close relations to Geneva). W. A. Visser t'Hooft, who stood at the centre of many of the ecumenical relations, will before long publish his memoirs. Daphne Hampson of Oxford is preparing a thesis on ‘The British Response to the German Church Struggle’.

page 49 note 2 ‘Euthanasia und Justiz im dritten Reich’, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 1972, 235–79; cf. also Honolka, B., Ärzte ohne Gewissen, Hamburg 1961 Google Scholar.