The Confessing Church (, ) was a movement within German Protestantism in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all of the Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German Evangelical Church. See drop-down essay on "Unification, World Wars, and Nazism"
Demographics The following statistics (as of January 1933 unless otherwise stated) are an aid in understanding the context of the political and theological developments discussed in this article.All figures are approximate and are drawn from Shirer at pp. 234–40.
Number of Protestants in Germany: 45 million Number of free church Protestants: 150,000The overwhelming majority of German Protestants were either Lutheran, Reformed or United and were members of one of the 28 regional or provincial churches. The "free church" Protestants were members of denominations such as Baptist or Methodist and constituted a very small minority. Largest regional Protestant church: Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union (), with 18 million members, the church strongest in members in the country at the time. Number of Protestant pastors: 18,000 Number of Protestant pastors who strongly adhered to the beliefs of the "German Christian" church faction as of 1935: 3000 Number of Protestant pastors who strongly adhered to the beliefs of the "Confessing Church" church faction as of 1935: 3000 Number of Protestant pastors who were arrested during 1935: 700 Number of Protestant pastors who were not closely affiliated with or did not adhere to the beliefs of either faction: 12,000 Total population of Germany: 65 million Number of Jews in Germany: 525,000Holocaust Encyclopedia p. 427, less than 0.9% of the population
Historical background
German Protestantism
The Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire After the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, the principle that the religion of the ruler dictated the religion of the ruled (cuius regio, eius religio) was observed throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Section 24 of the Peace of Augsburg (ius emigrandi) guaranteed members of denominations other than the ruler's the freedom of emigration with all their possessions. Political stalemates among the government members of different denominations within a number of the republican free imperial cities such as Augsburg, the Free City of Frankfurt, and Regensburg, made their territories de facto bi-denominational, but the two denominations did not usually have equal legal status.
The Peace of Augsburg protected Catholicism and Lutheranism, but not Calvinism. Thus, in 1613, when John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg converted from Lutheranism to Calvinism, he could not exercise the principle of Cuius regio, eius religio' ("whose realm, their religion"). This situation paved the way for bi- or multi-denominational monarchies, wherein a ruler adhering to a creed different from most of his subjects would permit conversions to his minority denomination and immigration of his fellow faithful. In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia extended the principle of cuius regio, eius religio to Calvinism.
However, the principle grew impracticable in the 17th and 18th centuries, which experienced continuous territorial changes arising from annexations and inheritances, and the religious conversion of rulers. For instance, Saxon Augustus II the Strong converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism in 1697, but did not exercise his cuius regio, eius religio privilege. A conqueror or successor to the throne who adhered to a different creed from his new subjects usually would not complicate his takeover by imposing conversions. These enlarged realms spawned diaspora congregations, as immigrants settled in areas where the prevailing creeds differed from their own. This juxtaposition of beliefs in turn brought about more frequent personal changes in denomination, often in the form of marital conversions.
Still, regional mobility was low, especially in the countryside, which generally did not attract newcomers, but experienced rural exodus, so that today's denominational make-up in Germany and Switzerland still represents the former boundaries among territories ruled by Calvinist, Catholic, or Lutheran rulers in the 16th century quite well. In a major departure, the legislature of the North German Confederation instituted the right of irreligionism in 1869, permitting the declaration of secession from all religious bodies.
The Protestant Church in Germany was and is divided into geographic regions and along denominational affiliations (Calvinist, Lutheran, and United churches). In the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, the then-existing monarchies and republics established regional churches (Landeskirchen), comprising the respective congregations within the then-existing state borders. In the case of Protestant ruling dynasties, each regional church affiliated with the regnal houses, and the crown provided financial and institutional support for its church. Church and State were, therefore, to a large extent combined on a regional basis.The ruler of each state was also the highest authority () in that state's church. See generally the Wikipedia article on the German Empire and its constitutive states, as it existed before the end of the First World War.
Weimar Germany
In the aftermath of World War I with its political and social turmoil, the regional churches lost their secular rulers. With revolutionary fervor in the air, the conservative church leaders had to contend with socialists (Social Democrats (SPD) and Independent Social Democrats (USPD)), who mostly held to disestablishmentarianism.Beyond the principle of disestablishment, the SPD did not have a real religious policy. It had for years considered religion a private matter of conscience and it favored freedom of religion in principle. When Adolph Hoffmann, a strident secularist,Hoffmann had written a pamphlet denouncing the Ten Commandments as a capitalistic tool. was appointed Prussian Minister of Education and Public Worship in November 1918 by the USPD, he attempted to implement a number of plans, which included: cutting government subsidies for the church confiscation of church property abolition of theology as a course of study in universities banning school prayer banning compulsory religious instruction in schools prohibiting schools from requiring attendance at worship services
After storms of protests from both Protestants and Catholics, Hoffmann was forced to resign and, by political means, the churches were able to prevent complete disestablishment. A compromise was reached — one which favored the Protestant church establishment. There would no longer be state churches, but the churches remained public corporations and retained their subsidies from the state governments for services they performed on behalf of the government (running hospitals, kindergartens etc.). In turn, on behalf of the churches, the state governments collected church fees from those taxpayers enlisted as parishioners and distributed these funds to the churches. These fees were, and still are, used to finance church activities and administration. The theological faculties in the universities continued to exist, as did religious instruction in the schools, however, allowing the parents to opt out for their children. The rights formerly held by the monarchs in the German Empire simply devolved to church councils instead, and the high-ranking church administrators — who had been civil servants in the Empire — simply became church officials instead. The governing structure of the churches effectively changed with the introduction of chairpersons elected by church synods instead of being appointed by the state.
Accordingly, in this initial period of the Weimar Republic, in 1922, the Protestant Church in Germany formed the German Evangelical Church Confederation of 28 regional (or provincial) churches (), with their regional boundaries more or less delineated by those of the federal states.The correlation between political state () and church region in the Weimar period was not necessarily exact, because regional churches mostly did not comply to territorial changes in the 19th century.The federation was governed and administered by a 36-member executive committee (), which was responsible for ongoing governance between the annual conventions of the German Evangelical Church Assembly (Kirchentag). This assembly was composed of elected representatives of the various regional churches. The German Evangelical Church Union (Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchenbund) was formed following the model of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches (Schweizerischer Evangelischer Kirchenbund) established by the Swiss Landeskirchen in 1920. Save for the organizational matters under the jurisdiction of the national League, the regional churches remained independent in other matters, including especially in theology, since they comprised Calvinist, Lutheran and united churches. This federal system allowed for a great deal of regional autonomy in the governance of German Protestantism, as it allowed for a national church parliament that served as a forum for discussion and that endeavored to resolve theological and organizational conflicts.
The Nazi regime Many Protestants voted for the Nazis in the elections of summer and autumn 1932 and March 1933. This differed noticeably from Catholic populated areas, where the results of votes cast in favor of the Nazis were lower than the national average, even after the Machtergreifung ("seizure of power") of Hitler.
A limited number of Protestants, such as Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Wilhelm Busch, objected to the Nazis on moral and theological principles; they could not reconcile the Nazi state's claim to total control over the person with the ultimate sovereignty that, in Christian orthodoxy, must belong only to God.
German Christians The German Christian movement in the Protestant Church developed in the late Weimar period.Hitler assumed office as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. They were, for the most part, a "group of fanatic Nazi Protestants"Barnes p. 74 who were organized in 1931 to help win elections of presbyters and synodals of the old-Prussian church (last free election on 13 November 1932). In general, the group's political and religious motivations developed in response to the social and political tensions wrought by the end of World War I and the attendant substitution of a republican regime for the authoritarian one of Wilhelm II — much the same as the conditions leading to Hitler's rise to power.
The German Christian movement was sustained and encouraged by factors such as: the 400th anniversary (in 1917) of Martin Luther's posting of the Ninety-five Theses in 1517, an event which served to endorse German nationalism, to emphasize that Germany had a preferred place in the Protestant tradition, and to legitimize antisemitism. This was reinforced by the Luther Renaissance Movement of Professor Emmanuel Hirsch. The extreme and shocking antisemitism of Martin Luther came to light rather late in his life, but had been a consistent theme in Christian Germany for centuries thereafter. the revival of völkisch traditions the de-emphasis of the Old Testament in Protestant theology, and the removal of parts deemed "too Jewish", replacing the New Testament with a dejudaized version entitled Die Botschaft Gottes (The Message of God) the respect for temporal (secular) authority, which had been emphasized by Luther and has arguable scriptural support (Romans 13)Verses 1–7 are the most pertinent; verses 1–2 read as follows (New International Version):Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.