Friedrich Karl Otto Dibelius (15 May 1880 – 31 January 1967) was a German bishop of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg, a self-described anti-Semite and up to 1934 a conservative, who became a staunch opponent of Nazism and communism.
Early years He was born in Berlin, Brandenburg, in 1880. One of his cousins was the Protestant theologian Martin Dibelius. From 1899 to 1903 he studied at the Frederick William University of Berlin. He received his PhD in 1902. From 1904–1906, he studied at the Preachers' Seminary in Wittenberg.
Early pastorates He was then employed as a minister by the Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces. In 1906–1907, he was the assistant pastor at the Klosterkirche in Guben. In 1907–1909, he was the archdeacon at St. Mary's Church in Crossen an der Oder. In 1909–1910, he was the assistant pastor at the Church of Ss. Peter and Paul in Danzig. From 1911 to 1915, he was the chief pastor at Lauenburg in Pomerania. From 1915 to 1925, he was the pastor of the Heilsbronnen congregation in Berlin-Schöneberg. In 1918, he was the executive secretary (part-time) of the Mutual Trust Council in the Evangelical Supreme Ecclesiastical Council (, EOK) of the Evangelical State Church in Prussia's older Provinces, which renamed after the separation of state and religion into Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (APU) in 1922.
General superintendent of Kurmark In 1921 he was a member of the Evangelical Supreme Ecclesiastical Council (part-time). From 1925 to 1933 he was the superintendent-general of the Kurmark within the Old-Prussian Ecclesiastical Province of the March of Brandenburg. He then also became a member of the consistory, an administrative body, of that ecclesiastical province and joined the right-wing and anti-semite German National People's Party.
One problem was the spiritual vacuum which emerged after the church stopped being a state church with the separation of religion and state by the 1919 German Weimar Constitution. Dibelius published his book Das Jahrhundert der Kirche (The century of the ChurchOtto Dibelius, Das Jahrhundert der Kirche: Geschichte, Betrachtung, Umschau und Ziele, Berlin: Furche-Verlag, 1927. No ISBN.), in which he declared the 20th century to be the era when the Evangelical Church may for the first time develop freely and gain the independence God would have wished for, without the burden and constraints of the state church function. He regarded the role of the church as even more important, since the government of the Weimar Republic – in his eyes – would no longer provide society with binding norms, so that this would be the task of the church.Claus Wagener, "Die Vorgeschichte des Kirchenkampfes", in: Kirchenkampf in Berlin 1932–1945: 42 Stadtgeschichten, Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, and Claus Wagener (eds.), Berlin: Inst. Kirche und Judentum, 1999, (Studien zu Kirche und Judentum; vol. 18), pp. 27–75, here p. 65. .
The church would have to stand for the defence of the Christian culture of the Occident. In this respect Dibelius regarded himself as consciously anti-Jewish, explaining in a circular to the pastors in his general superintendency district of Kurmark, "I have always considered myself an anti-Semite. It cannot be denied that with all degenerating phenomena of modern civilisation Judaism plays a leading role".In the German original:"... daß bei allen zersetzenden Erscheinungen der modernen Zivilisation das Judentum eine führende Rolle spielt". Published in his circular (Rundbrief; No. 2; 3 April 1928), recorded at the Evangelisches Zentralarchiv: 50/R 19. Here quoted after Ursula Büttner, "Von der Kirche verlassen: Die deutschen Protestanten und die Verfolgung der Juden und Christen jüdischer Herkunft im "Dritten Reich"", In: Die verlassenen Kinder der Kirche: Der Umgang mit Christen jüdischer Herkunft im "Dritten Reich", Ursula Büttner and Martin Greschat (eds.), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998, pp. 15–69, here p. 37. . His book was one of the most read on church matters in that period.
On 21 March 1933 the newly elected Reichstag convened in Potsdam's Evangelical Garrison Church, an event commemorated as the Day of Potsdam, and Dibelius, then the locally competent General-Superintendent, did the relevant preaching in front of the Protestant members of the Reichstag in St. Nicholas' Church, Potsdam, in the morning.Claus Wagener, "Nationalsozialistische Kirchenpolitik und protestantische Kirchen nach 1933", in: Kirchenkampf in Berlin 1932–1945: 42 Stadtgeschichten, Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, and Claus Wagener (eds.), Berlin: Inst. Kirche und Judentum, 1999, (Studien zu Kirche und Judentum; vol. 18), pp. 76–96, here p. 77. On 1 April 1933 the Nazi regime organized a boycott of Jewish shops and on 4 April Dibelius wrote in Berlin's Evangelisches Sonntagsblatt that "the last fifteen years in Germany" had "strengthened Jewry's influence to an extraordinary degree. The number of Jewish judges, Jewish politicians and Jewish civil servants in influential positions has grown measurably". He downplayed the boycott of enterprises of Jewish proprietors and such of Gentiles of Jewish descent, when SA members stood outside Jewish shops attempting to enforce the boycott through intimidation, and when swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans were painted on shop-windows. In an address for US radio he commended the restraint shown in the boycott, with "only one single bloody incident" and he accepted the need for violence, hoping instead 'that the hour may soon come when violence is no longer necessary'.Robert ericksen, Complicity I the HOlocaust, p. 30 Even after this clearly anti-Semitic action he repeated in his circular to the pastors of Kurmark on the occasion of Easter (16 April 1933) his anti-Jewish attitude, giving the same words as in 1928.Wolfgang Gerlach, Als die Zeugen schwiegen: Bekennende Kirche und die Juden, re-edited and accompl. ed., Berlin: Institut Kirche und Judentum, 21993, (=Studien zu Kirche und Israel; vol. 10), p. 28. . An earlier version appeared as doctoral thesis titled Zwischen Kreuz und Davidstern, Hamburg, Univ., Diss., 11970. No ISBN
During the struggle of the churches Once the Nazi government realised that the 28 Protestant church bodies in Germany were not to be streamlined from within using the Nazi-submissive German Christians faction within the church, they abolished the constitutional freedom of religion and religious organisation. The act was strictly opposed by Dibelius, who saw the separation of state and church as a prerequisite of the latter's free development to achieve its best role. On 24 June the Nazi Minister of Cultural Affairs, Bernhard Rust appointed August Jäger as Prussian State Commissioner for the Prussian Ecclesiastical Affairs (). Jäger furloughed – among many others – Dibelius.Ralf Lange and Peter Noss, "Bekennende Kirche in Berlin", in: Kirchenkampf in Berlin 1932–1945: 42 Stadtgeschichten, Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, and Claus Wagener (eds.), Berlin: Inst. Kirche und Judentum, 1999, (Studien zu Kirche und Judentum; vol. 18), pp. 114–147, here p. 117.
On 14 July, Adolf Hitler discretionarily decreed an unconstitutional premature re-election of all elders ( or Presbyter) and synodals in all 28 Protestant church bodies in Germany for 23 July.Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, "Die Glaubensbewegung Deutsche Christen", in: Kirchenkampf in Berlin 1932–1945: 42 Stadtgeschichten, Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, and Claus Wagener (eds.), Berlin: Inst. Kirche und Judentum, 1999, (Studien zu Kirche und Judentum; vol. 18), pp. 97–113, here 103. The new synods of the 28 Protestant churches were to declare their dissolution as separate church bodies in favour of a united German Evangelical Church (). Representatives of all 28 Protestant churches were to attend the newly created National Synod to confirm the designated Ludwig Müller as the Reich's Bishop. Müller already now regarded himself as leader of this new organisation.
In the campaign for the premature re-election of all presbyters and synodals on 23 July the Nazi government sided with the German Christians. Under the impression of the government's partiality, the other existing listsSuch a list nominating candidates is called Kirchenpartei (church party) in German and compares roughly to nominating groups in the Church of Sweden. of opposing candidates united to form the Evangelical Church list. The Gestapo (est. 26 April 1933) ordered the list to change its name and replace all its election posters and flyers issued under the forbidden name.
The Gestapo confiscated the office and the printing-press of the Evangelical Church list to hinder any reprint.Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, "Die Glaubensbewegung Deutsche Christen", in: Kirchenkampf in Berlin 1932–1945: 42 Stadtgeschichten, Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, and Claus Wagener (eds.), Berlin: Inst. Kirche und Judentum, 1999, (Studien zu Kirche und Judentum; vol. 18), pp. 97–113, here 104. Thus, the list, which had been renamed as Gospel and Church (), took refuge with the Evangelical Press Association (), presided over by Dibelius and printed new election posters in its premises in Alte Jacobstraße # 129, Berlin.Ralf Lange and Peter Noss, "Bekennende Kirche in Berlin", in: Kirchenkampf in Berlin 1932–1945: 42 Stadtgeschichten, Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, and Claus Wagener (eds.), Berlin: Inst. Kirche und Judentum, 1999, (Studien zu Kirche und Judentum; vol. 18), pp. 114–147, here p. 118. However, the German Christians gained 70–80% of the seats in presbyteries and synods. In 1933–34 Dibelius served the pastorate at San Remo, Italy.
After his return to Germany (July 1934) and after – from May to October 1934 – the intra-church opposition, the so-called Confessing Church, had built up its own organisational structures, circumventing the officially recognised bodies of the Old-Prussian church and the newly established Nazi-submissive German Evangelical Church, Dibelius served again as general superintendent in the Kurmark – ignoring his official furlough – accepted only by those congregations whose presbyteries rejected the Nazi adulterated official Old-Prussian church. From 1934 to 1945 he was a member of the March of Brandenburg provincial Councils of Brethren, the leading bodies established by the Confessing Church on all levels, such as deaneries, ecclesiastical provinces and for the overall Old-Prussian church as well as in other Nazi-subjected Protestant church bodies in Germany and on the Reich's level dubbing the position of Reich's Bishop Müller by the Reich's Council of Brethren.
Rebuilding the Old-Prussian church and Berlin-Brandenburg ecclesiastical province Before the end of World War II Dibelius addressed some moderate incumbents of leading positions in the official Old-Prussian church, in order to establish their acceptance and co-operation in a future provisional leading body – the so-called Beirat (advisory council) of the Old-Prussian church, once the Nazis were defeated. On 7 May 1945 Dibelius organised the forming of a provisional church executive for the Old-Prussian Ecclesiastical Province of the March of Brandenburg, comprising Greater Berlin and the political province of Brandenburg. The provisionally leading advisory council reconfirmed Dibelius as general superintendent of Kurmark and also commissioned him to serve per pro the vacant general superintendencies of Berlin and the New March and Lower Lusatia. The Soviet occupying power agreed that Dibelius would use the self-chosen title of Bishop, which was regarded a non-Protestant title and was rejected by many, especially since the Nazi-submissive German Christians used that title for their church leaders, claiming an intra-church hierarchy in the range of the Führerprinzip.