Heinrich Grüber (; 24 June 1891 – 29 November 1975) was a Reformed theologian, pacifist and opponent of Nazism.
Life
Until 1933 Heinrich Grüber was born on 24 June 1891 in Stolberg in the Prussian Rhine Province (today part of North Rhine-Westphalia).Cf. Prussian Privy State Archives (GStA PK), VI. HA, Nl Grüber, H. Einleitung (introduction) , retrieved on 5 November 2015. His parents were the teacher Ernst Grüber and Alwine Grüber, née Cleven from Gulpen, living in the Protestant diaspora among a prevailingly Catholic population.
After graduating in 1910 from the gymnasium in Eschweiler, Grüber studied philosophy, history and theology at the Rhenish Frederick William University in Bonn and the Frederick William University of Berlin between 1910 and 1913. In Berlin he decided to become a pastor. In 1913 and 1914 Grüber held a scholarship of the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht, interrupted by his first state examination in theology in early 1914 and a first religious appointment in as vicar of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union, a Protestant church combining congregations of Lutheran, Reformed and United Protestant alignment.
In 1915, Grüber was conscripted as a soldier and fought in World War I until 1918. In early 1918, he started an education as a military chaplain and in mid-1918 he passed the second state examination in theology and was accepted into the preacher seminary (Domkandidatenstift) at Berlin's Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church. He was tutored by court preacher Bruno Doehring. In 1920, he was ordained as pastor in Berlin and took his first ministry in , Dortmund. In June 1923 the French occupation forces prompted Grüber's expulsion from their occupied Ruhr area. Exiled in Berlin, Grüber engaged for the Rhine-Ruhr Relief (Rhein-Ruhr-Hilfe) collecting donations for the poor impoverished by the Occupation of the Rhineland and the Ruhr area. After his return in November 1923, he resumed his pastorate in Brackel, changing in 1925 to the Düsselthaler Anstalten, a diaconal youth welfare charity of the Inner Mission.
Between 1926 and 1933 Grüber was head of the diaconal charity Stephanus-Stiftung Waldhof, a youth education institute (Jugendbildungsanstalt) in Templin. In 1927 Grüber parallelly built up an ecclesiastical volunteer labour service for unemployed persons in the Uckermark.
During the Nazi reign In June 1933, he resigned from collaborating in the labour service after the Nazi government had merged the various volunteer labour services into the obligatory Reichsarbeitsdienst. Thus provoking Nazi suspicion, Grüber was fired as head of Waldhof youth service in August the same year. Already then Grüber joined the Nazi-opposing Emergency Covenant of Pastors ().Heinrich Grüber. Sein Dienst am Menschen, Peter Mehnert for Evangelische Hilfsstelle für ehemals Rasseverfolgte and Bezirksamt Hellersdorf (ed.), Berlin: Bezirkschronik Berlin-Hellersdorf, 1988, p. 6. No ISBN
On 2 February 1934, the presbytery (Domkirchenkollegium) of the Berlin Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church appointed the Reformed Grüber as the new pastor of the Kaulsdorf congregation, since this church held the ius patronatus, giving its presbytery the advowson for the Jesus Church in Kaulsdorf."Deed of appointment of Heinrich Grüber", issued by the Domkirchenkollegium on 7 February 1934, published in: Heinrich Grüber. Sein Dienst am Menschen, Peter Mehnert on behalf of the Evangelische Hilfsstelle für ehemals Rasseverfolgte and Bezirksamt Hellersdorf (ed.), Berlin: Bezirkschronik Berlin-Hellersdorf, 1988, p. 6. No ISBN The German Christian-dominated Kaulsdorf presbytery strictly rejected Grüber for being an opponent of their Faith Movement. But the March of Brandenburg ecclesiastical provincial consistory (the competent bureaucracy within the old-Prussian Church) insisted on his appointment as decided by the presbytery of the Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church.Die Kirchen und das Dritte Reich: 3 vols., Klaus Scholder and Gerhard Besier, Frankfurt am Main et al.: Propyläen et al., 1977–, vol. 3: Gerhard Besier 'Spaltungen und Abwehrkämpfe 1934–1937' (2001), footnote 378 on p. 1152. . The office as old-Prussian pastor included the function as executive-in-chief of the Kaulsdorf presbytery. Thus conflicts were unavoidable. The German Christian presbyters of Kaulsdorf steadily denounced Grüber within the ecclesiastical bureaucracy for criticising Ludwig Müller, the then old-Prussian regional bishop (), and the Nazi party local group leader denounced him at the Gestapo, for criticising the Nazi sterilisation laws (see Nazi Eugenics) and for mercy and sympathy with the Jews.Die Kirchen und das Dritte Reich: 3 vols., Klaus Scholder and Gerhard Besier, Frankfurt am Main et al.: Propyläen et al., 1977–2001, vol. 3: Gerhard Besier 'Spaltungen und Abwehrkämpfe 1934–1937' (2001), p. 865 and footnote 379 on p. 1152. .
Once in office, Grüber built up a Confessing Church congregation at Jesus Church, convening the few congregants opposing the Nazi interference and adulteration of Protestantism, previously unable to organise as a group in Kaulsdorf. As the officially appointed pastor Grüber held the regular services in Jesus Church, preaching against the cult of personality for Hitler, the severing armament of Germany and anti-Semitism.Dieter Winkler, "Heinrich Grüber und die Kaulsdorfer", in: Heinrich Grüber und die Folgen: Beiträge des Symposiums am 25. Juni 1991 in der Jesus-Kirche zu Berlin-Kaulsdorf, Eva Voßberg (ed.), Berlin: Bezirkschronik Berlin-Hellersdorf, 1992, (=Hellersdorfer Heimathefte; No. 1), pp. 30–32, here p. 31. No ISBN
However, other events, such as collections of money for purposes of the Confessing Church, meetings of its adherents or elections of their brethren council, paralleling the German Christian-dominated presbytery, were forbidden to take place as events open for the public, but only card-carrying members of the opposing Confessing Church were allowed. Grüber carried the – due to their colour so-called – Red Card No. 4, issued on 22 December 1934 by the Kaulsdorf Confessing congregation.Cf. "Red Card of Heinrich Grüber", published in Heinrich Grüber. Sein Dienst am Menschen, Peter Mehnert for Evangelische Hilfsstelle für ehemals Rasseverfolgte and Bezirksamt Hellersdorf (ed.), Berlin: Bezirkschronik Berlin-Hellersdorf, 1988, p. 9. No ISBN
The information about Grüber's appointment spread among the adherents of the Confessing Church in neighbouring congregations comprising the competent deanery Berlin Land I, such as , , Blumberg, Fredersdorf bei Berlin, , , Tabor Church (Hohenschönhausen), , , , , , Neuenhagen bei Berlin, Petershagen bei Berlin, or mostly without a local pastor supporting them. They started to travel for Sunday services to Jesus Church.Gundula Tietsch, "Berlin-Friedrichsfelde", in: Kirchenkampf in Berlin 1932–1945: 42 Stadtgeschichten, Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, and Claus Wagener (eds.), Berlin: Institut Kirche und Judentum, 1999, (=Studien zu Kirche und Judentum; vol. 18), pp. 340–352, here p. 342. . Grüber encouraged them to establish Confessing congregations of their own and attended e.g. the formal foundation of Friedrichsfelde Confessing congregation on 1 February 1935.Gundula Tietsch, "Berlin-Friedrichsfelde", in: Kirchenkampf in Berlin 1932–1945: 42 Stadtgeschichten, Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, and Claus Wagener (eds.), Berlin: Institut Kirche und Judentum, 1999, (=Studien zu Kirche und Judentum; vol. 18), pp. 340–352, here p. 341. .
Grüber presided over the Confessing synod of the deanery Berlin Land I, which constituted with Confessing synodals from the pertaining congregations on 3 March 1935 and paralleled the official deanery synod dominated by German Christians.Gundula Tietsch, "Berlin-Friedrichsfelde", in: Kirchenkampf in Berlin 1932–1945: 42 Stadtgeschichten, Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, and Claus Wagener (eds.), Berlin: Institut Kirche und Judentum, 1999, (=Studien zu Kirche und Judentum; vol. 18), pp. 340–352, here p. 345. . The Confessing congregants in Kaulsdorf's congregation became a great support for Grüber. He also provided for Confessing pastors, who would act in his place once he could not hold the service himself. In August 1935 his colleague Pastor Neumann from Köpenick preached instead of him, criticising the anti-Semitic policy of the German government, which earned him a denunciation by the Kaulsdorf presbytery.
On the occasion of the Remilitarisation of the Rhineland in 1936 Adolf Hitler unconstitutionally and arbitrarily decreed a reëlection of the Nazi puppet Reichstag for 29 March, which was Palm Sunday, the traditional day Protestant congregations would celebrate the confirmations of the confirmands, who had grown to ecclesiastical adulthood. The compromising , leading the Protestant regional church bodies in Germany (1935–1937), regarded this an unfriendly act against Protestantism, but nevertheless obeyed and tried to delay the confirmations, asking a furlough for confirmands from the compulsory agricultural season labour of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (DAF), starting right next Monday. The DAF refused.
The second preliminary church executive () of the Confessing German Evangelical Church, paralleling the official bodies, was of the opinion that the confirmations were not to be delayed. Since fathers, being state officials and/or card-carrying Nazi partisans, were ordered to organise and implement the poll as election judges and with relatives travelling all around Germany to participate in their relatives' or godchildren's confirmations, the Nazis feared a low turnout in the election. This made the confirmations on the traditional date a political issue.
Thus only few pastors did not compromise in the end, but Grüber was one of the few (one out of 13 in Berlin, e.g.), who held the confirmation services as usual, even though the Nazi government had announced this would not be without consequences.Die Kirchen und das Dritte Reich: 3 vols., Klaus Scholder and Gerhard Besier, Frankfurt am Main et al.: Propyläen et al., 1977–, vol. 3: Gerhard Besier 'Spaltungen und Abwehrkämpfe 1934–1937' (2001), p. 438 and footnote 58 on p. 1035. . German Christian presbyters denounced Grüber again for his opposing attitudes at the and the Gestapo.Dieter Winkler, "Heinrich Grüber und die Kaulsdorfer", in: Heinrich Grüber und die Folgen: Beiträge des Symposiums am 25. Juni 1991 in der Jesus-Kirche zu Berlin-Kaulsdorf, Eva Voßberg (ed.), Berlin: Bezirkschronik Berlin-Hellersdorf, 1992, (=Hellersdorfer Heimathefte; No. 1), pp. 30–32, here p. 30. No ISBN The NSDAP local party leader (Ortsgruppenleiter) threatened Grüber to prompt his deportation to a concentration camp. In 1936 Berlin's congregation of Dutch Reformed expatriates elected Grüber their pastor, which he remained until his arrest in 1940.Heinrich Grüber. Sein Dienst am Menschen, Peter Mehnert for Evangelische Hilfsstelle für ehemals Rasseverfolgte and Bezirksamt Hellersdorf (ed.), Berlin: Bezirkschronik Berlin-Hellersdorf, 1988, p. 2. No ISBN
The mainstream Nazi anti-Semitism considered the Jewry being a group of people bound by close, so-called blood (genetic) ties, to form a unit, which one could not join or secede from. The influence of Jews was declared to have detrimental impact on Germany, justifying their discrimination and persecution. To be spared from that, one had to prove one's affiliation with the group of the so-called Aryan race. Paradoxical was, that never genetic tests or outward allegedly racial features in one's physiognomy determined one's affiliation, although the Nazis palavered a lot about physiognomy, but only the records of religious affiliations of one's grandparents decided. However, while the grandparents were earlier still able to choose their religion, their grandchildren in the Nazi era were compulsorily categorised as Jews, if three or four grandparents were enrolled as members of a Jewish congregation.