Ansbach advice

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ansbacher Ratschlag is a protest letter against the Barmer Theological Declaration of significant ecclesiastical history , which was signed and published in Ansbach on June 11, 1934 by eight theologians, including six Franconian pastors and theology professors Werner Elert and Paul Althaus . In it a theology was postulated which - at least by the National Socialists - was seen as compatible with their ideology.

The title is borrowed from a historical document from the Reformation period, the Ansbach Evangelical Council , which - written by Johann Rurer in 1524 - was a Franconian preamble to the Confessio Augustana (1530).

Historical context

The Ansbach Council was created immediately after and as a response to the Barmen Theological Declaration , which was drawn up at the 1st Reich Confession Synod in Barmen (May 29–31, 1934) under the leadership of Karl Barth .

Encouraged and led by Pastor Hans Sommerer, the so-called Ansbach Circle was formed in the spring of 1934 as a theological working group within the National Socialist Evangelical Pastors' Association (NSEP). Sommerer was director of the Bruckberger Institutions of the Inner Mission and, despite his clerical office, also a member of the storm department . The Ansbacher Kreis also included the two Erlangen theology professors Paul Althaus and Werner Elert as well as the pastors Gottfried Fuchs (Ansbach), Heinrich Grießbach (Ansbach), Christian Seiler (Wildenholz), Karl Werlin ( Kleinhaslach ) and teacher Ernst Fikenscher (Ansbach). Werner Elert, so the research suspects, is largely responsible for the content of the Ansbach advice. Also a member of the NSEP was Max Sauerteig, born in Nuremberg in 1867, the evangelical pastor of St. Johannis in Ansbach, known with Julius Streicher and Adolf Hitler, who was active in Franconia as a party speaker of the NSDAP and an activist of the Reich Church Movement of German Christians.

content

The Ansbach advice is divided into an introduction and 8 theses, of which theses 1–5 formulate the theological foundations of the Ansbach Circle, while theses 6–8 name the tasks of the work of the signatories.

As the main thesis, the Ansbach Council rejects the revelatory theology of the Barmer Theological Declaration. The Ansbach advice is based on a folk argument. The authors advocate the idea, derived from natural theology , that God and the natural order created by him are revealed not only in Christ, but also in family, "people" and "race" in the sense of the blood connection. Accordingly, it is God's will that everyone submit to his order. In addition to the obligation of the church to proclaim the law of God, there is also a time-specific historical task, which at the time was based on the national system in Germany. According to them, every authority, even in a distorted form, is to be venerated, since this is the "tool of divine development". Accordingly, the signatories understood the National Socialist regime and its leader Adolf Hitler as a God-given order, which also had the character of revelation. In this way, the Ansbach advice should make it possible to preserve the commitment to the gospel and at the same time to propagate the völkisch concepts as a divine order - thus the text offered the German “Volksgemeinschaft” and the increasingly open anti-Semitism a theological justification.

The letter accompanying the “Advice”, signed by Pastor Hans Sommer, concluded “With brotherly respect and Heil Hitler!”

reception

Gerhard Niemöller describes the letter as a "subsequent cross shot" against Barmen. It was viewed with derision by the Confessing Church as the “Ansbach attack”; the theology professor Hermann Strathmann described it in a letter to the President of the Westphalian Synod of Confessions, Karl Koch, as "wheel blow" and "failure".

By contrast, the letter was positively received and received by the Nazi-loyal German Christians : In the journal Evangelium im Third Reich , which they published , it was printed in full on July 1, 1934 under the heading Leading theologians refute Barmen , graphically encompassing a poem by Baldur von Schirach .

The fact that two respected theology professors from Erlangen got involved with the Nazi-influenced church groups caused sharp criticism among students, pastors and church leaders in Bavaria. The Bavarian regional bishop Hans Meiser criticized the advice because it ran the risk of dividing the church and did not accept Althaus' justification that the advice was only a supplement to the Barmer declaration. The German Christians felt strengthened by the letter and canceled the pledge of allegiance to the regional bishop. When Franconian pastors called for the incorporation of the Bavarian regional church into the imperial church on September 9, 1934, Althaus and Elert separated from the Ansbacher district. While Elert continued to adhere to the statements made there, Althaus distanced himself from the Ansbach advice at the second Confessional Synod in Berlin-Dahlem in October 1934.

swell

  • The “Ansbach advice” on the Barmer “Theological Declaration” . In: Kurt Dietrich Schmidt: The Confessions and basic expressions of the church question. Vol. 2: The year 1934. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1935, pp. 102-104.

literature

  • Karlmann Beyschlag : The Erlangen theology. Luther, Erlangen 1993, pp. 160-206.
  • Jörg Haustein: The “Ansbach advice”. In: Helmut Edelmann et al. (Ed.): Nation in contradiction. Aspects and perspectives from a Lutheran perspective today. Kaiser, Gütersloh 1999, ISBN 3-579-02643-7 , pp. 221-227.
  • Tanja Hetzer: "German Hour": National Community and Anti-Semitism in Political Theology with Paul Althaus. Allitera, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-86520-328-1 .
  • Gotthard Jasper : Paul Althaus (1888–1966). Professor, preacher and patriot in his day. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-525-55053-3 .
  • Georg Merz : "Ansbach advice". In: Heinz Brunotte ao: Evangelical Church Lexicon . Volume 1: A - G. 2nd edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1961, pp. 128–129.
  • Axel Töllner: A question of race? The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, the Aryan Paragraph and the Bavarian parish families with Jewish ancestors in the “Third Reich”. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, Chapter 2.2.2: The Ansbach advice as a “genuinely Lutheran” counterpart to the Theological Declaration by Barmen , pp. 102-106, and Chapter 2.2.3: The reception of the Ansbach advice , pp. 106–112.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jörg Haustein : The "Ansbach advice". In: Helmut Edelmann et al. (Ed.): Nation in contradiction. Aspects and perspectives from a Lutheran perspective today. Gütersloh 1999, p. 222.
  2. ^ Wolfgang Mück: Nazi stronghold in Middle Franconia: The völkisch awakening in Neustadt an der Aisch 1922–1933. Verlag Philipp Schmidt, 2016 (= Streiflichter from home history. Special volume 4); ISBN 978-3-87707-990-4 , p. 263 f.
  3. ↑ a b Tanja Hetzer: Ansbach advice. In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbook of Antisemitism - Anti-Semitism in Past and Present. Volume 4: Events, Decrees, Controversies. De Gruyter Saur, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-598-24076-8 , p. 4 f.
  4. ^ Gerhard Niemöller: The first confession synod of the German Evangelical Church in Barmen. Vol. 1: History, criticism and significance of the synod and its theological declaration (= work on the history of the church struggle. Vol. 5). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1984, p. 142.
  5. ^ Gerhard Niemöller: The first confession synod of the German Evangelical Church in Barmen. Vol. 1: History, criticism and significance of the synod and its theological declaration (= work on the history of the church struggle. Vol. 5). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1984, p. 143.
  6. ↑ Axel Töllner: A question of race? The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, the Aryan Paragraph and the Bavarian parish families with Jewish ancestors in the “Third Reich”. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, p. 108 f.