Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein

The Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein (BK SH), also a confessional community of the Evangelical Lutheran. Landeskirche Schleswig-Holstein , was a community movement in Schleswig-Holstein directed against the anti-Christian efforts of the National Socialists and the ideology groups allied with them , which, supported by the Breklumer Mission , also dealt with the internal church counterparty of the German Christians (DC) and temporarily through its actors and popular missionary and apologetic printed matter gained importance throughout the empire.

prehistory

Political developments

After the revolution in November 1918, which began in Kiel and spread throughout Germany, political development initially stabilized again. Agriculture, industry and trade enjoyed a limited boom, and infrastructure modernization continued.

However, the political development was deceptive. The economic crisis of 1929, with which the parties of the “ Weimar system ” could not cope, brought about a political radicalization, especially in what is now North Friesland and in Dithmarschen , from which the National Socialists profited. In the Reichstag elections of 1932 (in July and November ) they had the greatest number of participants, became the strongest party and at times won an absolute majority of the votes in Schleswig-Holstein .

The politically significant events in the state that also had an impact on the political attitudes and voting behavior of Schleswig-Holstein residents included:

• the cession of North Schleswig after the referendums of 1920;
• the protest meetings of the peasants in the Schleswig-Holstein district towns in January 1928 (as part of the rural people movement );
• the “ Blood Night of Wöhrden ” in March 1929;
• the Altona Bloody Sunday in May 1932nd

Church developments

For the Evangelical Church, which is closely linked to the state, the November Revolution of 1918 meant the end of an almost 400 year old bond with the state. The German Kaiser and the German princes abdicated. With this the German Protestant regional churches lost their highest bishops. In 1922 Schleswig-Holstein passed its own church constitution , and in 1931 the State Church Treaty between Prussia and the Protestant regional churches, including the Schleswig-Holstein one, was signed.

The democratic and republican ideas met with strong rejection in German Protestantism, which was mostly conservative and monarchical. Only the liberal theologians , who in Schleswig-Holstein included Professors Otto Baumgarten and Hermann Mulert from Kiel , managed to make an impartial assessment and to work responsibly in the new state. For this they incurred the displeasure of the conservatives and the National Socialists .

In spite of all its efforts for popular mission , the regional church saw itself exposed to a wave of hostility to the church in the " Golden Twenties ". The social democrats had declared religion a private matter, the communists even wanted to overcome it completely ( godless movement ). Cremations increased and an exit movement weighed on the communities. The National Socialist ideologue Alfred Rosenberg wrote his anti-church pamphlet The Myth of the 20th Century in 1930 .

There were also alarming developments inside: In 1921 the “ Bund für Deutsche Kirche ” was founded with ethnic and anti-Semitic ideas with the participation of the Flensburg pastor Friedrich Andersen and the Kiel professor of theology Hermann Mandel . Even the Schleswig-Holstein regional synod in January 1925 took up the criticism of the völkisch movement on the increasing Jewish influence in public life:

"The regional synod recognizes the justification and the value of all efforts aimed at strengthening one's own nationality and protecting it from the corrosive Jewish influence."

A number of concerned publications made it clear what challenges and dangers the regional church was exposed to during this time:

• Hermann Mulert : The task of the adult education center in relation to the contradictions of worldview in our people , Langensalza: H. Beyer & Sons 1921.
• Helmuth Schreiner : Christianity and the national question , Berlin-Dahlem: Wichern 1925.
• Otto Baumgarten : Cross and Swastika , Gotha: Klotz 1926.
• Martin Fischer-Hübner: Can we still save our people? Ratzeburg: Lauenburgischer Heimatverlag 1926 ( online ).
• Hans Asmussen : Die Not des Landvolkes (1928) , now printed in: Kleine Schriften (Life and Work IV) , Berlin: Die Spur 1973, pp. 9–35.
• Karl Haack: We pastors and the national question , in: Deutsches Pfarrerblatt 34 (1930) 452–455; 467-469; 481-483 (on- line ).
• Wilhelm Halfmann : Church and Confession. An examination of liberal theology (1932) , now printed in: Sermons, Speeches ... , pp. 73 ff.

Against the theological false doctrines of the “German Church” and other ethnic groups, a “ brotherhood of young theologians ” formed in Schleswig-Holstein which, in addition to the Christ-centered “new theology” ( Luther Renaissance , popular mission , community movement ) also represented concerns of “ dialectical theology ”. It was founded on April 19, 1929 in Neumünster by seven pastors. This small group grew to 60 to 70 people in the course of a few years; In 1933 it had about 100 members. According to circular no. 30 of October 24, 1932, 73 theologians and three lay people, ie more than a third of the younger pastors of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church, were fraternal.

In spite of all the warning voices, the evangelical clergy were exposed to the great temptation in 1933 to take a positive view of Hitler's rise to power . An example of this is a passage from the life story of Pastor Johannes Moritzen from Kiel:

“At that time we probably had a state that had established itself as a constitutional state. He was not friendly to Christianity or even to the Church. There was a new tone. Like a crashing trumpet. There was an unmistakable signal: National (should mean: folkish, patriotic) should now apply to everyone. We should all be social (brothers, comrades). The tones were mixed with much bitter criticism, which people understand most easily and like to hear. For the Christian it was seductive that ' positive Christianity ' was also included in the basic values ​​mentioned . How many hoped for it, and how disappointed it was when the rule of law turned more and more into party tyranny. I can only say of myself that I was naive about the new. It is generally hoped that a new national government would follow the rules of democracy. We older people had seen how the upheaval of 1919-20, under difficult conditions, fought through the rules of the game of democracy. This matter can now be left out of consideration here. For myself, all political hope was sadly disappointed when his office was no longer filled after Hindenburg's death . "

Guidelines of the German Christians

On May 26, 1932, 10 points guidelines of the "Faith Movement German Christians" were adopted and declared to be "guidelines for the coming Evangelical Reich Church ". In them the “self-alignment” emerged in a remarkable way. The vocabulary of the Nazi worldview was completely adopted in the Christian guise: Church as "expression of all the forces of faith of our people" (DC guideline No. 3), positive Christianity , faith in Christ appropriate to the species, heroic piety against soft theology of pity, protection from degeneration, reawakened German attitude towards life , Race, Nation, Volkstum as God's gift and law - so no mixing of races, no Jewish mission , no gateway for foreign blood, no Christian cosmopolitanism ( ecumenism in today's language), but a national mission. National Socialist models were transferred one to one to theology, to faith and to the church.

“The Confessing Church came into being because the DC program had to be responded to. And this reaction was all the more urgent because these DC guidelines were not an offer for discussion, but a manifesto for the internal and external transformation of the church. "

- Karl Ludwig Kohlwage : Lecture in Breklum, 2015

Altona Confession

On July 17, 1932, Communists and National Socialists fought a bloody street battle with 18 dead in the town of Altona, which was part of Schleswig-Holstein until 1937 . In response to this Altona Bloody Sunday 21 Altona pastors in January 1933 put (relatively late, but before the seizure of power by the National Socialists) their Altona confession from.

In view of the political enthusiasm for Hitler, one of the Altona pastors asked about the spiritual power of the church:

“Are the Evangelical Churches in Germany ready to make it binding that Christian salvation deserves an even more passionate devotion than political salvation? Are you ready to testify that someone who has devoted his whole life to political salvation cannot possibly have found the precious pearl and treasure in the field? Are they ready to make a binding statement that political salvation, if it is achieved, is nevertheless disaster, measured against the salvation of Christ? Are you ready to testify that in this sense all earthly powers are in the room of disaster? "

- Hans Asmussen : New Confession, 1933

Even then, Hans Asmussen suspected that it would soon be about Christian confession in the new political situation.

Establishment of the confessional community in Schleswig-Holstein 1933–1934

Breklum declaration

A counter-front to the German Christians (DC) first emerged at the annual festival of the Breklumer Mission in June 1933, during which the " Brotherhood of Young Theologians " founded in 1929 met, which at that time threatened to break up under the tensions between supporters and opponents of the DC . The group of about 30 pastors present discussed, adopted and published a declaration that rejected "the methods of political struggle, namely the use of the masses" for the transformation of the church; the dispute may only be conducted with spiritual means, and that is the sermon of the “Word of God according to the confessions of the church.” These statements were all rejection of the DC's approach, especially in the simultaneous crisis of the imperial bishop. The group internally welcomed Bodelschwingh's assumption of office as Reich Bishop .

The signatories of the Breklum Declaration of June 15, 1933 included, with a few exceptions, all those who were supposed to found the emergency community in the autumn or to play a leading role in it. The course was set in Breklum by the fact that the fraternal group was newly constituted in terms of leadership and membership and was subject to new guidelines drawn up by a group around Reinhard Wester , which closely followed the words of the East Prussian pastors "At the moment". Here a defensive front against the DC, guided by biblical obedience, was emerging.

Confessional group of Kiel students

When at about the same time a “Studentenkampfbund German Christians” was formed at Kiel University , the theologically influenced students by Hans Asmussen, Kurt Dietrich Schmidt and Hermann Sasse thought that they had to do something about it. They met on June 27, 1933 in the theologians' home on Kirchenstrasse to form a “Lutheran Working Group: New Confession”. The attendance lists from the first meetings are preserved: “Oskar Lopau, Erich Studt, Richard Juergens, Johannes Heinsohn, Boy Bendixen, Theo Christiansen, Karl Hansen, Hans Beiderwieden, Hans Werner Jensen, Wilhelm Otte, Wilhelm Gertz, Heinz-Aug. Plaßmann, Hartwig Bünz, Hans Brodersen, Paul M. Dahl, Wolfgang Saß, Friedrich Huebner . “This then became the Kiel student confessional group .

Destruction of the regional church order

The destruction of the regional church order that had existed since 1922 by the German-Christian church party in 1933 formed the starting point for all later confusions. This process did not come about as a result of a movement in the communities, but rather “from above”, namely from the possibilities that the consistorial elements of the constitution afforded the incursion of new powers . Two members of the then regional church office, a lawyer ( Christian Kinder ) and a theologian (Nikolaus Christiansen), took the lead. The former, appointed as State Commissioner at the end of June 1933 , dissolved all church bodies and had new ones formed without municipal elections, which according to the regulations had to contain predominantly German Christians .

This first step brought about the politicization and secularization of the community bodies . The withdrawal of the state commissioner in favor of general church elections did not result in a change of course, only a different method. Two surprising constitutional changes prepared the new election of the regional synod: The church government expanded itself by electing two German-Christian members and reduced the age of eligibility for the regional synod. This reorganized church government called the regional synod which had been reorganized in this way. The elections were carried out hastily (only two days of preparation were possible) and under the slogan: "Anyone who does not vote in a German-Christian way is to be seen as a political opponent of the Third Reich ".

The Synod, which, although unreligious in its structure and unconstitutional in its creation, “5. Ordinary Landessynod ", formed the foundation of the regional church order until 1945. Without conscientious preparation, a number of fundamentally disruptive laws were passed, in which the German-Christian demands took shape. As the content of the ministry was not the construction of the church in the Christian, but established by law "in the German spirit". These laws fell victim to the church struggle; but the construction of the church regiment remained. The synod elected an extraordinarily authorized regional church committee, which was not provided for in the constitution. But the law on the formation of the regional church committee was never properly promulgated by the church government, so that the regional church committee could not be set up as lawful, and its actions could not be regarded as legally valid. The church regiment that was established in 1933 and its decisive acts (the dismissal of the old bishops and numerous provosts, the appointment of a regional bishop and new provosts and members of the church regiment) had a legal basis that, from the point of view of the church constitution, did not stand up to criticism.

Emergency and working group of Schleswig-Holstein pastors

In Schleswig-Holstein state regulations was created in October 1933 in view of the state involvement in the Protestant synods and church leaders and the threat of takeover in the church range ( " Aryan paragraph ") an emergency and Association of Schleswig-Holstein pastors that the in December 1933 DC regional bishop Paulsen expressed their distrust.

“The men from the very beginning in the leadership of the emergency and working group were Pastor Bielfeldt , Prof. KD Schmidt and Lic. Volkmar Herntrich . Now [June 1934] Reinhard Wester joined them . In November the Brother Council consisted of 14 members (Bielfeldt, Hildebrand, Lorentzen , Dr. Mohr , Niemöller-Hanerau, Dr. Pörksen , Prehn, KR Nielsen, Adolf Thomsen, StR Bernhard Thomsen-Plön, Prof. Tonnesen , Treplin, Prof. Schmidt, Wester). After the first confessional synod of July 17, 1935, the Brother Council had 7 members (Bielfeldt, Halfmann , Dr. Pörksen, Prof. Schmidt, Tonnesen, Treplin and Wester as chairmen). "

- Paul M. Dahl : Experienced Church History, 1980

Representatives of the Young Reformation Movement (JB), friends of the Breklumer Mission, the Flensburg Lutheran Conference and liberals who had penetrated through the theological movement of the interwar period to the knowledge of the Church gathered in the Schleswig-Holstein branch of the Pastors' Emergency Association . The inner unity of the German Christians was the political experience - the unity band of the pastors' emergency union was the image of the church , shaped according to scripture and confession .

“The church congregations soon stood with their sympathy with the emergency pastors, and through all the hardships of these years it has been a comforting experience that the working and sacrificing congregation in the country has not left them alone. The Confessing Church is the only large-scale lay organization in our regional church today. "

- Wilhelm Halfmann : Church Development, 1937

Peace offer in Schleswig-Holstein

The notorious Sports Palace Assembly of German Christians in Berlin in November 1933 shook the communities up because Reinhold Krause's speech made it clear how blatantly the Christian creed was violated by the Nazi ideology of German Christians. Nevertheless, at Easter 1934 in Schleswig-Holstein an event unique in Germany took place, namely a peace agreement. When regional bishop Adalbert Paulsen, out of his peaceful convictions, promised a confessional church regiment, removal of the German Church and separation from Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller , the entire crowd of pastors stood behind him.

“What could have become of this peace if the church regiment had shown more backbone! But Ludwig Muller came, saw and won and carried out the incorporation of Schleswig-Holstein into his system; and our regional church gave him a very special support through personalities who gathered around him in Berlin. "

- Wilhelm Halfmann : Church Development, 1937

"Lutheran Church Congregational Movement"

In response to the “integration”, the “Lutheran Church Community Movement” was created under the leadership of Pastor Westers . She declared herself (after a lecture by Wilhelm Halfmann about "Lutheran Church Today") publicly in the confessional service on June 3, 1934 in the Nikolaikirche in Kiel. In it, the pastors' emergency association began to collect the confessing congregation - still within the framework of the existing order, as there was hope that the church regiment would find its way back to a clear position after the collapse of the Müller / Jäger system .

In fact, it broke away from Müller after its failure, but did not find its way to the leadership of the Confessing Church under D. Marahrens , although assurances were given. Rather, it withdrew resignedly to Schleswig-Holstein particularism and sought its salvation in the "regional church order".

“It was a self-restraint out of perplexity that came much too late to be able to stop the dynamic of the great imperial church confessional movement on the banks of the Elbe. Even the evocation of the creed could not hide the fact that the flight from the decision to the formal principle of order only benefited the maintenance of the German-Christian system. "

- Wilhelm Halfmann : Church Development, 1937

Disintegration of the "Faith Movement German Christians"

In Schleswig-Holstein, under the banner of the German Christians (DC), such heterogeneous forces gathered that a disintegration was inevitable: “Names with a good theological sound next to practitioners without theology; Orthodox representatives of a quietist state-pious Lutheranism and liberals who had missed the theological development; 'Regional churches' who simply followed the church regime and political pastors; finally German churchmen or otherwise touched by ethnic religiosity . "

The attitude of Bishop Paulsen, intent on balancing the tensions, contributed to the bloodletting of the DC movement in Schleswig-Holstein. The call for a “regional church front” at the end of 1934 and the formation of the “Lutheran Comradeship” in 1935 also considerably restricted the DC organization's range of action. Only Provost Dührkop-Wandsbek and Provost Bender-Schönwalde occasionally set up bases for the “Church Movement German Christians” and sought to join the national church movement of the Thuringian DC.

Struggle for the legitimate church 1935–1936

Confession signals against the DC church regiment

In the late autumn of 1934, the "Confessional Community of Schleswig-Holstein" submitted to the provisional church leadership formed by the Dahlem Synod without setting up an emergency regiment of their own. However, when it became apparent that the church regiment watched the radical German church break in - down to the ranks of the provosts - and when the confessing candidates decided that they would be ordained by a spiritual leadership that they considered not legal and confessional as well had to recognize as unfree, could not accept and therefore left the regional church formation path, the confessional community set up its own spiritual leadership through its 1st Synod of Confessions on July 17, 1935. It was strengthened in this by the major first Synod of All Lutheranism in Hanover under the name "Lutheran Day", which had just preceded.

The Schleswig-Holstein Confessional Synod explained its step: It was a temporary emergency; she rejects an assessment of the religious status on the one hand as on the other and does not want a free church; on the contrary, it strives for "an imperial church that draws its unifying power from its creed after the German-Christian attempt to establish the imperial church through external compulsory organization has failed".

The answer of the church regiment consisted in the deletion of all (more than 30) confession candidates from the regional church list, while the German-Christian officials, "who carelessly trampled confession and order underfoot, did not bend a hair".

Care for theological offspring

The Confessing Church was confronted with difficult tasks by its synod: it was necessary to accommodate the candidates, to examine them and to ordain them. Thanks to the sacrifice of the pastors and congregation members, these tasks were solved. However, the candidates did not succeed in obtaining pastoral positions, since the regional church finances had meanwhile been placed in the hands of a state finance department, which was only available to the church regiment in actual power.

“But the blessing of need was not lacking either; the young forces could be made subservient to the popular mission of the Confessing Church, which was thereby enabled to try out completely new methods. In general it must be mentioned here that the Confessing Church has never exhausted its activity in church politics. Right from the start she took on the tasks of the people's mission and the development of the community vigorously and under the guidance of talented personalities such as Pastors Dr. Poerksen and Lorentzen built up a work of the people's mission that never existed before. "

- Wilhelm Halfmann : Church Development, 1937

Office for People's Mission

In autumn 1935, after Johannes Lorentzen's keynote speech at the 1st Synod of Confession on the subject of “People's Mission of the Confessing Church”, an “Office for People's Mission ” was founded, which went to work under his chairmanship. This popular missionary and apologetic work was done in denominational communities that arose in many congregations. Its members received the “red card” from the “Confessional Community of the Evangelical Lutheran” as identification. Landeskirche Schleswig-Holstein ”and contributed to making the work possible with their contributions.

Between 1935 and 1941 the “Office for People's Mission” published a number of people's missionary publications in large numbers, including the “ Breklumer Hefte ”, with which the BK SH gained nationwide importance.

“Breklum is proving to be a stroke of luck for the BK. The Breklumer Mission is independent of the regional church, it has its own printing press, and its mission is to immunize it against a national and ethnic church that is only there for the Germans and that repels alien things. Here the message of the salvation of God in Christ has a home for all people, and from here the resistance against the destruction of the gospel, the contempt of biblical faith and the racist gagging of the church can be organized. This is Breklum's historical merit, documented in an abundance of folk missionary writings, which were distributed in large numbers and recognized throughout the Reich as a special achievement of the BK Schleswig-Holstein. "

- Karl Ludwig Kohlwage : Lecture in Breklum, 2015

Office for community development

In the spring of 1936 an "office for church development " was formed, in which, under the direction of Pastor Wester-Westerland, a number of pastors from urban and rural parishes dealt with the question of how to help the parishes threatened with emaciation to new life and torn disorder through better ones Okay could replace. Gathering a core of the church, more biblical instruction, equipping employees, were questions that were being considered at the time.

Particular attention was paid to the needs in the area of confirmation classes , which arose from the fact that during the time of National Socialism religious classes were sometimes completely canceled, especially during the war, and sometimes in a non-Christian spirit. The fruit of these considerations was a “handout for confirmation lessons”.

From the confirmation question, the "Office for Church Development" came to speak of the problem of child baptism and other questions of church life and church rules. Ultimately, the fruit of this work was the drafting of an “ order for church life ”. After the war, this order was adopted by the general synod of the VELKD after further processing . So it was a fruit of the work of the Brother Council of the Schleswig-Holstein Confessional Church.

Promotion of reoriented youth work

Until the end of 1933, the Hitler Youth (HJ) allowed HJ and youth associations to coexist. This transition period ended with the integration agreement of December 19, 1933. Ev. Youth associations were no longer allowed to exist. Your groups could only meet as "community youth" if they did not want to submit to the Hitler Youth. They were allowed to “only preach the word”. This requirement was supposed to be a deterrent, but actually led to the inner strengthening of youth work, which first had to learn to understand itself as “community youth”. The factory headquarters of the associations provided work aids suitable for young people: images, reading material, allusions, etc. a. m.

The more clearly the Confessing Church developed, the more it became a sponsor of this newly oriented youth work at the national, state and local levels. Bible reading plans and the singing of weekly and monthly songs connected the local groups. There were ascension meetings and summer camps that were characterized by the "proclamation of the word". Sports activities or field games were only allowed under the guidance of HJ or BDM guides. Ascension meetings and summer camps were possible until autumn 1938, which the Hitler Youth reluctantly accepted, often disrupted or even banned.

When state youth pastor Wolfgang Prehn was no longer tolerated by the German-Christian church leadership, Max Ehmsen took over the leadership of the Ev. From 1934 to 1937. Youth work of the regional church. From 1936, Johann Schmidt was youth pastor of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein for two years.

“ Youth work of the church ! - We took this ministry so seriously because we are baptized to do it ... On the other hand, it is the youth themselves who question the church ... Today the youth know themselves to be members of the church. "

- Johann Schmidt : The Low German Lutheranism , No. 14 of July 22, 1937

Much youth gathered around the preaching of the Word of God: in Hamburg 2,500 "girls" on Youth Sunday in May 1936 with Otto Riethmüller , in Breklum and on the Bistensee on Ascension Day 1937 alone 1,000 and 1,200 young people. Schmidt himself held Bible studies in various youth groups, organized camps and camps with confirmands, and collected primary school students who were interested in theology. He called on mission men such as Walter Freytag , Heinrich Meyer , Martin Pörksen , Reimer Speck and others. He negotiated so skillfully with leaders of the Reich Labor Service and the Hitler Youth that he was able to close his work report with the sentence: “All camps could can be carried out without interference. "

Public discussion of the zeitgeist

The answer to the book by Gustav Frenssen , published in 1936 : "Der Glaube der Nordmark" is an example of the intellectual confrontation with anti-Christian currents, to which the BK Schleswig-Holsteins committed itself and raised itself to the program at the Confessional Synod.

Frenssen was one of the most widely read authors in Germany in the 1930s, and his books had huge editions. Frenssen, born in 1863, had been a pastor in Dithmarschen for ten years, then resigned his office in 1902 and turned into a radical opponent of Christianity and the Church. Many honors made him a well-known representative of Nazi cultural life beyond the borders of Germany after 1933. "The Faith of the Nordmark" became a general settlement with the Church and Christianity.

The BK reacted without hesitation with a "Reply to Gustav Frenssen" published by the Breklumer Missionsbuchhandlung. This answer is, as it were, a concentrated load from the BK with contributions from ten pastors, one pastor's wife and a teacher. General Superintendent Otto Dibelius wrote a foreword and thus underlined the importance of this reply for the entire confessional movement in Germany.

Power relations in the country 1936–1937

BK competitors

The independent action of the Confessing Church provoked violent headwinds in the rest of the regional church. But one had no positive goal to oppose the Confessing Church, after one again solemnly conspired to confess, without drawing the practical consequences that became necessary from the increasingly serious situation. That is why the slogan of "regional church order" was raised, and amalgamations on this basis were attempted. A "regional church front" appeared for a short time; Then a “Lutheran Comradeship” was formed as a pastors 'association that wanted to restore the pastoral ethos through quiet work in the pastors' circle. In his Church History , Paul M. Dahl reported about it:

About a hundred pastors of the Lutheran Comradeship met according to the “15. Letter to our friends ”of May 28, 1936 on May 13 for the General Assembly in the Anchark Church (Neumünster) . Regional Bishop Paulsen held the prayer and spoke about the dignity and burden of the ministry. In the parish hall, Wilhelm Stapel gave a lecture on the "Lutheran People's Church". Gottfried Horstmann submitted the report. About the Lutheran Comradeship he stated, among other things: “When the Confessional Movement ceased to be a movement and transformed into a church with fixed regulations and institutions, we stepped on the scene. We wanted to resist the destruction of our national church . We wanted to keep the unity of our regional church in its order; We also wanted a clear confession, but we wanted the confession according to the Lutheran view in all its positive attitude towards the state and the people. We honestly tried to stay away from the church political struggle and to combine one hundred percent forgiveness and readiness for peace with one hundred percent firmness and clarity of our own position. ”An exaggerated dialectical theology has the effect of destroying the church.

This 15th letter also contained a positive account of the community life in the seminary, which the vicars of the Confessional Movement had had to leave the previous year. Pastor Kähler-Flensburg took a detailed position against Gustav Frenssen's belief in the North Mark . Reports followed about the divorce of the spirits in the " German Faith Movement ", also some about the Luther Council and the Reich Church Committee. Hans Asmussen , against whose pointed pen and sharp tongue the comradeship was particularly allergic, was with his attacks on the Lutheran Council in the General Ev. Luth. Church newspaper quoted May 8th.

Organizationally, the members of the Lutheran Comradeship had broken away from the German Christians. They didn't want to have anything to do with the DC of the Hossenfeld and Krause type . Even more so one knew to be divorced from the national church DC of the Thuringian direction.

“What was gratifying about these endeavors was that they wanted to distance themselves from the earlier 'German Christians', although most of the people who supported them came from them. But the constraint of the situation inexorably drew them into the political waters of the Church; and since they did not want the Confessing Church, they decided against it. After all, there was now a not inconsiderable number of pastors who, often disappointed, stayed away from any new bond and followed the fight of the Confessing Church with growing understanding. "

- Wilhelm Halfmann : Church Development, 1937

BK participation in the regional church committee

The autumn of 1935 brought the state attempt to reach agreement on the church question through the committees; A regional church committee was also planned for Schleswig-Holstein. For the Confessing Church the question arose as to whether it could give its consent to a state-set church regiment. The decision was made so that she said yes to legal assistance from the state, but no to the commissioning of a state-set organ with the full management and representation of the church. This simultaneous yes and no was expressed in the demand that the spiritual leadership of the Confessing Church be legalized for the transition period; unfortunately this requirement was only partially and partially fulfilled. In 1936 (and again in 1937) a regional church committee was formed in which two members of the Confessing Church were, two representatives (including the regional bishop) for the other groups and a neutral chairman (lawyer). A member of the Confessing Church, Pastor Halfmann-Flensburg, to whom the Confessing Church delegated its spiritual leadership, was appointed to the regional church office; he was granted the right to ordain the candidates of the Confessing Church.

The fate of the regional church committee proceeded as the pessimists had prophesied: it failed because of its origin-related bondage, which the non-Confessing Church members and the Lutheran Comradeship who supported them voluntarily tied more firmly than necessary. With ministerial help, the presidium of the regional church office against the Confessing Church was filled, whose serious protest at the 2nd Synod of Confessions on August 18, 1936 in Bredeneek went into the wind. The work of the committee suffered greatly from the frequent absence of some of the members from the meetings; finally the strongest representative of the Confessing Church, Pastor Mohr , was ousted from the committee.

Concentration of power in the regional church office

The church regiment established in 1933 was also largely disempowered by the forces it had called itself. All church governmental power - within the limitation imposed by the 13th implementing ordinance - now belonged to the old consistorial element of the constitution, the regional church office. The episcopal office had practically no more leadership options: it had neither the chairmanship of the church government nor a seat in one, since there was no church government; the rest of the most essential bishop's right, the occupation of the parish, had been taken from him by the regional church committee and passed on to its legal successor, the president of the regional church office. The visitations had ceased years ago. The spiritual leadership of the Confessing Church had maintained a certain freedom, at least according to its claim, which had arisen in fundamental contradiction to the development outlined above.

Allies

BK membership in the Luther Council

The announcement of the church elections on February 15, 1937 brought a new impetus to the stagnating situation. The Confessing Church formally joined the Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany without wanting to take a decision against the provisional church leadership created by the 4th Synod of Confessions (Oeynhausen); as a Lutheran church, she had no other option to remain connected with the nascent church in the kingdom. On the basis of the Luther Council, an electoral service was founded in which members of the Schleswig-Holstein clergy also worked who, without being members of the Confessing Church, wanted to promote the connection of the entire regional church to the Luther Council.

Election movement in 1937

Halfmann's much-noticed pamphlet on the church election in 1937, which did not take place after all, with the title The Hour of the Evangelical Church , was the last offensive of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein.

Karl Ludwig Kohlwage: “Once again the spirit of freedom and sovereign argumentation is evident. Then it gets quieter. "

In preparation for the election, an “election movement” was formed. It led to a pleasant teamwork between many former opponents; In around 250 meetings, the parishes were called upon to decide in favor of the Evangelical Church on the basis of Article 1 of the Reich Church Constitution, often with great numerical success.

The electoral movement led to a further clarification: in addition to the 182 pastors of the Confessing Church who were in the parish, there were 108 who represented the program of the Lutheran Council. The “Lutheran Comradeship”, German Christians and neutrals shared among the 172 officers still active.

This remnant block, in which the Schleswig-Holstein particularism was kept, could not decide in favor of joining forces with the church-organized Lutheranism in Germany. The "Lutheran Comradeship" rejected not only the Confessing Church in all its branches, but also the advice of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany. She wanted to take a middle position to keep the door open for the Thuringians.

BK confirmation in Mölln 1937

An example of mutual help at that time was the so-called Möllner emergency confirmation of 1937. In January 1937, the bishop of the Lübeck regional church Erwin Balzer had forbidden several Lübeck pastors of the Confessing Church to continue to hold office. Their 163 confirmands were given on the evening of March 20, 1937, the evening before Palmarum , in an "emergency confirmation" in St. Nicolai (Mölln) , outside the sphere of influence of the Lübeck regional church in the Duchy of Lauenburg in Schleswig-Holstein , from the Flensburg pastor Ernst Mohr confirmed . Special trains of the Lübeck-Büchener Railway were used for the approximately 1000 people arriving from Lübeck for this service .

BK ordination in Ratzeburg 1938

On November 6, 1938, the ordination of 22 young candidates from the Confessing Church took place in the St. Petri Church (Ratzeburg) . For them it was about congregation and church, about the Bible and confession. The church government at that time was largely shaped by the zeitgeist of the Third Reich. In this situation, the Lauenburg special rights came to the aid of the candidates. The Lauenburg Landessuperintendent D. Lange had episcopal rights. He owned the young people's trust. So they asked him to ordain them in the Petri Church. Provost Langlo-Eckernförde and Pastor Halfmann-Flensburg assisted in the festive service. As far as these young pastors returned home from the war, after 1945 some good impulses for building up new church life came from them.

Serious conflicts 1938–1939

Resigned

The conflict over the peace prayer initiated by the Reichs-BK during the Sudeten crisis in 1938, when war threatened, turned into a disaster. The BK split the pros and cons, also in Schleswig-Holstein. Massive insults and threats from the SS , party and church ministry brought this action to a standstill. The fear of a state ban on the confessional movement grew. "Resignation to the omnipotence of the state threatens to take over," wrote Bielfeldt. Individuals realized more and more clearly that the actions of the state were aimed at destroying the church at all. On the other hand, it was a matter of standing together. The denominational community concentrated on the parishes and provosts.

“This development may have been one of the reasons why the BK remained silent on the night of the pogrom in 1938; it does not justify the state terror as a fateful consequence of Jewish collective guilt, as Bishop Paulsen does, but it remains silent. The persecuted Jews are not brothers, but strangers with whom one has nothing to do, they have no guardians and advocates in the BK, unlike later the insane and debilitants who were handed over to extermination medicine.

This silence has a long history, in which Pastor Halfmann's 1936 publication “The Church and the Jew” can be classified. This writing is not an anti-Semitic program, but a defense in a special situation. "

- Karl Ludwig Kohlwage : Lecture in Breklum, 2015

Unspeakable

With the Breklumer Heft 11 "The Church and the Jew", Halfmann had responded in 1936 to a party speaker who targeted the Protestant Church in several towns in Schleswig-Holstein, claiming that it was a "branch of the synagogue " and used the Old Testament to spread the word " Jewish poison ”. In Flensburg , the district administrator and police chief left the church, along with many others.

Halfmann changed the topic of a lecture that had already been worked out and defended himself against the defamation with anti-Jewish arguments, which are not acceptable today, but which did not prevent the Nazis from banning the script at the time.

The fact that Halfmann had ignored the protection of Christians of Jewish origin with her was immediately accused by a Hamburg congregation member. Halfmann had no sight of the baptized Jews. That was his weakness and that of the BK as a whole.

Before Halfmann, a young theologian of the BK, Dietrich Bonhoeffer , had already spoken out in a small essay with a similar title “The Church Before the Jewish Question”, albeit in a remote place. In the wake of the Lutheran doctrine of the two kingdoms , he said that the church “ cannot immediately interrupt the state in the Jewish question (i.e. in anti-Jewish legislation )”. But with this restraint and concession to the state, he combined the basic demand: "The church is absolutely indebted to the victims of every social order."

“At the time, the BK did not determine this prophetic foresight that challenges us to this day. The Grüber office in Berlin, which helped Jews to emigrate, however, indicated that Bonhoeffer was not entirely without consequences. "

- Karl Ludwig Kohlwage : Lecture in Breklum, 2015

Quarreled

There were considerable differences of opinion in the denominational community. Johannes Tonnesen- Altona and Johann Bielfeldt- Rendsburg, both of whom resigned from the fraternal council in 1936, were of the opinion that the fraternal council had to forego church government claims. In Schleswig-Holstein the confessional struggle against the “heresy” of the German Christians was won, but the ecclesiastical struggle for the right church order was lost because the state prevented this order and the Confessing Church had not confirmed its claim to sole representation. Church policy is not directly a matter of faith and cooperation under a state-appointed church regime is not to be viewed as a fundamental betrayal of faith.

Reinhard Wester , chairman of the brother council, in a letter dated April 19, 1938, however, expressed the opinion that the church regimental claim of the BK should be upheld: because the fight against the “heresy” was by no means won and the fight for church order and leadership was not lost .

The Brother Council met particularly strong criticism from some of the Altona BK pastors. As early as March 1938, Halfmann had received letters from Tonnesen and Peter Höhnke-Altona, who considered the brother council line to be impossible. The Altona pastors Georg Christiansen, Eduard Juhl , Höhnke and Tonnesen had submitted a letter to a group of 30 pastors demanding the resignation of the fraternal council. One demanded the classification in the organism of the regional church. Cooperation with the children's church regiment must be left to the individual BK pastors. The leader principle in the BK was rejected. In a discussion that followed, it was recommended to convert the denominational community into a working group and to seek a conversation with the other pastors.

The necessary clarification took place at a full assembly of the BK pastors in the Petruskirche in Kiel. In the guidelines developed for this purpose, Halfmann suggested giving up the remnants of church regiment and forming a spiritual leadership body. Johannes Tramsen -Innien, the president of the BK Synod, thought it wrong to give up the fighting community of the confessional front, even if the majority of the pastors could not be won. A "front broadening" with the middle group is not desired. The Confessing Church of Schleswig-Holstein must remain what it is: a protest movement against the "unchurch".

While Hans Asmussen advised a change of course, the brother council chairman Reinhard Wester said that the BK in Schleswig-Holstein had failed because it had not remained true to the findings of the Reich Confessional Synods, but that a "regulatory block" must remain in the church's disintegration and establish real church order. It was agreed that in view of the destruction of the regional church and the lack of a real church regiment, the Confessing Church must be maintained as an ecclesiastical protest movement, even though an emergency church regiment was made practically impossible for it. Creating a church way of life that was to be practiced within the BK was an urgent concern.

Pastor Halfmann joined the brother council, which was unanimously confirmed.

Confessing Church during the war 1939–1945

War mission as a probation field

In view of the Second World War , it was characteristic that the declarations and appeals of the denominational church did not contain anti-war or even pacifist statements. Not infrequently, the war effort was seen as a field of probation that helped to effectively refute political suspicion of the Church's work on the Confessional Front. The church struggle in the previous sense largely lost its importance due to the events of the war. Leading exponents of the church political groups were drafted. In Schleswig-Holstein, President Christian Kinder joined the Wehrmacht , but after being wounded he returned to his church leadership position in 1942 and then finally took over the post of university curator in Kiel in 1943. Reinhard Wester, Wilhelm Knuth-Hohenhorn and other younger BK pastors, who had been particularly active in the church struggle, also went to war. Pastor Tramsen, who later took over the chairmanship of the Brotherhood Council in Wester's place, and Pastor Halfmann sent a circular to the BK clergy at the beginning of August 1940, which wanted to promote cohesion and recommended the visiting service and the maintenance of the convents.

A BK synod no longer took place during the war, pastors 'and shop stewards' meetings became increasingly rare, the last one took place on June 28, 1943 in Hademarschen. 16 BK pastors took part in it. Pastor Volkmar Herntrich gave a lecture on “undesirable developments and new approaches in Luther's church”. After Pastor Tramsen died in 1943 after a long illness, Hans Treplin-Hademarschen took over the leadership of the Confessing Church of Schleswig-Holstein, as Wester was still in the Wehrmacht. The action of the regional bishop Theophil Wurm was judged positively by the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein.

The Confessing Church of Schleswig-Holstein also renounced the right to lead the entire regional church, which the Council of Brothers had long since given up. He kept it upright only for the BK members. With the progress of the unification action, the church leadership claim will be extinguished completely. A provisional committee, formed on May 13, 1943, stated in a circular signed by Bielfeldt, Karl Hasselmann- Flensburg, Halfmann, Arnold Lensch-Altona and Wolfgang Prehn-Eiderstedt that the church groups would have to disappear completely. As early as March 31, 1943, the assembly of representatives of the BK Schleswig-Holstein decided to dissolve the Confessing Church and to work with the regional church organs in full and regardless of the development of the unification work in the Reich.

In addition to the pastors of the Provost of Schleswig, a number of other clergymen also joined the unification movement in the regional church. However, the Confessing Church and Lutheran Comradeship did not join forces.

Special regulation with BK approval?

When, under pressure from above, some Protestant regional churches separated the Christians among the Jews, who were obliged to wear a star , from their ecclesiastical community, the Schleswig-Holstein regional church did not want to enact a law or an ordinance in this sense.

The church office president Christian Kinder found a "special regulation" with the approval of the BK: The congregation members of Jewish origin belonged to their own staff congregation and were no longer allowed to exercise their rights in the regional church as a public corporation. They were deported to a kind of “free church”, but the integrity of their baptism was not affected.

See also : Controversy about Bishop Halfmann's role in the Nazi era # BK approval for the exclusion of Jewish Christians

Whether the letter from Pastor Hans Treplin-Hademarschen to Provost Siemonsen -Schleswig of April 26, 1943, which has meanwhile been found, is evidence that the BK SH just did not support the special regulation , and what conclusions from it for Halfmann's attitude towards children after the war must be pulled is controversial.

Commitment of the Confessing Church after the war

Reorganization of the regional church

The new government president of Schleswig-Holstein, Theodor Steltzer , who was devoted to the Confessing Church, belongs to the conservative resistance group of the Kreisau district and was freed from the Moabit prison at the end of the war, and obtained permission from the British occupation authorities to hold church elections.

The church councils complemented themselves, elected the provisional provost synods, through which the provisional overall synod was elected, which began its deliberations on August 14, 1945 in Rendsburg, convened by an eleven committee of various groups. Mission director Martin Pörksen preached on an Old Testament text in the opening service. Count Rantzau-Breitenburg, who had been a member of the regional church council since 1943, was elected as synod president.

As representative of the provisional leadership of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Hans Asmussen gave a lecture on the “hour of the church”. Immediately after Asmussen, Wilhelm Halfmann spoke about "The present tasks of the Schleswig-Holstein Church" and developed the "script for a new beginning".

Despite some criticism of the Confessing Church, which the Synodal Provost Bestmann had described as a direction to which Lutheran comradeship stood on an equal footing, the leading men of the BK received the most votes in the upcoming elections.

"What should I do? There was a long list of assignments that needed to be fixed. How should that be done? How is agreement made on what is necessary? The same question arose twelve years earlier when the DC attacked: How is unity and the ability to act established in the defense against false teaching and the destruction of the gospel of Jesus Christ? The decision at that time was: We don't do it among ourselves, not in small groups, not just among pastors, but with synodal representation, in 'together on the way'. So there were two confessional synods in Schleswig-Holstein, despite the lack of legal provisions, a conscious rejection of the previous destruction of the synod. These Confessional Synods were the model for what happened after 1945, to rebuild, to shape the contours of the Church that corresponded to Scripture and Confession.

This synodal will, not only represented by the BK, is striking, possibly something special in the Reich. In any case, the BK in Schleswig-Holstein did not take the scepter in hand, did not claim sole representation at the start of a new business, but agreed that this new start should take place on a broader basis. Provost Hasselmann gave a fair judgment at the 1st Provisional Synod: 'The BK has acquired the right to steer the course of the Church', but the BK did not insist. "

- Karl Ludwig Kohlwage : Reconstruction and new beginning of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church after the end of the war , 2017

Reorganization of the theological faculty

In 1947, after the main features of the reorganization of the regional church had been laid down, the fraternal council of the Schleswig-Holstein BK started an initiative to reorganize the theological faculty in Kiel. He called on the church leadership to address "the matter of the faculty as the most important question at the moment that awaits a solution". Specifically, the Brothers' Council regretted "that men like the brothers Kurt Dietrich Schmidt and Engelland were not among the teachers, but Prof. Redeker was still among the teachers ." The State Brotherhood Council expressly pointed out that a theological faculty was being planned in Hamburg "and that this fact would have an unfavorable effect on attending the Kiel faculty". Stephan Linck presented the details and (late) consequences of this intervention by the State Brotherhood Council of the Schleswig-Holstein BK in his lecture on April 10, 2017 in Hamburg-Lokstedt. He came to the conclusion:

“When [1968] in the course of the disputes [about Martin Redeker] the students had prevailed and Redeker's retirement with all his functions and honorary posts, this also marked the end of the discussion about his Nazi theology. A deeper discussion With the theological conceptions of the German Christians and their aftermath after 1945, there was no more extensive reflection on anti-Semitism , which Redeker represented as a theologian. This was not a deliberate rejection and non-thematization, but rather was due to the fact that other topics were given greater importance in Kiel. "

The new way of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein

There was a Brother Council of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein at least until 1949. In that year the Brother Council in Flensburg was re-elected and met on May 31, 1949 for its first meeting in Schleswig . The new managing director Otto Thedens wrote to Pastor Ernst Fischer -Lütau from Breklum on June 8, 1949 , informing him that he had been elected as a deputy member of the brother council for Hans Asmussen . He added the brief as an annex: The new way of the BK in Schleswig-Holstein . For the members elected to the brother council Thedens, Jäger, von Kietzell, Kohlschmidt, Rönnau and Schmidt-Rickling were elected as deputies: Pörksen -Breklum, Brüger-Rendsburg, Thomsen-Flensburg, Brodersen-Flensburg, Moritzen-Schönkirchen and Schröder -Wohltorf.

Summary of the church struggle

Prevention of synchronization

The Confessing Church (BK) prevented the theology and the church from being appropriated by the NS state and the NS worldview . The synchronization of Ev. Church with this state and its ecclesiastical vassals did not succeed.

The BK countered the striking demand of Regional Bishop Paulsen “Church must be spirit of the spirit of the state and the will of its will” with a clear no: “We do not bind ourselves to what is right before the Nazi state and its ideology , we are bound to what is right before God. ”This motto became the distinctive mark of the BK in Schleswig-Holstein. This was not a political resistance, nor was it a slogan that excluded mistakes and wrong decisions, but an attitude that, in times of enthusiastic support for Nazi rule , created distance and maintained the ability to make one's own judgment.

From the beginning, the knowledge dominated in the BK: The dispute with the Nazi-conform theology of the German Christians (DC), documented in the DC guidelines, is not a conventional theologian dispute - according to the motto: This is how it is again and again among theologians, they get each other quickly and happily in the hair. Regarding this trivialization, the BK recognized early and very clearly in the Reich and Schleswig-Holstein: It is about being or not being of the Church of Jesus Christ.

The consequences of this in Schleswig-Holstein were the confessional service in Kiel in June 1934 , the birth of the BK as a community movement, and the first confessional synod a year later, a fundamental decision with long-term effects: fundamental questions of the church call for a synodal forum.

Affirming worship 1934 the Flensburg Pastor stepped Half man of heresy of DC, its ideology -Hörigkeit and their racism programmatically opposed: "In the moment when next to Christ another voice of God is preached and heard - the voice from the blood, from the race, from folklore, then Christ is no longer the word of God . Then the confession of the church 'Jesus Christ the Lord' is denied. Then the end of the church will be there. ”That was a challenge.

The struggle between confession and misbelief, whether or not Protestant Christianity in Germany was to be or not to be, was decided by the collapse of the Nazi state in 1945.

The church historian Kurt Dietrich Schmidt said shortly before his death in 1964: If “this natural folk and race religion” with its blood-and-soil ideology , with its theological justification of the Nazi state as a new revelation of God, with its God in the The depth of the German soul , with its abolition of the Old Testament and essential parts of the New Testament , with its rejection of so-called world Protestantism, i.e. ecumenism , if this religion had triumphed on a broad front and overrun the whole Protestant Church , “it would be over the being-a-church of the Protestant Church in Germany had happened. So that is the first and probably also the greatest that the initially small minority, from which the BK became, has achieved that the Evangelical Church remains 'Church'. "

Insights and Consequences

“Church must remain church!” Was the slogan of the church struggle. That was not a backward-looking slogan, although there were voices that in 1945 simply wanted to tie in with the time before 1933: We'll continue where we had to stop in 1933 and see the twelve years of Nazi rule as a kind of industrial accident. That did not work. The church struggle was not an episode triggered by an unfortunate incident that could now be ticked off, but rather forced a deep reflection: What makes the church the church?

Much of what the BK wanted only took on clear contours during the church struggle. This is how it always happens in disputes: You sharpen your understanding of what is necessary and binding and thus create something new. This clearly applies to the results of the church struggle. It has led to theological and institutional impulses of renewing and formative power:

• The theology was given as a written theology a new rank, and theology was confessio : Here I am!
• A new reading of the Bible began and was specifically encouraged.
• The core of the church was the order word and sacrament gathered community ( CA 7 ) - but always with a national church claim that BK was not focused on themselves Freikirche be.
• The separation of outer and inner, visible and invisible church turned out to be a disastrous access for political forces with chaotic consequences. This separation is wrong. “The message and legal order belong together” became a basic insight of the BK.
• The BK recognized and practiced their public relations mandate with passion and wit, in Schleswig-Holstein especially in the Breklumer Hefte : We are not an angle church!
• One focus in the struggle of the BK in Schleswig-Holstein was the office that must speak and act with authority in the name of God and whose qualification is of fundamental importance for this mission. This office must not fall into the hands of the church destroyers.
• Lay people are responsibly involved in the mission of the Church . Hans Treplin's peasants, who mocked the “Schietgott” of the Berlin DC delegates, also had a share in the church's mission to proclaim, as did the church elders in Havetoft , who delivered weekly sermons from the front with Otto von Stockhausen.

With the rejection of the Nazi state as a new revelation of God, the revelation of faith and the church, which constitutes and sustains the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, was rediscovered and attested, as the first Barmer thesis expresses in lasting conciseness.

Effects of the church struggle

The post-war lay movement , the qualification of non-theologians , the Kirchentag , the Ev. Academies , the culture of the public church have their roots in the church struggle . It also created new trust in the Church in circles that traditionally stood far from the Church, and laid the foundation for a new relationship between the Protestant and Catholic Churches.

The ecumenical effects of the church struggle are unmistakable: What would the Allies have done with a Protestant church that, like the LKA President Kinder or Bishop Paulsen, would have become an integral part of the Nazi system with skin and hair? Who could the ecumenical delegation have visited in October 1945 to stretch out a hand for a fresh start ?

In all of this, the cornerstones of a new beginning, a renewed church can be recognized. K. D. Schmidt's verdict was: "It will not be said too much that a real renewal was given to all of the Church."

“So that is the first and probably also the greatest thing that the initially small minority, from which the BK became, has achieved that the Protestant Church remained the Church. It was only a small minority that rose up with the slogan 'Church must remain church', and they had to prove this slogan through much misjudgment, disgrace and suffering. So it is indeed something great that she has achieved her goal. "

- Kurt Dietrich Schmidt

A church that was completely harmonized, a church as a servant of the Nazi worldview would have been a church that was switched off. The BK prevented this elimination, nationwide and in Schleswig-Holstein. Confessing Christians in Schleswig-Holstein recognized early on and more and more clearly that there can be no peace between the total state and the Church of Jesus Christ, only the either / or.

“KD Schmidt says: this is how boasting could end up. But boasting is not at the end of the church struggle. The 'hour of the church' in 1945 is determined by the Stuttgart confession of guilt , which says: 'What we have often testified to our congregations, we now express on behalf of the whole church: We accuse ourselves that we are not more courageously known, not prayed more faithfully, did not believe more joyfully and did not love more ardently. ' This word had to be at the end of the church struggle. But also the will: 'Now a new beginning should be made in our churches.'

'We haven't done enough' was also heard in the BK Schleswig-Holstein. But there is a big difference between 'doing nothing' and 'not doing enough'. We, the later born, grown up free and without pressure - at least in the West - can only look with respect and thanks to the decisiveness with which the BK recognized and accepted the challenge and into the struggle for the being or not of the church and the biblical Faith entered Germany. "

- Karl Ludwig Kohlwage : Lecture in Breklum, 2015

Members of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein (selection)

The members of the “confessional community of ev.-luth. Landeskirche Schleswig-Holstein “identified themselves at assemblies with a red membership card in order to keep unpleasant listeners or informers away. The brackets refer to speakers of the confessional community in the provosts or membership in the State Brotherhood Council (LBR):

• Hans-Albert Adolphsen (until October 27, 1936)
• Johannes Andersen
• Wilhelm Andersen
• Hans Asmussen
• Heinz Berner (Schleswig)
• Martin Bertheau (North Fishing)
• Karl Beuck
• Martin Beuck
• Johann Bielfeldt (Rendsburg; LBR)
• Hermann Boehrnsen
• Carl Ludwig Bossart
• Bernhard Bothmann (temporarily 1934)
• Wilhelm Caspari
• Christian Chalybaeus
• Reinfried Clasen
• Hans Claussen
• Hans Peter Claussen (South Tondern)
• Lorenz Claussen
• Paul M. Dahl
• Wilhelm Dethlefsen
• Johannes Diederichsen
• Ewald Dittmann
• Otto von Dorrien (Pinneberg)
• Johannes Drews (Norderdithmarschen)
• Hans Dunker
• Hans Engelland
• Martin Faehling (Lübeck-Eutin)
• Ernst Fischer
• Karl Frank (Munsterdorf)
• Meno Hach
• Wilhelm Halfmann (LBR)
• Rudolf Halver
• Georg Hansen
• Robert Hansen (South Fishing)
• Elisabeth Haseloff
• Ernst Henschen
• Volkmar Herntrich
• Friedrich Heyer
• Ernst Hildebrandt-Altona (LBR)
• Christian Hoeck (Stormarn)
• Rudolf Hoffmann
• Friedrich Huebner
• Hans-Werner Jensen
• Johannes Jessen
• Paul Gerhard Johanssen
• Detlev Juhl (Rantzau)
• Eduard Juhl
• Hans Kähler (Segeberg)
• Heinrich Kasch
• Wilhelm Knuth
• Karl Kobold (Plön)
• Helene Langlo
• Paul Lienau (Oldenburg)
• Johannes Lorentzen (Kiel; LBR)
• Wilhelm Lüneburg (Eiderstedt)
• Rosemarie Almond
• Carl Matthiesen
• Heinrich Meyer (Neumünster)
• Wolfgang Miether
• Ernst Mohr (LBR)
• Johannes Moritzen (Kiel)
• Rudolf Muuss
• Karl Nielsen-Kiel (LBR)
• Karl Niemöller- Hanerau (LBR)
• Anna Paulsen
• Alfred Petersen
• Arthur Petersen (Husum-Bredstedt)
• Peter Piening
• Theodor Pinn
• Friedrich Prahl
• Wolfgang Prehn (LBR)
• Erich Poerksen
• Martin Poerksen (LBR)
• Erich Rönnau (huts)
• Herbert Ruhberg
• Adolf Ruppelt
• Johann Schmidt
• Johannes Schmidt
• Kurt Dietrich Schmidt (LBR)
• Friedrich Schmidtpott (Süderdithmarschen)
• Julius Schniewind
• Friedrich Schröder
• Johannes Schröder
• Reinhard Schröder (Lauenburg)
• Willi Schwennen
• Friedrich Slotty
• Rudolf Sohrt
• Reimer H. Bacon
• Otto von Stockhausen
• Otto Thedens (Altona)
• Adolf Thomsen (Flensburg; LBR)
• Bernhard Thomsen-Plön (LBR)
• Christian Thomsen
• Johannes Tonnesen (LBR)
• Käthe Tonnesen
• Harald Torp (north fishing)
• Johannes Tramsen (LBR)
• Hans Treplin (LBR)
• Theodor Vierck
• Werner Vollborn
• Heinrich Voss
• Heinz-Dietrich Wendland
• Reinhard Wester (LBR)
• Heinz Zahrnt

The lists of the BK SH for the years 1934, 1936 and 1938 can be viewed on the website of the history workshop “Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein”. Paul M. Dahl: Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte also contains important personal data for BK members . The time of the church committees in the Ev.-Luth. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein 1935–1938. Manuscript completed in 1980, revised for the Internet and edited. by Matthias Dahl, Christian Dahl and Peter Godzik 2017 ( online version ), p. 114 ff.

Important quotes

" Resistance to the attempted extermination of faith by a totalitarian policy is one of the most important theological events of the 20th century."

- Volker Gerhardt : The sense of meaning. Experiment on the Divine, 2014, p. 336.

“The BK has done and achieved an astonishing amount in our country, but mainly in the narrower church area. It is not enough to say that it was beyond strength and how limited the options were in a totalitarian police state. Despite courageous submissions and memoranda, deplorable deficits remained in the public's perception of church responsibility. The disenfranchised, persecuted and Jews were not spoken out loud and clear enough. The BK was not free from failure, guilt and neglect either. "

- Paul M. Dahl : Experienced Church History, 1980

“When National Socialism tried to enforce its religion of race , blood and soil in our people, the church resisted the temptations and threats. Far beyond the circle of the Confessing Church , the first thesis of the famous Barmen Declaration of 1934 determined the basic tone of church sermons. ... At the moment of the German catastrophe in 1945, the church was not the despised bunch that Hitler wanted to make it into. For millions it became a place of comfort and erection. There was no new edition of the godless movement of 1925. Those who were distant also valued the church as a factor without which a new order could not be imagined. In the last decade, however, political, social, moral and revolutionary elements have flowed into and out of the sermon here and there. But the keynote of the evangelical sermon: ' Jesus Christ yesterday, today and the same forever' has remained. "

- Ernst Fischer : What has got better in the church in the last fifty years, 1975

“The Protestant Church must face its inner history, even where it causes pain. ... We have to free ourselves from at least two things: first from nationalism. ... We must also say goodbye to anti-Semitism, the epitome of inhumanity and outrageous arrogance towards fellow human beings. ... The German failure, the German guilt, is so monstrous at this point that a defiance has developed which, with a bad conscience, seeks justification. In view of the army of those killed, however, any justification is only a new desecration of the dead and, at the same time, the German name. "

- Wilhelm Halfmann : To Cope With Our Past, 1960

“In fact, the Church has been the only sociological greatness which as such, as a sociological greatness , has preserved its spiritual freedom as a whole. In the trade unions, the universities, the courts, in the army, individuals have also done this; you will never forget that. As a sociological variable, the groups mentioned were all brought into line or switched off. Only the church could evade it. Despite all the reluctance to do so, it has to be stated, and it is good that it can be stated.

But that must not be the last word that is said here. Earlier I described how Church leaders spoke out against the crimes of the Nazi era. And the word is the church's weapon of war! But one thing they didn't do, one thing didn't happen: a great public appeal to all who wanted to be Christians to stand up unanimously against the elementary violation of God's simplest commandments that happened: for example after Kristallnacht , on the question of euthanasia , for the final solution of the Jewish question or something similar.

The historian can ask whether that would have been promising at the time; he will probably even have to answer the question in the negative. But this no is at the same time the statement of an inner weakness of the church. However, this question is church actually illegitimate. The fact that only leaders of the churches took the floor in non-public petitions and that the churches as a whole did not stand up elementarily must be seen as part of their failure.

They were also aware of this, which is precisely why at the end of their path through the Nazi era in 1945 they made the Stuttgart confession of guilt , in which the main sentence is: 'What we have often witnessed to our congregations, we now speak on behalf of the whole Church from: We have fought for years against the spirit that found its terrible expression in the National Socialist regiment of violence, but we accuse ourselves that we did not confess more courageously, pray more faithfully, believe more happily and love more ardently. '

That had to be at the end. And that must be the last word today too. Because not when you bask in the splendor of what has happened and boast of your deeds, but only when you are aware of what has been neglected, you can hope to survive any new temptations better. "

- Kurt Dietrich Schmidt : The Church Resistance, 1964

See also

• Altona Confession
• Barmer Theological Declaration
• Confessing Church
• Breklumer booklets
• Evangelical weeks
• The parish church
• Church struggle
• Controversy about Bishop Halfmann's role in the Nazi era
• Ulm Declaration
• Resistance to National Socialism

swell

• Hermann Mulert : The task of the adult education center in relation to the contradictions of worldview in our people. H. Beyer & Sons, Langensalza 1921.
• Helmuth Schreiner : Christianity and the ethnic question. Wichern, Berlin-Dahlem 1925.
• Otto Baumgarten : cross and swastika. Klotz, Gotha 1926.
• Martin Fischer-Hübner: Can we still save our people? Lauenburgischer Heimatverlag, Ratzeburg 1926.
• Hans Asmussen : The distress of the country people (1928). Later reprinted in: Kleine Schriften (Life and Works IV). Die Spur, Berlin 1973, pp. 9–35.
• Karl Haack: We pastors and the ethnic question. In: Deutsches Pfarrerblatt 34 (1930), pp. 452–455, 467–469, 481–483.
• Wilhelm Halfmann : Church and Confession. An examination of liberal theology (1932). Later reprinted in: Sermons, Speeches, Essays, Letters. Compiled from the estate and edited by Wilhelm Otte, Karl Hauschildt and Eberhard Schwarz , ed. by Johann Schmidt . Kiel 1964, p. 73 ff.
• Wilhelm Knuth, Karl Hasselmann , Christian Thomsen, Johannes Tonnesen , Hans Asmussen : "Wake up, wake up, you German country". Four lectures on the Altona Confession with an explanatory preliminary remark. Rauhen Haus agency, Hamburg 1933.
• Hans Asmussen : New Confession? A contribution to the rebuilding of the church. Wichern, Berlin [May?] 1933.
• [ Assembly of stewards of the Pastors Emergency and Working Group]: Declaration of no confidence by 140 pastors to Regional Bishop Paulsen [December 6, 1933]. In: Johann Bielfeldt : The church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein 1933-1945. Göttingen 1964, p. 215 f. ( online ).
• Johann Bielfeldt, Volkmar Herntrich , Johannes Lorentzen , Kurt Dietrich Schmidt : Declaration of the pulpit by Schleswig-Holstein pastors on the 2nd Advent [10. December] 1933. In: Kurt Dietrich Schmidt (Hrsg.): The confessions and fundamental statements on the church question in 1933. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1934, pp. 89–91 ( online ).
• Johannes Tonnesen: The parish church as the hope of the pastors (=  The parish church , issue 1). Hans Harder, Altona (January 5) 1934.
• Volkmar Herntrich: A new way? Demonstration of the Schleswig-Holstein clergy in the Heiligengeist Church in Kiel on April 11, 1934. Sent in by the Brother Council of the Pastors' Emergency Association in Schleswig-Holstein. In: Junge Kirche 2 (1934), pp. 322–328 ( online ).
• Wilhelm Halfmann : Lutheran Church today. Lecture in the confessional service in the St. Nikolai Church in Kiel on June 3, 1934. In: Sermons, speeches, essays, letters. Compiled from the estate and edited by Wilhelm Otte, Karl Hauschildt and Eberhard Schwarz , ed. by Johann Schmidt. Kiel 1964, pp. 78-86 ( online ).
• Community Movement Lutheran Church in Schleswig-Holstein: Declaration in the confessional service on June 3, 1934. In: Kurt Dietrich Schmidt (Ed.): The Confessions and Basic Statements on the Church Question, Volume 2: The year 1934. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1935, p 99-101 ( online ).
• Hans Asmussen: The foundations of the Confessing Church. Postscript of a biblical address given in Dahlem on July 16, 1934. Burckhardthaus Verlag, Berlin-Dahlem 1934 (special print: Female Youth 1934 , issues 9 and 10).
• Brother Council of the Confessional Community (ed.): What is right before God. First Confessional Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein on July 17, 1935 in Kiel. Office of the confessional community, Westerland / Sylt 1935; including:
  • Pastor Halfmann, Flensburg: You judge for yourself whether it is right before God. Andacht , pp. 5–7 ( online ).
  • Pastor Wester , Westerland: The situation of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church and the responsibility of the community , pp. 8-18 ( online ).
  • Pastor Lic. Herntrich, Bethel: The legal issues in the structure of our denominational state church in Schleswig-Holstein , pp. 19–26 ( online ).
  • Pastor Lorentzen, Kiel: People's Mission of the Confessing Church , pp. 27–33 ( online ).
• Peter Piening (Ed.): In the stream or next to it? Wake-up calls for the departure of the church. Mission bookshop, Breklum 1935 ( online ).
• Reinhard Wester: The guardianship of the church. A sermon given on June 23, 1935 in the church in Westerland a. Sylt. Office for People's Mission, Breklum 1935 ( online ).
• People's mission work of the confessional community of the ev.-luth. Landeskirche Schleswig-Holstein: Breklumer Hefte 1–20, 1935–1941 as well as a special edition Die Nordmark im Glaubenskampf. An answer from the Church to Gustav Frenssen , Breklum 1936; Husum 2018 (new edition in one volume).
• State Brothers Council of the Confessing Church of Schleswig-Holstein (ed.): Peace - but in truth. Documents on the recent church history of Schleswig-Holstein. undated [1936] ( online ).
• Presidium of the Confession Synod (ed.): Church! Second Confessional Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Schleswig-Holstein on August 18, 1936 in Bredeneek / Preetz Castle. Office of the confessional community, Westerland / Sylt 1936; therein: Church , pp. 9–19 ( online ).
• Paul Gerhard Johanssen , Reinhard Wester: Handout for confirmation lessons. Considerations and experiences. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1937.
• Office for community development of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein: Guiding principles for the alignment of community work according to the Bible reading. In: Junge Kirche 5 (1937), p. 191 f.
• Office for community development of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein: Guiding principles for training church elders and church representatives. In: Junge Kirche 5 (1937), p. 279 ff.
• Wilhelm Halfmann: The church development in Schleswig-Holstein. In: Das Niederdeutsche Luthertum , H. 11 of June 3, 1937, pp. 168–174.
• Heinrich Kasch : The bridge to eternity. A guide to brave Christian faith for seekers of truth. Mission bookstore, Breklum 1939.
• Paul Gerhard Johanssen: Order of Church Life. Draft. In: Junge Kirche 7 (1939), pp. 52–58, 138–144, 231–237, 361–365, 456–462, 548–554, 650–656.
• Reinhard Wester: order of church life. Draft. In: Junge Kirche 7 (1939), pp. 773-780, 829-832, 888-893; 8 (1940) pp. 41-44.
• Johann Schmidt : Church people's mission? In: Das Niederdeutsche Luthertum No. 3/4 of February 6, 1941, pp. 27–30 ( online ).
• Otto von Stockhausen: Peasants in the pulpit. Havetofter experiences 1943 to 1945. Published by the Friends of the People's Mission in the North Elbian Ev.-Luth. Church eV Hamburg 1991.
• Wilhelm Halfmann: Sermon on November 12, 1944 in Mölln. LKAK, 98.04, NL Halfmann, A l, Sermons, Vol. 1944–1945 (H. accuses, among other things, the deification of his own race and the demonization of the Jewish people as "revolt against God").
• Hans Asmussen: The hour of the church. Lecture given at the first session of the preliminary general synod on August 14, 1945 in Rendsburg. In: Kurt Jürgensen : The hour of the church. The Ev.-Luth. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein in the first years after the Second World War. Neumünster 1976, pp. 265-276 ( online ).
• Wilhelm Halfmann: Church and public life. In: "Come Creator Spirit". Special publication on the occasion of the Evangelical Week in Flensburg from 7th to 12th September 1948 (supplement to the bi-monthly publication “For Work and Reflection”, 1st year, no. 5/6). Quell, Stuttgart 1948, pp. 146-150 ( online ).
• Wilhelm Halfmann: To come to terms with our past. In: Helmut Heeger (ed.): Faith and Education. Pedagogues and theologians in conversation. Festive gift for Gerhard Bohne on his 65th birthday. Ihloff & Co., Neumünster 1960, pp. 9-19; also in: Halfmann: Sermons, Speeches ... , pp. 135 ff. ( online ).
• Benjamin Hein: The Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Schleswig-Holstein. Data - facts - materials. For the 150th anniversary of the regional church office in Kiel (= writings of the regional church archive of the northern church, volume 3). Kiel 2017 ( online version ).

literature

• Paul M. Dahl: Church in Struggle , in: Evangelical Lutheran Church Newspaper , Berlin 1954, No. 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22.
• Paul M. Dahl: Church fight 20 years ago , in: Information sheet for congregations in the Low German Lutheran regional churches , August 1955 (deals with the events of the Preetz seminary in June 1935).
• Kurt Dietrich Schmidt : Introduction to the history of the church struggle in the National Socialist era . [A series of lectures, typewritten. 1960, with handwritten corrections until 1964; posthumously] published and provided with an afterword by Jobst Reller, Hermannsburg: Ludwig-Harms-Haus, 2nd edition 2010.
• Kurt Dietrich Schmidt: Questions about the structure of the Confessing Church (1962) , in: Collected essays . Edited by Manfred Jacobs , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1967, pp. 267–293 ( online version ).
• Johann Bielfeldt : The Church Fight in Schleswig-Holstein 1933–1945 (dedicated to the memory of Bishop D. Wilhelm Halfmann) , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1964.
• Christian children : New contributions to the history of the Protestant Church in Schleswig-Holstein and in the Reich 1924–1945 . Flensburg: Karfeld 1964 (1966 ² ; 1968 ³ )
• Karl Friedrich Reimers: Lübeck in the church struggle of the Third Reich. National Socialist leader principle and Evangelical Lutheran regional church from 1933 to 1945. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1964 (on “Möllner Notkonfirmation” pp. 341–344).
• Johann Bielfeldt: The attitude of the Schleswig-Holstein Brother Council in the church fight , in: Ernst Wolf , Heinz Brunotte (Hrsg.): To the history of the church fight. Collected essays (works on the history of the church struggle , volume 15) , Göttingen 1965, pp. 173–188.
• Kurt Meier : Church and Judaism. The attitude of the Protestant Church to the Jewish policy of the Third Reich , Halle (Saale): VEB Max Niemeyer 1968.
• Hans-Jörg Reese: Confession and Confession. From the 19th century to the church struggle of the National Socialist era (work on the history of the church struggle, vol. 28) , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1974.
• Kurt Meier: On the church fight in the Ev.-luth. Landeskirche Schleswig-Holstein , in: The Protestant Church Struggle. Complete presentation in three volumes , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1976–1984, Volume 1: pp. 360–372 ; Volume 2: pp. 260-269 ; Volume 3: pp. 389-393 .
• Klaus Scholder : The Churches and the Third Reich, Volume 1: Prehistory and Time of Illusions 1918–1934 , Frankfurt / M., Berlin, Vienna 1977 (on Schleswig-Holstein especially p. 688).
• Johannes Moritzen: I walked in nine gardens. A life report , Breklum: Breklumer Verlag 1979, esp. Pp. 90-118.
• Paul M. Dahl: Experienced church history. The time of the church committees in the Ev.-Luth. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein 1935–1938. Manuscript completed in 1980, revised for the Internet and edited. by Matthias Dahl, Christian Dahl and Peter Godzik 2017 ( online version ).
• Jens Motschmann : Cross and swastika. Church fight in Schleswig-Holstein 1933–1945 , in: Church between the seas. Contributions to the history and shape of the North Elbian Church , Heide: Boyens & Co. 1981, pp. 177–209.
• Johann Schmidt : What is right before God. Lecture given in August 1981 in Kiel-Holtenau , in: Kurt Juergensen, Friedrich-Otto Scharbau , Werner H. Schmidt (eds.): Praise God that is our office. Contributions to a key word (memorial by Johann Schmidt) , Kiel 1984, pp. 9–21.
• Gerhard Hoch : The brown synod. A document of church infidelity , Bad Bramstedt: Roland 1982.
• Rudolf Rietzler : "Battle in the North Mark". The rise of National Socialism in Schleswig-Holstein (1919–1928) , Neumünster: Wachholtz 1982.
• Rudolf Rietzler: From “Political Neutrality” to the “Brown Synod”. Evangelical Church and National Socialism in Schleswig-Holstein (1930–1933) , in: ZSHG 107/1982, pp. 139–153.
• Erich Hoffmann, Peter Wulf (Ed.): “We are building the empire”. Rise and first years of rule of National Socialism in Schleswig-Holstein , Neumünster 1983 (table of contents online ).
• Theodor Pinn : Seven arrests. Memories of an ev.-luth. Pastors to the Nazi era in Schleswig-Holstein , Preetz: Hansen 1983.
• Hermann Augustin (Ed.): Country, hear the word of the Lord. Ev.-Luth. Church and churches in the Duchy of Lauenburg , Lübeck: Schmidt-Römhild 1984, p. 221 f.
• Urs J. Diederichs, Hans-Hermann Wiebe (ed.): Schleswig-Holstein under the swastika , Bad Segeberg: Ev. Academy North Elbia n.d. [1985]
• Wolfgang Prehn (Ed.): Time to walk the narrow path. Witnesses report on the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein , Kiel: Lutherische Verlagsgesellschaft 1985 (table of contents online ).
• Christian Dethleffsen: Pastoral existence in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. The “brotherhood of young theologians” in Schleswig-Holstein 1929–1933 , in: Klauspeter Reumann (Ed.): Church and National Socialism. Contributions to the history of the church struggle in the Protestant regional churches of Schleswig-Holstein , Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz 1988, pp. 49–70.
• Klauspeter Reumann (Ed.): Church and National Socialism. Contributions to the history of the church struggle in the Protestant regional churches of Schleswig-Holstein , Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz 1988 (table of contents online ).
• Axel Schildt : "Now all the great powers of order and civilization are shattered in the rubble". The public debate with the “Third Reich” in Schleswig-Holstein after 1945 - with special consideration of statements from the Evangelical Lutheran Church , in: ZSHG 119 (1994) 262–276.
• Klauspeter Reumann: Halfmann's work “The Church and the Jew” from 1936 , in: Association for Schleswig-Holstein History (ed.): 100 Years Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History (Writings of the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History, Series II, Volume 48) , Neumünster 1996.
• Klauspeter Reumann: The church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein from 1933 to 1945 , in: Schleswig-Holstein Church history. Vol. 6/1: Church between self-assertion and external determination , Neumünster 1998, pp. 111–451.
• Klauspeter Reumann: The Schleswig provost Hermann Siemonsen : Victims and conquerors of the church struggle 1933-1945 , in: Contributions to Schleswig city history , vol. 47, Schleswig: Society for Schleswig city history 2002, pp 89-104.
• Rainer Hering : "Falling into an anti-Christian demonia". The Evangelical Lutheran churches north of the Elbe and the National Socialist past , in: Bea Lundt (Hrsg.): Nordlichter. Historical awareness and historical myths north of the Elbe . Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2004.
• Klauspeter Reumann: "... branches of the Jewish synagogue". On the creation of Wilhelm Halfmann's “The Church and the Jew” 1936 , in: Grenzfriedenshefte , no. 3, Flensburg 2004, pp. 163–178.
• Peter Longerich : “We didn't know anything about it!” The Germans and the Persecution of Jews 1933–1945 , Munich: Siedler 2006.
• Klauspeter Reumann: Church struggle as a struggle for the "middle". The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein , in: Manfred Gailus , Wolfgang Krogel: From the Babylonian captivity of the church in the national. Regional studies on Protestantism, National Socialism and post-war history 1930 to 2000 , Berlin: Wichern 2006, pp. 29–58 (therein: state of research and summary ).
• Daniel Bormuth: The German Evangelical Church Days in the Weimar Republic , Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 2007.
• Johannes Jürgensen: Church and National Socialism - Challenges of the clergy in the spring of 1933 , in: Dietrich Werner (Ed.): No future without memory. Contributions to Breklum mission and regional history , Neumünster: Wachholtz 2007, pp. 209–235.
• Karl Friedrich Reimers: The Möllner Emergency Confirmation , in: Lauenburgische Heimat 175 (2007), pp. 3–22.
• Klauspeter Reumann: Confessing Church and Breklum Mission in the Church Struggle 1933 to 1945 , in: Dietrich Werner (Ed.): No future without memory. Contributions to Breklum mission and regional history , Neumünster: Wachholtz 2007, pp. 237–268.
• Uwe Martin: Lebenskreise , Berlin: epubli 2012, pp. 16–19.
• Stephan Linck: New beginnings? How the Evangelical Church deals with the Nazi past and its relationship to Judaism. The regional churches in North Elbe , 2 volumes, Kiel 2013 and 2016.
• Frank Schlicht: Against the current. The role of Ev.-Luth. Diakonissenanstalt zu Flensburg in the time of National Socialism , Flensburg: Ev.-Luth. Deaconess Institution 2014.
• Karl Ludwig Kohlwage : The theological criticism of the Confessing Church of the German Christians and National Socialism and the importance of the Confessing Church for the reorientation after 1945 , in: Karl Ludwig Kohlwage, Manfred Kamper, Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (ed.): “Was vor God is right ”. Church struggle and theological foundation for the new beginning of the church in Schleswig-Holstein after 1945. Documentation of a conference in Breklum 2015 , Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2015, pp. 15–36 ( online version ).
• Uwe Pörksen : Breklehem. Novel of a village , Husum 2016.
• Claudia Tanck: In difficult times: Lübeck's Church in the 20th century until 1945 , in: Salt of the Earth - Light of the World. Evangelical Lutheran Church between Trave and Elbe , Rostock: Hinstorff 2016, pp. 54–62.
• Wolfgang Thielmann : Not to be forgotten. The Northern Church is working on its Nazi past - and for some that goes too far , in: Die Zeit No. 5/2016.
• Karl Ludwig Kohlwage: Which church did the BK want - and what has become of it? Reconstruction and new beginning of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church after the end of the war , in: Karl Ludwig Kohlwage, Manfred Kamper, Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (eds.): “What he tells you, it does!” The reconstruction of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church after the Second World War . Documentation of a conference in Breklum 2017 , Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2018, pp. 18–35 ( online version ).
• Karl Ludwig Kohlwage, Manfred Kamper, Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (eds.): “You will be my witnesses!” Voices for the preservation of a denominational church in urgent times. The Breklumer Hefte of the ev.-luth. Confessional community in Schleswig-Holstein from 1935 to 1941. Sources on the history of the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein . Compiled and edited by Peter Godzik , Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2018.

Web links

• Literature from and about the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website of the history workshop "The Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein"
• The virtual museum: Faith and Church ( online )
• Stephan Linck: Christians and Jews 1933–1945. The Evangelical Lutheran Church under National Socialism ( online ).
• Wolfgang Thielmann : Not to be forgotten. The Northern Church is working on its Nazi past - and for some that goes too far , in: Die Zeit No. 5/2016.
• Johannes Tuchel : There was no church resistance to Hitler . Interview of July 17, 2019 with Franziska Hein in the Evangelische Zeitung.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Time travel online
2. ↑ ^{a b c} See: Benjamin Hein: The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein. Data - facts - materials. On the 150th anniversary of the Regional Church Office in Kiel (Writings of the Regional Church Archives of the North Church, Volume 3) , Kiel 2017, p. 13 ff.
3. ^ Prussian State Church Treaty online
4. ↑ See also: Gottfried Mehnert: The Church in Schleswig-Holstein. An outline of a church history , Kiel 1960, pp. 137 and 143.
5. ↑ The Lauenburg regional superintendent Ernst Fischer wrote in 1975 looking back on those years: “The year 1925 was the absolute low point. The aftermath of the First World War became visible. The church had identified itself too much with the emperor, war and victory for people to expect anything from the sermon after the horror of the war and the defeat of 1918. However, something new was already emerging in the dark. In an exciting book about the Letter to the Romans, the theologian Karl Barth recognized 'God as the very other', very different from what people imagine and wish for him. That Martin Luther speaks of 'the hidden God' has been rediscovered. God's revelation in Christ crucified alone began to become the focus of the sermon again. When National Socialism tried to enforce its religion of race, blood and soil in our people, the church resisted the temptations and threats. Far beyond the circle of the Confessing Church, the first thesis of the famous Barmer Declaration of 1934 determined the basic tone of the church sermon ... "(printed in: Breklumer Volkskalender 1975)
6. ↑ Quoted from Stephan Linck: “Outcry of a tormented and enslaved people”. Anti-Semitism and völkisch thinking in the Evangelical Lutheran. Landeskirche Schleswig-Holstein at the time of the Weimar Republic , in: Informations zur Schleswig-Holsteinische Zeitgeschichte 52/53 (2010/2011), p. 4–15, here: p. 12.
7. ↑ http://www.geschichte-bk-sh.de/index.php?id=421
8. ^ For Schleswig-Holstein: On the history of the evangelical people's mission (compiled by Peter Godzik in May 2017)
9. ^ For Schleswig-Holstein: Association of the Communities in the Evangelical Church in Schleswig-Holstein
10. ↑ Halfmann had a very idiosyncratic view of Karl Barth's "dialectical theology" . For him, Barth was not only the "father of the confessional front", but also a stimulus for German-Christian thinking. He wrote in 1937: “It would be the subject of an interesting study of our own as to how the ecclesiastical forces that existed at the time were distributed among the 'German Christians' and the Confessing Church emerging from the opposition. The antithesis of the two did not and does not coincide with the antithesis of liberals and orthodox. These old contradictions were in full meltdown in the intensive theological work of the post-war period; but the turnaround of 1933 cut organic development and challenged immediate decisions. By 1933, Karl Barth had perhaps given as much inspiration for German-Christian as for denominational thinking. His grim criticism of traditional churchism, his one-sided doctrine of justification while neglecting sanctification, his relativization of earthly values ​​gave the 'German Christians' free rein to treat traditional churchism as something secular that had no other relationship with the otherworldly word of God without inhibiting piety than that of the 'crisis'. The doctrine of revelation had an effect above all on the confessional theologians; The relativization of earthly values ​​did not appear to them, like the 'German Christians', as the permission to single out and exaggerate an earthly value at will, but as a critical omen for all earthly values, including national ones. Barth is not only the 'father of the confessional front'. "(Wilhelm Halfmann: The Church Development in Schleswig-Holstein , in: Das Niederdeutsche Luthertum , H. 11 of June 3, 1937, pp. 168-174, here p. 169)
11. ↑ Christian Dethleffsen: Pastoral existence in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. The “brotherhood of young theologians” in Schleswig-Holstein 1929–1933 , in: Klauspeter Reumann (Ed.): Church and National Socialism. Contributions to the history of the church struggle in the Protestant regional churches of Schleswig-Holstein , Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz 1988, pp. 49–70.
12. ↑ Johannes Jürgensen: Church and National Socialism - Challenges of the clergy in the spring of 1933 , in: Dietrich Werner (Ed.): No future without memory. Contributions to Breklum mission and regional history , Neumünster: Wachholtz 2007, pp. 209–235.
13. ↑ Johannes Moritzen: In nine gardens my foot went ... , 1979, p. 82.
14. ↑ Guidelines of the "Faith Movement German Christians" ( online )
15. ↑ Kohlwage in: “What is right before God” , 2015, p. 18.
16. ↑ Hans Asmussen: New Confession? A contribution to the new building of the church , Berlin: Wichern [May?] 1933, p. 21.
17. ^ Paul M. Dahl: Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte ... , 1980/2017, p. 15; see the website "Publications by Hans Asmussen" ( online ).
18. ↑ Klauspeter Reumann: Der Kirchenkampf in Schleswig-Holstein ... , 1998, p. 166.
19. ↑ Printed in: Hamburgische Kirchenzeitung from May 20, 1933 ( online ).
20. ↑ Jens-Hinrich Pörksen in: “What is right before God” , 2015, p. 136.
21. ↑ Paul M. Dahl: Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte ... , 1980/2017, p. 15 f.
22. ^ Biogram Nikolaus Christiansen
23. ↑ See the website for the church election on July 23, 1933 ( online )
24. ↑ Wilhelm Halfmann: The Church Development in Schleswig-Holstein , in: Das Niederdeutsche Luthertum , H. 11 of June 3, 1937, pp. 168-174, here p. 168 (LKAK, 98.031 No. 401).
25. ↑ Paul M. Dahl: “Gathered in Rendsburg on 19./20. October an emergency and working group of Schleswig-Holstein pastors. At first there were 70, the 'Septuagint', on December 6, 1933 140 was reported. The regional church had also suffered considerable tremors from the state commissioner's office, the election of the church, the brown synod, and the removal of bishops and provosts. "( Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte , 1980, p. 16.)
26. ^ [Confidential Assembly of the Pastors Emergency and Working Group]: Declaration of no confidence by 140 pastors to Bishop Paulsen [from December 6, 1933] , in: Johann Bielfeldt : Der Kirchenkampf in Schleswig-Holstein 1933–1945 , Göttingen 1964, p. 215 f.
27. ^ Biogram Wolfgang Prehn
28. ^ Biogram of Adolf Thomsen
29. ↑ Biogram Hans Treplin
30. ↑ Paul M. Dahl: Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte ... , 1980/2017, p. 16. From p. 114 ff. More detailed information on the named persons ( online ).
31. ↑ The liberal theologian Hermann Mulert was concerned about the repeated assurances at the Pastors' Emergency League that they were firmly on the ground of the "Third Reich"; and he was of the opinion that the will to power that dominated the National Socialists and German Christians, and the sense of authority, which gradually became strong among the "dialecticians", were related intellectual attitudes. This led to the fact that Mulert, the staunch democrat and committed supporter of the Weimar Republic, was undesirable in circles of the Confessing Church, "which throws a significant light on this ecclesiastical political movement, which is shaped by the so-called dialectical theology". In 1943, Mulert joined the Quakers . (Hasko v. Bassi: Review: Hermann Mulert. Life picture of a liberal theologian from Kiel. Compiled and edited by M. Wolfes. Ed. By the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History, Neumünster 2000. In: ThLZ 127, 2002, Sp. 1325 online ).
32. ↑ The Young Reformers had concluded a theological truce among themselves and on this basis were able to bind a broad spectrum together. They saw themselves as "the theological and missionary forces who had for years consciously acted in a renewing way out of the Gospel and the Reformation rethinking" ( memorandum of the JB on their position on the Reich Bishop's question , p. 2). But there was still a long way to go to achieve a real rethink. The majority of the representatives of the JB were shaped by neo-Lutheranism , which was based on order theological approaches. In relation to the state, many young reformers expressly support a national anti-parliamentary course. Issue 1 of the magazine Junge Kirche even advertised on page 9 for a “Working Group of National Socialists in the JB”. The national turning point was also exaggerated historically theologically, for example in the intent of the “appeal”, as “the new day of the German nation given to us by God”. The Luther quote on the title page of the first Junge Kirche is to be understood in this line. Hanns Lilje took it up again later and referred it far more carefully to the current situation: “We are truly filled with the seriousness of church history that lies over such an hour of the broadest popular awakening” ( Junge Kirche 33,143). It was agreed that “action should be taken solely from the nature of the Church” (point 1 of the “Appeal”). What could that mean with a theological range between on the one hand Friedrich Gogarten , who still carried out the “unity of gospel and nationality” in 1933 (cf. Heinrich Vogel's analysis in Junge Kirche 33,333-340), and on the other hand Dietrich Bonhoeffer , whose group became increasingly involved and who, as is well known, turned against the persecution of the Jews early on? First of all, the main thing was that the DC, with their direct identification with the Nazi state, should be kept out of the leadership of the churches. Second, there was consensus within the church to reject racist principles. But the state was seen as an area subject to its own legality. The attitude towards the anti-Semitic measures remained at least unclear when it says: “We profess our faith in the Holy Spirit and therefore fundamentally reject the exclusion of non-Aryans from the Church; because it is based on a confusion of state and church. The state has to judge, the church has to save ”( appeal , point 7). (Silvia Wagner: “We fight for a confessing church”. Junge Kirche 1933–1941 , in: Junge Kirche 2003, issue 1: 70 years of the Junge Kirche , pp. 5–14, here pp. 6 f.)
33. ↑ See the website "Breklum" ( online )
34. ↑ See the website "Flensburg" ( online )
35. ↑ See the website “Church Understanding” ( online ), especially Otto Dibelius : Das Jahrhundert der Kirche , Berlin 1927. Programmatic: not “God and the soul” ( Harnack ), but Christ and the Church!
36. ↑ See also the website "DC publications across the empire" ( online )
37. ↑ Halfmann: The Church Development ... , 1937, p. 169 f.
38. ↑ See: Volkmar Herntrich: A New Way? Demonstration of the Schleswig-Holstein pastors in the Heiligengeist Church in Kiel on April 11, 1934. Sent in by the Brother Council of the Pastors' Emergency Association in Schleswig-Holstein , in: Junge Kirche 2 (1934) 322–328.
39. ↑ This refers to Christian Kinder and Nicolaus Christiansen. Kinder held the office of Reich Leader of the German Christians from 1933 to 1935. In 1933/34 the Reich Church Government tried to win Christiansen over for various tasks and to “borrow” it from Kiel. The increasing "alienation" is likely to have led to resentment in the regional church office, so that the office was already in 1935, the transfer of Christiansen into retirement. (Hein: data - facts - materials , p. 21 f.)
40. ↑ ^{a b c} Halfmann: The Church Development ... , 1937, p. 170.
41. ^ Halfmann: Lutheran Church today , 1934 ( online ).
42. ^ Declaration by the Lutheran Church community movement in Schleswig-Holstein in the confessional service on June 3, 1934 , in: Kurt Dietrich Schmidt (Ed.): The Confessions and Basic Statements on the Church Question, Volume 2: The Year 1934 , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1935, Pp. 99-101.
43. ↑ Halfmann: The Church Development ... , 1937, p. 169.
44. ^ Kurt Meier: The evangelical church fight. Complete presentation in three volumes , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1976–1984. Volume 2: Failed attempts at reorganization under the sign of state “legal aid” , 1976, pp. 260–269, here p. 268 f.
45. ↑ ^{a b} See also Paul M. Dahl: Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte ... , 1980, p. 22 ff.
46. ^ ^{A b} Halfmann: The Church Development ... , 1937, p. 171.
47. ↑ online version
48. ↑ See: “In the Confessing Church” using the example of Johannes Schröder ( online ).
49. ^ Johann Bielfeldt: The Church Fight in Schleswig-Holstein 1933–1945 , Göttingen 1964, p. 191.
50. ↑ See: Uwe Pörksen: Breklehem. Novel of a village , Husum 2016.
51. ↑ Kohlwage in: "What is right before God ..." , 2015, p. 27 ( online ).
52. ↑ See also: Paul Gerhard Johanssen, Reinhard Wester: handout for confirmation classes. Considerations and experiences , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1937.
53. ↑ See also: Paul Gerhard Johanssen: Order of Church Life. Draft , in: Junge Kirche 7 (1939) 52–58; 138-144; 231-237; 361-365; 456-462; 548-554; 650-656; and: Reinhard Wester: Order of Church Life. Draft , in: Junge Kirche 7 (1939) 773–780; 829-832; 888-893; 8 (1940) 41-44.
54. ^ Johann Bielfeldt: The Church Fight in Schleswig-Holstein 1933-1945 , Göttingen 1964, p. 192.
55. ↑ Summary in AugsburgWiki ( online ).
56. ↑ Halfmann: “Above all, the almost completely broken work on the Protestant youth was resumed and carried out with increasing success; there was a crowd of more than a thousand young people gathered at the one of the two Ascension Meetings of that year. "( The Church Development in Schleswig-Holstein , 1937)
57. ↑ Life data of Max Ehmsen online
58. ↑ Johannes Jürgensen in: "What is right before God ..." , 2015, p. 217.
59. ↑ From work for work , reprinted in: Wolfgang Prehn (Hrsg.): Time to go the narrow way. Witnesses report on the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein , Kiel 1985, pp. 59–63.
60. ↑ http://www.alfakom.se/specks/speck,reimerhans.htm
61. ↑ Martin Pörksen: Johann Schmidt as a people's missionary , in: Kurt Jürgensen, Friedrich-Otto Scharbau, Werner H. Schmidt (ed.): Praise God that is our office. Contributions to a key word (memorial by Johann Schmidt) , Kiel 1984, pp. 35–48, especially p. 35.
62. ↑ See the website "Publications of the ethnic-religious groups (and answers from the BK)" ( online )
63. ↑ Otto Dibelius: Frenssen's Farewell to Christianity , in: The North Mark in the Faith Struggle. An answer from the church to Gustav Frenssen . Edited by J. Lorentzen, Pastor in Kiel, [Breklum 1936] ( online ).
64. ↑ Kohlwage in: "What is right before God ..." , 2015, p. 28 ( online ).
65. ↑ See also Paul M. Dahl: Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte ... , 1980, p. 11 f.
66. ↑ Paul M. Dahl: Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte ... , 1980, p. 12 ff.
67. ↑ Horstmann's biogram online
68. ↑ See: Gabriele Romig: Pastor Heinrich Kähler. A Schleswig-Holstein theologian caught between national and ecclesiastical renewal during the First World War, the Weimar Republic and National Socialism , Flensburg: GFS 1988.
69. ^ Presidium of the Confession Synod (ed.): Church! Second Confessional Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein on August 18, 1936 in Bredeneek / Preetz Castle , Westerland / Sylt: Office of the Confessional Community 1936.
70. ^ ^{A b} Halfmann: The Church Development ... , 1937, p. 172.
71. ↑ Text of the 13th implementing regulation ( online)
72. ↑ See Paul M. Dahl: Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte ... , 1980, p. 92 ff.
73. ↑ https://de.evangelischer- Resistance.de/html/view.php?type=dokument&id=89
74. ↑ Breklumer Heft 12: The hour of the Protestant Church . By Pastor Wilhelm Halfmann, Oberkonsistorialrat commiss. in Kiel, Office for People's Mission, Breklum 1937 ( online ).
75. ↑ Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 32.
76. ↑ See: Klauspeter Reumann: Church fight as a struggle for the "middle". The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein , in: Manfred Gailus , Wolfgang Krogel: From the Babylonian captivity of the church in the national. Regional studies on Protestantism, National Socialism and post-war history 1930 to 2000 , Berlin: Wichern 2006, pp. 29–58.
77. ↑ The address by Pastor Dr. Mohr is accessible online at geschichte-bk-sh.de .
78. ↑ Details from Karl Friedrich Reimers: Lübeck in the church fight of the Third Reich. National Socialist leader principle and Evangelical Lutheran regional church from 1933 to 1945. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1964, pp. 341–344.
79. ^ Hermann Augustin (Ed.): Land, hear the Lord's word. Ev.-Luth. Church and churches in the Duchy of Lauenburg , Lübeck: Schmidt-Römhild 1984, p. 221 f.
80. ↑ But she was told something, e.g. B. in the spring of 1940 by Edmund Schlink on a spare time of Schleswig-Holstein pastors in Breklum: The Annunciation of the Church in War , in: Confessing Church and World ( Das christliche Deutschland 1933–1945 . Documents and testimonies. Evangelical series: Issue 10) , Tübingen: Furche 1947, pp. 54-68.
81. ↑ Kohlwage in: “What is right before God” , 2015, p. 32 f. ( online )
82. ↑ Breklumer Heft 11: The Church and the Jew . By Pastor Wilhelm Halfmann, Oberkonsistorialrat commiss. in Kiel [1936] ( online ).
83. ↑ Even today, Halfmann's statements on the Jewish question are often misunderstood. A theologically based anti-Judaism then easily turns into - possibly even racist (mis) understood - anti-Semitism , which Halfmann did not represent. In 1944 he called "the deification of one's own race and the demonization of the Jewish" in the Möllner sermon on November 12, an "uprising against God" (LKAK 98.04, NL Halfmann, AI). And in 1960, in a lecture to Protestant teachers, he described anti-Semitism as “arrogance over fellow human beings” (in: Sermons, Reden, Essays, Letters , 1964, p. 142).
84. ↑ Kohlwage in: “What is right before God” , 2015, p. 33 ( online ).
85. ↑ In: “Der Vormarsch” , June 1933, pp. 171–176 (DBW 12, 349–358; online ).
86. ↑ Günter Brakelmann : “In 1933/34, the assembled church elite believed in subjectively honest conviction that they could combine legal and social exclusion with the practice of humane aliens and minority rights. Repression yes - persecution no; Abolition of emancipation yes - total lawlessness no. It is believed that this distinction is feasible. The Jewish policy of the Volkish State is on the whole legitimate for the representatives of the Church. According to their understanding of authority, there can be no general resistance to legal regulatory policy for them. The church can only exhort to enforce the rigor of the law without individual inhumanity. In 1933/34 there was an intensive discussion in the church about the Jewish question and the Jewish-Christian question. It is therefore astonishing that Barmen's later Theological Declaration does not address these issues. In this way, a crucial current political and legal issue was again faded out of the church's public speeches. Two motives for this silence are likely to be mixed: the traditional recognition of the decisions of the authorities and the concern not to find a consensus between the theological positions on the Jewish question. ”( Der Weg nach Barmen , 2010, p. 45.)
87. ^ "What is right before God" , 2015, p. 33 ( online ).
88. ↑ Bielfeldt: Der Kirchenkampf ... , 1964, p. 169 ff.
89. ↑ Meier: Der Evangelische Kirchenkampf ... , Volume 3, 1984, p. 390 f.
90. ↑ Meier: Der evangelische Kirchenkampf ... , Volume 3, 1984, p. 390 ff.
91. ↑ Dr. Children, Bishop Halfmann and the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein on the question of the membership of Christians of Jewish origin in the regional church and the integrity of their baptism . Compiled by Peter Godzik on September 15, 2015 ( online ).
92. ↑ Documentation of the 1st conference of the preliminary general synod 1945 ( online )
93. ^ Wilhelm Halfmann: The Present Tasks of the Schleswig-Holstein Church , August 14, 1945 ( online )
94. ↑ Documentation Breklum II, 2017, p. 34 f.
95. ↑ Meier: Der Evangelische Kirchenkampf ... , Volume 3, 1984, p. 393.
96. ↑ Documentation Breklum II, 2017, p. 24 f.
97. ↑ Stephan Linck: Innocent guilty? The Church's Dealing with the Nazi Past . Lecture on April 10, 2017 in the Christ-König-Kirche (Hamburg-Lokstedt) ( online version ).
98. ^ Church district archives Lübeck-Lauenburg: Lütau files No. 30: online documents
99. ^ Church district archive Lübeck-Lauenburg: Lütau files No. 30: Protocol online
100. ↑ Johann Schmidt : What is right before God , Kiel-Holtenau 1981. In: Kurt Juergensen, Friedrich-Otto Scharbau , Werner H. Schmidt (ed.): Praise God that is our office. Contributions to a key word (memorial by Johann Schmidt) , Kiel 1984, pp. 9–21.
101. ↑ ^{a b} Kohlwage in: “What he says to you…” , 2018, p. 18 ( online ).
102. ↑ Kohlwage in: “What he says to you…” , 2018, p. 18 f. ( online ).
103. ↑ ^{a b c} Kohlwage in: "Was he says dich ..." , 2018, p. 19 ( online ).
104. ^ ^{A b} Kurt Dietrich Schmidt: Introduction to the history of the church struggle in the National Socialist era. [A series of lectures, typewritten. 1960, with handwritten corrections until 1964; posthumously] edited and with an afterword by Jobst Reller. 2nd Edition. Ludwig Harms House, Hermannsburg 2010.
105. ↑ See: Wilhelm Halfmann: Church and public life ... , 1948, pp. 146–150.
106. ↑ See: Karl Ludwig Kohlwage: Public BK - Confrontation with the Zeitgeist , in: “Was right before God ...” , 2015, p. 28 f. ( online )
107. ↑ Breklumer Hefte 2: Neither Hauer nor the German Church. A popular word from Schleswig-Holstein about the fight for the Christian faith . By Hans Treplin, pastor in Hademarschen. Breklum 1935, p. 3.
108. ^ Otto von Stockhausen: Peasants in the pulpit. Havetofter experiences 1943 to 1945. Published by the Friends of the People's Mission in the North Elbian Ev.-Luth. Church eV, Hamburg 1991.
109. ↑ ^{a b} Kohlwage in: “What he says to you…” , 2018, p. 20 ( online ).
110. ↑ Kohlwage in: “What is right before God” , 2015, p. 34 ( online ).
111. ↑ Hans Asmussen : The hour of the church. Lecture given at the first meeting of the preliminary general synod on August 14, 1945 in Rendsburg , in: Kurt Jürgensen : The hour of the church. The Ev.-Luth. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein in the first years after the Second World War , Neumünster 1976, pp. 265–276.
112. ↑ For the new beginning see Karl Ludwig Kohlwage: Which church did the BK want - and what became of it? Reconstruction and new beginning of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church after the end of the war ... , 2018, pp. 18–35 ( online version ).
113. ↑ Kohlwage in: “What is right before God” , 2015, p. 35 f. ( online )
114. ↑ Example: Johannes Schröder's membership card ( online ).
115. ↑ Author Breklumer Heft 3: A Christian word on the myth of the blood
116. ↑ Author in “Time to Walk the Narrow Way”: Church must remain church
117. ↑ Since the authoritative books by Georg Zenk (1977) and Enno Konukiewitz (1984) on Hans Asmussen, the Asmussen literature has maintained that he was the author of a "spiteful" article about Judaism : Judaism and Race , published in February 1936 in the Pan-German papers . Heinz Eduard Tödt , for example, judged him in accomplices, victims and opponents of the Hitler regime (Gütersloh 1997, p. 198) and accused him of “simple racial anti-Semitism”. The Kiel church historian Reinhart Staats , however, has Protestants in German history in his writing . Historical-theological considerations (Leipzig 2004, p. 62 ff.) Proved that this incriminated script came from the retired teacher Peter Asmussen, born in 1862, based in Leck (North Friesland) .
118. ^ Biogram Martin Bertheau online
119. ^ Biogram Karl Beuck online
120. ↑ Author in "Time to Walk the Narrow Way": A political pastor election
121. ↑ http://www.kirchengemeinde-wacken.de/Geschichte/geschichte1.htm
122. ↑ Biography and estate of Bernhard Bothmann in the archive of the North Church ( online )
123. ↑ Biogram Christian Chalybaeus online
124. ↑ Reinfried Clasen was born on November 3, 1911 in Neustadt. He was a theologian and most recently a military dean. He died on July 6, 2002. His wife Margarete Clasen b. Love was born on February 19, 1912. She was a theologian and died on March 28, 1987 in Kiel. (Landesarchiv SH, inventory overview online )
125. ^ Author in "Time to walk the narrow path": Volkstrauertag 1935
126. ↑ Author in “Time to go the narrow way”: In a circle of friends like a foreign body, experiences with the Gestapo, religious service in front of the locked church door
127. ↑ Author in "Time to walk the narrow path": Two words - two worlds
128. ↑ ^{a b} Paul M. Dahl: “Klaus Scholders misjudgment that Schleswig-Holstein was almost one hundred percent German-Christian irritated the author. He hopes to have adequately justified his objection with the present work. It had to limit itself to the source material available to the chronicler. Elsewhere there will be more material that needs to be wrested from oblivion before it is too late. The nature of the sources, especially the minutes of meetings and discussions with their reductions and bumps, must also feed through to play. "(Preface to witnessed church history. The time of the church committees in the Lutheran. Lutheran Church in Schleswig-Holstein 1935- 1938. Manuscript completed in 1980, revised for the Internet and edited by Matthias Dahl, Christian Dahl and Peter Godzik 2017, online version , p. 4, with the note: “Klaus Scholder, Die Kirchen und das Third Reich, Volume 1: Prehistory and Zeit der Illusionen 1918–1934, Frankfurt / M., Berlin, Vienna 1977, p. 688. Incidentally, his book is of course a great success that sheds light on the context and prehistory. ")
129. ^ Author in "Time to go the narrow way": As teaching vicar in the church fight
130. ↑ Biogram Johannes Diederichsen online
131. ^ Author in "The North Mark in the Faith Struggle": The pastor in Hemme writes
132. ^ Author in "The North Mark in the Faith Struggle": The vagueness of the pagan faith - The clarity of the Christian faith ; Author Brekumer Issue 16
133. ↑ Author Breklumer Heft 18: Your suffering. A word about overcoming suffering
134. ^ Author in "Time to go the narrow way": Wilhelm Halfmann - the bishop, Julius Schniewind - the professor and pastor, Hans Asmussen - the fighter
135. ^ Prayer at the beginning of the second Synod of Confessions
136. ↑ Author in "Time to go the narrow way": Happy and courageous through the country
137. ^ Author in "Time to go the narrow way": Dat weer mannichmaal bi uns bannig dull, Martin Bertheau, Wilhelm Knuth
138. ↑ Author in "Time to go the narrow way": Illegal, Verbrecher
139. ^ Biogram Wilhelm Knuth online
140. ↑ Author in “Time to go the narrow way”: Quality versus party membership
141. ↑ Biogram Rosemarie Mandel online
142. ↑ Biogram Wolfgang Miether online
143. ↑ Johannes Moritzen: I walked in nine gardens. A life report , Breklum: Breklumer Verlag 1979, esp. Pp. 90-118.
144. ^ Building history Gut Hanerau , p. 6.
145. ↑ Author in “Time to go the narrow way”: Violations of law and order
146. ^ Biographical data of Peter Piening online
147. ^ Biogram Friedrich Prahl online
148. ^ Biogram Wolfgang Prehn online
149. ↑ Author in “Time to go the narrow way”: Hans Treplin - humor and cheerfulness despite difficult times
150. ↑ Author in “Time to Walk the Narrow Way”: How to become a pastor back then
151. ↑ Author in “Time to go the narrow way”: Ordination with special rights, Johannes Tramsen
152. ^ Author in "Time to go the narrow way": Reinhard Wester
153. ^ Biogram Friedrich Slotty online
154. ↑ Peter Vogt: The appointment and inauguration of Pastor Rudolf Sohrt in Steinberg, Propstei Nordangeln, by the confessional community 1935/36 , in: Klauspeter Reumann (Ed.): Church and National Socialism. Contributions to the history of the church struggle in the Protestant regional churches of Schleswig-Holstein , Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz 1988, pp. 339–359.
155. ↑ Biogram Reimer H. Speck online
156. ↑ Biogram Otto von Stockhausen online
157. ↑ Entry in Propste list online
158. ↑ Biogram Adolf Thomsen online
159. ^ Author in "Wake up, wake up, you German land": Biblical sobriety against political enthusiasm
160. ^ Author in "The North Mark in the Faith Struggle": To Gustav Frenssen. The word of a mother from the Nordmark
161. ↑ Harald Torp: Glücksburg in the war and post-war period. Excerpts from the church chronicle of the Glücksburg parish , in: Yearbook of the Angler Heimatverein Vol. 25 (1961) pp. 37–46.
162. ↑ Biogram Hans Treplin online
163. ^ Author in "Time to go the narrow way": Otto von Dorrien
164. ^ Author in "The North Mark in Faith Struggle": To the youth of the North Mark. Word of a teacher
165. ↑ BK lists in Schleswig-Holstein ( online )
166. ^ Paul M. Dahl: Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte. The time of the church committees in the Ev.-Luth. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein 1935–1938. Manuscript completed in 1980, revised for the Internet and edited. by Matthias Dahl, Christian Dahl and Peter Godzik 2017.
167. ↑ Breklum People's Calendar 1975
168. ↑ Wilhelm Halfmann: To cope with our past , in: Helmut Heeger (Ed.): Belief and education. Pedagogues and theologians in conversation. Ceremony for Gerhard Bohne on his 65th birthday , Neumünster: Ihloff & Co. 1960, pp. 9–19; also in: Halfmann: Sermons, Speeches ... , p. 135 ff.
169. ↑ For example: Memorandum of the Provisional Church Administration to Hitler of May 28, 1936 ( online ). Further information on the “Guilt & Forgiveness” website ( online ).
170. ↑ Collected essays . Edited by Manfred Jacobs, Göttingen 1967, pp. 294-304, here pp. 303 f.
171. ↑ On Asmussen's advice (as stated by Kurt Dietrich Schmidt: Questions on the Structure of the Confessing Church… , 1962, p. 268) it was formulated: “We gathered representatives of the Württemberg and Bavarian regional churches, the Free Synod in the Rhineland, Westphalia and Brandenburg, as well as many Confessing congregations and Christians throughout Germany declare that Germany is a legitimate Protestant church in front of this congregation and all of Christianity ... ”(In: Junge Kirche 2, 1934, p. 371 f.) The Ulm Declaration marks the beginning of the Confessing Church .
172. ↑ Paul M. Dahl: “The former 'Church President' Dr. Christian Kinds 'New Contributions' have a very self-justifying character. In his book we learn more about the skill with which he was able to avert some calamities in Schleswig-Holstein's churches than about the multiple damage he inflicted on the church from 1933 to 1945. ”( Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte , p. 4.)