Breklumer booklets

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The Breklumer Hefte were a series of publications of the people's mission work of the Confessional Community of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Schleswig-Holstein , which was self-published by the Confessing Church of Schleswig-Holstein in Breklum from 1935 to 1941 and comprised 20 booklets and a special issue. Due to the large number of copies, the series became important throughout the empire. The Breklumer Hefte were reissued in a complete edition in 2018.

Popular missionary activities

1933 and 1934

The foreword by Theodor Ellwein and Christian Stoll for the Riederauer theses on the Lutheran people's mission , which appeared in 1933 in the first issue of the series Confessing Church in Munich, is dated November 10, 1933, the 450th birthday of Martin Luther . They were drawn up from October 1 to 5, 1933 in Riederau am Ammersee by a theological working group, which was based on the plan submitted by Bavarian Bishop Hans Meiser on September 12, 1933 for future people's missionary work in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria on the right bank of the Rhine had been called.

Also on November 10, 1933, the Reich Church Government issued an appeal to the "German Protestant People's Comrades" for a people's mission , which, drawn up by Walter Birnbaum and signed by Joachim Hossenfelder , was entirely determined by the spirit of the German Christians .

From January to May 1934 the small series of publications Die Gemeindekirche was published in Altona in four issues , edited by the theologian Hans Asmussen and the architect Rudolf Jäger .

Asmussen wrote on the subject of " People's Mission ":

“And which of us would not have been tempted to combine the church task with the political one ?! How nice it would be to work if National Socialist propaganda and Christian witness were one and the same! When we do popular missions, the spirit leaves us as soon as we slide into agitation! The Spirit that drives us allows us only one thing: the preaching of the gospel! This sermon makes Christ great and all people small! One can only praise the greatness of Christ if at the same time one says to the listeners: The ax has already been laid at the roots of the trees! If you do not do righteous fruits of repentance, you will be cut off and thrown into the fire. If you are not doing righteous fruits of repentance, please do not participate in church matters. A hooting crowd is very favorable in terms of agitation, but in the popular mission it drives away the blessing. That is why the parish church must separate itself from all spirits that can combine popular mission and agitation. "

In 1934 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Hamburg state set up a “People's Missionary Office” under the direction of Karl Witte . Appropriate efforts have also been made in Saxony.

1935 in Schleswig-Holstein

In the autumn of 1935, the confessional community of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Schleswig-Holstein formed a people's missionary office, which was chaired by Pastor Johannes Lorentzen- Kiel and located in Breklum with Martin Pörksen as managing director. It also served as a place of temporary employment for young theologians of the confessional community in Schleswig-Holstein: six of the young pastors who had been ordained by Bishop Marahrens in Harburg on October 26, 1935 , were sent to Breklum for popular missions.

This popular mission, combined with apologetic work, was carried out in the denominational communities that were formed in many congregations. Its members received a red card and contributed to making the work possible through their contributions. Public meetings could also be held at first until they were made impossible by a ban. The apologetic and popular missionary importance of the Breklumer Hefte was great, in some cases even nationwide. They appeared in the "Office for People's Mission" and were printed in Breklum by the printing house of the mission bookstore.

In a lecture given in 1935 at the first confessional synod of the Schleswig-Holstein confessional community in Kiel , P. Lorentzen-Kiel defines the Confessing Church (BK) as a church that is active in popular missions. In the situation of the new paganism, which seeks to experience the divine in the depths of the human heart, in the face of forces “who may say positive Christianity but deny real biblical Christianity ” and within a church incapable of contending with faith - and forces hostile to the creed, the BC must not withdraw from itself, but must stand up for the word that is entrusted to the Church and that it owes this world and this people, even if there are voices that stand up for purity discredit the proclamation as hostility towards the state.

The Lübeck former bishop Karl Ludwig Kohlwage writes about "the Confessing Church in the public debate":

“'The people's mission of the BK preaches incessantly: There is no salvation in any other. She can preach like this because she does not want to arouse human piety, but rather because she is allowed to preach the eternal counsel of God. ' For this she needs people who make this testimony and confession a matter of their own life. And there are these people who are ready and able to 'cast the net' in the biblical picture. Lorentzen leads the hundreds of people's mission meetings, evening events and people's mission trips by vicars and students into the field. Here, too, a core element of the BK: no 'corner church', focused on itself, but referred to the public, to the whole, to the people, today we say: to society. "

The Breklumer Hefte

The Breklumer Hefte were “voices for the preservation of a denominational church in urgent times”. They took a critical look at the anti-faith and anti-Christian tendencies in National Socialism. With their high circulation (between 10,000 and 65,000, in one case even far more), they were important throughout the empire. Some of them were banned and confiscated, which explains the rarity of the surviving specimens.

After the war, the Breklumer Hefte fell into oblivion. In the North Elbe libraries they were nowhere completely accessible, not even in Breklum had all the titles been kept. This led the editors to believe that the Breklumer Hefte including the special edition “Die Nordmark im Glaubenskampf. An answer from the church to Gustav Frenssen “to make legible and to present it to the public in a complete edition.

The edition appeared in 2018 and was a new "media event" ( Stephan Richter ) almost eight decades after the Breklumer Hefte was forced to close . After all, the anthology showed for the first time on a broad basis how the Confessing Church of Schleswig-Holstein dealt with the zeitgeist of the time during the Nazi era.

"The booklet convey a vivid idea of ​​the thinking and faith, of the struggles and arguments of Christians in an important historical epoch," emphasize the editors. They expect that scientific theology will deal more intensively with this legacy of the Confessing Church after the Breklumer Hefte have been peculiarly disorganized and, above all, unevaluated in the past.

The folders

  • Book 1: The Christian Confession and the German Faith Movement. An argument with Count Reventlow and Professor Hauer . By J. Lorentzen, pastor in Kiel. 1935
  • Book 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. 1935 (in demand across the empire; circulation: at least 80 to 90 thousand; later banned)
  • Book 3: A Christian Word on the Myth of Blood . By H. Adolphsen, pastor in Itzehoe. 1935
  • Booklet 4: [With God.] A word to the German soldier . By Hans Treplin. Pastor in Hademarschen. 1935
  • Volume 5: Superstition and Magic - Delusion or Reality? By Eduard Juhl , pastor in Altona-Gr. Flottbek. 1935; 1938: 16. – 20. Thousand
  • Book 6: The Hidden Treasure in the Sacrament of Baptism . By Paul Gerhard Johanssen , pastor in Osterhever, Eiderstedt. 1936; 1938: 21.-30. Thousand
  • Book 7: Hold Our Faith! A word to the German confirmands . By Wolfgang Prehn, pastor in St. Peter (North Sea). 1936; 1939: 4th edition
  • Book 8: About the cross and the altar. A word from Schleswig-Holstein on the 5th main part . By Hans Treplin, pastor in Hademarschen. 1936; 1939: 56-65. Thousand
  • Book 9: The Confession - Life Witness of the Church . By J. Lorentzen, pastor in Kiel. 1936
  • Book 10: Praying. A word on the 3rd main part . By Paul Gerhard Johanssen, pastor in Osterhever, Eiderstedt. 1936; 1938: 21.-30. Thousand
  • Book 11: The Church and the Jew . By Pastor Wilhelm Halfmann , Oberkonsistorialrat commiss. in Kiel (was drafted and banned in 1937). 1936; 1937: 21.-30. Thousand
  • Book 12: The hour of the Protestant Church . By Pastor Wilhelm Halfmann, Oberkonsistorialrat commiss. in Kiel, Office for People's Mission, Breklum 1937: 20. – 40. Thousands in press, 40. – 60. Thousands in preparation for printing (was soon drafted and banned).
  • Issue 13: Harvest. A word to the Christian farmer . By Hans Treplin, pastor in Hademarschen, Office for People's Mission, Breklum 1937.
  • Book 14: Dying? Of the glory of the Christian hope . By Paul Gerhard Johanssen, pastor in Osterhever, Eiderstedt, Office for People's Mission, Breklum 1937; 1938: 46–55. Thousand
  • Book 15: Your Marriage . By Otto von Dorrien , pastor in Uetersen. 1937
  • Book 16: Your way to God . By Hans Dunker, pastor in Breklum. 1937; 1938: 11-20 Thousand
  • Booklet 17: The Church in the House . By Paul Gerhard Johanssen, pastor in Osterhever, Eiderstedt, Volksmission, Breklum 1938; 1938: 21.-30. Thousand
  • Book 18: Your Sorrows. A word about overcoming suffering . By Meno Hach, pastor in Flensburg, Volksmission, Breklum 1939.
  • Book 19: What the Bible Really Says! By J. Lorentzen, Kiel, Missionsbuchhandlung, Breklum undated (1939)
  • Booklet 20: Should the church stay in the village? By J. Bielfeldt - Rendsburg, Missionsbuchhandlung Breklum 1941.

the authors

The special issue

The confessional community in Schleswig-Holstein also distributed it across the empire in 1936: The Nordmark in the religious war. An answer from the church to Gustav Frenssen . Edited by J. Lorentzen, Pastor in Kiel; in this:

  • General Superintendent D. Dr. Dibelius -Berlin: Frenssen's Farewell to Christianity (online at geschichte-bk-sh.de)
  • Professor Pastor Tonnesen -Altona: The changeability of Gustav Frenssen
  • Pastor Lorentzen- Kiel: Gustav Frenssen's picture of Christ
  • Pastor Miether-Gelting: Frenssen's message of God
  • Pastor Dr. Dunker-Neukirchen: The vagueness of the pagan faith - The clarity of the Christian faith
  • Pastor Treplin-Hademarschen: Notes on the first psalm
  • Mrs. Pastor Tonnesen-Altona: To Gustav Frenssen. The word of a mother from the Nordmark
  • Teacher Heinrich Voss-Gelting: To the youth of the Nordmark. Word of a teacher
  • Pastor Tramsen -Innien: Frenssen's judgment on the Church of Nordmark and its pastors
  • Pastor Dr. Pörksen -Breklum: Only dying Christian communities in the Nordmark?
  • Pastor Drews-Hemme: The pastor in Hemme is writing
  • Professor Pastor Tonnesen-Altona: What the North Says! (online at geschichte-bk-sh.de)
  • Pastor Johanssen-Osterhever: How will it go on?

Complete edition

  • Karl Ludwig Kohlwage , Manfred Kamper and 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, ISBN 978-3-7868-5308-4 .

More booklets

In the years 1935–1941, the Breklum missionary bookstore published further folk missionary publications:

  • Peter Piening (Ed.): In the stream or next to it? Wake-up calls for the departure of the church , Breklum: Missionsbuchhandlung 1935 (online at geschichte-bk-sh.de) , therein:
    • Paul Gerhard Johanssen: Handout for the Bible study: Isaiah 40-42 , p. 3 f.
    • Peter Piening: People's mission and people's mission as a task of the Church of Jesus Christ , p. 5 ff.
    • Adolf Thomsen: Our goal: The living community , p. 16 ff.
    • Hans Treplin: Through what forces did the early church live and win? , P. 21 ff.
    • Martin Pörksen: The Bible as shield and sword of a fighting church , p. 34 ff.
  • Reinhard Wester : The guardianship of the church. A sermon given on June 23, 1935 in the church in Westerland a. Sylt , Breklum: Office for People's Mission 1935 (online at geschichte-bk-sh.de) .
  • Heinrich Kasch : The bridge to eternity. A guide to brave Christian faith for seekers of truth , Breklum: Missionsbuchhandlung 1939.
  • Margarethe Wacker: Pastor Emil Wacker. A brief picture of life and nature. Lecture on the 100th birthday of the Eternal , Breklum: Missionsbuchhandlung 1939.
  • Wilhelm Wacker: Matthias Claudius. A commemorative sheet for the 200th anniversary of the birthday of the Wandsbeker messenger in 1940 , Breklum: Missionsbuchhandlung o. J. (7th, extended edition)
  • Johannes Lorentzen: 700 years of St. Nikolaikirche in Kiel , Breklum: Mission bookshop 1941.

The controversial issue 11

In 1936 Halfmann wrote a paper on the Jewish question on behalf of the State Brothers Council of the Confessing Church : The Church and the Jew .

“Two things were decisive for the development of the script: First, the transfer of power to the National Socialists increased the political importance of the 'Jewish question'. In this respect, the writing is certainly also a document of the time, which reflects the anti-Jewish “spirit” of the time. So it is not surprising that Halfmann saw the Jewish question as 'a question of fate for the Church in Germany and for the German people'. Second, there was the struggle for the Evangelical Church. Halfmann tried to secure their existence through this writing, above all against the generally anti-Christian Rosenberg wing and probably only secondarily against the efforts of the German Christians . In November 1936 , the Prussian State Councilor Börger gave several lectures in Schleswig-Holstein in which he accused the churches, among other things, of being branches of the Jewish synagogues. He appealed to the audience to de-register their children from religious instruction at school, which resulted in numerous church resignations. At Halfmann's initiative, numerous pastors - but not only those of the confessional community - responded with a complaint to the regional church office and a pulpit declaration to their communities. At the same time, Halfmann drafted his lecture The Attack on the Bible for the planned denominational services at the beginning of December 1936, but decided on the title The Church and the Jew . "

In the anti-Judaist tradition , he viewed the Jews as enemies of Christianity and the Christian peoples and showed - with reference to Martin Luther - understanding of the state legislation against the Jews of the time . He saw it as a “terrible fate” “that the justified fight against Judaism has turned into a fight against Christ. Because that means: A fight against the divine power that can really save us from the corrupting powers of Judaism! ”But he sharply contrasted the anti-Semitic practice of the National Socialist ideological forces of the SA and SS from the legislative action of the state . The church could never join in their aggressive racist anti-Semitism under the slogan "Beat the Jews to death". The Jewish question, because it was a religious one, could ultimately not be resolved by political means - certainly not by force, but also not by law. The church has to use the “intercessory prayer” for the Jews that God may end their rejection.

Halfmann argued in this writing that only Christians could understand the Old Testament correctly, namely based on the New Testament and Christ as the "center of the Scriptures". At the same time, he criticized ethnic anti-Semitism without, however, expressly advocating baptized people of Jewish origin . Rather, he referred to the end-time salvation of Israel, promised in Rom. 11.25  EU , for the sake of which the people, despite the curse that lay upon them, must remain alive.

The writing is influenced by the Riederau theses on the Lutheran people's mission ( Confessing Church , Book 1) from 1933, by Volkmar Herntrich's writings on the Old Testament from 1933 to 1935, by Adolf Schlatter's 1935 work Will the Jew win over us ? , Friedrich Heman's history of the Jewish people since the destruction of Jerusalem (1927) and Hans Blüher's uprising of Israel [against Christian goods] (1931).

The writing was banned by the Reichsschrifttumskammer and confiscated by the Gestapo on the grounds that the content of the booklet was "directed against the worldview of National Socialism" and "not compatible with the views and principles prevailing in today's state".

Halfmann had been criticized for his anti-Judaist remarks when he spoke out against the Christian-Jewish dialogue since the end of the 1950s. In 1958 , the SPD politician Jochen Steffen also addressed The Church and the Jew . Halfmann defended himself for having viewed the Nuremberg Laws as protective laws for the Jews.

Because of the allegations, Halfmann reread his work from 1936 and found it to be "a bit of a fleeting piece of work". Nonetheless, he considers it to be “still not inapplicable today. Because the religious opposition between Jews and Christians is undeniable ”. Nevertheless, Bishop Halfmann was aware that his writing posed a problem, especially after the murder of the Jews . In retrospect, he claimed that he had regretted writing this pamphlet as early as 1938. On March 5, 1960, he wrote to the Hamburg regional bishop Karl Witte : “Such a writing would be impossible today.” His historical remarks on the history of the Jews were “unjust because they were chosen one-sidedly”, “although they are factually correct”. Halfmann saw no need to turn away from anti-Judaism: “Nevertheless, today I can't help but consider the theological approach to be correct. But to discuss the Jewish question in such a way that the theological no to Judaism, not just to 'anti-Semitism', is almost impossible. I cannot participate in the Christian-Jewish fraternization on a humanitarian basis, while eliminating theology. "

As a precautionary defense against further public attacks, he passed a five-page sheet of paper to Bishop Halfmann and the Jews to selected personalities . This writing from 1960 consists essentially of quotations from his work Die Kirche und der Jude from 1936, supplemented by contemporary public reactions and an introduction and an afterword by Halfmann. In a lecture given to Protestant teachers in 1960, he once again expressed himself about coping with our past and criticized anti-Semitism as "arrogance over fellow human beings".

The following assessment of Halfmann's Jewish writing comes from the Flensburg church historian Klauspeter Reumann:

“When he [sc. Halfmann] wrote and published his Jewish pamphlet at the end of 1936, he still believed in good faith that he could separate the radical anti-Semitism of the NSDAP from the milder state. In the autumn of the following year, however, Halfmann had to admit at a meeting of the Lutheran Council of the Confessing Church that the state prohibition measures of 1937 against the church were due to the extensive and independent government influence of Himmler and his Gestapo. The prohibition of a counter-writ by Walther Künneth against Rosenberg's The Myth of the 20th Century , which was communicated there, made it clear to him that the decision in the state had finally been made in favor of the racist worldview developed by Rosenberg, that his myth was actually canonized. Halfmann's attempt to differentiate between state and party a year ago was outdated, and thus the unity of action put forward by Valentin between the two was evident. An essential basic assumption of Halfmann in his Judenschrift was refuted by political developments, which must have been a bitter disillusionment for him. ... Halfmann's writings on the Jews and the Church's development cast in their core statements, their motivation and above all in their effect a light typical of the time that church self-assertion in the National Socialist threat meant an intellectual and conscientious tightrope walk with various challenges, sometimes factually critical as by the Jewish judge Valentin, sometimes violent, as by the state authorities. However, these challenges also led to a progressive personal clarification with Halfmann; After the coercive measures and the prohibition of writing, he lacked any real possibility of a published correction. "

New ranks

Bremen-Breklumer booklets

From 1968 to 1970 6 publications appeared in Breklum under the title Bremen-Breklumer Hefte .

Plattdüütsche Heften ut Breklum

From 1968 to 1979 there was a series of publications called Plattdüütsche Heften ut Breklum .

Breklumer booklets

In the seventies and eighties, Breklumer Verlag published a number of Breklumer issues in a new series.

literature

About the Breklumer booklets in general

  • Johannes Lorentzen : People's Mission of the Confessing Church , in: 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 , Westerland / Sylt: Office of the Confessional Community 1935, pp. 27–33 (online at geschichte-bk-sh.de) .
  • Johann Bielfeldt : The Church Struggle in Schleswig-Holstein 1933–1945 , Göttingen 1964, pp. 190–192.
  • Paul M. Dahl: The courtship for the community , in: ders .: 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, pp. 55–61 (online at geschichte-bk-sh.de) .
  • Wolfgang Prehn (Ed.): Time to walk the narrow path. Witnesses report on the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein , Kiel 1985; in this:
    • Hans Dunker: From house to house , p. 91.
    • Martin Pörksen : People's Mission - Nobody Knows , pp. 109–117.
    • Martin Pörksen: The Breklumer Mission - despite the war in the church struggle, pp. 119–127.
  • Jens-Hinrich Pörksen: The Breklumer Mission in the time of Martin Pörksen 1934–1956 , Kiel 2007; in this:
    • Breklum's focus on the people's missionary discussion of the ideology of National Socialism , pp. 23-25.
    • An examination of the ethnic belief in the work of Gustav Frenssen , pp. 26–31.
  • 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.
  • Karl Ludwig Kohlwage / Manfred Kamper / Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (eds.): "What is right before God". Church struggle and theological foundation for the new beginning of the church in Schleswig-Holstein after 1945 . Documentation of a conference in Breklum 2015. Compiled and edited by Rudolf Hinz and Simeon Schildt in collaboration with Peter Godzik, Johannes Jürgensen and Kurt Triebel, Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2015; in this:
    • 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 , pp. 15–36.
    • Jens Hermann Hörcher / Jens-Hinrich Pörksen: The Breklumer Mission - Center of the Confessing Church and the reorientation after 1945 , pp. 223–235.
  • Uwe Pörksen : Breklehem. Roman eines Dorfes , Husum 2016, p. 103 ff.
  • Karl Ludwig Kohlwage, Manfred Kamper, Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (eds.): “Do what he tells you!” The reconstruction of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church after the Second World War. Documentation of a conference in Breklum 2017 . Compiled and edited by Peter Godzik, Rudolf Hinz and Simeon Schildt, Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2018, therein:
    • Proposal for a publication of the collected Breklumer Hefte , p. 189 ff.

To the controversial issue 11

  • Jochen Steffen : Open letter to Wilhelm Halfmann , in: Flensburger Presse , May 15, 1958.
  • Wilhelm Halfmann : Reply , in: Flensburger Presse , May 29, 1958 (copy in: LKAK 20.01 No. 660).
  • Regional Church Press and Information Office (ed.): Bishop Halfmann and the Jews , Kiel 1960 (printed as a manuscript, in: LKAK 20.01 No. 660; online at geschichte-bk-sh.de) .
  • Christian children : New contributions to the history of the Protestant Church in Schleswig-Holstein and in the Reich 1924-1945 . Flensburg: Karfeld 1964 (2nd edition 1966; 3rd edition 1968), p. 125 f. and 155 ff. (in the 2nd edition)
  • Wolfgang Gerlach: When the witnesses were silent. Confessing Church and the Jews (Writings on Church and Israel, Volume 10) , Berlin: Institute Church and Judaism 1987; 2nd, edited and supplemented edition 1993 (= Diss. Hamburg 1970), pp. 165–168.
  • Klauspeter Reumann: Halfmann's work "The Church and the Jude" from 1936 , first 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; now in: Annette Göhres / Stephan Link / Joachim Liß-Walther (ed.): When Jesus became “Aryan”. Churches, Christians, Jews in North Elbe 1933-1945. The exhibition in Kiel , Bremen: Edition Temmen 2003, pp. 147–161.
  • 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, here pp. 304–307.
  • Sönke Zankel: The Confessing Church and the “Jewish Question”: Wilhelm Halfmann's radical anti-Judaism. In: Niklas Günther / Sönke Zankel (ed.): The theology between church, university and school. Festschrift for Klaus Kurzdörfer , Kiel 2002, pp. 52–66 (revised version online at beirat-fuer-geschichte.de) .
  • Klauspeter Reumann: "... branches of the Jewish synagogue". On the creation of Wilhelm Halfmann's “The Church and the Jew” , in: Grenzfriedenshefte , Heft 3, Flensburg 2004, pp. 121-134.
  • Sönke Zankel: Christian theology in National Socialism before the Jewish question. Halfmann's writing “Die Kirche und der Jude” , in: Demokratische Geschichte 16 (2004), pp. 121-134.
  • Hanna Lehming: Anti-Semitism in the Church - how did it come about? Schleswig-Holstein theologians during the Nazi era , in: Hansjörg Buss / Annette Göhres / Stephan Linck, Joachim Liß-Walther (eds.): "A Chronicle of Mixed Emotions". Balance of the traveling exhibition “Church of Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933-1945” , Bremen: Edition Temmen 2005, pp. 271–280.
  • Christina Semper: The relationship of the Confessing Church to Judaism in Schleswig-Holstein using the example of Wilhelm Halfmann , in: President of the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag (ed.): Church, Christians, Jews in Northern Elbia 1933-1945. The exhibition in the Landtag 2005 (series of publications by the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag, issue 7) , Kiel 2006, pp. 103–113. (online at kirche-christen-Juden.org)
  • 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, here especially pp. 256–259.
  • Isabelle Tiburksi / Marek Ehlers: Wilhelm Halfmann's work “The Church and the Jew” (1936) , Uetersen, February 2009.
  • Sönke Zankel: "I cannot participate in the Christian-Jewish fraternization by eliminating theology". Bishop Halfmann and Christian anti-Judaism in the years 1958-1960. In: Democratic History. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein. 21 (2010), pp. 123-138 (online at beirat-fuer-geschichte.de) .
  • Stephan Linck: New beginnings? How the Evangelical Church deals with the Nazi past and its relationship to Judaism. The regional churches in Northern Elbe , Kiel 2013, pp. 222–228.
  • Karl Ludwig Kohlwage : The silent BK , in: ders./ Manfred Kamper / Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (ed.): "What is right before God". Church struggle and theological foundation for the new beginning of the church in Schleswig-Holstein after 1945. Documentation of a conference in Breklum 2015. Compiled and edited by Rudolf Hinz and Simeon Schildt in collaboration with Peter Godzik, Johannes Jürgensen and Kurt Triebel, Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2015, Pp. 32-33.
  • Uwe Pörksen : Breklehem. Roman eines Dorfes , Husum 2016, p. 108; 198 f .:
"... Wilhelm Halfmann, the much controversial, a clear head from the first hour, who sees who he is dealing with with the Chancellor , who wants to throw the basis of the Christian religion on the garbage heap, says it, repeats it, recites it - and then waves in a script in which he repeats this again, with anti-Jewish agitation, as if he were on the other side ... Did he want to take the muzzle, the prison key, the pistol from the hands of the spying opponents to be able to continue his church political work? Was he scared? Did he think so? Was it commonplace? ... "

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Riederau theses on the Lutheran people's mission (Confessing Church, Volume 1) , Munich: Chr. Kaiser 1933 (online at geschichte-bk-sh.de) ; see. on this Axel Töllner: The Jewish question in people's mission and theological training work , in: ders .: A question of race? The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, the Aryan Paragraph and the Bavarian pastor families with Jewish ancestors in the “Third Reich” , Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 2007, p. 121 ff.
  2. ↑ Online at geschichte-bk-sh.de ; see. in addition: Walter Birnbaum: Witness of my time. Statements on 1912 to 1972 , Göttingen: Musterschmidt 1973, p. 152.
  3. ↑ Volume 1: Rudolf Jäger / Fritz Collatz, Altona: The parish church as the meaning and goal of our work ; Johannes Tonnesen: The parish church as the hope of the pastors ; Book 2: Hans Asmussen: Confession and Synod ; Booklet 3: Hans Asmussen: The bishop of the community ; Booklet 4: Hans Asmussen: Lutheran Confession Today .
  4. ↑ Hans Asmussen: The Bishop of the Community (Die Gemeindekirche, No. 3) , Altona: Hans Harder 1934 (April 7), p. 6.
  5. ^ Paul M. Dahl: Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte. The time of the church committees in the Ev.-Luth. Landeskirche Schleswig-Holstein 1935–1938 , manuscript completed in 1980, revised for the Internet and published. by Matthias Dahl, Christian Dahl and Peter Godzik 2017, p. 56 (online at geschichte-bk-sh.de) .
  6. ↑ See: Peter Godzik: On the contemporary history background of the Breklumer Hefte , 2017 (online at geschichte-bk-sh.de) .
  7. ↑ Johannes Lorentzen: People's Mission of the Confessing Church , in: Brother Council of the Confessional Community (ed.): What is right before God ... , 1935, pp. 27–33.
  8. ↑ Karl Ludwig Kohlwage / Manfred Kamper / Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (eds.): "What is right before God". Church struggle and theological foundation for the new beginning of the church in Schleswig-Holstein after 1945 . Documentation of a conference in Breklum 2015. Compiled and edited by Rudolf Hinz and Simeon Schildt in collaboration with Peter Godzik, Johannes Jürgensen and Kurt Triebel, Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2015, p. 25.
  9. ↑ From the press release of April 18, 2018. See the book review “Memory gap” from May 4, 2020, online at geschichte-bk-sh.de .
  10. ^ In private ownership Peter Godzik; the German National Library lists 70. – 80. Thousand ( DNB 362904839 ); Karl-Emil Schade : Obituary for Provost Hans Treplin , in: Mitteilungsblatt der Kirchengemeinde Hademarschen , February 25, 1982, states: 100,000; Uwe Pörksen : Breklehem ... , 2016, p. 105, names: 450,000; see. on this: Jens-Hinrich Pörksen: Appendix to the letter to the church leadership (from April 24, 2014), in: Kohlwage u. a. (Ed.): "What is right before God ..." , 2015, p. 299.
  11. ↑ DNB 58031135X
  12. ^ In private ownership Peter Godzik
  13. ↑ DNB 362068984
  14. ↑ DNB 362904804
  15. ↑ DNB 580294463
  16. ↑ DNB 580076083
  17. ^ Klauspeter Reumann: Confessing Church and Breklumer Mission im Kirchenkampf ... , 2007, p. 257.
  18. ↑ DNB 58029451X
  19. ↑ DNB 579690024
  20. ↑ DNB 580294471
  21. ↑ See Paul M. Dahl: Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte. The time of the church committees in the Ev.-Luth. Landeskirche Schleswig-Holstein 1935–1938 , manuscript 1980, p. 57 (online at geschichte-bk-sh.de).
  22. ↑ http://www.geschichte-bk-sh.de/index.php?id=350
  23. ↑ http://www.geschichte-bk-sh.de/index.php?id=348
  24. ↑ http://www.geschichte-bk-sh.de/index.php?id=371
  25. ↑ Biogram Peter Piening (online at d-nb.info)
  26. ↑ Biogram Adolf Thomsen (online at geschichte-bk-sh.de)
  27. ↑ For Halfmann's motivation and intention, see Klauspeter Reumann: Halfmann's work “Die Kirche und der Jude” from 1936 , in: Annette Göhres, Stephan Linck, Joachim Liß-Walther (ed.): When Jesus became “Aryan”. Churches, Christians, Jews in North Elbe 1933-1945. The exhibition in Kiel , Bremen: Edition Temmen 2003, pp. 156–158 (online at pkgodzik.de)
  28. ^ Zankel: Christian Theologie ..., p. 125
  29. ↑ Halfmann argued in 1936: “It is not the task of the church to intervene in the Jewish legislation of the Third Reich . Rather, we will have to say from the perspective of the Church, based on almost two thousand years of experience with the Jews: the state is right. He makes an attempt to protect the German people, as has been made by a hundred predecessors in all of Christianity, with the approval of the Christian Church. One only needs to read Luther's writings on the Jewish question to find that what is happening today is a mild trial compared to what Luther and many other good Christians have considered necessary. "(Halfmann: Die Kirche und der Jude , Breklum 1936, p. 13 f.) Halfmann justified this attitude in 1958 to the editor-in-chief of the SPD's own “Flensburger Presse” Jochen Steffen : His writing “just did not want to endorse the National Socialist racial policy”, but aimed at “the opposite”. At that time, criticism of the “racial policy” could only be written publicly with “concealment of tendencies”. The Nazis were also aware of the attack on the “Nazi racial theory”, as the writing was quickly confiscated. At the end of the day he was convinced “that the ' Nuremberg Laws ' of 1935 guaranteed the Jews at least legal status, albeit in the manner of a ghetto. At that time, almost three years before the ' Kristallnacht ' and everything that followed, I did not foresee that a solemnly proclaimed regulation under Reich law would only be a deception . ”(Wilhelm Halfmann in: Flensburger Presse of May 29, 1958, copy in: NEK archive, January 20th, No. 660.)
  30. ↑ It underlines his statement at this point once again: "from the  b  e  r  e  c  h  t  i  g  t  e  n  struggle against Judaism" (Half Men: The Church and the Jew , p.3). In contrast, there are the clear sentences from Elisabeth Schmitz : “Why does the Church do nothing? Why does she let the nameless injustice be done? How can she again and again make joyful confessions to the National Socialist state, which are political confessions and are directed against the life of a part of their own members? Why doesn't she at least protect the children? Should everything that is absolutely incompatible with humanity, which is so despised today, be compatible with Christianity? And if the Church cannot do anything in many cases because of her utter destruction, why does she not at least know she is guilty? Why doesn't she pray for those affected by this involuntary suffering and persecution? Why aren't there intercession services like the one that existed for the imprisoned pastors? The Church makes it bitterly difficult to defend it. ... But it is a fact that there can be people in the Known Church who dare to believe that they are entitled or even called upon to proclaim judgment and grace of God to Judaism in today's historical events and the suffering we are responsible for in the face of which a cold fear grips us. Since when does the wrongdoer have the right to pass off his wrongdoing as the will of God? Since when has it been anything other than blasphemy to claim that it is God's will that we do injustice? Let us be careful not to hide the abomination of our sin in the sanctuary of God's will. Otherwise it could well be that we too would be punished by the temple molesters, that we too would have to hear the curse of him who braided the scourge and drove them out. ”( Manfred Gailus : But my heart was torn. The silent resistance of Elisabeth Schmitz , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2011, p. 241 f.)
  31. ↑ The "Verderbensmächte of Judaism" describes Halfmann 1936 as follows: "it is in terribly monotonous change Jewish history run until today: was granted them liberty, they enriched themselves and proliferated from the people. Then naturally followed the reaction in bloody persecution and expulsion . In 1290 the Jews were driven from England, 1384 from France, 1492 from Spain, and in the 14th century also from most of the German territories. You have come back - it is a confused story in which Christians and Jews are fatefully linked by a chain of mutual guilt. … The Jews are much more involved in all of the great events of Western history than the historiography reported so far. It was the Jews expelled from Spain who provided the Turks with the knowledge of making firearms when they broke into Europe. In the Thirty Years' War they financed the warfare against the Protestants ; since then they have been stuck in Vienna. In Napoleon's campaigns and during the World War they were active in the background - always as a substance of decomposition for the Christian peoples, consciously or unconsciously, guided by their anti-Christian decision. The movements of the spirit which were suited to dissolving faith in God's historical revelation in Christ were also used and carried by the Jews. ... The whole of today's spirit that rules the world, the belief in this world without God , the belief that through human power, the kingdom of happiness, peace and justice can be established, comes from the Jewish religion, from the belief in that messianic empire without Christ. That is why the Jews play a leading role in the great world programs of recent times, in liberalism , socialism and Bolshevism . Here the same goal applies everywhere: to redeem the world without Christ and to bring it to order. And that is why there is everywhere the same aversion to Christianity, whose basic idea is original sin , whose message of salvation is redemption through Christ. ”(Halfmann: Die Kirche und der Jude , p. 12 f.)
  32. ↑ Halfmann: The Church and the Jew , p. 3.
  33. ^ Reumann: Halfmanns Schrift ... , p. 153.
  34. ↑ Semper, p. 107. Halfmann's sharp remark: “Because the Old Testament is a sacred scripture of the church, only the church can correctly grasp and interpret its meaning. All other interpretations that do not come from the area of ​​the church are misleading, wrong, incomprehensible and malicious ”(p. 4), which is clearly directed against the National Socialists, as evidenced by the context. He later said much milder of the Jewish interpretation of Scripture: “That is why Jesus Christ is the key to understanding the Old Testament, who fits into the gap that has remained open in the Old Testament, like the key to the lock. … The Jews read the Old Testament without the key Jesus Christ, the Christians read it with the key Jesus Christ. ... Now the Church claims: we Christians have the only correct understanding of the Old Testament, but you Jews have a wrong understanding. ... "(p. 6 f.)
  35. ↑ On the question of the ecclesiastical position of baptized Jewish origin, the radical German-Christian solution was avoided and a special regulation was made for Schleswig-Holstein, which was also approved by the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein. See the compilation by Peter Godzik on geschichte-bk-sh.de . Former Bishop Karl Ludwig Kohlwage on the allegations made against Halfmann: "But that Halfmann, in accordance with the BK, based on this writing, expelled Christians of Jewish origin from the church and canceled their baptism, is and remains an evil defamation." (Lecture in Breklum on February 3, 2015, printed in: Forum. Bulletin of the Pastors' Associations in the Northern Church , No. 76, May 2015, p. 23; now in: “What is right before God” .. Documentation of a conference in Breklum 2015 , p. 33)
  36. ↑ Semper, p. 108.
  37. ↑ http://www.geschichte-bk-sh.de/index.php?id=379
  38. ↑ Halfmann - Findings about an ex-bishop on shz.de (article from February 17, 2009)
  39. ↑ Semper, p. 106. The fact that a completely different position on the Jewish question was historically possible within the framework of the Confessing Church is shown in the memorandum on the situation of German non-Aryans submitted by Elisabeth Schmitz in 1935/36 , which was sent in confidence to leading figures of the Confessing Church (reprinted in: Manfred Gailus: But it tore my heart ... , pp. 223-252). It is not known whether Halfmann knew this memorandum and deliberately wrote it differently.
  40. ↑ Nordelbisches Kirchenarchiv, 98.04, NL Halfmann, B IX, No. 179, letter from the Reichsschrifttumskammer to the chairman of the Breklumer Volksmission dated April 12, 1937, and No. 180, letter from the DEK chancellery to Halfmann dated April 21, 1937 .
  41. ^ Zankel: I can ... , p. 128.
  42. ↑ Zankel: I can ... , p. 129 f. There also the sources not reproduced here.
  43. ↑ The mere repetition of the fatal generalization of “ the Jews” in 1960 still hurts. Elisabeth Schmitz had already asked urgently in 1950: “Save people, that means above all: See people! Don't always say: the French, the Poles, the Jews, the workers, the capitalists. Get to know the person, the individual, also the stranger, honor him by being friendly to him, also to the weak and despised. "(Manfred Gailus: But my heart was torn ... , p. 261)
  44. ↑ Zankel: I can ... , p. 133.
  45. ↑ Halfmann: Sermons, speeches, essays, letters ... , p. 142.
  46. ↑ Reumann: Halfmanns Schrift ... , p. 158 ff.
  47. ↑ DNB 456185615
  48. ↑ DNB 457820268 ; DNB 457820276 ; DNB 810448874
  49. ↑ “In 1870 Pastor Christian Jensen began his journalistic work with the publication of the Sunday paper for the house . When he became a pastor in Breklum in 1873, an unprecedented number of foundations began, which made Breklum the center of the Pietist movement in Northern Germany: in 1875 he founded the "Christian Bookstore" and bought the printing house from Hermann Goos. In 1886 the pagan mission with missionaries for India came into being, followed by a newspaper and a Christian high school; he trained pastors for America; the last establishment was a hospital for psychosomatic illnesses in 1900. In 1901 Pastor Christian Jensen died. The family of the current owners has been involved with Christian Jensen's work since 1928. If the name was no longer allowed to be continued when Christian Jensen Verlag was sold on the intervention of the family, Manfred Siegel relied on the reference to the spiritual attitude in Breklum. We still see this task of producing and distributing the printed word as our obligation today, which is why we call ourselves breklumer.verlag and breklumer.de . " (Online at breklumer.de)
  50. ↑ DNB 840889941 ; DNB 810201704 ; DNB 840717636 ; DNB 881271217 ; DNB 880937548