German bishops in the World War

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German Bishops in World War I is the title of a document from the Roman Catholic German Bishops' Conference . The "Word about the end of the Second World War 75 years ago" was published on April 29, 2020 on the occasion of the upcoming 75th anniversary of the end of the war and, according to the chairman of the Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing , is to be understood as a confession of guilt.

prehistory

Concerning the role of the German bishops in National Socialism, the church-critical writer Karlheinz Deschner criticizes the fact that the complaints of the Catholic Church in Germany were always aimed at violating Catholic interests, not the system of National Socialism as such. During the 1930s and in World War II, the German Catholic bishops limited themselves to protesting against grievances simply by submitting petitions to the Reich government, as there was a protracted conflict and a leadership crisis among the bishops, as well as differing views on how to proceed. which brought the board to the brink of split. Public protests by the German bishops against the judiciary murders of their opponents, against the persecution of liberals, democrats and communists therefore did not take place, any more than against homosexuals and Bible Students . There was no protest by the bishops against Hitler's attack on Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland, France or the Soviet Union, nor was there a protest against pogroms against the Jews, the destruction of synagogues, the deportation and gassing of Jews. An example of the attitude of the German bishops is a “Vademecum for the Catholic Soldier” with the imprimatur of the Episcopal Ordinariate (November 8, 1938) of the Diocese of Münster , in which it says: “The Führer embodies the unity of the people and the empire. He is the supreme bearer of state power. The Christian German is bound in his conscience to obey him as such, even without an oath [...]. Is it made easy for the German soldier to pledge such loyalty to his Führer and Supreme Commander, because he recognizes in him the example of a true soldierly character and soldierly loyalty, because he gives his loyalty to a man who gives the meaning of his life in the increase of size and If he sees the honor of his people and himself sets the example of loyalty day and night, then the Christian soldier will be able to speak his vow with seriousness and joy of heart because his faith teaches him, in the person of the ruler, about the purely human abilities and Accomplishments beyond recognizing and recognizing the glory and honor bestowed on him by God. "

It was not until August 1943 that the Catholic German bishops decided to express themselves publicly in a joint pastoral letter entitled “Ten Commandments as the Law of Life of the Nations” and declared on September 12, 1943: “Killing is inherently bad, even if it is allegedly carried out in the interest of the common good: on guilty and defenseless mentally weak and sick people, on incurably sick and fatally injured, on hereditary and unfit newborns, on innocent hostages and disarmed prisoners of war or prisoners, on people of foreign races and origins. "

After the end of the war, on the initiative of eleven north-west German bishops, the German bishops pleaded guilty on August 23, 1945 in Fulda and declared: "Many Germans, including from our ranks, have been infatuated by the false teachings of National Socialism." They are the crimes remained indifferent to and would even have encouraged them. "Many of them became criminals themselves." Since then, according to the historian Ulrich Helbach, the bishops have never again discussed their role in the Nazi era critically.

At the end of the Second Vatican Council on November 18, 1965 , the Polish bishops addressed a message to the members of the German Bishops' Conference, which, in view of the countless deaths and displaced persons on both sides, culminated in the sentence: "We forgive and ask for forgiveness." at the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland on resolute opposition. The German bishops replied on December 5, 1965, very distantly and disappointingly for the Polish bishops, as they had hoped for a statement about the Oder-Neisse border ; In Germany it was feared that a statement about the recognition of the German-Polish border would be difficult to convey to the faithful, especially those who were expelled from their homeland .

Origin of the text

A discussion of the behavior of the German bishops in the 1930s and 1940s had been repeatedly called for, most recently in a letter that the German theologian Heinrich Missalla wrote to the German Bishops' Conference shortly before his death on October 3, 2018 on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of war, demanded "an open and honest commitment to the problematic behavior of the bishops at the time in relation to Hitler's war". The cause was supported by the Catholic peace movement Pax Christi and the “ Church and People Movement We are Church ”. In October 2019, the German Bishops' Conference decided to publish a statement on the behavior of the bishops during World War II; at its spring plenary meeting in March 2020, it adopted the text that has since been drawn up.

The text is based on studies by the Commission for Contemporary History , which researches the history of German Catholicism in the 19th and 20th centuries, and was produced under the coordination of the German Commission Justitia et Pax . The commission also sought contact with the Polish and French Bishops' Conferences , whose countries suffered particularly under German occupation during the Second World War. The 23-page declaration was published as No. 107 in the series "The German Bishops" and on April 29, 2020 in a video press conference by the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, the chairman of the "Justitia et Pax" commission, Bishop Heiner Wilmer , and presented to the Commission for Contemporary History by the historian Christoph Kösters.

content

Section 1: The Presence of Memory

In the first section (pp. 9–11) the bishops examine the consequences of the war and the memory of the Second World War in the society of the two German states and in the Church, which were not without conflicts. They address feelings of shame and guilt, as well as relief that the war and the time of National Socialism are over; For many, the end of the war was associated with painful experiences of displacement and the loss of their homeland. The bishops welcome the European context of the German culture of remembrance and the fact that a critical examination of the past is now part of the self-image of the Federal Republic of Germany. "Our neighbors' readiness for reconciliation ... is a lasting gift for which we are humbly grateful," so that it has become possible for the Germans to have largely reconciled with themselves, their guilty past and their neighbors. It was not until late that it was understood in Germany that the end of the war on May 8, 1945 was "above all a day of liberation" for the Germans too. Out of respect for the victims, the anniversary of the end of the war is now an occasion to take a critical look at the behavior of the bishops at the time and also to name misconduct, not least reinforced by the complaints that “the Catholic bishops in Germany left the Catholic soldiers alone in their conscience and - even more - would have participated in the war ”. The bishops endeavored to recognize the reasons for the actions of their predecessors in order to learn for their own work.

Section 2: The behavior of the Catholic bishops in Germany during the Second World War

On pages 12 to 15 the bishops compile facts about the interdependencies between the Catholic Church and the state and society during the World War and state that despite all internal distance, sometimes even open opposition to National Socialism , the Catholic Church in Germany is "part of the war society " been.

  • They refer to the activities of military and prison chaplains and services in nursing in hospitals and church houses. "Despite massive pressures against the church by the state and the NSDAP, the patriotic willingness to mobilize the material, human and spiritual resources of the church for the war effort - as in the First World War - remained unbroken until the end."
  • When German troops launched an attack on Poland that was contrary to international law, the Catholic bishops showed restraint in their sermons and pastoral letters, but called on soldiers and believers "to be loyal, obedient and fulfilling their duties, to probation, atonement and sacrifice".
  • The bishops of the time no longer explicitly legitimized the war emanating from Germany as “just”, and they did not share the Nazis' racial ideological justification for the war; however, they accepted the sacrifices to be made out of a national, “patriotic” way of thinking. After the victory over France in 1940, for example, they let the church bells ring and welcomed the attack on the Soviet Union as a “crusade” against “godless Bolshevism”, which gave the war an additional religious charge and gave the war an additional meaning.
  • At the time, the German bishops were appalled by the suffering and death of the soldiers and the tremors of the bombing war against the local civilian population. On the other hand, the sufferings of others were only insufficiently considered.
  • The open protest of the German bishops against the National Socialist war of extermination failed to materialize because of national awareness; they had "relied on the (illusory) change in behavior of the political leadership, on compliance with legal agreements and on the virtuous fulfillment of duties of those led". Only individual bishops such as the Münster bishop, Clemens August Graf von Galen , protested against the crimes against those persecuted by the Nazi regime, especially the Jews . It was not until August 19, 1943, that the Bishops' Conference came up with the joint pastoral letter “On the ten commandments as the law of life of the peoples” and publicly called for the state order to be bound by truth and divine law and the unconditional right to life; however, the soldiers continued to be called upon to “faithfully fulfill their duties”.

The German Bishops' Conference concludes from such research results:

“Ultimately, the bishops found no way out of the tension that arose from the shared idea of ​​patriotic obligation in war, the legitimacy of state authorities, the resulting obligations of obedience and the obvious crimes. [...] By not saying a clear 'no' to the war, but rather strengthening the will to persevere in most of them, they made themselves complicit in the war. "

- German bishops in World War I , p. 15

Bishop Heiner Wilmer , the chairman of the German Justitia et Pax Commission , called this statement when the document was presented as the core message of the text.

Section 3: Approaches to Understanding

According to the document, the Bishops' Conference must strive for historical understanding, because it is not least owed to the victims to find out how such attitudes could develop and how they were justified. In the third section (pp. 16–20) the following aspects are listed to make behavior towards war understandable, but not to excuse it. Here, however, hasty generalizations of the behavior of individual bishops on all should be avoided.

  • Traditional notions of order that go back to ancient philosophy and theology and were further developed in the Middle Ages were leading. According to them, state order and violence are viewed as given and legitimized by God, which does not rule out criticism of those responsible. Rebellion against the state order was understood as rebellion against the divine will. Even the German state under National Socialism, although the bishops clearly rejected the Nazi worldview, was seen as a regulatory power that had to be respected and protected.
  • The Christian doctrine of the “just war” was not questioned despite the experiences of the First World War ; war as a form of political debate and the natural presence of the military and soldiers in everyday life were widely accepted.
  • During the war, it was a natural patriotic duty to stand by the fatherland, with the interests and rights of other nations being disregarded. The Versailles Treaty, with its assignment of sole blame for the outbreak of the First World War to Germany and the massive conditions that were perceived as unjust, was also perceived as humiliation by the German bishops.
  • The confrontation with communism and the struggle against Bolshevism as an anti- religious system of society determined the National Socialist thinking and the intentions of the German bishops in equal measure.
  • The bishops saw themselves bound by the Reich Concordat of 1933, which guaranteed the pastoral activities of the church. This position became more difficult for the bishops, however, the further the National Socialists pushed ecclesiastical life back into the sacristy and the more priests, religious and lay Catholics were imprisoned.
  • Faced with the challenges of the race-ideological war of annihilation, the Bishops' Conference was institutionally too weak due to its internal organization to effectively come to a common line of action. Only resolutions passed unanimously had binding effect, without being binding on all bishops. An effort to maintain an inner unity prevented the bishops from making clear public statements.

Section 4: Lessons for the Future

In the fourth section (pp. 21-23) the bishops complain that "the reference to the many martyrs of the concentration camps and places of execution as well as the advocacy of the bishops for their own German people" has long been a sufficient answer to the questions for most Catholics who had shared responsibility and guilt in war and National Socialism, so that much too late “even among the bishops, their own entanglements in the Third Reich and the Second World War were discussed and viewed self-critically”. It is particularly shameful that “the sufferings and sacrifices of others” did not come into view, let alone openly addressed. The exchange and the paths of reconciliation with neighboring countries, especially with France and Poland, were helpful in changing this repressing perspective; these meetings would contribute to the renewal of the Church to this day.

The bishops cite lessons from this story:

  • Redefinition of the relationship between church and religion, sharpening the role of the church in the state in the sense of a critical contemporaneity
  • Obligation for the Church "to demand the dignity of all human beings based on the image of God, the inalienable human rights, the moral principles about the social order and everything that serves the salvation of souls in every state and from every government and to contribute to the realization"
  • Renewed forms of military and prison chaplaincy as an example of a new coexistence between state and church
  • Recognition that solidarity in the Christian sense is not limited to one's own people
  • Deepening of the church's doctrine of peace in the light of new experiences, transition from a doctrine of “just war” to a model of “just peace”.

Web links

  • The text of the declaration
  • Press release of the German Bishops' Conference No. 075 of April 29, 2020: Word of the German bishops about the end of the Second World War 75 years ago published [6]
  • paxchristi.de : Do not withhold church support for the Hitler War! , August 22, 2019, with an open letter from Heinrich Missalla to the German Catholic bishops on the 80th anniversary of the start of the war [7]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joachim Heinz: "A confession of guilt". Bishops publish declaration on World War II. domradio.de, April 29, 2020 online
  2. ↑ Deschner, Karlheinz: The rooster crowed again . Econ Verlag, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-430-12064-0 , p. 903 .
  3. ↑ When do we have to obey God more than people? Interview with Christoph Kösters in: Lord's Day , number 19, May 10, 2020, p. 4.
  4. ↑ a b Deschner, Karlheinz: The cock crowed again . Econ Verlag, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-430-12064-0 , p. 903 .
  5. ↑ Quotation in Gesamtdeutsche Rundschau, March 14, 1958, p. 3.
  6. ↑ Christoph Arens: When Germany's bishops condemned the Nazi murders. In: kathisch.de , September 12, 2018 online
  7. ↑ Christoph Arens: A historical confession of guilt. In: kathisch.de , 23 August 2015 online .
  8. ^ Carsten Dippel: Correspondence between Polish and German Catholic bishops. In: deutschlandfunk.de , November 18, 2015. [1]
  9. ^ OME-Lexikon: Correspondence between the Polish and German bishops , accessed on May 1, 2020 [2]
  10. ↑ paxchristi.de: Do not hide church support for the Hitler war! , August 22, 2019, with the text of the letter [3]
  11. ↑ dw.com: Catholic Bishops: Predecessors "were complicit in the war" , April 29, 2020 [4]
  12. ↑ dbk.de: Word of the German bishops at the end of the Second World War 75 years ago published , April 29, 2020. [5]