German sermons in World War II

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German-language sermons held during the Second World War were mainly given within the Greater German Empire , where the preachers had a share of the small amount of freedom that the National Socialist government granted the churches as part of their services . Many of the sermons at that time did not contain any explicit political references, but either statements with which they supported individual concerns of National Socialism , or statements with which they criticized National Socialist concerns. During the Second World War (1939–1945), a patriotic attitude and with it the hope of a German victory was widespread in the churches too. Such an attitude supporting the German warfare was recognizable in many sermons.

To the sources

Sermons are oral, but the historian's information on past sermons is based on written texts. In the case of sermon manuscripts prepared by the preacher, there is an uncertainty as to the extent to which he adhered to the exact wording of the manuscript when preaching. In the case of a sermon postscript, the correspondence with the actual wording of the sermon depends on the stenographer capturing everything that was said and not changing anything.

Only a small part of the written sermon texts prepared in advance or afterwards has survived. Furthermore, fewer sermons have survived from the war than from before. A study of apocalyptic sermons from the time of National Socialism (so the subtitle) offers about five times as much material from the period from 1933 to the beginning of the war as from the war, although both periods are almost the same length and although wartime is a particularly favorable breeding ground for apocalyptic Ideas are. In any case, representations of church history from the Nazi era focus on the time before the start of the war, above all on the church struggle .

The oral monologue not only featured sermons, but also lectures on topics of the Christian faith that preachers gave during the week at church events. Such lectures could be similar to sermons. A fundamental distinction must be made between written communications, such as church announcements in church newspapers, from that which is communicated orally to the church audience . Episcopal pastoral words were given in written form; To the extent that they were to be read aloud by the preachers in the region concerned, they had a function similar to that of a sermon.

Sermon texts with criticism of National Socialism could burden the preacher until the end of the war, after that it was exactly the opposite - now sermon texts containing approval of National Socialism could be detrimental to the preacher. Therefore, deliberate elimination of previously existing sermon texts can be expected.

When sermon listeners had a negative attitude towards the preacher or the church as a whole, it sometimes happened that they heard more of Nazi criticism than was actually said, and that their listening out influenced the way in which they reproduced individual sermon statements.

Subsequently printed sermons are easily accessible, but wartime sermons were mostly only printed after the end of the war. Sometimes it is unclear to what extent these sermons have been revised for print, in a sense "updated". An example of a careful edition is the edition of the sermons of the evangelical confessional pastor Gerhard Ebeling (1995); It explains the tradition and fidelity of reproduction as well as the audience.

The situation is less clear in the sermons of the ethicist Helmut Thielicke . During the last years of the war in Stuttgart he gave a series of popular Thursday lectures; these were published after the end of the war as a kind of “lay dogmatics” - stylistically revised, but without factual changes, as Thielicke indicates in the foreword. According to this printed book, Thielicke spoke in those sermons z. B. from killing by gassing or by euthanasia syringes, and he mentioned in connection with euthanasia the “madhouses that have become empty”. If Thielicke should have expressed it literally, they were strong provocations. In other texts by Thielicke dating back to the Nazi era, however, hardly anything political can be identified, so that it remains uncertain whether Thielicke actually made such Nazi criticism publicly at the time.

Political restrictions on preaching

The sermons given during the Second World War were severely limited in their ability to express themselves politically. These restrictions were based on several legal regulations and their dictatorial handling.

The so-called pulpit paragraph was inserted into the penal code in 1871 . At that time the church preachers should be obliged to show political restraint. This concern was also shared by the National Socialists. In addition to this demand for fundamental restraint, the so-called Dodge Act , which could be interpreted broadly and then forbade any criticism of the National Socialist government , was added as a further means of pressure . Shortly before the beginning of the war, the so-called decomposition of military strength was threatened with the death penalty by publication in the Reichsgesetzblatt on August 26, 1939 . This criminal offense also included pessimistic statements - one often spoke of defeatism at the time  - about the course of the war.

Some preachers acted as informers . The threat to the preachers was compounded by the sometimes broad interpretation of the law and severe penalties.

P. Richard Henkes SAC

With the help of such legal provisions, critics were sooner or later arrested and silenced, often before the outbreak of war: the Protestant pastor Martin Niemöller was arrested in 1937, as was the Jesuit Rupert Mayer - "the silent prophet", as a biography calls him. A total of around 300 priests were imprisoned in Germany (excluding Austria) for conduct related to the worship service (e.g. because of their sermons), with most of them being imprisoned for more than a week, sometimes for months or years. The Silesian Father Richard Henkes SAC was summoned several times for his critical sermons by the Gestapo and sent to the Dachau concentration camp , where he died of typhus in 1945 .

The Baptist preacher Arnold Köster (1896–1960) publicly criticized National Socialism in his sermons and thus belongs to the Christian resistance against National Socialism . Despite being interrogated by the Gestapo, he was spared arrest. Ultimately, one can only speculate about the reasons why Köster was retained despite his criticism of the Nazi regime: Perhaps it was because of how Köster presented himself to the Gestapo: Probably straightforward - that is sometimes more respected than a disguise. Perhaps it was due to the minor importance of the Baptists: In Austria the main ideological opponent of the National Socialists was the Catholic Church - perhaps alternative Christian groups, which represented a kind of competition with the Catholic Church, were treated less strictly in principle.

At the beginning of the war, Adolf Hitler forbade any action against the two major churches in order not to worsen the relationship between state and party on the one hand and the churches on the other. With regard to the intended support of the population in the war effort, there should be a kind of " truce " during the war .

Influence of the war on the sermons

In the historical preoccupation with sermons in the Third Reich , the focus is on the attitude towards National Socialism expressed in these sermons. Very few preachers, however, expressed resistance or open criticism. During the war years, it was obvious even for politically cautious preachers to refer to the events of the war, as this affected the lives of many listeners personally, especially in the later war years.

This attitude can be seen in a number of thematic areas, e.g. B. in dealing with the subject of "war suffering".

Legitimation of German war efforts

The assessment of the war as a defensive war of the Germans also includes a justification of the German war efforts. This is how the Archbishop of Salzburg, Andreas Rohracher, preached :

"If our soldiers did not succeed in keeping Bolshevism off, if the army did not win against ungodly communism, it would be terrible for our dear German people and our fatherland." (October 16, 1943) "

Lamp light in a dark place , an edition of several sermons by Arnold Koster

Even preachers critical of the government hardly dared to say publicly that Germany was waging wars of aggression. The Baptist preacher Arnold Köster denied the German claim of innocence, at least indirectly: "There is no people who can appear and say: 'We are waging our war for the sake of our justice.'" (January 2, 1944) In addition, Köster played on certain tendencies of - not explicitly mentioned - Hitler dictatorship. On May 19, 1940 he questioned the aspiration to become a great power: Generations of young people are sacrificed in wars with the promise of ultimately bringing peace to the world. In a later sermon, Köster specifically attributed this aspiration to great power to England, America and Germany.

The minutes of the meetings of the Vienna Evangelical Alliance also contain a reproduction of the presentations given there. Apart from Köster's presentations, there are hardly any clear references to National Socialism, neither positive nor negative. In his history of the Evangelical Alliance in Austria , Frank Hinkelmann judges the Alliance's attitude towards National Socialism: "We are only aware of a clearly critical position from Köster."

In order to be able to classify the statements in sermons relating to current political events with regard to the Nazi criticism contained therein, Graf-Stuhlhofer explained five pairs of opposites, each of which results in a spectrum of possible statements, including the pair of opposites "Hope for victory - military victory as a minor matter" . The hope of the final victory can never be found with Köster, but z. B. with the Archbishop of Salzburg, Andreas Rohracher . In 1943 he hoped that “our soldiers” would succeed in “deterring Bolshevism”. This patriotic partisanship was based on the fear of a victory for the atheist Soviet Union .

Another pair of opposites concerned the “legitimation of German warfare” (as opposed to “leaving the question of war guilt open”). Köster did not justify the German warfare, so did not blame the "enemies" - never so called by Köster - but not the other way around. So who the attacker and who the defender was, remained open to him. Other preachers justified the German war efforts insofar as they saw it as a defensive war, according to the Burgendland evangelical pastor and senior Karl Fiedler. For him, Christmas 1944 was "even more serious and sad" than the previous war Christmas because

“The enemy has come very close to the borders of our fatherland and has already partly crossed them in the east and west. Our people and fatherland are in the hardest and most bitter struggle for their freedom and independence. "

According to Gustav Reingrabner's assessment, Fiedler's sermons contain “remarkable and courageous statements”, and Fiedler was “in opposition” to the Nazi regime. In order to assess his criticism of the Nazi regime, Köster should of course preferably be compared with those preachers who are regarded as critical.

War as God's work

Where everything that happens is closely related to God's work, a successful campaign can also be interpreted as God's work. During the French campaign, the Lutheran dogmatist Paul Althaus preached :

“We deeply admire the Führer and the soldiers. But we shudder in awe as we feel the tremendous step of the Lord of history. He is always at work. But today we see his hand, often so hidden and silent, stretched out mightily over our fatherland, over Europe; … Doesn't God hold judgment? Does he not take revenge, even if we and our Führer did not want it at all? "(June 16, 1940)"

Arnold Köster differentiated here: “War is God's permission, but not God's work! The work of destruction is always Satan's work. ”(February 25, 1943) And where Köster thought he saw the warning hand of God behind the events, he also applied this warning to his own nation:

“It is the hand of God that weighs heavily on us in our day. I wish that all responsible men of all peoples, including those of the German people, would come to recognize God! "(January 31, 1943)"

In any case, many preachers saw it as their task to "localize" God's work in their presence.

Criticism of the war

Field Service (Monday, June 2, 1941)

Apart from the question of who is to blame for the outbreak of the war, a critical examination can also concern the war itself as well as individual events in the war.

In the Confessing Church of Germany there were sermons that made the war events problematic. Heinrich Schlier generally called every war a sin (on August 1, 1940). Karl Steinbauer saw a special tension in fulfilling the “soldier's duty”, which he affirmed: “I always aimed as well as I could, but when the shot broke I asked God: 'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors '. ”(December 23, 1943).

Many actions in the war were justified on the grounds that they were retaliatory measures. Arnold Köster opposed such an attitude: “In the world, the rule is: ten bombs in return for one bomb. That is the rule of the world. The rule of the church of Jesus Christ is forgiveness! ”(February 14, 1943)

If criticism of war events only focused on the other side - that is, the "enemies of the war" - and not also on the activities of their own party, they often supported the warfare of their own side. The religious philosopher Friedrich Heiler criticized the Allied bombing raids before the end of the war because they hit civilians (“women, children, sick people, sisters of the Red Cross”) and “Christian churches” and because this “work of destruction ... is carried out by nations that are involved in particularly emphasize their Christianity. "

Showing the suffering of war

The significance of references to war suffering depends on the time of the sermon: within the first two years of the war, i.e. until about autumn 1941, there were only a few deaths among German soldiers. In addition to the dramatic increase in the number of casualties in recent years, there was the Anglo-American bombing of German and Austrian cities. Only a part of the preachers noticed the war suffering of the Polish people, for example.

Most preachers did not address the painful aspect of the war until their own homeland and members of their own people were affected. In a speech on June 14, 1944, Andreas Rohracher mentioned "the suffering of innumerable mothers, not only among us, but among all peoples in the whole world". Rohracher therefore deliberately did not restrict this to Germany.

Statue of Bishop Graf von Galen in Munster, with his right hand raised in blessing.

Glorification of the soldiery

Fallen soldiers were mourned, but glorifying terms such as “heroic death” faded the mourning into the background, which favored Hitler's war effort. In his pastoral word, Bishop Galen surrounded the death of soldiers with Christian values:

“According to the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas stands the soldier's death in faithful fulfillment of duty in terms of value and dignity very close to the martyrdom for the faith. ... That is why the Christian soldiers, who give their lives in obedience to God out of love for the fatherland, will receive eternal glory and reward, just like St. Martyrs. "

Unfavorable assessment of the war situation

In the later years of the war it became difficult to expect a favorable outcome for the German Reich. This uncertainty was also sometimes addressed in sermons. Theodor Innitzer , the Archbishop of Vienna, gave a sermon on October 8, 1944 in which he a. a. The following said, “You don't know what's to come. It is possible that Vienna will also become a theater of war. ”This sermon was copied by members of the local NSDAP group observing that church , who criticized in their report that Innitzer's speech was“ cleverly demoralized ”.

Condemnation of the killing of the sick

In a sermon on August 3, 1941, Bishop Galen discussed the killing of the "mentally ill" which, according to the reports he received, was carried out "by order of Berlin". Because of the constant sequence of events, Galen was certain that this was a deliberate homicide and not an accidental illness-related death. He said:

“There is a general suspicion that bordering on certainty that these numerous unexpected deaths of the mentally ill do not occur of their own accord, but are brought about on purpose, that one follows the doctrine that claims that one may destroy so-called 'life unworthy of life', i.e. kill innocent people if you think your life is no longer worth anything for the people and the state ... "

Since Hitler wanted to avoid a public conflict with the major churches during the war, bishops - unlike pastors - were not punished for making such critical statements. This sermon from Galen is one of the most famous sermons today that were given during the Nazi era.

literature

  • Heinz Boberach (editor): Reports of the SD and the Gestapo on churches and church people in Germany: 1934–1944 (= publications of the Commission for Contemporary History; A 12). Mainz: Grünewald, 1971; DNB 720087724 .
  • A. Joachim Diestelkamp: The beast from the abyss. An investigation into apocalyptic sermons from the time of National Socialism. Protest and consolation, resistance and abuse . Dessau: newspaper publisher Anhalt, 1993; ISBN 3-928848-01-1 . Dissertation at the University of Göttingen, 1991.
  • Gerhard Ebeling: Sermons by an “illegal” from 1939–1945 . Tübingen: Mohr, 1995; ISBN 3-16-146371-4 .
  • Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer : About the “limit of the possible” in the Third Reich. Criticism of the national in the unique collection of sermons of the Viennese Baptist pastor Arnold Köster. In: past and present. Quarterly books for contemporary history, social analysis and political education 18, 1999, pp. 13–35.
  • Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer: Sermons during Stalingrad. A documentation on the Viennese Baptist pastor Arnold Köster in January and February 1943. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 48 (2000) pp. 1078-1097.
  • Peter Löffler (editor): Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen: files, letters and sermons, 1933–1946 (= publications of the Commission for Contemporary History, Series A: Sources, Vol. 42), Part II; Mainz: Grünewald, 1988; ISBN 3-7867-1394-4 .
  • Joachim Mehlhausen : Article National Socialism and Churches . In: TRE 24, 1994, pp. 43-78 (limited to the two major churches).
  • Dagmar Pöpping : War Pastor on the Eastern Front. Evangelical and Catholic Wehrmacht chaplaincy in the war of annihilation 1941–1945 , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017, ISBN 978-3-525-55788-4 .
  • Gustav Reingrabner : Sermon in “great” and “difficult” times. An example. In: Yearbook for the History of Protestantism in Austria 116, 2000/01, pp. 163–190 (on pastor and senior Karl Fiedler, from whom numerous sermon manuscripts have been preserved).

Single receipts

  1. Reingrabner reflects on a “ sermon history ”, ie a historical evaluation of sermons: Sermon in “great” and “difficult” times , 2000/2001, pp. 163–166.
  2. For the source situation, see Hans Günter Hockerts : Weimar Republic, National Socialism, Second World War (1919–1945) , Part 1: Files and documents (= source studies on German history in modern times from 1500 to the present; 6). Darmstadt 1996, especially Part IV (Chapter 6 on resistance , Chapter 8 on churches and Chapter 9 on mood reports ).
  3. Diestelkamp: Das Tier aus dem Abgrund , 1993.
  4. For example Friedrich Wintzer in the section The Sermon in the Area of ​​the Theology of the Word of God and in the Era of National Socialism . In: TRE 27, 1997, pp. 323-325.
  5. Boberach: Reports of the SD , 1971, in the introduction, there p. XL.
  6. Ebeling: Sermons , 1995, in the foreword and in the afterword, pp. 163f; on the audience p. 165.
  7. Helmut Thielicke: The Faith of Christianity. Our world before Jesus Christ . 3rd edition, Göttingen 1955, p. 7.
  8. Thielicke also made statements according to which Jews, Aryans and others are in principle on a similar level. Thielicke: Glaube der Christenheit , 1955, p. 131, 103 (on euthanasia), p. 122 and so on. (via Jews).
  9. So Graf-Stuhlhofer: From the “Limit of the Possible” , 1999, p. 18, with reference to several editions of Thielicke's sermons.
  10. ^ Roman lead stone : Rupert Mayer. The silent prophet . Frankfurt / Main 1993.
  11. Ulrich von Hehl : Priest under Hitler's terror. A biographical and statistical survey (= publications of the Commission for Contemporary History , Series A: Sources, Vol. 37), 3rd edition. Paderborn 1996, p. 131.
  12. ^ Graf-Stuhlhofer: Public Critique , 2001, pp. 201 and 6.
  13. Kurt Meier : Cross and Swastika. The Protestant Church in the Third Reich. Munich 1992, pp. 175–196: The Church in World War II.
  14. ^ Konsistorial-Archiv Salzburg, files 19/4. - Quoted from Peter Schernthaner: Andreas Rohracher, Archbishop of Salzburg in the Third Reich . Salzburg 1994, p. 56, note 192.
  15. On May 19, 1940 on Psalm 2 ('The kings of the earth rebel ...'). According to Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer: National Socialism as competition to the Christian faith. The Viennese Baptist preacher Arnold Köster on the Anschluss and the beginning of the war. Documentation on the years 1938 to 1940. In: Yearbook for the History of Protestantism in Austria 112 (1996) pp. 137–183.
  16. ^ On February 25, 1943. According to Graf-Stuhlhofer: Sermons during Stalingrad , 2000, p. 1096.
  17. ^ Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer (Ed.): Evangelical Alliance in Vienna from the First Republic to the Nazi era (1920–45). Edition of the meeting minutes and programs (= studies on the history of Christian movements of the Reformation tradition in Austria ; 2). VKW, Bonn 2010.
  18. ^ Hinkelmann: History of the Evangelical Alliance , 2012, p. 67.
  19. Graf-Stuhlhofer: From the “Limit of the Possible” in the Third Reich , 1999, pp. 13–35, there 32–34.
  20. ^ Sermon on October 16, 1943, Konsistorial-Archiv Salzburg, files 19/4. - Quoted from Peter Schernthaner: Andreas Rohracher. Archbishop of Salzburg in the Third Reich (= series of publications by the "Archbishop Rohracher Study Fund" ; 3), p. 56, note 192.
  21. Graf-Stuhlhofer: From the “Limit of the Possible” in the Third Reich , 1999, pp. 25–29.
  22. ^ Karl Fiedler (1887–1964) was pastor in Lutzmannsburg and from 1944 in Rust .
  23. Sermon on December 24, 1944. Quoted from Gustav Reingrabner: Sermon in “great” and “difficult” times. An example. In: Yearbook for the History of Protestantism in Austria 116, 2000/01, pp. 163–190, p. 176 there.
  24. ^ Reingrabner: Sermon . 2000/01, pp. 186f.
  25. Quoted from Diestelkamp: Tier aus dem Abgrund , 1993, p. 245.
  26. ^ Graf-Stuhlhofer: Sermons during Stalingrad , 2000, p. 1091.
  27. Diestelkamp: Tier aus dem Abgrund , 1993, p. 246f; in the archive of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia.
  28. So in a sermon in Dinkelsbühl. Quoted from Diestelkamp: Tier aus dem Abgrund , 1993, p. 262f.
  29. ^ Graf-Stuhlhofer: Sermons during Stalingrad , 2000, p. 1095.
  30. ^ In February 1944 and January 1945. - Printed in Friedrich Heiler: Mysterium Caritatis . München undated [about 1949] (a collection of his sermons), pp. 114 and 67.
  31. Quoted from the Documentation Archives of the Austrian Resistance (ed.): Resistance and persecution in Salzburg 1934–1945 , Vol. 2. Vienna 1991, p. 145 (Doc. 6).
  32. ^ Dated February 25, 1943, to be read on Heroes' Remembrance Day, March 14. - See Löffler: Galen , 1988, No. 377 (p. 970).
  33. Sermon in the parish of Vienna Reindorf , quoted from Graf-Stuhlhofer: The Gau-Akt about Cardinal Theodor Innitzer. Insights into conflicts and moods during World War II. In: Austria in History and Literature 55, 2011, pp. 148–156, there from p. 153.
  34. See Löffler: Galen , 1988, No. 341, pp. 874-883.
  35. Excerpts from this sermon and that of July 13, 1941 were included (as the only sermons) in the collection of sources on German history in sources and representations , Vol. 9: Weimar Republic and Third Reich 1918–1945 , ed. by Heinz Hürten . Reclam, Stuttgart 1995, No. 113 (pp. 361-368).