Evangelical weeks

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The Evangelical Weeks in 1935 , 1936 and 1937 were highlights of the spiritual life of the Confessing Church during the time of National Socialism in Germany. They developed from the academic meetings of the German Christian Student Union (DCSV) and were launched in 1938 by the Secret State Police (Gestapo) with reference to Section 1 of the President's Ordinance on the Protection of People and State of February 28, 1933 “in the interests of public peace and order as well as religious peace ”in agreement with the Reich Church Minister.

Origin and goal setting

In cooperation between the provisional leadership of the Confessing Church and the leadership of the old friends association of the DCSV, an advisory chamber for academic work was formed in 1935 , where the decisive suggestions came from Eberhard Müller . The members of this chamber were: Paul Humburg, as the head of the interim church leadership of the German Evangelical Church (DEK); Reinold von Thadden as chairman; Student pastor Otto Fricke , Frankfurt / M .; Hans Thimme , Bad Oeynhausen; President Franz Irmer, Berlin; Oberkirchenrat Wilhelm Pressel , Stuttgart; District Court Judge Meyer, Berlin (Ministry of Justice); Emil Sörensen , Dresden; Eberhard Müller as secretary; Lawyer Eberhard Fiedler, Berlin; Kurt Frör , Nuremberg.

The Reich Committee of the Evangelical Weeks developed out of this , “in order to serve the Church through popular missionary work among the educated. By taking care of the central missionary concern, the Evangelical Weeks primarily want to strengthen the spiritual life of the Confessing Congregations ... The German Evangelical Week, which takes place annually as possible, as well as smaller events of a similar character in the individual provinces, cities and districts serve this goal. “Rhenish President Paul Humburg took over the chairmanship, Reinold von Thadden became his deputy. Eberhard Müller, the general secretary of the DCSV, made himself available as executive general secretary to the Reich Committee. At a time when the anti-Christian propaganda of National Socialism could be felt more and more and confusion and insecurity spread, the evangelical testimony should be offered at the Evangelical Weeks with "biblical-Reformation clarity and awakening power to people of the present with their concrete questions" become.

From the beginning, the mutual penetration of evangelistic-biblical and reformatory piety among the men who appeared as speakers during the Evangelical Weeks was promising. In the ecclesiastical public, the impulses of the Luther Renaissance and dialectical theology , which had caused a theological climate change, in connection with the living legacy of a new biblicism, as it had come from Martin Kähler . One was permeated by the awareness of giving the people challenged by the church struggle new and understandable answers to their questions, which were not possible in this clarity and detail within the normal Sunday preaching.

One aimed particularly at the educated. A circular from the Reich Committee of January 14, 1936 said: “These events are not companies with cultural-political objectives, but want to carry the Christian message through teaching and preaching into the world of the educated in order to awaken a sense of responsibility for the church. "

The Evangelical Weeks 1935–1937

1935

It started with the first German Evangelical Week in Hanover from August 26th to 30th, 1935, which went off brilliantly and was surprisingly well attended. One was aware that one would encounter opposition from the “ German Christians ”. However, the large-scale propaganda for the week through conference programs, which were also enclosed with the church magazines, proceeded without any particular incident. There was also no official demonstration of disapproval from the National Socialist government. The city hall of Hanover was of course not made available, so that the conference was held in the Marktkirche and in the Neustädter Church . 4000 participants came from all over Germany.

The five themes The preaching of the word of God ; The creed of the church ; The witness of God in the church ; The Christian message in the life of the people ; The man of God were Theophil Wurm , Paul Humburg, Karl Koch , Otto Riethmüller , Simon Schöffel , Hanns Lilje , August Marahrens , Willem Adolf Visser 't Hooft , Karl Immanuel Again , Hans Dannebaum , Ernst Verwiebe, Hans Asmussen , Martin Haug , Friedrich Meinzolt , Martin Niemöller , Walter Künneth , Heinrich Rendtorff and Reinold von Thadden dealt with.

1936

The second Evangelical Week took place from 1st to 5th January 1936 in Hamburg's St. Petri Church . The current lecture topics were also addressed primarily to the educated members of the Church. One of the lectures was on the natural bondage of humans ( Karl Stoevesandt , Bremen); about heredity, illness and guilt ( Werner Villinger , Bethel), in order to clearly differentiate oneself from the racially conditioned primitive biologism of the National Socialist worldview. Theological keynote speeches on burning problems such as the biblical doctrine of original sin ( Paul Althaus , Erlangen); The bond of the individual to the state and church (Franz Irmer, Berlin); Church and people in the missionary experience of the present ( Walter Freytag , Hamburg); The possibility of Christian education (Hans Asmussen, Bad Oeynhausen); Christ and the Young Generation (Manfred Müller, Stuttgart); The Church's share in the work of education ( Friedrich Delekat , Dresden); The attack of the message of Christ (Martin Niemöller, Berlin); Law and office of the laity in the church (Reinold von Thadden) were added.

Almost at the same time, an Evangelical Week for Saxony with a similar program was held in the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig . Evangelical weeks in Essen , Breslau , Stettin , Koenigsberg and Danzig followed . Paul Humburg, Karl Heim , Helmuth Schreiner , Hanns Lilje and others also made themselves available as speakers.

Up to 2000 participants were counted in Leipzig . The opening service that Hans Meiser held was overcrowded. In Wroclaw, the number of participants grew from 1,000 permanent guests in the evening until 3000. was in Stettin, the fixed number of participants 650, the Bible study was visited mostly of 700 to 800 participants, the afternoon and evening visiting rose up to 2000. The Protestant week found throughout Pomerania one unexpected echo.

Up to 2000 visitors were counted in Königsberg. Some basic lines were re-emphasized: The singing work should be well prepared. Joint, casual events are to be aimed for in the form of an excursion, a visit to an institution or as a social get-together. It is urgent to have a uniform overall topic for the Evangelical Week, the choice of material must be restricted. “The triad of the conference (proclamation - testimony - doctrine) must be well worked out and each speaker must be determined according to his type. The overall character of the lectures must be shown in the fact that the preaching is related to questions of the present; it must never be without an aggressive element, so it must represent a higher unity of apologetics and evangelism. "

In an undated report from autumn 1936 it says: “In two districts, full-time secretaries of the Evangelical Week have been working for a few weeks ... In several cities, Evangelical evening weeks are in preparation, which primarily want to include ... working people ... the financial ones Subsidies come from the membership fees of the Association for the Promotion of the German Evangelical Weeks. In the course of the first year we distributed a total of 1.1 million programs, of which over 100,000 were sent in addressed envelopes. "

The service of the Evangelical Weeks continued to have an astonishing response and seemed safe for some time. In Vienna , the Evangelical Theological Faculty organized an Evangelical Week , which the radio even made available to broadcast a lecture.

The big imperial event of the German Evangelical Week from 24.-29. July 1936 in Stuttgart was a high point. Almost 3,600 participants from all over Germany had gathered. Guests came from Austria, England and the Nordic countries. Greetings and wishes from foreign church leaders, e.g. B. from the Swedish Archbishop Eidem , the English Archbishops of Canterbury and York , the Lord Bishop of Chichester demonstrated an ecumenical bond with the afflicted Protestant Christianity in Germany. The collegiate and hospital churches were always full, often overcrowded, and sometimes a transfer to the Leonhardskirche was necessary.

The main theme of the conference was The God of Truth . Theophil Wurm and Karl Koch held the opening services. Friedrich von Bodelschwingh and Paul Humburg took over the daily Bible study . The speakers included Karl Hartenstein , Basel; Walter Freytag, Hamburg; Professors Helmuth Schreiner , Rostock; Julius Schniewind , Kiel; Otto Procksch, Erlangen; Adolf Köberle , Basel; Wilhelm Vischer , Basel; Jakob Kroeker , Wernigerode; Udo Smidt ; Wilhelm Busch , Essen; Hanns Lilje, Berlin; Julius Schieder , Nuremberg a. a. The week was structured in such a way that biblical and theological lectures took place in the morning, reports from the congregations were made in the afternoon and congregational lectures were held in a kind of public rally in the evening.

Evangelical weeks also took place in 1936 in Rostock , Frankfurt / Main , Essen , Siegen , Flensburg and Berlin . The names of the following speakers appear: Wolfgang Trillhaas ; Hans Asmussen; Eduard Putz, Fürth; Wilhelm Brandt , Bethel; Martin Pörksen , Breklum; Wilhelm Halfmann , Kiel; Volkmar Herntrich , Bethel; Heinrich Rendtorff, Stettin; Wolfgang Staemmler, Magdeburg; Otto Dibelius ; Walter Künneth; Thomas Breit , Munich; Hans Joachim Iwand , Koenigsberg; Keyßer, Neuendettelsau; Georg Merz , Bethel; D. Knak, Berlin; Sörensen, Dresden; Hans Bardtke , Borsdorf; Albrecht Oepke , Leipzig; Helmut Kern, Nuremberg; Martin Haug, Stuttgart.

1937

At the beginning of 1937, the opposing forces came on the scene. The first sample of this was felt by the Reich Committee of the Evangelical Week in January 1937 when the Evangelical Week was banned in Erfurt and Bremen . The Secret State Police relied on "Section 1 of the presidential decree of February 28, 1933 for the protection of the people and the state in the interests of public peace and order as well as religious peace" and acted in agreement with the Reich Church Minister. The ban was initiated by State Secretary Hermann Muhs in the Reich Church Ministry and did not apply to individual speakers, but was directed against the work of the Evangelical Weeks as a whole.

But in the same month of January, the Protestant Weeks in Nuremberg , Dortmund , Magdeburg , Schneidemühl , Frankfurt / Main , Heidelberg , Kreuznach and Tübingen were held.

Amazingly, at the end of March / beginning of April two impressive Evangelical Weeks took place in Kassel with 12,000 visitors and in Darmstadt . The general secretary of the World Council of Churches Visser't Hooft, Geneva, spoke at both series of lectures, although it was particularly dramatic in Darmstadt.

The Protestant Week from March 31 to April 4 in Darmstadt was initially approved. But then the lectures should be banned, the Bible studies were allowed. The preparatory committee for Evangelical Week decided not to obey the ban. After the Bible studies, the congregation should be encouraged to remain in the church to listen to the lectures. As the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Dr. Visser't Hooft, found the State Police Department felt inhibited. On the second day the Gestapo tried to prevent the speakers from entering the church. But some of them managed to get into the church through the windows. On the third day the Gestapo intervened harshly. After his lecture, Father Wilhelm Busch was arrested and expelled from the city. Because he did not comply, he was detained with other leading pastors. Finally the Pauluskirche was closed by the police. Those arrested were released at the end of the week. Bishop Wurm was also prevented from holding the Sunday service, but he was still able to preach in the hall of the city mission in Darmstadt. Pastor Wintermann preached in the castle church. He was not arrested afterwards because the castle courtyard was full of people.

The third German Evangelical Week from July 27 to August 1, 1937 in Dresden was a final echo . It was also banned for a short time. Interestingly, this happened through the Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter of Saxony, Mutschmann , who knew how to assert himself here against the will of the Gestapo. The last big German Evangelical Week did take place. With the help of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, which had ordered special trains to Görlitz without specifying the purpose , it was transferred to this Silesian city. The participants had been informed of this when they arrived at the conference office in Dresden. About 1000 people used the special train on the first and third day. For the second and fourth day, the 1000 permanent participants on the train received personal invitations in Dresden families for fraternal discussions about the lectures they had heard. This made it possible to come together in around 70 groups undisturbed. On the fifth and last day, the 1000 participants met on a special trip that took place on an Elbe steamer to Saxon Switzerland. Despite all the obstacles, the announced general theme "Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord" was carried out. Well-known and established speakers were called here too, such as Reinold von Thadden, Günter Dehn , Franz Lau , Heinrich Vogel , Hermann Barth, Wilhelm Busch, Hugo Hahn , Julius Schniewind, August Knorr, Hans Asmussen, Hanns Lilje, Kurt Dietrich Schmidt, WA Visser 't Hooft and missionary Bernhard Schiele.

Prohibition and aftermath

In 1938 the state-political ban on the Evangelical Weeks followed after the difficulties had increased so much in the second half of 1937 that the Evangelical Weeks had been relegated to the modest framework of local events. At last one made do with evangelical days such as B. in Dessau and Chemnitz and with a few speakers, until these possibilities were suppressed in the course of the state "deconfessionalization of public life".

After a year of wise waiting, the Württemberg regional church resumed the Evangelical Days in 1939. Several theology professors from Tübingen made themselves available. The “days” took place in close succession in Freudenstadt , Calw , Reutlingen , Tuttlingen , Ebingen , Ulm , Heidenheim , Göppingen , Nürtingen , Eßlingen , Bad Cannstatt , Backnang , Schwäbisch Hall and Heilbronn . An average of 1000 or more participants were reached. In Stuttgart they were called ecclesiastical days of silence and reflection , which were held at certain intervals in the ever-filled collegiate church and continued after the outbreak of war.

The Evangelical Weeks will not be forgotten. When the horror of National Socialism was over after 1945, Protestant weeks were held again from 1947: first in 1947 in Flensburg , then in 1948 in Frankfurt am Main and in 1949 in Hanover . These Evangelical Weeks with a strong missionary character formed the basic pattern of the German Evangelical Church Congress , which then achieved an unprecedented public effect in the 1950s. Certainly personal considerations and plans of the first President Reinold von Thadden also played an important role in the development of the Kirchentag. Nevertheless not be dismissed out of hand that the Evangelical week during the time of the church struggle is the main precursor of the Kirchentag.

The general secretary of the German Evangelical Week between 1935 and 1938, Eberhard Müller , became director of the first Evangelical Academy in Germany, which was founded in Bad Boll and had a pioneering modern working style. This work also flows from the DCSV, from the Apologetic Central and from the People's Mission , as they already shaped the Evangelical Weeks. It is no coincidence that the majority of the responsible employees in both the Evangelical Academies and the Kirchentag come from these areas of work.

Yield of the Evangelical Weeks

And the yield from these weeks? Eberhard Müller notes in an undated circular:

“The work of the Evangelical Weeks so far shows that we are on the right track. Not only the astonishing number of participants these weeks compared to earlier times (Hanover 4000, Hamburg 2000, Essen 1600), but also the nature of the composition of the participants proves that there are wide z. Some of the groups that are quite alien to the Church are included. Above all, we can observe an astonishingly large participation of our educated male world ... In today's world it already means something when people volunteer to cooperate ... We have never had a shortage of employees where it was once clear what we want. But we also never lack tasks that have to be mastered, because the goal that is set for us, to participate in the building of living and thinking Christian communities, is so immensely far that it can never be fully achieved.
The Evangelical Weeks are by no means aimed exclusively at academics, and academics today do not want to be addressed as academics, but as a member of the Church, and there are also very many non-academics who are much more able to work on the questions of thought given to our church as members of the so-called intellectual-scientific professions.
The Evangelical Week is aimed at a section of the Church. They are not a general evangelism enterprise. Nevertheless, they do not offer academic lectures, but serve to clarify the great questions of faith and life that our church has given up ... A new building of the church can only be done in such a way that the church is built on the supporting circle of a community core ... "

swell

  • Eberhard Müller (Ed.): Truth and Reality of the Church. Lectures and spiritual speeches, held at the German Evangelical Week August 26-30, 1935 in Hanover , Berlin: Furche 1935.
  • Eberhard Müller: Lively community. A word about the goals of the Evangelical Week , in: The Evangelical Hamburg. Half-monthly publication for Low German Lutheranism , No. 1, January 1936, p. 14 ff.
  • Eberhard Müller: The Hamburg Evangelical Week , in: The furrow. Evangelical two-month publication for the spiritual life of the present , XXII (1936) 189–190.
  • Hanns Lilje: The reputation of the church. Lecture at the Evangelical Week in Breslau on March 26, 1936 , in: Bekennende Kirche , Issue 43, 1936, pp. 3-18.
  • Hanns Lilje: The God of Truth. German Evangelical Week 1936 , in: Die Furche. Evangelical bimonthly publication for the spiritual life of the present , XXII (1936) 478–479.
  • Eberhard Müller (Ed.): The God of Truth. The word of the church testifies to the German Ev. Week in Stuttgart 1936 , Berlin: furrow 1936.
  • Eberhard Müller (Ed.): The Savior. A book by Jesus, the reason for faith, the prince of life and the lord of the world , Berlin: Furche 1938 (Görlitzer lectures 1937).
  • Young Church magazine , volumes 1936–1938, in the register under “Evangelical Week”.

literature

  • Theodor Brandt: Evangelical Weeks , in: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon , 1958, Vol. I, Sp. 1209.
  • Friedrich Zipfel : Church struggle in Germany 1933–1945. Religious persecution and self-assertion by the churches during the National Socialist era , Berlin: de Gruyter & Co. 1965.
  • Jürgen Henkys : Bible study. Dealing with the Holy Scriptures in the Protestant youth organizations after the First World War , Hamburg: Furche 1966.
  • Erich Beyreuther : Church on the move. History of evangelism and people's mission , Berlin: Christlicher Zeitschriftenverlag 1968.
  • Werner Humburg, Arno Pagel (ed.): It happened in Barmen and Stuttgart in 1936. Paul Humburg's "Buddy Sermon" and its consequences. A documentation from the time of the church struggle . Francke, Marburg 1985, ISBN 3-88224-421-6 ; in this:
    • German Evangelical Week Stuttgart , p. 33 ff.
  • Hannelore Braun, Gertraud Grünzinger (eds.): Personal Lexicon on German Protestantism 1919-1949 , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2006.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kurt Frör: protest against arbitrariness . Evangelical Working Group for Contemporary Church History, Munich, accessed on June 21, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b Files of the Evang. Akademie Bad Boll (unnumbered), From the statutes for the Reich Committee of the German Evang. Weeks.
  3. ↑ Jürgen Henkys : Biblical Work ... , 1966, p. 215.
  4. ↑ Luther Renaissance . Quoted from: Karl Holl: Collected essays on church history . Volume 1: Luther. Tübingen 1921, pp. 1–90, p. 1. Research Center for Contemporary Church History, accessed on June 21, 2018.
  5. ^ Theodor Brandt: Evangelical Weeks , in: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon , 1958, Bd. I, Sp. 1209.
  6. ↑ files Bad Boll: Circular of the Reich Committee of 14.01.1936 .
  7. ↑ Cf. Eberhard Müller (Ed.): Truth and Reality of the Church ... , Berlin 1935.
  8. ↑ See the magazine Junge Kirche , volumes 1936–1938, in the register under “Evangelical Week”.
  9. ↑ From a transcript of the staff meeting of the Evangelical Weeks on April 25, 1936 in Berlin, Bad Boll files.
  10. ^ German Evangelical Week Stuttgart , in: Werner Humburg, Arno Pagel (ed.): It happened in Barmen and Stuttgart 1936 ... , 1985, p. 33 ff.
  11. ↑ Junge Kirche 1936, p. 776.
  12. ↑ On the ideological situation - rallies against the National Socialist worldview - report on the Evangelical Weeks of Siegen, Flensburg and Berlin The leader's representative for the supervision of the entire spiritual and ideological education of the NSDAP from December 4th, 1936. Online on geschichte-bk-sh .de , accessed on June 21, 2018.
  13. ^ Gestapo report on the Berlin conference printed by Friedrich Zipfel: Kirchenkampf in Deutschland 1933–1945 ... , 1965, pp. 373–375.
  14. ↑ Helmut Kern: Mockery of the Gestapo . State Church Archives Nuremberg, KKE No. 33. Research Center for Contemporary Church History, accessed on June 21, 2018.
  15. ↑ Details on this in a protocol on the question of the prohibitions of the Evang. Weeks, undated (Bad Boll files).
  16. ^ The Nuremberg Evangelical Week was preceded by lively discussions with Bishop D. Meiser about Reinold von Thadden-Trieglaff's participation as a speaker. In a correspondence with Rev. Helmut Kern, the head of the Office for Community Service of the Bavarian State Church, Dr. Eberhard Müller has the following principles: “1. ... the Evang. Week ... has tried again and again to bring men who may have drifted apart in church political action together to fraternal, communal service ... It can never be a task of the Evang. Week to teach church leaders how they have to make this or that church decision. 2. It can ... happen with every speaker that he suddenly becomes unpopular. If we then remove such people from the program, the opponent will be more secure and aggressive than the opposite ... ”(Correspondence of December 8, 16 and 17, 1936, Bad Boll files).
  17. ↑ Evangelical Week . Stadtlexikon Darmstadt, accessed on June 21, 2018.
  18. ↑ “The leadership of the Evangelical Week could not be bound by the prohibition of the week. She knew she was obliged to God to carry out the proclamation in the intended sense ... One has to obey God more than people ... Now the foreign speakers who were planned for the lectures were banned from speaking and staying in the state of Hesse. The leadership of the week could not commit itself to the condition that only Hessian speakers were allowed to speak. It had to leave it up to the prospective speakers to determine whether they felt obliged to preach the gospel despite the prohibition and to carry out the service offered to them for the church of God. ”(From an undated report, files Bad Boll).
  19. ↑ Eberhard Müller (ed.): Der Heiland ... , Berlin 1938 (Görlitzer lectures 1937).
  20. ↑ "Go. State Police, State Police Office for the Reg. District Potsdam, to the Lords District Administrator pp. Re. Evangelical Weeks: The Reich Minister and Prussian Minister for Church Affairs commented on the question of the 'Evangelical Weeks' as follows: Since the events of the Evangelical Weeks by the Reich Committee of the Evangelical Week in Berlin have been increasing recently, please to proceed as follows against all such events to maintain ecclesiastical and religious peace in the future: 1. Every Evangelical Week is forbidden. 2. Interventions in church services are to be avoided in all cases. 3. All persons who travel to the respective conference venue as speakers or preachers are kept away by a stay ban for this district. I request a report on the implementation of these measures and their effects ... ”(dated January 28, 1937). The Reich Church Committee, approached to mediate, replied to the Reich Office “German Evangelical Week” on February 3, 1937: “The list of speakers mainly shows the names of the Dahlem branch of the Confessing Church ... we ask that the general church character of these events be revealed to the outside world. In the expectation that this wish will be met, we are ready to continue working for the free implementation of the Evangelical Weeks in the future. We would be grateful for a communication of your opinion. ”Before the ban of the Reich Committee of the Evangelical Week, part of the property of 'tens of thousands of marks' could be saved, Dr. Eberhard Müller, now student pastor in Tübingen, was able to set up an organization "Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge" in 1933 with Prelate Schlatter as chairman for Württemberg. Compare with: "The Protestant Germany" - Kirchl. Rundschau for the entire area of ​​the German Evangelical Church. XII. – XIV. Born in Berlin 1935–1937. Furthermore: "Deutsches Pfarrerblatt" - Federal Gazette of the German Protestant Pastors' Associations. 40th and 41st year Essen 1936–1937. Furthermore: “Junge Kirche”, ed. Lilje / Söhlmann. 3rd-6th Vol., Göttingen 1935–1938. The reference files in the Evangelical Academy Bad Boll have not yet been archived. Cf. the thesis on the first state examination for the teaching post at elementary schools, submitted by cand. Paed. Karin Große on January 31, 1966 in Flensburg under the title "The Evangelical Week from 1935-1937 - a historical and theological report".
  21. ↑ Evangelical Weeks in Flensburg . Working group "The Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein", 2016, accessed on June 21, 2018.
  22. ↑ Churches . Foundation House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany, January 28, 2016; on Living Museum Online, accessed June 21, 2018.
  23. ↑ In July 1949 there was a new edition of the Evangelical Week in Hanover . At the final rally, the 5,000 attendees agreed to continue it as the German Evangelical Church Congress ( The Message 26/1967 of June 25). Therefore, the 1949 Evangelical Week counts as the 1st German Evangelical Church Congress. See: Rüdiger Runge, Christian Krause (eds.): Zeitansage. 40 years of the German Evangelical Church Congress , Stuttgart: Kreuz 1989, p. 215.
  24. ↑ See article "Evangelical Academy" in RGG 3 and Evang. Church Lexicon.
  25. ↑ See files from Bad Boll, also: Eberhard Müller: Lebendige Gemeinde. A word about the goals of the Evangelical Week , in: The Evangelical Hamburg. Half-monthly publication for Low German Lutheranism , No. 1, January 1936, p. 14 ff.