Controversy about Bishop Halfmann's role in the Nazi era

The controversy surrounding Bishop Halfmann's role in the Nazi era is a multi-level ecclesiastical and ecclesiastical debate within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany about the role of Wilhelm Halfmann during the Nazi era and in the post-war years, involving students and teachers , Pastors and bishops, professors and journalists, contemporary witnesses and synodals are involved.

starting point

The fact that Wilhelm Halfmann , the leading theologian of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein , was temporarily (from 1933 to 1936) a supporting member of the SS and in 1936 wrote an anti-Jewish prejudice "The Church and the Jew", led several times to critical arguments about his person, which led to the judgment that he was a “Nazi bishop” and “avowed anti-Semite”, a “pioneer of the National Socialists and promoter of the SS”, a “spiritual pioneer of the persecution of the Jews”. One wrote about him: "the agitator on the bishop's chair" - "Halfmann was a man of the Nazis". Another said: "According to everything we now know, Bishop Halfmann is unsustainable as a role model and role model, especially for a diaconal institution." The protest of numerous former senior staff of the North Elbish Church , who held two conferences in Breklum in 2015 and 2017 , was directed against this and documented their results in publications (both in printed form and online on their own website ). The "Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein" working group set up by them reissued the Breklumer Hefte published between 1936 and 1941 and drew a different picture of Wilhelm Halfmann, whose analytical and church design power not only supported the self-assertion of the church in the Nazi regime. Time determined, but also the reconstruction of the regional church structures after the Second World War. Halfmann's pastoral advocacy for those who have become guilty and those who have just started is impressive, but also controversial.

Starting points for criticism

Over the years, Halfmann has repeatedly been reproached for six topics at the various levels of the dispute:

his notorious anti-Judaism , if not anti-Semitism at all , is documented in Breklum issue 11 “The Church and the Jew” from 1936;
his alleged consent to the special regulation made in Schleswig-Holstein in 1942 on pastoral care for Christians of Jewish descent , which resulted in the baptized Jews being excluded from the church community (and the associated annulment of their baptism);
his criticism of the Stuttgart declaration of guilt , which he made public in 1945 and which was regarded as evidence of his ineptitude even after the war;
his commitment in the post-war period to convicted war criminals , which shows that his sympathy “continued to apply to the perpetrators” (Linck);
the carefree employment of the denazified (and yet Nazi-burdened) Hans Joachim Beyer as head of the regional church press and information office from 1947 to 1951;
his support for the re-election of the controversial CDU candidate Martin Redeker in the state elections in Schleswig-Holstein in 1958 .

Brief descriptions of the quarrel in the north church

Timo Teggartz in the "Evangelische Zeitung" 2015

At the beginning of January 2015, Timo Teggartz, editor of the Evangelische Zeitung , gave a brief overview of the course of the controversy over the role of Halfmann during the Nazi era. He announced that the dispute over the resistance in the Schleswig-Holstein regional church during the Nazi era is now also to be carried out in public, and referred to a panel discussion in the Kiel University Institute for Church History, at which the different positions will meet. Another meeting is planned in Breklum (North Friesland).

The reason for the controversy was a 350-page work by the historian Stephan Linck, which, under the title "New Beginnings?" , Sheds light on the history of the four former regional churches of Schleswig-Holstein , Hamburg , Lübeck and Eutin between 1945 and 1965. The evaluation of the Confessing Church , which fought against the conformity by the Nazis, plays a special role . You faced the Nazi-loyal " German Christians " (DC).

Moritz Piehler in the “Jüdischen Allgemeine” 2016

At the end of February 2016, Moritz Piehler described for the Jüdische Allgemeine under the heading The Bishop and His SS Past the course of the process of coming to terms with church behavior during the Nazi era. His conclusion:

“The former bishop of [Holstein] Lübeck, Karl Ludwig Kohlwage , initiated a conference to save Halfmann's honor, which was also intended to critically question Linck's exhibition, while regional bishop Gerhard Ulrich fully supports Linck's reappraisal. The exhibition shows how difficult it was for the church to deal with its historical responsibility after the war and how long anti-Semitic thinking was anchored in the northern church . The current controversy about how to deal with one's own history makes it clear how important the Enlightenment is even today. The show will be on view in various churches in northern Germany until the end of 2016, expanded to include local historical findings. "

Levels of criticism

Christian-Jewish dialogue

Secret: Week of Fraternity

On March 23, 1957, the Pellworm pastor Johann Haar (a native of Büdelsdorf ) expressed criticism of the silence of the " Week of Brotherhood " in Schleswig-Holstein in the Schleswig-Holsteinische Volkszeitung .

Denounced: "The Church and the Jew"

In 1958 Jusos chairman Jochen Steffen from Kiel wrote an open letter to Wilhelm Halfmann because of his rejection of the Judeo-Christian dialogue.

At the beginning of February 1960, excerpts from the Halfmann script appeared in several press organs with the accusation of anti-Semitism . The "Information Service of the German People's Association for Spiritual Freedom" was the first to publish the text, then a reprint appeared in the "Flensburg Press".

The matter was also promoted by the social democratic state parliament member Wilhelm Siegel, who was himself a member of the church. He appealed to Halfmann, as the author of the script and acting regional bishop, to take the matter in hand and to have the script checked by the synod. This should develop and publish a statement on the problem of "anti-Semitism" addressed in the document. The aim of such a statement is to avert the danger of damage to the reputation of the Evangelical Church. Halfmann himself refused because he saw himself personally responsible for the script.

Measures to overcome anti-Judaism

On November 18, 1957, a working group "Church and Judaism" was founded in Kiel. Eduard Lohse acted as chairman and Sigo Lehming as secretary .

In 1962 the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation in Schleswig-Holstein (GCJZ) was founded. In 2012 it celebrated its 50th anniversary in Kiel. Eduard Lohse gave the celebratory lecture "Israel's Holy Scriptures and the Bible of Christianity". He also looked back on the beginnings 50 years ago.

On June 3, 1981 - with a view to the Hamburg Kirchentag - the North Elbian working group "Christians and Jews" was founded in Kronshagen. From the beginning until December 2007, Propst i. R. Jörgen Sontag. Since then, the working group has been headed by Pastor Hanna Lehming, the Northern Church's representative for Christian-Jewish dialogue.

In preparation for the North Elbian thematic synod “Christians and Jews” in September 2001, a two-year synodal consultation process was carried out in which the congregations, church districts, ministries and works were asked to focus on the topic “Christians and Jews”. In many church districts, church district commissioners for Christian-Jewish dialogue have been appointed.

On September 22nd, 2001 the synod adopted: “Christians and Jews”. Declaration by the Synod of the North Elbe Evangelical Lutheran Church .

From 2001 to 2004, the church district commissioners for Christian-Jewish dialogue were involved in accompanying the exhibition “Church, Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933–1945” in their region and in preparing the respective regional section.

Inclusion of "lasting faithfulness of God to his people Israel" in the preambles of the church constitutions :
- 2002: “The North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church testifies to God's lasting loyalty to his people Israel. She is connected to the people of Israel in listening to God's direction and in the hope of the completion of God's rule. "
- 2012: “The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany testifies to God's lasting loyalty to his people Israel. She remains connected to him in listening to God's direction and in the hope of the completion of God's reign. "

Scientific discussion (selection)

Kurt Dietrich Schmidt

Kurt Dietrich Schmidt : Introduction to the history of the church struggle in the National Socialist era. [A series of lectures, typewritten. 1960, with handwritten corrections until 1964; posthumously] published and provided with an afterword by Jobst Reller, Hermannsburg: Ludwig-Harms-Haus 2nd edition 2010.

Kurt Dietrich Schmidt: Questions about the structure of the Confessing Church (1962) , in: Collected essays . Edited by Manfred Jacobs, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1967, pp. 267–293 ( online ).

Kurt Dietrich Schmidt: The Church Resistance (1964) , in: Collected essays . Edited by Manfred Jacobs, Göttingen 1967, pp. 294-304 ( online ).

The Kiel church historian Kurt Dietrich Schmidt was a co-founder of the “Emergency and Working Group of Schleswig-Holstein Pastors” (NAG) in 1933 and the author of the declaration of no confidence in the DC regional bishop Adalbert Paulsen . He was a member of the management committee of the NAG (later: Landesbruderrat ) until he was dismissed from university in 1935 and went to Hermannsburg . There, too, he continued to protest in his publications against the National Socialist legend of the violent conversion of the Teutons to Christianity. After the end of the war in 1945, KD Schmidt was the founder of the “Kirchenkampfforschung” and from 1955 to 1964 he was chairman of the “Commission of the Ev. Church in Germany for the history of the church struggle in the National Socialist era ”.

Schmidt knew the five months older Wilhelm Halfmann, who succeeded him as the leading head of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein , well. Both belonged to the NAG shop stewards' meeting in 1933. At the 1st Synod of Confessions in July 1935, they had a joint appearance: Halfmann with the opening and fundamental devotion “You judge for yourself whether it is right before God”, Schmidt as head of the legal committee of this synod. The contemporary witness and later church struggle reporter KD Schmidt never heard any tones that brought Halfmann close to the Nazi ideology.

The situation was very similar with Halfmann himself: In 1941 - he was now a pastor in Mölln - Halfmann learned of the euthanasia murder of the disabled. After the attack on the Soviet Union , he became aware of the mass murders of Jews by the German military. In 1944 he began cautiously criticizing these murders in sermons. He turned against the murder of "terminally ill, unfit for life, disarmed enemies and hostages or people of foreign origins". And in a sermon on November 12, 1944, he complained. a. the deification of one's own race and the demonization of the Jewish as a revolt against God.

Kurt Juergensen

Kurt Jürgensen : The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein in 1945. From the preliminary general synod to the new spiritual church leadership under President Wilhelm Halfmann , in: Horst Fuhrmann u. a. (Ed.): From imperial history and Nordic history. Festschrift Karl Jordan , Stuttgart 1972, pp. 411-425 ( online ).

Kurt Jürgensen: The declaration of guilt by the council of the EKD and its repercussions in Schleswig-Holstein , in: The hour of the church. The Ev.-Luth. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein in the first years after the Second World War , Neumünster 1976, pp. 228–246.

Kurt Jürgensen: The declaration of guilt by the Evangelical Church in Germany and its acceptance in Schleswig-Holstein , in: Klauspeter Reumann (Hrsg.): Church and National Socialism. Contributions to the history of the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein , Neumünster 1988, pp. 381-406 ( online ).

Kurt Meier

The Leipzig church historian Kurt Meier presented the special conditions in Schleswig-Holstein in a separate chapter in his three volumes comprehensive account of the Protestant church struggle, which was published from 1976 to 1984:

Kurt Meier: On the church fight in the Ev.-luth. Landeskirche Schleswig-Holstein , in: The Protestant Church Struggle. Complete presentation in three volumes , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1976–1984,
- Volume 1: The fight for the "Reichskirche" , 1976, pp. 360–372 ( online );
- Volume 2: Failed attempts to reorganize under the sign of state “legal aid” , 1976, pp. 260–269 ( online );
- Volume 3: Under the Signs of the Second World War , 1984, pp. 389–393 ( online ).

In the second and third volumes in particular, Halfmann's role is mentioned and honored several times. Nowhere is there any mention of support for the Nazi ideology. On the contrary: Halfmann is also considered to be one of the leading figures of the BK in SH.

Klauspeter Reumann

In 1983, the Flensburg church historian Klauspeter Reumann describes the anticipated fronts of the church struggle based on Halfmann's appointment to Flensburg: Church and National Socialism. The appointment of Wilhelm Halfmann to St. Marien Flensburg in February / March 1933. Anticipated fronts of the church struggle , in: Erich Hoffmann u. Peter Wulf (ed.): "We are building the empire". Rise and first years of rule of National Socialism in Schleswig-Holstein (= QuFGSH Vol. 81) , Neumünster 1983, pp. 369–389.

In 1996, Klauspeter Reumann discussed Halfmann's Judenschrift in the anniversary volume “100 Years of the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History”.

In 1998 he dedicates a separate chapter to her in his overall presentation "The Church Struggle in Schleswig-Holstein" (Schleswig-Holstein Church History, Volume 6/1), pages 304-307.

In 2004 he gave a detailed account of the genesis of the script: "... branches of the Jewish synagogue". On the creation of Wilhelm Halfmann's “The Church and the Jew” 1936, in: Grenzfriedenshefte, volume 3, Flensburg 2004, pp. 163-178 ( online ).

In 2006 he describes the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein as a "struggle for the middle": the church struggle as a struggle for the "middle". The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein , in: Manfred Gailus, Wolfgang Krogel: From the Babylonian captivity of the church in the national. Regional studies on Protestantism, National Socialism and post-war history 1930 to 2000 , Berlin: Wichern 2006, pp. 29–58; in this:

On the state of research (pp. 32–34; online )
Summary of the results (pp. 57–58; online )

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 (table of contents online ), pp. 237–268; therein: Notes on the two Breklumer issues 11 and 12, pp. 257 ff.

History Lessons and Its Consequences

Sönke Zankel's history lessons

The Uetersener teacher Sönke Zankel discussed 2002 "Radikalantijudaismus of Wilhelm Half Men" in the Festschrift for Klaus Kurzendörfer.

In 2004 he presented the article again in a revised form, this time in Democratic History. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein 16 under the title: Christian theology in National Socialism before the Jewish question. Halfmann's writing “The Church and the Jew” ( online ).

In 2010, Sönke Zankel spoke again about Bishop Halfmann and Christian anti-Judaism in the years 1958–1960 , this time in: Democratic History. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein 21 ( online ). Extracts:

Introduction: “In 1936 Halfmann published the book 'The Church and the Jew'. The publication had a clearly anti-Jewish tendency. Halfmann, who became Bishop for Holstein in 1946, said in it that “from the Church's point of view, from almost two thousand years of experience with the Jews, one must say […]: the state is right. He makes an attempt to protect the German people, as has been made by a hundred predecessors throughout Christianity, and with the approval of the Christian Church. ' ... After the war, the writing was initially forgotten. At the end of the 1950s, however, it was taken up again and again brought problems for Halfmann. This time, however, the criticism came because he had attacked the Jews in the first place. In the 1930s, however, he was accused by the National Socialists of attacking the Jews from the 'wrong', namely from the Christian standpoint, and of not justifying his rejection of the Jews on racial grounds. "
Conclusion: “Halfmann was not particularly critical of his own past. Rather, he sought the path of silence in this regard rather than that of argument. Halfmann thus fitted into the image of the contemporary Evangelical Church. Like politics, this was most likely to try to keep the past silent. However, the fact that the Schleswig-Holstein daily press was also involved in this game shows how fragile the democratic mechanisms of the separation of powers and control of violence were in the young Federal Republic. But even in the present it is difficult for some to keep a clear distance from Wilhelm Halfmann. ... "

Student contribution to the history competition of the Federal President

The Uetersen students Isabelle Tiburski and Marek Ehlers take part in 2009, supervised by their teacher Sönke Zankel, in the history competition of the Federal President with the contribution of Wilhelm Halfmann's book “The Church and the Jew” (1936) .

Under the heading “Findings about an ex-bishop”, the “Norddeutsche Rundschau” reported on February 17, 2009: “You devoted yourself particularly to his work 'The Church and the Jew' (1936). In doing so, according to Isabelle, they found many similarities with the text 'Will the Jew win over us?', Which Professor Adolf Schlatter, known as an anti-Semite , wrote in 1935. 'It's astonishing that Halfmann copied von Schlatter.' He always generalizes and speaks of 'the Jew' and by that means all Jews. Old Christian errors, such as the alleged murder of Jesus by the Jews, can be found in Scripture. Even in the 1960s, Halfmann still considered his 1936 writing to be theologically correct, the students found. He would never have called for the murder of the Jews, emphasizes Sönke Zankel. But he symbolizes the theological problem of Christians with the Jews. Halfmann did not want to participate in the 'Christian-Jewish fraternization with the elimination of theology' even long after the Second World War, says Zankel. 'Throughout his life he remained stuck in these thought structures.' Incidentally, Halfmann was a 'supporting member of the SS' from 1933 to 1936, until he ran into difficulties because of his writing. He tried to protect the church, but at the expense of the most persecuted: the Jews. There could be no question of an 'upright man'. "

Name cancellation in Itzehoe

The Münsterdorf parish then decided not to use the "Wilhelm-Halfmann-Haus" logo on its administration building.

“Church is erasing the name Halfmann” was the headline of the “Norddeutsche Rundschau” on January 31, 2009, in an article about Provost Thomas Bergemann's decision to rename the administrative building of the Münsterdorf church district in Itzehoe. This decision was preceded by a request from two tenth graders from the Ludwig Meyn School in Uetersen, Isabelle Tiburski and Marek Ehlers. For this year's history competition of the Federal President "Heroes, revered - misunderstood - forgotten" you wrote a paper on the former Protestant bishop of Holstein, Wilhelm Halfmann (1896–1964). The publication had a clearly anti-Jewish tendency. ... This was reason enough for the pupil to ask today's church representatives how they feel about "that a house has been named after a man who spread anti-Judaist ideas and supported the said legislation of the National Socialists." The reaction the provost came promptly: the house should no longer be named after Wilhelm Halfmann.

The two students Isabelle Tiburski and Marek Ehlers called for critical letters to the editor in the "Norddeutsche Rundschau" by removing the lettering "Wilhelm-Halfmann-Haus" from the administration building of the Münsterdorf church district. Although the problem of Halfmann's anti-Judaism is recognized in one of them, the two authors say: "So the name Halfmann in Itzehoe has fallen victim to convenience (an administrative building doesn't need a name) and a barely differentiating political correctness ." Pastor, who had passed his exam with Halfmann, said that he had always valued the Bishop of Holstein “as a noble person and theologically very well-founded church leader.” A critical distance from Halfmann is only limited in both letters to the editor.

On the part of the church district, the verdict on Halfmann was clear. Regarding the question of whether a church building should be named after him, the two students were told: “We found out that the house was named that way because Bishop Halfmann played an important role in the Confessing Church, the resistance against the Nazi conformity of the churches, played. Unfortunately, at that time it was apparently not taken into account that his engagement was also characterized by anti-Semitism. After the research it is completely clear to us that someone who wrote inflammatory writings like 'The Church and the Jew' (1936) and who did not distance himself from it until his death is not suitable as a namesake for a church institution. ”The students could only agree. Halfmann could “no longer be a role model. [...] The decision of Provost Dr. Thomas Bergemann [...] was correct in this respect, ”was their verdict.

Church projects and research projects

Traveling exhibition "Churches, Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933–1945"

The exhibition “Church, Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933–1945”, which has been on view in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg since 2001, shed light on “perhaps the darkest time in the history of Christianity”. It was precisely the Christian hostility towards Jews that required at least the question of a partial responsibility on the part of Christians for the mass murder of European Jews in the Second World War .

Publications on this:

Annette Göhres, Stephan Linck, Joachim Liß-Walther (eds.): When Jesus became “Aryan”. Churches, Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933–1945. The exhibition in Kiel , Bremen: Edition Temmen 2003, 2nd edition 2004, therein:

Stephan Linck: "... to protect from corrosive Jewish influence". Anti-Semitism in the Schleswig-Holstein regional church , pp. 132–146.

Hansjörg Buss: “De-Judaization of the Church”. A church institute and the Schleswig-Holstein regional church , pp. 162–186.

Jörgen Sontag: “But they didn't say the word!” The arduous steps of the Evangelical Church to acknowledge their complicity in the persecution of the Jews , pp. 229-253.

Matthias Wolfes wrote a review about this book . Excerpt from it: “The volume documents the traveling exhibition“ Church, Christians, Jews in North Elbe 1933-1945 ”developed by the North Elbian Church Archives, which was presented to the public for the first time on September 20, 2001 in Rendsburg. The North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church has thus chosen a unique way of dealing with its history during the Third Reich in the entire area of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). The exhibition initiative was accompanied by a synodal discussion process on the relationship between Christians and Jews. In this way, the scientific and media thematization of anti-Semitic church traditions was linked from the outset with the intention of redefining the Christian relationship to Judaism, that is, a historically and theologically well-founded reassessment of the significance of Jewish piety and culture for one's own religiousness . The result of this effort can be found in the synodal declaration "Christians and Jews" from September 2001. "

Hansjörg Buss, Annette Göhres, Stephan Linck, Joachim Liß-Walther (eds.): “A chronicle of mixed feelings”. Balance of the traveling exhibition 'Church of Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933-1945' , Bremen: Edition Temmen 2005, including:

Hanna Lehming: Anti-Semitism in the Church - how did it come about? Schleswig-Holstein theologians during the Nazi era , pp. 271–280.

President of the Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament (ed.): Church, Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933–1945. The exhibition in the Landtag 2005 (series of publications by the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag, issue 7) , Kiel 2006; including:
Christina Semper: The relationship of the Confessing Church to Judaism in Schleswig-Holstein using the example of Wilhelm Halfmann , pp. 103–113.

Project “New Beginnings? Church, Christians, Jews after 1945 "

Morell (October 16, 2012): “Linck has been commissioned by the Northern Church to scientifically analyze the recent history of the Protestant Church in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. The investigations have been completed in the period from 1945 to the mid-1960s. The focus is on dealing with the Nazi past and the relationship to Judaism. The book should be available in the summer of next year. A second book for the period up to 1989 is to follow in 2014. "

Regional Bishop Ulrich before the regional synod in Travemünde in 2014: “A few years ago [2008] the North Elbian Church gave the historian Dr. Stephan Linck awarded. The project is still called: 'New beginnings? Church, Christians, Jews after 1945 '. The North Elbian Church has connected this project to an exhibition ... [with the] title: 'Church, Christians, Jews in North Elbe 1933–1945' ...

The first volume of the 'New Beginnings', 2013 received considerable press coverage. Not only the regional press, but also the NDR has shown a lively interest in the book. National newspapers have also reported in detail on this. The response was mostly positive: it was noticed that we as a church are facing a painful task that is unfortunately not yet taken for granted even today - on our own initiative. And the work of the author was valued, who had a few things that had hitherto been neglected and who gave an overview of the period from 1945 to 1965. Of course, it was inevitable that, in addition to the positive reactions, critical voices spoke up. "

Stephan Linck: New beginnings? How the Evangelical Church deals with the Nazi past and its relationship to Judaism. Die Landeskirchen in Nordelbien, Volume 1: 1945–1965 , Kiel: Lutherische Verlagsgesellschaft 2013 (table of contents online ). The book covers the four tricky Halfmann topics:

Halfmann's anti-Judaism in Breklumer Heft 11 “The Church and the Jew” ( online version ), p. 222 ff.
Halfmann's alleged consent to the exclusion of Jewish Christians , p. 224
Halfmann's criticism of the Stuttgart declaration of guilt , p. 98 ff.
Halfmann's commitment to the release of convicted war criminals , p. 105 ff.

Press coverage of the book “Neue Beginnings?” By Stephan Linck

In the years before there had been challenging press reactions to open letters or other publications:

1958–1960: the anti-Judaism debate about Halfmann because of his distance from the Judeo-Christian dialogue and the 1936 work he wrote “The Church and the Jew”;
2009: Newspaper article with the title “Findings about an ex-bishop” and erasure of his name at the church administration building in Itzehoe as a result of a student contribution to the Federal President's history competition;
2012: First reporting on the research project “New Beginnings?” With the heading “Churches in the north uncovered Nazi careers - sponsorships for war criminals - church historian uncovered”:

Stephan Linck's book "New Beginnings?", Published on November 1, 2013, evoked a number of striking headlines, exaggerations and exaggerations:

Kieler Nachrichten of November 29, 2013: Paul Wagner: Brown spots on the gown ( online ).
taz of December 27, 2013: René Martens: Under the wide cloak of the church ( online ).
Nord-Ostsee Magazin from January 9, 2014: Horst Schinzel: Review: The failure of the North Elbian churches in 1945 ( online ).
Schleswig-Holstein newspaper publisher from January 13, 2014: Frank Jung: The long Nazi shadow over the church ( online ).
NDR : Schleswig-Holstein Magazin : Information about the broadcast on February 2, 2014, 7:30 p.m .: Time travel: The Church under National Socialism ( online ).

In this broadcast, Stephan Linck reacts to the announcement of the moderator: "In 1942 Halfmann signs a paper that excludes Christians of Jewish origin from the church":

“I believe that this is a unique document that Halfmann, as a representative of the Confessing Church, agreed to this process. That is, of course, a very, very extensive matter. We must make ourselves aware that the sacrament of baptism is hereby essentially declared invalid. The bottom line was that this was the step where Christians of Jewish origin were given the last step in the deportation phase , ie they were also excluded from the church before they were murdered . "

Former Bishop Karl Ludwig Kohlwage stated in his lecture in Breklum on February 3, 2015:

"The fact that Halfmann, in agreement with the BK… pursued the exclusion of Christians of Jewish origin from the church and canceled their baptism, is and remains an evil slander."

And regional bishop Gerhard Ulrich emphasized on the same occasion:

"What must and was not allowed to be expressed is that actors of this church are placed on a par with the criminals of the Nazi regime."

Hamburger Abendblatt from February 5, 2014: Matthias Popien: Schleswig-Holstein: The Evangelical Church and the SS-Mann ( online ).
New Germany from April 15, 2014: Dieter Hanisch: Deep brown gowns. Schleswig-Holstein: National Socialist entanglements of the church after 1945 finally become a topic ( online ).
evangelisch.de : Jörg Echtler: End of the war in the churches: "The guilt was hidden". Interview from May 8, 2015 ( online ).

Interventions and responses

Letter to the church leadership

After the broadcast on February 2, 2014, there were immediate protests from several sides against the allegation. Solid evidence was requested. The author Dr. Linck and the church leadership of the North Church, on whose behalf Dr. Linck works, replied unanimously to objections that there was no such thing as the "paper" mentioned, but that there was "strong circumstantial evidence", which was derived from a statement by Bishop Halfmann, which he made more than 20 years later. There was no comment on the press campaign against Bishop Halfmann, which began immediately after the broadcast. This situation prompted a larger group of former senior staff members of the NEK, on April 24, 2014 under the leadership of Landespastor i. R. Jens-Hinrich Pörksen to write a letter with a series of questions to the church leadership. The questions to the church leadership were:

Is the KL prepared to distance itself clearly from the statements about Bishop Halfmann in the Schleswig-Holstein Magazin of February 2, 2014, that he had excluded Christians of Jewish origin from the church in accordance with the Confessing Church of Schleswig-Holstein, their baptism canceled and thus contributed to their destruction?
What consequences does the KL draw from the fact that there is no “paper” that Bishop Halfmann signed in agreement with the BK and with which he is said to have allowed the exclusion of Christians of Jewish origin?
Does the KL consider the so-called “circumstantial evidence” for the allegation of heretical and church-destroying actions, which is based on nothing more than a brief statement attributed to Bishop Halfmann in a completely different context in terms of time and content, to be conclusive? Can such “circumstantial evidence” be viable for a charge of this serious kind? Does it comply with the rules of proper and serious scientific work, which must also be concerned with justice and fairness towards the people who investigate it?
Does the KL share the position of Dr. Linck, who boils down to the fact that the Confessing Church of Schleswig-Holstein was not a Confessing Church at all because it blatantly violated its basis, the Barmen Theological Declaration , in particular Article 3, which is for the church, its message and its Order independence from the “prevailing ideological and political convictions”, specifically from the Aryan paragraph?
Is the KL ready to ensure that in a revision of the book by Dr. Linck deleted the assertion that Bishop Halfmann and with him the BK SH were "swung into the line of the radical (= heretical) minority of the German Evangelical Church " (p. 224)?
If the KL sees what Dr. Linck the decisive judgment for you about the BK and about the persons acting responsible in it?
Does the KL recognize the need to correct the difficult distortions in the image of Bishop Halfmann and to counter the devastating damage caused to the public that Bishop Halfmann was a “Nazi bishop” and “pioneer of National Socialism”?
Is the church leadership ready to protect the previous church leadership from the 1950s? On page 184 of the book she is assumed to have remained silent in the dispute over the naming of a street in Wyk after the war criminal General Christiansen because she told her long-time member Dr. Friedrich Schulz wanted to protect, who was a supporter of Christiansen. Dr. In truth, Schulz was a victim of the Nazi regime, which had lost his professional existence due to his loyalty to his Jewish wife and was exposed to the most violent hostility.
What role do the words “national Protestant” and “national Protestantism”, which are repeatedly used as key terms, play for the KL? What contribution do you make to understand a time and the people in it, especially the transition to the time after World War II? In the representation of Dr. For Lincks, they are primarily responsible for the question mark in his title, because they were there before 1945 as characteristics of the Schleswig-Holstein Church and have remained after 1945.

“The methodical and argumentative carelessness, even carelessness, which culminates in the presentation and assessment of the relationship between Bishop Halfmann and the BK to Christians of Jewish origin, makes it impossible for the signatories to support the study by Dr. To give Linck the authority to interpret this period of time, which was granted to her by the church's authorization, but was not justified in the matter . "

Reactions from the church leadership

Gerhard Ulrich : Answer to the signatories of the letter of April 24, 2014:

“... the First Church Administration [states]: We are in no way responsible for press reports and are responsible for them. Criticism related to reporting must be addressed to those responsible in the editorial offices. Above all, however, the First Church Administration must clearly contradict the term “commissioned work” they have chosen in connection with the project “New beginnings?” The same applies to the formulation that the book by Dr. Linck had "as it were official church rank". Here the First Church Administration makes it clear: The North Church or the former North Elbian Church made this project possible, but this is not a church statement. We laid the foundations by outlining a general research assignment. Dr. Linck is accompanied in his research work by an advisory board that includes pastors, employees, volunteers from our church and lecturers from the university or public sector. In this construction a support and an internal reflection of the research was ensured, but on the other hand also guaranteed the indispensable freedom that evangelical church historiography must have. ... "

Note about the conversation on August 25, 2014 in the Landeskirchenamt Kiel:

“… Poerksen underlines the sharp contrast between the representation in the work of Dr. Linck and the opinion of the authors of the letter to the church leadership. The assessment of Bishop Halfmann in the book is characterized by irresponsibility. ...

Dr. Linck explains ... the content and scope of his assignment, which is not aimed at an overall picture. His book does not represent a church history of the time of National Socialism and the time immediately following it. Therefore, he could largely agree with Poerksen's statements. He tried to draw reasonable conclusions from the material available to him. This applies both to the assessment of the person and the work of Bishop Halfmann and to the description of the relationship between the Church and the Jews. The letter from Treplin, which has since emerged and clearly shows that the BK did not agree to the exclusion of the Jewish Christians from the Church, shatter the circumstantial evidence, but does not make it completely invalid. On the question of how he was able to come to the conclusion that the BK had collaborated with the Nazi policy of extermination of the Jews in his assignment, which was described as limited, Dr. Linck doesn't. Nor does he comment on the question of whether the "circumstantial evidence" constructed by him is scientifically admissible. ...

Kohlwage: This claim, which Bishop Halfmann and the BK SH declare to be traitors of the Gospel and destroyers of the Church, must be taken out of the world. "

Gerhard Ulrich at the regional synod in Travemünde on November 22, 2014:

“With the research assignment and the result, the Northern Church by no means wanted to say a final word or said it at that time. We did not want to give a final interpretation, but rather initiate a necessary, overdue scientific discussion. We do not claim sovereignty over a difficult phase in our history. As the church leadership, we want to initiate a discourse through which the church not only illuminates itself, but research is carried out in a scientific context and with its own controls. In a Protestant church in particular, such a historical investigation is not a declaration by the church leadership, but part of an ongoing discussion. "

Gerhard Ulrich on February 3, 2015 in Breklum: Dealing with a guilty past subject to God's judgment :

“What must not and was not allowed to be expressed is that actors of this church are placed on a par with the criminals of the Nazi regime. With everything that has been critically said and demanded in the course of the past year in connection with the discussion about "New Beginnings?" the crimes that Christians had to face. Where I myself should have given this appearance in the parts for which I am responsible, I am very sorry. That is not what my concern is, and not what should and may be said. ... And the question that was asked here today, whether collections of sermons from that time should be kept and made available, can only be answered with “yes”. Sermons are an important source for understanding that time. It is very clear to me that, as the Northern Church, we urgently need and will support a further, scientifically sound processing process, especially with regard to the role of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein - as a doctoral grant, for example. I am very much in favor of awarding a research contract that is processed independently. "

Reviews and Criticism

Benjamin Lassiwe: Churches in the north and their Nazi history . Reviewer's conclusion:

“It is the merit of the new book to take an unadorned look at the past of the predecessor churches of today's Northern Church. Extensive source studies and a noticeable love of detail characterize the study by Stephan Linck, who is to be wished for wide distribution. "

Hans-Joachim Ramm: Book review “New Beginnings?” By Stephan Linck . Reviewer's conclusion:

“Above all, the figure of Bishop Wilhelm Halfmann, which has been quoted again and again or mentioned in the respective contexts, needs a much more careful examination, despite all criticism of his written statements, his theology and his ecclesiastical actions. It is not possible to quote him fragmentarily from a quarry, not to recognize the overall context, including the adverse circumstances of the time, to indulge in speculations and not - or only partially - to take note of his remarks on coming to terms with the past.

... this actually important work [shows] considerable deficiencies ... and one [can] get the impression in large passages ... that it is a matter of an ideology production with methods of the 60s, which is supposed to support a preconceived opinion. ...

The present treatment of this very important topic is unscientific and disqualifies itself. "

Felix Teuchert: Review of S. Linck, New Beginnings? Reviewer's conclusion:

“However, these points of criticism do not diminish the gain in knowledge. In principle, Linck's result is perhaps not surprising, but it is in its expression. The regional historical approach brings out a great wealth of detail and also shows how different the church's approach to the past was. In terms of personnel policy consequences, Eutin and Lübeck form the poles, in dealing with anti-Semitism the tolerant Hamburg and the Schleswig-Holstein church leadership adhering to the anti-Semitic positions, where even the Confessing Church supported the anti-Semitic legislation (p. 24).

Overall, Linck has presented a well-written and clear documentation that brings many interesting cases and individual aspects to light on a concrete level and takes a critical look at the four regional churches of the former regional church of Northern Elbe. "

Rainer Hering : New beginnings? Notes on a book on how the regional churches in Northern Elbe dealt with the National Socialist past and their relationship to Judaism , in: Zeitschrift für Schleswig-Holsteinische Kirchengeschichte , Volume 2, 2015, pages 289–298.

Critical comments by Jens-Hinrich Pörksen and Peter Godzik on the website of the working group “The Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein” ( online ).

Reactions in Rickling

Kieler Nachrichten -Segeberg from January 17th, 2014: Detlef Dreessen: Another name for Halfmann-Saal? ( online ).

Lübecker Nachrichten -Segeberg of February 13, 2014: Nazi Bishop: Hall will continue to bear his name ( online ).

Holsteinischer Courier from February 14, 2014: Sabine Voiges: Halfmann-Saal keeps the name ( online ).

Holsteinischer Courier of March 24, 2014: Benjamin Steinhausen: Discussion about Halfmann: Important questions were not answered ( online ).

Holsteinischer Courier from April 11, 2014: Sabine Voiges: Halfmann discussion: Central questions remain open ( online ).

Info archive Norderstedt , news from April 15, 2014: The Bishop and the Jews. Why the Regional Association for Inner Mission defends its Halfmann Hall ( online ).

New Germany from April 15, 2014: Olaf Harning, Rickling: The agitator on the bishop's chair. Wilhelm Halfmann was a Nazi man - yet he was able to officiate as high church representative until 1964 ( online ).

Info archive Norderstedt , news from July 19, 2014: The "Bischof-Halfmann-Saal" is renamed. The end of a leading figure ( online ).

Holsteinischer Courier from July 25, 2014: Christian Lipovsek: A new name for the Halfmann Hall ( online ).

Kieler Nachrichten-Segeberg from January 19, 2015: Detlef Dreessen: The state association is having a hard time ( online ).

Reconditions

Institute for Church History at the University of Kiel

News North Church from January 5, 2015: Timo Teggatz: Church is fighting over the Nazi past in Schleswig-Holstein ( online ).

Press release No. 5/2015 of the CAU - Institute for Church History from January 8, 2015: “The Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein and the Jews”. Panel discussion on history and reception ( online ).

Report from January 18, 2015: Timo Teggatz: University debate: How did the Church behave during the Nazi era? “The controversy surrounding the post-war Holstein bishop Halfmann is not settled, but his anti-Semitism is not questioned by his supporters either. This became clear in a public debate in Kiel, in which almost the entire top of the church was there. ”( Online ).

Regional Bishop Gerhard Ulrich on February 3, 2015 in Breklum: “But the symposium in January in Kiel again showed how difficult the source situation is overall. Some things are not documented at all, some are apparently irretrievably destroyed. Jörgen Sontag's appeal to surviving witnesses to sift through their holdings is a necessary call for help. "

Announcement of the documentation ( online ); unfortunately the book has not yet been published!

Working group "Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein"

Conference: Breklum I

Conference on 3rd / 4th February 2015; documented in: 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 ( content ), including:

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 ( online ); with a detailed description and appreciation of Halfmann's role in the Nazi era. Essential finding:

“It is an astonishing ecclesiological concept, an astonishing picture of the church, that this 1st Synod of Confessions in Schleswig-Holstein creates, determined by a few main topics: theology, education, law, teaching, church development, popular mission, and yet of broad breadth, for me most impressive of all is the determined will to the public, this offensive missionary will for which structures are created that guarantee the ability to act. ...

We, the later born, grown up free and without pressure - at least in the West - can only look with respect and thanks to the determination with which the BK recognized and accepted the challenge and in the struggle for the being or not of the church and the biblical Faith entered Germany. And we can only look with respect and thanks to the building blocks that the BK formed and supplied in this struggle, not only out of necessity, but also with pleasure and enthusiasm, for the new building after 1945. "

Gerhard Ulrich: On dealing with a guilt-laden past subject to God's judgment , pp. 43–60. (Press report: online )

Documents on the history of the conference , pp. 296-314, therein:

Jens-Hinrich Pörksen: Letter to the church leadership of the North Church of April 24, 2014 (with attachment) , pp. 297–300.

Gerhard Ulrich: Answer to the signatories of the letter of April 24, 2014 , p. 300 f.

Note on the conversation on August 25, 2014 in the Landeskirchenamt Kiel , pp. 301–307.

Gerhard Ulrich: Report on the “New Beginnings” project at the conference of the regional synod of the Northern Church on November 22, 2014 , pp. 307–311.

Klauspeter Reumann: A letter from Hans Treplin , pp. 311-314.

Website

Establishment of a website "History workshop: The Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein and its impulses for the design of the church after 1945" in the course of 2016 by Peter Godzik .

Hans-Joachim Ramm: References to the website and the two new book publications in: Forum. Bulletin of the pastors in the area of the North Church No. 83 / July 2018 ( online ), pp. 28, 32–34, 35–37.

Edition: Experienced church history

Internet publication by: Paul M. Dahl: Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte. The time of the church committees in the Ev.-Luth. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein 1935–1938. Manuscript completed in 1980, revised for the Internet and edited. by Matthias Dahl, Christian Dahl and Peter Godzik 2017 ( online ).

Conference: Breklum II

Meeting in March 2017; documented in: Karl Ludwig Kohlwage, Manfred Kamper, Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (eds.): “What he tells you, do it!” The reconstruction of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church after the Second World War. Documentation of a conference in Breklum 2017 , Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2018 ( content ), therein a. a .:

Karl Ludwig Kohlwage: Which church did the BK want - and what has become of it? Reconstruction and new beginning of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church after the end of the war , pp. 15–35 ( online ); with a detailed description and appreciation of Halfmann's role in the first post-war years. Conclusion:

“If we look at the synodal new beginning in the Schleswig-Holstein regional church after the collapse of the Nazi regime, we see, as with the confessional synods of 1935 and 1936, the concentration on a few crucial topics. First and foremost is the effort to bring light and orientation from Scripture and creed into the darkness of suffering, guilt, perplexity and confusion. At a time when the belief in the living God who acts in history was threatening to sink into an abyss of nihilism, the 1st Provisional Synod with its prelude to worship was a call back to the forgiving, blessing God who opened the way forward . You have to expect everything from him. "

Edition: Breklumer booklets

Press event on May 31, 2018 in Breklum, presentation: Karl Ludwig Kohlwage, Manfred Kamper, Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (eds.): “You will be my witnesses!” Voices for the preservation of a denominational church in urgent times. The Breklumer Hefte of the ev.-luth. Confessional community in Schleswig-Holstein from 1935 to 1941. Sources on the history of the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein . Compiled and edited by Peter Godzik, Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2018 ( content ).

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.

Newspaper article from July 3, 2018: Stephan Richter : Journalistic Resistance ( online ).

The exhibition "New Beginnings after 1945?"

Own website

The traveling exhibition , which opened in January 2016, has its own website that presents all exhibition topics online .

Local lectures

Ulrich Hentschel: The Church's Guilt and its Good Reputation - from the perspective of the exhibition . Lecture on February 11, 2016 in St. Jacobi Hamburg ( online ).

Jörgen Sontag: “Denied” - the way the church deals with its Jewish community members. A theological problem in the Evangelical Church in Germany and in the Schleswig-Holstein regional church in 1941/1942 . Lecture on May 18, 2016 in the Nikolai Church in Kiel as part of the exhibition “New Beginnings after 1945?” ( Online ).

Press coverage

Evangelische Zeitung of January 27, 2016: Northern Church wants to work up its own post-war history ( online ).

The time of January 28, 2016: Wolfgang Thielmann : Not to be forgotten. The Northern Church is working on its Nazi past - and for some it goes too far ( online ).

Doreen Gliemann, Thomas Morell: The Northern Church is working on its Nazi and post-war history . Press report from January 29, 2016 ( online )

Deutschlandfunk Kultur from January 31, 2016: Michael Hollenbach: Where after '45 brown pastors found shelter ( online ).

Hamburger Abendblatt from February 10, 2016: Edgar S. Hasse: clergymen under the swastika ( online )

Jüdische Allgemeine from February 22, 2016: Moritz Piehler: The Bishop and his SS past ( online ).

Sebastian (sic!) Linck: German Christians welcome. Evangelical regional churches have long denied their involvement in Nazism , in: Zeitzeichen , April 2016 ( online ).

Lübecker Nachrichten -Lauenburg from February 8, 2017: Churches and their Nazi past ( online ).

subjects

Halfmann's anti-Judaism

The public charge

In February 1960, the information service of the German People's Association for Spiritual Freedom eV published a series of quotes from the text The Church and the Jew , which Halfmann had written as a pastor in Flensburg on behalf of the confessional community in February 1960 under the heading “Bishop against the Jews in the Third Reich” . The article was reprinted by the Flensburg press under the heading "Bishop D. Halfmann an anti-Semite?"

External defense: time arrested

The regional church press office thereupon published the information pamphlet Bishop Halfmann und die Juden with detailed quotations from sections 1 to 3 of the document and the conclusion: “The document was correctly understood, banned and confiscated by the Nazis. It reflects the intellectual situation at the beginning of 1936, when the Nuremberg Laws were passed. The Kristallnacht of 1938 and the bloody ' final solution ' of the Jewish question were still in the dark lap of the future. "

Halfmann defended himself in the epilogue to the aforementioned writing (and concluded with a reference to the Stuttgart confession of guilt ):

“My writing did a good service in its day, as evidenced by the echo of friend and foe. But she was time arrested in some pieces; I had long been aware of its weak point. A Christian of Jewish descent wrote to me in 1937: 'Today one can no longer reject the striker without rejecting the methods of the party and the state .' This man was absolutely right, which is why I kept his letter. But the situation in 1938 was such that as an individual one did not even have to use the pen to publicly attack the methods of the party and the state. The attempt would have been nipped in the bud. So I referred only to the anti-Semitism of the striker . Anyone who wanted to understand has also understood it in the sense of the saying: He beats the sack, but means the donkey. "

Halfmann's stance inward: No to Judaism

On March 5, 1960, Halfmann wrote to the Hamburg regional bishop Karl Witte because of the public criticism of his Jewish pamphlet: “Today, such a pamphlet would be impossible.” His historical remarks on the history of the Jews were “unjust because selected one-sidedly”, “although they are factually correct ”. However, Halfmann saw no need to turn away from anti-Judaism:

“Even so, I still can't help but hold 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. "

In a letter to the SPD member of the state parliament Wilhelm Käber , Halfmann wrote on March 8, 1960:

“I just wanted to have something in hand with this font, so that I could do something right away at an outside request. But this reason has not yet been given and so I have kept the bulk of the specimens back and do not want to put them into circulation on my own initiative, as I consider it best if the matter is dealt with in the previously reserved manner. ... Besides, the theological and ecclesiastical problem between the Church and Judaism remains for me. ... The question of anti-Judaism, i.e. the religious question, is still up for discussion. "

In a letter dated August 1, 1960, Halfmann revealed his critical reservations about Judaism to the retired Kropper mission director Detlef Bracker:

"What you address in your 'open word' as Christian self-evident, so to speak: 'Disgust' and 'hostile hatred' on the part of the Jews, especially the 'hardening court', further the 'danger of the Jewish people' for the German, the 'anti-Christian influence 'The German workers through Jewish influence - these are all things that you cannot say in public today without a terrible shouting. Because today this is considered an expression of ancient Christian anti-Semitism and serious historical guilt of the church. All of these judgments are correct, based in the Bible, confirmed in church history and popular history; I fully agree with you. But there are times when you cannot say things that are true without conjuring up the risk of the most disastrous misunderstandings. "

And in front of teachers that same year he declared:

“The Philosemites, the zealous protectors of the Jews, must also be asked not to unnecessarily irritate the sore conscience with their nervous demeanor. They do not help to normalize the relationship between Germans and Jews, which would mean that it ceases to be a problem. "

BK approval for the exclusion of Jewish Christians

Allegedly, the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein agreed in 1942 through its spokesman for a "special regulation" for dealing with community members of Jewish origin. It was even alleged that there was a document in this regard that proved the “exclusion” of Jewish Christians from the regional church. The matter is extremely complicated and is detailed as follows:

Measures of the Nazi state

On June 22, 1941, the German-Soviet war began with the opening of hostilities against the Soviet Union by the German Wehrmacht . Fearing the Jews as possible allies of the enemy inside the empire, further measures were taken against them:

On September 1, 1941, the Police Ordinance on the Identification of Jews (RGBl. I, p. 547) obliged all persons in the German Reich who were defined as Jews under the Nuremberg Laws, including those Jews who were legally valid, to wear a yellow star from the age of six " to be worn firmly sewn onto the left chest of the garment near the heart ”.
On October 24, 1941, a circular was issued by the Reich Security Main Office threatening those “ German-blooded ” citizens with protective custody for three months who revealed “friendly relations with Jews in public”.

Measures of the German Evangelical Church

Protestant church leaders took these state regulations as an opportunity to take action against members of the congregation of Jewish origin. They feared losing the corporate status of their regional churches if they did not act.

The first rule that was made was very harsh. On December 17, 1941, Christian Kinder , the President of the Church Office in Kiel, signed a declaration as one of seven national church leaders declaring the abolition of any fellowship with Jewish Christians in their Protestant regional churches:

“A German Evangelical Church has to maintain and promote the religious life of German national comrades. Racial Jewish Christians have no place and no right in it. "

With a circular dated December 22, 1941, the church chancellery of the German Evangelical Church (DEK) corrected this radical stance a little:

“We ask ... the highest authorities to take suitable precautions to ensure that the baptized non-Aryans stay away from the church life of the German community. The baptized non-Aryans will have to look for ways and means to create institutions that can serve their separate worship and pastoral care. "

The DEK's Spiritual Trust Council specified its position of December 22, 1941 after a critical intervention by Regional Bishop Theophil Wurm on May 20, 1942 with the following clarification:

“An exclusion or even an 'expulsion' is not required in the circular. A reference from the Una Sancta (ie the believed one holy church) is not in human hands anyway. It is impossible to misunderstand the circular in this direction. But also a departure from the earthly and legally constituted church is not required. All that is being said is that the Star Bearers should stay away from the church life of the German community and should find their own church support, which the church chancellery wants to help make possible. "

Special regulation in the Schleswig-Holstein regional church

After these clarifications, the church office president Christian Kinder in Kiel found a “special regulation” for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Schleswig-Holstein , as Pastor Walter Auerbach later confirmed. The Brother Council of the BK in Schleswig-Holstein agreed, according to Kind's memory, with the restriction that it "attaches importance to being given the name of the prospective pastor of this new parish before official approval".

Whether the letter from Pastor Hans Treplin-Hademarschen to Provost Siemonsen -Schleswig of April 26, 1943, which has since been found, is evidence that the BK SH did not support the special regulation is controversial. If there was approval, it was given by Johannes Tramsen or his successor Hans Treplin, at least not by Halfmann.

In his decree of February 10, 1942, Kinder summarized the legal result of this "special regulation" as follows:

“It follows from this that non-Aryans, in particular those persons to whom the provisions of §§ 1 and 2 of the Police Ordinance on the identification of Jews of September 1, 1941 [...] apply, have no right in a public corporation can exercise. "

The Jewish community members belonged to their own personal community and were no longer to exercise their rights in the regional church as a public corporation. They were deported to a kind of “free church”, the integrity of their baptism was not affected.

Language regulations after the war

For this process, Pastor Halfmann found the Ev.-Luth at the first preliminary overall synod. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein on August 14, 1945 in Rendsburg the following words:

"It must be checked which laws and regulations of the last twelve years are to be repealed - it is clear that z. B. a regulation like the one on the exclusion of evangelicals of non-Aryan descent from church pastoral care has had its time. "

As bishop Wilhelm Halfmann later spoke appreciatively about the special regulation that children had found for the Schleswig-Holstein regional church:

“On the question of the treatment of non-Aryan members of the Protestant Church, you avoided the radical German-Christian solution and made a special regulation for Schleswig-Holstein , which was also approved by the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein. ... "

Halfmann's handling of guilt

After the collapse of Nazi rule at the end of the war, Halfmann was also able to admit his own mistakes and omissions with increasing clarity:

How should we preach today?

On May 28, 1945 in a circular to the Schleswig-Holstein clergy How should we preach today? With the tenor: “When the world floods us with floods of hatred, when we are judged in the name of God and morality and humanity, we will only grant the authority of penance to those who themselves profess a repentant mind. We appeal to God's word in that the warning against arrogant judging about one another is a characteristic feature ... "

Commentary by Karl Ludwig Kohlwage (2017): “Without special official authority, but with full and powerful knowledge of what the hour demands, he [Halfmann], in confusion and helplessness, provides help for spiritual orientation based on the biblical word - exactly what the BK in the time before did with their synods, pronouncements and writings. “How should we preach today?” - Halfmann sees this together with others whom he consults (Provost Hasselmann -Flensburg, Mission Director Dr. Pörksen -Breklum, Provost Siemonsen -Schleswig), the first task, which is BK tradition, simultaneously draws In this first utterance of the whole church there is a tendency of weight: the new beginning is not only a matter for the BC, but for everyone who is committed to the gospel. "

Criticism of the presentation and interpretation of the Stuttgart confession of guilt

In October 1945 Halfmann had the Kieler Kurier , the newspaper of the British military government, which published the Stuttgart confession of guilt under the heading “Ev. Church confesses Germany's guilty of war ”had issued a critical opinion. Halfmann emphasized: If the declaration is “read and understood” as it is “suggested” to the reader by the presentation, this would be “a heavy blow for the Ev. Church ”and move it - unjustifiably - close to“ treason ”. But Halfmann did not want to see the guilt one-sided and asked how, in his opinion, "the German simply asks":

“The Polish atrocities, the desecration of women, the destruction of the Central and Eastern European cultural landscape with its abundance of food, the expulsion of the millions - in short, the unprecedented popular murder that is taking place now - is that not his fault? As long as it is kept secret (sic!) About it, there is no power over there to speak of German guilt. "

Comment Sönke Zankel (2010): “As early as October 1945 Halfmann had commented on the Stuttgart confession of guilt: 'The enemies have pushed the rising word of penance back down our throats. That may be their worst act. But if one now speaks of guilt among Germans, then one should consider that our people are in a state of being murdered. What is happening is unprecedented. ' Halfmann went on to say that 'the enemy guilt propaganda is not working because the German simply asks today: And the Polish atrocities? And what about Bolshevism? And here, our bomb ruins? ' Halfmann was not able to break away from his national perspective and to classify the situation of the Germans accordingly. By describing the situation of the Germans as 'unprecedented', he indirectly, if not formulated literally, relativized the murder of European Jews. "

Comment by Kurt Jürgensen (1976): “The second-hand statement by Halfmann, quoted by Werner Jochmann , that 'the enemies' (those are the former enemies of the war) had 'repelled' willingness to repent with such a forced declaration is taken out of context and taken into account not how seriously Halfmann struggled for penitence among the people and ultimately accepted the declaration of guilt as a help! One objection remained: Halfmann missed a 'trait of goodness and compassionate understanding' in the declaration. The self-accusation, which is expressed for itself alone, does not show the church in all its grace. The sermon, Halfmann demanded as early as May 1945, should encourage repentance, but in a pastoral sense. Without a doubt, as Halfmann wrote at the time, 'the path must go through repentance', not in an abstract sense, but in the knowledge of personal misdeeds and those of one's own people, but also in the believing reception of the gospel of the 'good news of of reconciliation, forgiveness, redemption. "

Confession of guilt by the church: not political, but religious

On Reformation Day 1945 Halfmann spoke in his Flensburg congregation about "The Church in German Collapse". Halfmann had to take a position on the Stuttgart declaration of guilt, his congregation expected it. Halfmann defended his position once again: the church did not have to confess “guilt in the political sense”, it had no political and historical judgment to make. However, the church had to speak of “guilt in the religious sense”, and this had to happen in the very specific situation of the broken National Socialist rule and in the search for a real new beginning. In the specific situation it was, according to Halfmann, “to withstand the truth of our guilt”. One has become guilty through the "spirit of secularism ", through the disregard of the commandments and above all through the turning away from the first, second and third commandments. This is how they opened the way to National Socialism . "That was our fault," said Halfmann in front of his Flensburg audience. He asked her (and himself) insistently as he exclaimed:

“And when the tyranny became more and more powerful since 1933, what did you do, what did I do? Have we shouted, warned, protested enough? Oh my friends, we were scared. It was our fault. Guilt is piled up, mountains high, and the church is doing right, which calls to repentance, and precisely in this it shows itself as the church of Luther in the German collapse. Because the Reformation began as a testament to penance, no different, and a Reformation today can only begin again with penance , no different. "

Confession: "We did not resist down to the blood"

On the Day of Repentance and Prayer in 1945, the provisional church leadership, chaired by Halfmann, addressed the congregations on the Day of Repentance with a word designed by Heinrich Rendtorff . Tenor:

“We didn't resist to the point of bloodshed, we didn't call out, advertise or warn with a final effort. We lacked all the love with which our Lord loved us, all the faith that trusted him to do everything, all the obedience that only asked for his command, nothing else. That is why we are guilty before God for the terrible things that have happened. "

Of course it goes on to say:

“All nations are guilty of our German people. No people are righteous before God, they are all intertwined in the great entanglement of guilt. They are all on the disastrous path of de-Christianization, of de-goding, some - like our German people - already well advanced, others even more hidden. They are all responsible for one another before God. "

Shame about being a bad German

In 1946, in his reflections on the Schleswig question , Halfmann commented on the guilt of the Germans:

“Not that I am German, but that I was a bad German - I should be ashamed of that. That we let the good German nature decay, that we were unfaithful to God's gifts and tasks, that we were ungodly Germans, that's what shame us. The flight from it into another nationality would be the revealing final act of disloyalty to God and the seal on the moral decline that results from it. Flight from world history is flight from God, flight from truth and guilt and responsibility! "

Survival as guilt

In 1958, at the funeral service for Pastor Ewald Dittmann , Halfmann found the following words:

“The complexity of the situation at that time, which was incomprehensible to innumerable people, can perhaps be best expressed in two sentences: Wasn't everything wrong that happened under Hitler ?! The sentence is correct. But only if you add the second sentence: But the whole thing was wrong! That means: even the good happened under a bad omen. That is the Satanic in such a time. The Satan , the pellets, the Verwirrer confused the conscience that they keep evil for good and good for evil. That it was evil was made fully apparent by the horrific final act at the latest: this downfall in suicide, frenzy and unspeakable shame. And the innocent, like Pastor Dittmann, were dragged into this judgment - mystery of God, vicarious atonement, call to repentance!

To repent . We were all involved. And our survival must almost appear to us as guilt in front of all those who were persecuted for the sake of justice and had to lose their lives. That is why I include myself, and all Protestant Christians should include themselves, in that confession of leading men of the Evangelical Church in Germany of October 18, 1945: 'We accuse ourselves that we did not confess more courageously, pray more faithfully, believe more happily and loved not more ardently. ' Lord God, have mercy on us! "

What we need to free ourselves from

1960 in a lecture to teachers on coping with our past in the chapter "turning away and contemplation":

“The Evangelical Church has to face its inner history, even where it causes pain. The truth that God haunts the sins of the fathers in children down to the third and fourth members also applies to Christianity. ... We have to free ourselves from at least two things: first from nationalism . ... We stand and fall with the state to which we belong. It is our duty to serve him faithfully and critically, not to complain about standing aside in retrospect on irrevocably past greatness or in view of utopian goals. ... We must also say goodbye to anti-Semitism , the epitome of inhumanity and outrageous arrogance towards fellow human beings. ... The German failure, the German guilt, is so monstrous at this point that a defiance has developed which, with a bad conscience, seeks justification. In view of the army of those killed, however, any justification is only a new desecration of the dead and, at the same time, of the German name. ... "

Working for convicted war criminals

On October 16, 2012 Thomas Morell reported on the research project New Beginnings? Church, Christians, Jews after 1945 under the heading "Churches in the north uncovered Nazi careers - sponsorships for war criminals - church historian uncovered". In it he conveyed a number of allegations by Linck against the church leaders at the time:

The main topic at the time was the suffering of the Germans from the bombings and the refugees from the East - not the suffering of the concentration camp victims .
In December 1946, when Christians in Germany asked the peoples of the world for Christmas , they prayed that the roughly five million German prisoners of war could return to their families. In May 1949, a call from the EKD Council said: “See that the internees are released! Let go of the special right against the vanquished! "
Halfmann followed this call and sat down for example. B. for Karl Genzken and for Hinrich Möller . Nine parishes in Schleswig-Holstein took on sponsorships for war criminals imprisoned in France. (This attitude only changed in the early 1960s when numerous scandals about the careers of Nazi criminals became public.)
The call of the EKD in 1963 to “finally take note of the indescribably cruel mass crimes and to face the past” was accompanied by the regional church office in Kiel with a “handout” for pastors, in which it was warned against the families of Nazi Socially marginalizing criminals.

Stephan Linck concluded from all this: “Less than five years after the end of the war, prisoners of war and war criminals had become one.” And: “The perpetrators were always sympathetic.”

Linck's allegations weigh heavily. They do not take into account Halfmann's pastoral commitment to a people who were hard hit and battered in defeat and to whom Halfmann knew he should be referred in collapse.

Support for Hans Joachim Beyer

On May 5, 2014, Matthias Popien discussed in the Hamburger Abendblatt a process that had become known due to the publication of Stefan Linck and that Halfmann was charged with as chairman of the church leadership: the employment of the "smoothly denazified" Hans Joachim Beyer as press spokesman for the regional church from 1947 to 1947 1951. The headline of the newspaper article read: "The Evangelical Church and the SS-Mann"; the three guiding principles at the beginning: “Historian reveals internal information service. The key figure was Hans Joachim Beyer, a Nazi ideologist. The aim was, among other things, to discipline pastors or even to ignore them. "

The newspaper article begins with information about the Confidential Information Service , which was printed on blue paper and sent to selected addressees by the regional church's press office for at least 16 years, from 1952 to 1968 - together with the note to “send it to you as soon as possible after reading it destroy".

According to Linck's findings, this special form of Protestant press work went back to Hans Joachim Beyer, "one of the ideologues of National Socialism". Beyer had been Reinhard Heydrich's henchman in Prague. After 1945 he appeared in Schleswig-Holstein, Halfmann served as press spokesman and in 1947 was employed as head of the regional church press office. Linck's assessment:

“Beyer also collected incriminating information about journalists, for example about editors-in-chief, in order to be able to place church texts there. That reminds me of the methods of the SS Security Service (SD) . "

After Beyer's departure - he became a professor at the Flensburg University of Education after the 131 regulation was in place - Wolfgang Baader, who had also been an SD employee, succeeded him and perfected his technology. The blue sheets of the confidential information service were sent to the “theologians and lay people in top positions in the Schleswig-Holstein regional church”.

In January 1963, Baader Halfmann submitted a list of 48 pastors who should be interested in the German Peace Union (DFU). Linck: “The names could only have come from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution .” Although the pastors denied being close to the DFU, Halfmann trusted this ominous list. Gerhard Ulrich :

“For me it is unbelievable that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution spied on pastors and that Bishop Halfmann trusted this information. Here the responsible bishops have damaged the mission of the church. "

Support for Martin Redeker

During the Nazi era, the Kiel theologian Martin Redeker was one of the advocates of National Socialism. After the war, he managed to avoid a denazification-related dismissal. It was because of him that the former BK theologians Kurt Dietrich Schmidt and Volkmar Herntrich did not return to Kiel University . In 1947, the state fraternity council of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein accused him of contravening the confession. Due to his anti-Semitic remarks, Redeker had to forego the office of rector of Kiel University in 1955. In 1954 he was elected a CDU member of the state parliament. In 1958, Halfmann wrote to Prime Minister Kai-Uwe von Hassel for his re-election.

Conclusion

Uwe Pörksen said and asked in his 2016 novel Breklehem. A village novel on the person of Halfmann:

“Wilhelm Halfmann, the much controversial person, a clear head from the very beginning, 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, presents 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 out of the hands of the spying opponents in order to be able to continue his church political work? Was he scared? Did he think so? Was the agitation common? "

literature

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Kurt Dietrich Schmidt: Collected essays . Edited by Manfred Jacobs, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1967 ( content ), therein a. a .:

Questions on the Structure of the Confessing Church (1962) , pp. 267–293 ( online ).
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Kurt Jürgensen: The hour of the church. The Ev.-Luth. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein in the first years after the Second World War , Neumünster 1976 ( content ), therein a. a .:

The declaration of guilt by the EKD Council and its repercussions in Schleswig-Holstein , pp. 228–246.

Document 8. President Halfmann: Statement on the so-called declaration of guilt by the EKD Council - October 1945 , p. 292 f.

Kurt Jürgensen: The declaration of guilt by the Evangelical Church in Germany and its acceptance in Schleswig-Holstein , in: Klauspeter Reumann (Hrsg.): Church and National Socialism. Contributions to the history of the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein , Neumünster 1988 ( content ), pp. 381–406 (excerpts online ).

Kurt Meier : On the church fight in the Ev.-luth. Landeskirche Schleswig-Holstein , in: The Protestant Church Struggle. Complete presentation in three volumes , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1976–1984,

Volume 1: The fight for the "Reichskirche" , 1976, pp. 360–372 ( online );
Volume 2: Failed attempts to reorganize under the sign of state “legal aid” , 1976, pp. 260–269 ( online );
Volume 3: Under the Signs of the Second World War , 1984, pp. 389–393 ( online ).

Klauspeter Reumann: Church and National Socialism. The appointment of Wilhelm Halfmann to St. Marien Flensburg in February / March 1933. Anticipated fronts of the church struggle , in: Erich Hoffmann u. Peter Wulf (ed.): "We are building the empire". Rise and first years of rule of National Socialism in Schleswig-Holstein (= QuFGSH vol. 81) , Neumünster 1983 ( content ), pp. 369–389.

Klauspeter Reumann: Halfmann's work “The Church and the Jew” from 1936 , in: Association for Schleswig-Holstein History (ed.): 100 Years Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History (Writings of the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History, Series II, Volume 48) , Neumünster 1996, pp. 36-55.

Klauspeter Reumann: The church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein from 1933 to 1945 , in: Schleswig-Holstein Church history. Vol. 6/1: Church between self-assertion and external determination , Neumünster 1998, pp. 111–451.

Klauspeter Reumann: "... branches of the Jewish synagogue". On the creation of Wilhelm Halfmann's “The Church and the Jew” 1936 , in: Grenzfriedenshefte , no. 3, Flensburg 2004, pp. 163–178.

Klauspeter Reumann: Church struggle as a struggle for the "middle". The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein , in: Manfred Gailus , Wolfgang Krogel: From the Babylonian captivity of the church in the national. Regional studies on Protestantism, National Socialism and post-war history 1930 to 2000 , Berlin: Wichern 2006 ( content ), pp. 29–58 (therein: state of research and summary ).

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 ( content ), pp. 237–268.

Sönke Zankel : The Confessing Church and the “Jewish Question”: Wilhelm Halfmann's radical anti-Judaism. In: Niklas Günther and Sönke Zankel (eds.): The theology between church, university and school. Festschrift for Klaus Kurzdörfer , Kiel 2002, pp. 52–66.

Sönke Zankel: Christian theology in National Socialism before the Jewish question. Halfmann's writing “The Church and the Jew” , in: Democratic history. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein 16 (2004), pp. 121-134 ( online version ).

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 version ).

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Annette Göhres, Stephan Linck, Joachim Liß-Walther (eds.): When Jesus became “Aryan”. Churches, Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933–1945. The exhibition in Kiel , Bremen: Edition Temmen 2003, 2nd edition 2004, therein a. a .:

Stephan Linck: "... to protect from corrosive Jewish influence". Anti-Semitism in the Schleswig-Holstein regional church , pp. 132–146.

Hansjörg Buss: “De-Judaization of the Church”. A church institute and the Schleswig-Holstein regional church , pp. 162–186.

Jörgen Sontag: “But they didn't say the word!” The arduous steps of the Evangelical Church to acknowledge their complicity in the persecution of the Jews , pp. 229-253.

Hansjörg Buss, Annette Göhres, Stephan Linck, Joachim Liß-Walther (eds.): “A chronicle of mixed feelings”. Balance of the traveling exhibition 'Church of Christians, Jews in Northern Elbia 1933–1945' , Bremen: Edition Temmen 2005, therein a. a .:

Hanna Lehming: Anti-Semitism in the Church - how did it come about? Schleswig-Holstein theologians during the Nazi era , pp. 271–280.

President of the Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament (ed.): Church, Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933–1945. The exhibition in the Landtag 2005 (series of publications by the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag, issue 7) , Kiel 2006; therein u. a .:
Christina Semper: The relationship of the Confessing Church to Judaism in Schleswig-Holstein using the example of Wilhelm Halfmann , pp. 103–113.

Ulrich Hentschel: The Church's Guilt and its Good Reputation - from the perspective of the exhibition . Lecture on February 11, 2016 in St. Jacobi Hamburg ( online ).

Jörgen Sontag: “Denied” - the way the church deals with its Jewish community members. A theological problem in the Evangelical Church in Germany and in the Schleswig-Holstein regional church in 1941/1942 . Lecture on May 18, 2016 in the Nikolai Church in Kiel as part of the exhibition “New Beginnings after 1945?” ( Online ).

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 , Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2015 (abbr .: Documentation Breklum I) ( content ), including a. a .:

Karl Ludwig Kohlwage: The theological criticism of the Confessing Church of the German Christians and National Socialism and the significance of the Confessing Church for the reorientation after 1945 , pp. 15–36 ( online version ).
Gerhard Ulrich : On dealing with a guilty past subject to God's judgment , pp. 43–60 ( online version )
Jens-Hinrich Pörksen: Letter to the church leadership of the North Church of April 24, 2014 (with attachment) , pp. 297–300.

Uwe Pörksen : Breklehem. Novel of a village , Husum 2016.

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 , Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2018 (abbr .: Documentation Breklum II) ( content ), including a. a .:

Karl Ludwig Kohlwage: Which church did the BK want - and what has become of it? Reconstruction and new beginning of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church after the end of the war , pp. 18–35 ( online version ).

Karl Ludwig Kohlwage, Manfred Kamper, Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (eds.): “You will be my witnesses!” Voices for the preservation of a denominational church in urgent times. The Breklumer Hefte of the ev.-luth. Confessional community in Schleswig-Holstein from 1935 to 1941. Sources on the history of the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein . Compiled and edited by Peter Godzik , Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2018 (abbr .: Breklumer Hefte) ( content ).

Web links

History workshop of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein ( online )
Sigrid Sabrowski: Consistent handling of history ( online ) with download : Fichtenhofsaal - formerly Bischof-Halfmann-Saal and chronicle of the public disputes about Wilhelm Halfmann (from the employee newspaper mit uns 9/2014) as well as letters to the editor on the subject of Wilhelm Halfmann (from: mit uns , 10/2014)

Individual evidence

↑ LN-Segeberg of February 13, 2014: "Nazi Bishop: Hall will continue to bear his name" ( online )

↑ NDR: Schleswig-Holstein Magazin: Information on the broadcast on February 2, 2014, 7:30 p.m .: "Time travel: The Church under National Socialism" ( online )

↑ Stephan Linck in his book "New Beginnings?", The "Holsteinische Courier" reported on it ( online ).

↑ Kieler Nachrichten / Segeberg from January 19, 2015 ( online )

↑ Olaf Harning, Rickling: The agitator on the bishop's chair. Wilhelm Halfmann was a Nazi man - yet he was able to officiate as high church representative until 1964 . Article in "Neues Deutschland" from April 15, 2014 ( online ).

↑ Infoarchive Norderstedt, message dated July 19, 2014: The "Bishop-half man-Hall" will be renamed. The end of a leading figure ( online ).

^ News North Church from January 5, 2015: Timo Teggatz: Church disputes the Nazi past in Schleswig-Holstein ( online ).

^ Moritz Piehler: The bishop and his SS past , in: Jüdische Allgemeine from February 22, 2016 ( online ).

↑ ^a ^b Stephan Linck reports on this: New beginnings? How the Evangelical Church deals with the Nazi past and its relationship to Judaism. Die Landeskirchen in Nordelbien, Volume 1: 1945–1965 , Kiel: Lutherische Verlagsgesellschaft 2013, pp. 216–221 ( online ).

↑ Zankel: "I can ..." , p. 129.

↑ Bernd Gaertner, Joachim Liß-Walther (Ed.): Aufbruch. Christian-Jewish cooperation in Schleswig-Holstein after 1945. A Festschrift , Kiel: JF Steinkopf 2012 ( content ), pp. 23–32 (Lohse lecture); P. 230 f. (Lohse looking back).

↑ Jörgen Sontag reported on him in 2007 in the "Report after 25 Years": 25 Years of the North Elbian Working Group Christians and Jews. Creation and work of the working group , compiled by Jörgen Sontag, November 2007 ( online ), and five years later under the title The North Elbian Working Group Christians and Jews. Building blocks for a history of this working group in: Bernd Gaertner, Joachim Liß-Walther (Hrsg.): Aufbruch. Christian-Jewish cooperation in Scheswig-Holstein after 1945. A Festschrift , Kiel: Steinkopf 2012, pp. 190–197.

↑ See: Jörgen Sontag: Martin Luther and the Jews as well as “But they didn't say the word!” The arduous steps of the Protestant Church to recognize their complicity in the persecution of the Jews , both articles in: Annette Göhres, Stephan Linck, Joachim Liß-Walther (Ed.): When Jesus became "Aryan". Churches, Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933–1945. The exhibition in Kiel , Bremen: Edition Temmen 2003, 2nd edition 2004, pp. 117–131 and pp. 229–253. Jörgen Sontag: “Denied” - the way the church deals with its Jewish community members. A theological problem in the Evangelical Church in Germany and in the Schleswig-Holstein regional church in 1941/1942 . Lecture on May 18, 2016 in the Nikolai Church in Kiel as part of the exhibition “New Beginnings after 1945?” ( Online ).

↑ See: 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 feelings”. Balance of the traveling exhibition 'Church of Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933–1945', Bremen: Edition Temmen 2005, pp. 271–280.

↑ Synod Declaration 2001 ( online ).

↑ https://www.ag-juden-christen.de/ergaenzung-der-praeambel-der-verfassungs-2002/

↑ https://www.ag-juden-christen.de/praeambel-der-verfassungs-2012/

↑ Declaration of no confidence 1933 ( online )

↑ See the list of Halfmann's publications during this time ( online ).

^ Devotion Halfmann 1935 ( online )

^ Resolutions of the Confession Synod 1935, p. 37 ff. ( Online )

↑ Sermon of July 16, 1944 in Mölln, North Elbian Church Archives, Halfmann Estate, 98.04, No. 12.

↑ North Elbian Church Archives, 98.04, NL Halfmann, A l, Sermons, Vol. 1944–1945.

↑ Klauspeter Reumann: Halfmann's work "The Church and the Jew" from 1936 , in: Association for Schleswig-Holstein History (Ed.): 100 Years Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History (Writings of the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History, Series II, Volume 48) , Neumünster 1996, pp. 36-55

↑ The Confessing Church and the "Jewish Question": The radical anti-Judaism of Wilhelm Halfmann . In: Niklas Günther, Sönke Zankel (ed.): The theology between church, university and school. Festschrift for Klaus Kurzdörfer , Kiel 2002, pp. 52–66.

↑ Sönke Zankel: “I cannot participate in the Christian-Jewish fraternization with the elimination of theology”. Bishop Halfmann and Christian anti-Judaism in the years 1958-1960 . In: Democratic History. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein 21 (2010), pp. 123-138.

↑ Isabelle Tiburski, 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 with the elimination of theology”. Bishop Halfmann and Christian anti-Judaism in the years 1958-1960 . In: Democratic History. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein 21 (2010), pp. 123-138, here p. 123.

↑ Sönke Zankel: “I cannot participate in the Christian-Jewish fraternization with the elimination of theology”. Bishop Halfmann and Christian anti-Judaism in the years 1958-1960 . In: Democratic History. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein 21 (2010), pp. 123-138, here pp. 136 f.

^ Sönke Zankel: Christian theology in National Socialism before the Jewish question. Halfmann's writing “The Church and the Jew” , in: Democratic history. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein 16 (2004), pp. 121-134.

↑ https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/dr-hansjörg-buss/200459.html

↑ Wolfes review ( online )

↑ Church historian reveals ( online )

↑ Stephan Linck's biogram ( online )

↑ Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 307 f.

^ "What is right before God" ... Documentation of a conference in Breklum 2015 , p. 296.

↑ "What is right before God" ... Documentation of a conference in Breklum 2015 , p. 33.

↑ Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 45.

↑ Jens-Hinrich Pörksen: Letter to the church leadership of the North Church of April 24, 2014 (with appendix), in: Documentation Breklum I, 2015, pp. 297-300.

^ Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 298.

↑ Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 300 f.

↑ Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 302 ff.

↑ Gerhard Ulrich: Report on the project “New Beginnings” at the conference of the regional synod of the Northern Church on November 22, 2014, in: Documentation of the Breklum Conference 2015, pp. 307–311.

↑ Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 45 f. ( online )

↑ Grenzfriedenshefte 1/2014, April 2014, p. 69 f. ( online )

↑ Forum. Bulletin of the pastors' associations in the area of the North Church , No. 74/2014 ( online ), pp. 32–40, and No. 75/2014 ( online ), pp. 21–23.

↑ H-Soz-Kult from September 16, 2014 ( online ).

↑ Also in: "SE-bunt" - Segeberger Alliance for Democracy + Tolerance ( online ).

↑ Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 46.

↑ Documentation Breklum I, 2015, pp. 27 and 35 f.

↑ Documentation Breklum II, 2018, p. 34.

↑ http://www.geschichte-bk-sh.de/index.php?id=424

^ From the press release of April 18, 2018.

↑ Now printed in: “You will be my witnesses” , 2018, pp. 447 ff.

^ Wilhelm Halfmann: Afterword to "Bishop Halfmann and the Jews", 1960, printed in: Breklumer Hefte 2018, p. 453.

^ Wilhelm Halfmann to Dr. Karl Witte, March 5, 1960, NEK-Archiv / LKAK, January 20, No. 660, quoted in Zankel 2011, p. 129 f.

↑ Wilhelm Halfmann to Wilhelm Käber, March 8, 1960, NEK-Archiv / LKAK, January 20, No. 660, quoted in Zankel 2004, p. 134 and 2010, p. 132 f.

↑ Quoted by Linck: New beginnings? , Vol. 1, p. 228.

↑ To cope with our past (1960) , in: Faith and Education. Ceremony for Gerhard Bohne on his 65th birthday , Neumünster: Ihloff & Co. 1960, pp. 9–19, here p. 19.

↑ Peter Longerich: “We didn't know anything about that!” , Munich 2006, p. 181.

^ Quoted in Meier: Kirche und Judentum ... , 1968, p. 115 f.

↑ Quoted in Meier: Church and Judentum ... , 1968, p. 116 f.

↑ Christian Kinder wrote in 1964: “… some (sc. Regional churches), such as B. Lübeck and Mecklenburg believed that they had to show their solidarity with the state and party by simply excluding the Jewish community members marked with the star from the regional church. They referred to a 'letter from the German Evangelical Church Chancellery of December 22, 1941', which recommended that the regional churches separate non-Aryan Christians from the parishes. Not only was that unchristian - it was also completely unchurch from the standpoint of a Lutheran church. Because Luther's church knows no excommunication of parishioners at all ! ”(Children: New Contributions ... , 1964, p. 124 f.)

↑ Quoted in Meier: Kirche und Judentum ... , 1968, p. 119.

↑ Children: New Contributions ... , 1964, p. 191.

↑ Children: New Contributions ... , 1964, pp. 120 ff.

↑ Dr. Children, Bishop Halfmann and the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein on the question of the membership of Christians of Jewish origin in the regional church and the integrity of their baptism . Compiled by Peter Godzik on September 15, 2015 ( online ).

↑ LKAK 22.02, No. 7211; quoted by Linck: New beginnings? ... , 2013, p. 203, note 640.

↑ Website on "Integrity of Baptism" ( online )

↑ Quoted in Halfmann: Sermons, Reden, Essays, Letters , Kiel 1964, p. 108.

↑ Children: New Contributions ... , 1964, p. 192.

↑ Kurt Juergensen: The hour of the church. The Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Schleswig-Holstein in the first years after the Second World War , Neumünster 1976, pp. 261–263 (online at pkgodzik.de) .

↑ Kohlwage: The Gospel in Breakdown , 2017 ( online ).

↑ Quoted from: Kurt Jürgensen: The declaration of guilt by the Evangelical Church in Germany and its acceptance in Schleswig-Holstein , in: Klauspeter Reumann (Hrsg.): Church and National Socialism. Contributions to the history of the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein , Neumünster 1988, pp. 381–406, here p. 391 f. Cf. on the whole also: Kurt Jürgensen: The declaration of guilt by the EKD Council and its repercussions in Schleswig-Holstein , in: ders .: The hour of the church ... , 1976, pp. 228–246; together with documents 7-11, pp. 289-298.

↑ Document 8, printed in: Kurt Jürgensen: The hour of the church. The Ev.-Luth. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein in the first years after the Second World War , Neumünster 1976, p. 292. See also Juergensen's statements on p. 242 on the facts.

↑ Sönke Zankel: “I cannot participate in the Christian-Jewish fraternization with the elimination of theology”. Bishop Halfmann and Christian anti-Judaism in the years 1958-1960 . In: Democratic History. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein 21 (2010), p. 123-138, here p. 127 f.

↑ Kurt Juergensen: The hour of the church. The Ev.-Luth. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein in the first years after the Second World War , Neumünster 1976, p. 242.

↑ Quoted from Kurt Jürgensen: The declaration of guilt by the Evangelical Church in Germany and its acceptance in Schleswig-Holstein , in: Klauspeter Reumann (Ed.): Church and National Socialism , 1988, p. 393.

↑ Published under the title Are we guilty? A word about the day of penance in 1945 in: Wilhelm Halfmann: Sermons, speeches, essays, letters. Compiled from the estate and edited by Wilhelm Otte, Karl Hauschildt and Eberhard Schwarz , ed. by Johann Schmidt, Kiel 1964, pp. 97-99 (online at pkgodzik.de) .

↑ Printed as Document 18 in: Kurt Jürgensen: The Hour of the Church ... , 1976, p. 314.

^ Wilhelm Halfmann: Sermons, speeches, essays, letters. Compiled from the estate and edited by Wilhelm Otte, Karl Hauschildt and Eberhard Schwarz , ed. by Johann Schmidt, Kiel 1964, p. 102.

↑ Wilhelm Halfmann: To cope with our past , originally in: Belief and education. Ceremony for Gerhard Bohne on his 65th birthday , Neumünster: Ihloff & Co. 1960, pp. 9-19; now in: Wilhelm Halfmann: Sermons, speeches, essays, letters. Compiled from the estate and edited by Wilhelm Otte, Karl Hauschildt and Eberhard Schwarz , ed. by Johann Schmidt, Kiel 1964, pp. 135-142.

↑ Church historian reveals ( online )

↑ Statements on prisoners of war and attitude to Nazi trials ( online )

↑ See the article by Karl Ludwig Kohlwage: The Gospel in Collapse , in: Documentation Breklum II, 2018, p. 21 ff. ( Online ).

↑ Linck: New Beginnings? , Vol. 1, pp. 128-139.

↑ https://www.spd-geschichtswerkstatt.de/wiki/Entnazifikation_in_Schleswig-Holstein

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Matthias Popien: Schleswig-Holstein: The Evangelical Church and the SS-Mann in: Hamburger Abendblatt from February 5, 2014 ( online )

↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150209131449/http://hans-joachim-beyer.info/?author=1

↑ Linck: New Beginnings? , Vol. 1, pp. 285-287.

↑ The History of the Faculty of Theology, Part III ( online ); Stephan Linck: New beginnings? How the Evangelical Church deals with the Nazi past and its relationship to Judaism. Die Landeskirchen in Nordelbien , Vol. 2, Kiel 2016, pp. 122–141; Stephan Linck: innocent guilty? The Church's Dealing with the Nazi Past . Lecture on April 10, 2017 in the Christ-König-Kirche (Hamburg-Lokstedt) ( online version ).

↑ Uwe Poerksen : Breklehem. Roman eines Dorfes , 2016, p. 108; 198 f.

↑ https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/dr-hansjörg-buss/200459.html

[1] LN-Segeberg of February 13, 2014: "Nazi Bishop: Hall will continue to bear his name" ( online )

[2] NDR: Schleswig-Holstein Magazin: Information on the broadcast on February 2, 2014, 7:30 p.m .: "Time travel: The Church under National Socialism" ( online )

[3] Stephan Linck in his book "New Beginnings?", The "Holsteinische Courier" reported on it ( online ).

[4] Kieler Nachrichten / Segeberg from January 19, 2015 ( online )

[5] Olaf Harning, Rickling: The agitator on the bishop's chair. Wilhelm Halfmann was a Nazi man - yet he was able to officiate as high church representative until 1964 . Article in "Neues Deutschland" from April 15, 2014 ( online ).

[6] Infoarchive Norderstedt, message dated July 19, 2014: The "Bishop-half man-Hall" will be renamed. The end of a leading figure ( online ).

[7] News North Church from January 5, 2015: Timo Teggatz: Church disputes the Nazi past in Schleswig-Holstein ( online ).

[8] Moritz Piehler: The bishop and his SS past , in: Jüdische Allgemeine from February 22, 2016 ( online ).

[„Haar“-9] Stephan Linck reports on this: New beginnings? How the Evangelical Church deals with the Nazi past and its relationship to Judaism. Die Landeskirchen in Nordelbien, Volume 1: 1945–1965 , Kiel: Lutherische Verlagsgesellschaft 2013, pp. 216–221 ( online ).

[10] Zankel: "I can ..." , p. 129.

[11] Source: https://www.shz.de/171490 © 2020

[12] Bernd Gaertner, Joachim Liß-Walther (Ed.): Aufbruch. Christian-Jewish cooperation in Schleswig-Holstein after 1945. A Festschrift , Kiel: JF Steinkopf 2012 ( content ), pp. 23–32 (Lohse lecture); P. 230 f. (Lohse looking back).

[13] Jörgen Sontag reported on him in 2007 in the "Report after 25 Years": 25 Years of the North Elbian Working Group Christians and Jews. Creation and work of the working group , compiled by Jörgen Sontag, November 2007 ( online ), and five years later under the title The North Elbian Working Group Christians and Jews. Building blocks for a history of this working group in: Bernd Gaertner, Joachim Liß-Walther (Hrsg.): Aufbruch. Christian-Jewish cooperation in Scheswig-Holstein after 1945. A Festschrift , Kiel: Steinkopf 2012, pp. 190–197.

[14] See: Jörgen Sontag: Martin Luther and the Jews as well as “But they didn't say the word!” The arduous steps of the Protestant Church to recognize their complicity in the persecution of the Jews , both articles in: Annette Göhres, Stephan Linck, Joachim Liß-Walther (Ed.): When Jesus became "Aryan". Churches, Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933–1945. The exhibition in Kiel , Bremen: Edition Temmen 2003, 2nd edition 2004, pp. 117–131 and pp. 229–253. Jörgen Sontag: “Denied” - the way the church deals with its Jewish community members. A theological problem in the Evangelical Church in Germany and in the Schleswig-Holstein regional church in 1941/1942 . Lecture on May 18, 2016 in the Nikolai Church in Kiel as part of the exhibition “New Beginnings after 1945?” ( Online ).

[15] See: 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 feelings”. Balance of the traveling exhibition 'Church of Christians, Jews in Northern Elbe 1933–1945', Bremen: Edition Temmen 2005, pp. 271–280.

[16] Synod Declaration 2001 ( online ).

[17] ttps://www.ag-juden-christen.de/ergaenzung-der-praeambel-der-verfassungs-2002/

[18] ttps://www.ag-juden-christen.de/praeambel-der-verfassungs-2012/

[19] Declaration of no confidence 1933 ( online )

[20] See the list of Halfmann's publications during this time ( online ).

[21] Devotion Halfmann 1935 ( online )

[22] Resolutions of the Confession Synod 1935, p. 37 ff. ( Online )

[23] Sermon of July 16, 1944 in Mölln, North Elbian Church Archives, Halfmann Estate, 98.04, No. 12.

[24] North Elbian Church Archives, 98.04, NL Halfmann, A l, Sermons, Vol. 1944–1945.

[25] Klauspeter Reumann: Halfmann's work "The Church and the Jew" from 1936 , in: Association for Schleswig-Holstein History (Ed.): 100 Years Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History (Writings of the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History, Series II, Volume 48) , Neumünster 1996, pp. 36-55

[26] The Confessing Church and the "Jewish Question": The radical anti-Judaism of Wilhelm Halfmann . In: Niklas Günther, Sönke Zankel (ed.): The theology between church, university and school. Festschrift for Klaus Kurzdörfer , Kiel 2002, pp. 52–66.

[27] Sönke Zankel: “I cannot participate in the Christian-Jewish fraternization with the elimination of theology”. Bishop Halfmann and Christian anti-Judaism in the years 1958-1960 . In: Democratic History. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein 21 (2010), pp. 123-138.

[28] Source: https://www.shz.de/886861 © 2020

[29] Isabelle Tiburski, Marek Ehlers: Wilhelm Halfmann's work “The Church and the Jew” (1936), Uetersen: February 2009.

[30] Sönke Zankel: “I cannot participate in the Christian-Jewish fraternization with the elimination of theology”. Bishop Halfmann and Christian anti-Judaism in the years 1958-1960 . In: Democratic History. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein 21 (2010), pp. 123-138, here p. 123.

[31] Sönke Zankel: “I cannot participate in the Christian-Jewish fraternization with the elimination of theology”. Bishop Halfmann and Christian anti-Judaism in the years 1958-1960 . In: Democratic History. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein 21 (2010), pp. 123-138, here pp. 136 f.

[32] Sönke Zankel: Christian theology in National Socialism before the Jewish question. Halfmann's writing “The Church and the Jew” , in: Democratic history. Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein 16 (2004), pp. 121-134.

[33] ttps://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/dr-hansjörg-buss/200459.html

[34] Wolfes review ( online )

[35] Church historian reveals ( online )

[36] Stephan Linck's biogram ( online )

[37] Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 307 f.

[38] "What is right before God" ... Documentation of a conference in Breklum 2015 , p. 296.

[39] "What is right before God" ... Documentation of a conference in Breklum 2015 , p. 33.

[40] Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 45.

[41] Jens-Hinrich Pörksen: Letter to the church leadership of the North Church of April 24, 2014 (with appendix), in: Documentation Breklum I, 2015, pp. 297-300.

[42] Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 298.

[43] Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 300 f.

[44] Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 302 ff.

[45] Gerhard Ulrich: Report on the project “New Beginnings” at the conference of the regional synod of the Northern Church on November 22, 2014, in: Documentation of the Breklum Conference 2015, pp. 307–311.

[46] Documentation Breklum I, 2015, p. 45 f. ( online )

[47] Grenzfriedenshefte 1/2014, April 2014, p. 69 f. ( online )