War priest

War pastors is the name given to the priests and pastors who served in the Wehrmacht in the Second World War against the background of Section 27 of the Reich Concordat and its secret annex .

While civil priests voluntarily reported at the beginning of the war, from February 1940 onwards only recruits were made from the troops. Catholic priests were drafted, trained as paramedics and, after different lengths of time, ordered to take part in the eight-day course for war pastors in Berlin . Likewise evangelical pastors, some of whom had made it to officers. After the course they were appointed war pastors for the duration of the war (retired) and had the rank of captain . After a year, he was promoted to the rank of major , which the Wehrmacht pastors also had for life . They were also referred to as field pastors and worked in the Wehrmacht in hospitals , staffs, prisons or with the troops. When conscripts were drafted into the Waffen SS from 1942 onwards, they were also increasingly active there.

According to the leaflet on field pastoral care , the war pastors had the task of strengthening the soldiers' fighting strength on the basis of religious neutrality. To this end, they held masses, general absolutions and communion celebrations before major battles. Church services with confession, communion or prayer hours were held regularly. In addition, they recorded wills or sent letters of comfort to the bereaved of those who had died. They also took part in the organization of funerals and funeral services. Against this background, they were able to carry out their tasks independently and largely without problems. When confessional military pastoral care was emphasized in a directive in 1942, the Catholic pastors and those of the Confessing Church in particular saw themselves freed from responsibility for the state's war aims.

Always the military chaplains took the duties of the Concordat as army chaplaincy designated military chaplaincy true. They had to submit a quarterly activity report for the war diaries of their command authorities. They were subordinate to the respective Wehrmacht dean and Wehrmacht senior pastor in charge of the Army Group and the Army High Command. The highest superiors were the Catholic Field Bishop Franz Justus Rarkowski and Protestant Field Bishop Franz Dohrmann .

The war pastor in the army wore the same field uniform as the soldiers he looked after, without shoulder pieces or insignia, but with a purple collar tabs in silver embroidery. On the peaked cap, with a silver cord and purple piping on the edge of the cap, there was a small cross in Gothic form (Catholic pastor) or a simple cross (Protestant pastor) between the insignia and cockade.

They were present in attacks on the advance, in the Stalingrad pocket and in captivity . Her pastoral care with close contact also with ordinary soldiers led to a high reputation, which was increasingly feared by Hitler and Goebbels. From 1944 on, National Socialist command officers (NSFO) were integrated into the command staff of the Wehrmacht in order to swear the officers to the party's slogans in competition with the pastors.

literature

• Dagmar Pöpping : Passion and Destruction. War pastor on the Eastern Front 1941–1945 . Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-54145-6 .
• Dagmar Pöpping: War Pastor on the Eastern Front. Evangelical and Catholic Wehrmacht chaplaincy in the war of annihilation 1941–1945 , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017, ISBN 978-3-525-55788-4 .
• Dagmar Pöpping: The Wehrmacht Pastoral Care in the Second World War. In: Quarreled »Volksgemeinschaft« - Faith, Denomination and Religion in National Socialism. Edited by Manfred Gailus and Armin Nolzen , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-30029-9 , pp. 257–286.
• Hans Leonhard: How much suffering does a person endure? - Records of a war pastor for the years 1939–1945. Buch & Kunstverlag Oberpfalz 1999, ISBN 3-924350-39-6 .
• Catholic Military Bishop's Office (Ed.): Man, what do you want to say to them? Catholic field chaplain in World War II. Pattloch 1991, ISBN 3-629-00660-4 .

Footnotes

1. ↑ Dagmar Pöpping: The Wehrmacht Pastoral Care in the Second World War, in: Quarrels "Volksgemeinschaft" , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-30029-9 .
2. ↑ High Command of the Army, leaflet on field pastoral care of August 21, 1939
3. ↑ Alex Buchner: The manual of the German infantry 1939-1945. Podzun-Pallas Verlag, ISBN 3-89555-041-8 , p. 85 f.
4. ↑ Name giver for the Franz-Dohrmann-Haus in Marienheide ( Memento of the original from May 24th 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Alex Buchner: The manual of the German infantry 1939-1945. Podzun-Pallas Verlag, ISBN 3-89555-041-8 , p. 84 f.
6. ↑ “When the battalion (III./ GrenRgt 465) attacked Samotojewska, he [...] joined the front company. […] In view of his intrepid, ready-to-take, self-sacrificing demeanor, I consider war pastor (Otto) Fangohr worthy of an award. "Quote from Otto Fangohr from a letter, in Mensch, what do you want to say to them? P. 91, Pattloch 1991 ISBN 3-629-00660-4 .
7. ↑ Ibid., Report of War Pastor Rudolf Pfeifer, p. 172.
8. ^ Dagmar Pöpping: The Wehrmacht Pastoral Care in the Second World War. In: Quarrels "Volksgemeinschaft" , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011, p. 263 u. 271, ISBN 978-3-525-30029-9 .