National Socialist Evangelical Pastors' Association

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The National Socialist Evangelical Pastors' Association (NSEP) was an organization founded in 1931 for National Socialist -minded Protestant pastors , which was mainly active in Bavaria .

history

On the initiative of Hans Schemm , a working group of clergymen from both major denominations represented in Germany was established within the framework of the National Socialist Teachers' Association (NSLB) . This in turn led to the formation of a working group of National Socialist Protestant clergymen, which officially called itself in Bavaria from mid-1931 the National Socialist Evangelical Pastors' Association . The NSEP, however, did not become an affiliate of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) because the NSDAP did not want to commit to one side in the church struggle. For the Reichstag election in July 1932 , the NSEP addressed the public in an NSDAP election campaign leaflet with religious legitimation of National Socialism and its leader Adolf Hitler . From 1933 there was a "Reichsleitung" of the NSEP, which later called itself the Association of Protestant Pastors in the Third Reich ; Their influence on pastors' associations in other regional churches has not yet been conclusively researched.

With the seizure of power , the activities of the NSEP increased strongly. As the goal of NSEP was formulated in 1933, "the standing on the ground of the Nazi Protestant clergy to fruitful and effective work on folklore and church together [to] believe" and for the "redesign of the church system and the relationship between church and state" to use with which one took the same goal as the German Christians . In April 1933, the NSEP leader Friedrich Klein successfully campaigned in the Bavarian pastors' association to replace the politically unpopular Bavarian church president Friedrich Veit . However, he could not use this success for an advancement of the NSEP. In the spring of 1934 a theological working group, the so-called Ansbach Circle , was formed within the NSEP , which was largely responsible for the Ansbach advice .

The NSEP finally broke up in 1934, when the majority of the members stood behind the Bavarian regional bishop Hans Meiser and thus against the Führer Council and left the NSEP after Meiser had managed to preserve the independence of the regional church from the imperial church . The remaining 80 members largely identified with the German Christians.

The period from 1935 onwards is largely unexplored. He is not mentioned in the denazification regulations .

Management and organization

Reichsleiter and Bavarian regional leaders were:

  • 1931–1933: Friedrich Klein (1894–1946)
  • 1933–1934: Ernst Daum (1901–1991)
  • 1934: Friedrich Möbus (1890–1945)
  • from December 1934: Ludwig Beer (1893–1949)

1934 NSEP consisted of eight districts (Coburg, Middle Franconia East, Middle Franconia-West, Upper Bavaria, Upper Franconia, Upper Palatinate / Lower Bavaria, Swabia and Lower Franconia), the Gauleiter formed together with the country's head of a "Führerrat".

In 1933 there are 98 members across the Reich, and 268 in Bavaria in mid-1934. In 1934 there were about 260 members of the NSEP, which corresponded to a maximum of 25% of the Bavarian pastorate. In 1935 there were only 80 members.

Known members

  • Hans Gollwitzer (1896–1979), Protestant pastor, main protagonist of the German Christians in the Bavarian church struggle, mayor of Mühldorf am Inn

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In 1934, 25 percent of all Bavarian clergy were still members of the NS-Evangelical Pastors' Association - in 1935 there were still 80 people, including Max Sauerteig from Ansbach on www.rothenburg-unterm-hakenkreuz.de on January 19, 2014.
  2. ^ Björn Mensing: Pastor and National Socialism. History of an entanglement using the example of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. (= Work on contemporary church history. Series B. Representations, Volume 26), Göttingen 1998. S. 147.
  3. ^ Björn Mensing: Pastor and National Socialism. History of an entanglement using the example of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. (= Work on contemporary church history. Series B. Representations, Volume 26), Göttingen 1998. P. 120.
  4. ^ Björn Mensing: Pastor and National Socialism. History of an entanglement using the example of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. (= Work on contemporary church history. Series B. Representations, Volume 26), Göttingen 1998. P. 120.
  5. ^ Björn Mensing: Pastor and National Socialism. History of an entanglement using the example of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. (= Work on contemporary church history. Series B. Representations, Volume 26), Göttingen 1998. P. 149.
  6. ^ Carsten Nicolaisen : National Socialist Evangelical Pastors' Association (NSEP) , published on June 12, 2007 in the Bavarian Historical Lexicon .