Prohibition of assembly of April 13, 1937

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The assembly ban of April 13, 1937 was a circular decreed by Heinrich Himmler ( RdErl. D. RFSSuChdDtPol. In the RMdI. April 13, 1937 - S - PP (IIB) 570/36) to prohibit the “ Christian assembly ”. He was on April 28, 1937 together with the ban on the " Seventh-day Adventists from III. Part ”(circular of April 19, 1937) and the ban on the“ Schobdacher Freundeskreis ”(circular of April 20, 1937) published in the press.

background

The restriction of the freedom of assembly was especially significant for the so-called “Christian Assembly”, which at that time gathered in over 700 places in the German Reich for worship and prayer . However, the word “ prohibition of assembly ” is only a legal term for the “measure of a prohibition of an assembly” and consequently also referred to the other aforementioned faiths.

Effects

A lifting of the ban on the "Christian assembly" was made dependent on the following conditions:

  • Creation of a transparent, clearly structured organization
  • Abandonment of the apolitical, as “state” and “hostile to life” attitude
  • Commitment to the National Socialist state

Under these conditions, the “Union of Free Church Christians” was founded in June 1937, whose congregations mostly joined the “Union of Baptist Churches” in 1941/42, which was then renamed “ Union of Evangelical Free Churches ”. This name is used to this day.

resistance

About 5-12% of the former members of the "Christian Congregation" did not join the new organization and held secret meetings until 1945. Many of them came before special courts and were sentenced to fines or imprisonment, in some cases also to concentration camp imprisonment. Among others these were:

literature

  • Gerhard Jordy : The Brethren Movement in Germany . Volume 3: The development since 1937 . R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal 1986.
  • Friedhelm Menk: The Brethren Movement in the Third Reich. The ban on the “Christian Assembly” in 1937 . CLV, Bielefeld 1986.
  • Hartmut Kretzer: Sources on the ban on assemblies in 1937 and on the establishment of the BfC . Ernst-Paulus-Verlag , Neustadt an der Weinstrasse 1987.
  • Andreas Liese: forbidden - tolerated - persecuted. The National Socialist religious policy towards the Brethren Movement . Jota publications, Hammerbrücke 2002.