Nora Schulze | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Text in German. In 1937, the National Socialist rulers massively increased the pressure on the churches. On the Protestant side, the Confessing Church was particularly affected: while the "radical" wing organized by the Brothers' Council was to be eliminated by police measures, the Reich Ministry of Churches tried to neutralize the "moderate" wing led by the bishops by decree. At the same time, it became clear that the forces that held Christianity and National Socialism to be incompatible and were planning the annihilation of Christianity and the Church in Germany were gaining increasing influence in the state and party. The fact that these forces could not assert themselves was ultimately only due to Hitler's hesitant attitude. The largely verbatim notes and transcripts of the Bavarian Bishop Hans Meiser from the period from February to December 1937 provide an authentic insight into the discussions and decisions that were under state pressure the most important governing bodies of the episcopal wing, but above all in the efforts to come to common action again in the divided Confessing Church. In addition to the meetings of the conference of the leading non-German-Christian officials of the German Evangelical Churches, the Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany and other bodies, the emergence and the most active working phase of the "Kassel Committee" is extensively documented for the first time.