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[English Version] , Theophil (7.12.1868 Basel – 28.1.1953 Stuttgart), D. 1913 Pfarrer in Ravensburg, 1920 Dekan in Reutlingen, 1927 Prälat in Heilbronn, 1929–1949 württembergischer Kirchenpräsident (seit 1933 mit dem Titel »Landesbischof«). W. war von 1934 an führendes Mitglied der Bekennenden Kirche und seit 1941 Initiator und Führer des »Kirchl. Einigungswerks«, das er 1945 zur Grundlage der neugebildeten Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland machte. 1945–1949 war W. Vorsitzender des Rates der EKD,…

[English Version] Paulusbund, von den polit. Behörden in Deutschland 1936 im Zuge der verschärften nationalsozialistischen (Nationalsozialismus) Judenpolitik verfügter Zusammenschluß aller Zweckverbände von ev. und kath. Christen jüd. Abstammung, die sich seit 1933 gebildet hatten, um die ebenfalls von der Rassegesetzgebung betroffenen sog. »nicht-arischen« Christen zu beraten und zu betreuen. Leiter des ca.80 000 Mitglieder umfassenden Bundes war der Berliner Literaturhistoriker Dr. Heinrich Spie…

[English Version] Pfarrernotbund, Zusammenschluß ev. Pfarrer in Deutschland als Reaktion auf die Beschlüsse der von den Deutschen Christen majorisierten altpreußischen Synoden im August/September 1933, die u.a. die rückhaltlose Anerkennung des nationalsozialistischen Staates (Nationalsozialismus) verlangt und durch Übernahme des staatl. »Arierparagraphen« Pfarrer und Kirchenbeamte jüd. Abstammung aus dem kirchl. Dienst ausgeschlossen hatten. Der P. erhob den Kampf gegen derartige Verletzungen des …

[English Version] Wilm, Ernst (27.8.1901 Reinswalde – 1.3.1989 Espelkamp), D. Als Pfarrer in Mennighüffen (1931–1948) und Mitglied der Bekennenden Kirche kam W. wegen seiner öfftl. Kritik an der nationalsozialistischen »Euthanasie«-Politik (s.a. Nationalsozialismus) von Mai 1942 bis Januar 1944 ins Konzentrationslager Dachau. 1948–1968 war er Präses der westfälischen Kirche, 1957–1973 Mitglied des Rates der EKD. W., Mitbegründer der »Flüchtlingsstadt« Espelkamp und der Konferenz Europäischer Kirche…

[English Version] Niemöller, Martin (14.2.1892 Lippstadt – 6.3.1984 Wiesbaden), D., D.D. – N. studierte nach dem 1. Weltkrieg, in dem er sich freiwillig zur Kriegsmarine gemeldet hatte und U-Boot-Kommandant wurde, Theol. in Münster, wurde 1924 Vereinsgeistlicher der westfälischen Inneren Mission, 1931 Pfarrer in Berlin-Dahlem; 1937 Verurteilung zu mehrmonatiger Festungshaft wegen »Kanzelmißbrauch und Widerstand gegen die Staatsgewalt«, 1938–1945 als »persönlicher Gefangener« Hitlers Haft in den Kon…

[English Version] Zoellner, Wilhelm (30.1.1860 Minden – 16.7.1937 Düsseldorf), D. theol. 1889 Pfarrer in Barmen, 1897 Vorsteher des Diakonissenmutterhauses Kaiserswerth, 1905–1931 westfälischer Generalsuperintendent in Münster. Streng konservativ und konfessionell-luth. eingestellt, lehnte Z. die Union ab und bekämpfte den Liberalismus in Politik, Theol. und Kirche. 1933 forderte er die Neuordnung des dt. Protestantismus auf der Grundlage des Bekenntnisses (»Dreisäulentheorie«). Im Juli 1935 wurde …

[English Version] Schöffel, Simon (22.10.1880 Nürnberg – 28.5.1959 Hamburg), Dr. phil., D., war seit 1909 Pfarrer, 1920 Dekan in Schweinfurt, wurde 1921 Hauptpastor in Hamburg, im Mai 1933 Landesbischof ebd. Im selben Jahr war er zunächst Mitglied der Einstweiligen Leitung, dann luth. Minister im Geistl. Ministerium der DEK. Obwohl Sch., geprägt durch luth. Ordnungsdenken und völkisches Ideengut, den Totalitätsanspruch des Nationalsozialismus vorbehaltlos unterstützte, wurde er schon im März 1934 d…

[English Version] Philipps, Wilhelm (11.12.1859 Opherdicke, Westfalen – 23.5.1933 Berlin), D., 1887 Pfarrer und Inspektor der Berliner Stadtmission, 1892 Vorsteher des Ev. Johannesstifts in Berlin-Spandau, 1912 in freier kirchl. Arbeit, 1917–1933 Vorsteher der Berliner Stadtmission. P. fühlte sich A. Stoecker verpflichtet. 1917 unterzeichnete er einen Aufruf Berliner Pfarrer »Gegen einen Frieden im Geist der Verständigung und Versöhnung«. Nach 1918 gehörte er als Vertreter der Positiven Union (Unio…

[English Version] Scharf, Kurt (21.10.1902 Landsberg/Warthe – 28.3.1990 Berlin); D., seit 1928 Pfarrer in Friesack, 1933–1946 in Oranienburg und führendes Mitglied der Bekennenden Kirche, dann Propst und Geistl. Leiter für Brandenburg im Konsistorium Berlin-Brandenburg. 1957–1960 war Sch. Ratsvorsitzender der EKU, 1961–1967 Ratsvorsitzender der EKD. 1961 wurde Sch. aus der DDR ausgebürgert. 1966–1976 war er Bischof der Ev. Kirche von Berlin-Brandenburg (ab 1972 für den Bereich der Regionalsynode We…

[English Version] Steil,  Ludwig (29.10.1900 Lüttringhausen – 17.1.1945 Dachau). S. war seit 1929 Pfarrer in Holsterhausen. 1933 gehörte er zu den Mitbegründern der Bekennenden Kirche in Westfalen und war Mitglied ihrer geistl. Leitung unter K. Koch. Wegen krit. Äußerungen über die nationalsozialistische Weltanschauung (Nationalsozialismus) wurde er im September 1944 verhaftet und Anfang Dezember unter menschenunwürdigen Umständen in das Konzentrationslager Dachau verbracht, wo er, geschwächt durch…

[English Version] . Der R. konstituierte sich 1934 als Leitungsorgan der Bekennenden Kirche. Nach der Verhaftung mehrerer seiner Mitglieder 1937 trat er bis 1945 nicht mehr zusammen. Mit Inkrafttreten der Grundordnung der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland 1948 erklärte er seine kirchenleitende Funktion für erloschen, trat aber weiterhin mit Worten zu aktuellen Fragen an die Öffentlichkeit. Carsten Nicolaisen Bibliography

[German Version] The Pastors’ Emergency League (Ger. Pfarrernotbund) is an association of Protestant pastors in Germany that came about in reaction to decisions of the Deutsche Christen who outvoted them at the Old Prussian Synods in August/September 1933. The synods demanded, among other things, unreserved recognition of the National Socialist state (National Socialism), and, by adoption of the state’s “Aryan paragraph,” the exclusion of ministers and church officers of Jewish descent from the service…

[German Version] (Nov 25, 1891, Bremen – Jul 12, 1971, Oldenburg), Dr., became cathedral preacher in Magdeburg in 1927, was pastor in Berlin from 1930 onward, officiated as general superintendent of the church district of Magdeburg from 1946 onward and as regional bishop of Oldenburg from 1954 to 1967. Jacobi was a co-founder and leading member of the Confessing Church in Berlin as well as a member of its executive committees. In 1966, he acted as co-initiator of the regular ecumenical dialogue be…

[German Version] (Feb 13, 1884, Heutingsheim, Württemberg – Jun 9, 1943, Starnberg) became the owner of the Christian Kaiser publishing house in Munich in 1911. At first Lempp's emphasis was on Bavarian liberal Protestantism (C. Geyer, F. Rittelmeyer), but then he became – with G. Merz as his theological consultant – the publishing pioneer and promoter of the works and series of K. Barth and his friends (Dialectical theology), without neglecting the Bavarian tradition and Lutheran theology. In the so-called Kirchenkampf (National Socialism: I), a circle of critical theologi…

[German Version] (Jan 30, 1860, Minden – Jul 16, 1937, Düsseldorf), D.theol. In 1889 Zoellner was appointed pastor in Barmen; in 1897 he became head of the deaconesses’ motherhouse in Kaiserswerth. From 1905 to 1931 he was the Westphalian general superintendent in Münster. A staunch conservative and confessional Lutheran, Zoellner rejected the united church (Unions, Church) and opposed liberalism in politics, theology, and the church. In 1933 he called for a new order for German Protestantism on a…

[German Version] (May 1, 1888, Manslagt, East Frisia – Jun 6, 1944, Bad Meinberg, Lippe). Immer became director of the Neukirchener Erziehungsverein in northern Germany in 1925. From 1927 to 1944, he served as a Reformed pastor in Barmen-Gemarke. In 1933 he co-founded the Confessing Church in the Rhineland and became head of the Coetus Reformierter Prediger. In May of 1934 he was host to and organizer of the Confessing Synod in Barmen (Barmen Declaration); subsequently he was a leading member of the Confessing Church and one of its most important voices. Carsten Nicolaisen Bibliography Wo…

[German Version] (May 11, 1910, Barmen – Dec 2, 1970, Münster), Lic.Dr., was theological consultant to the Council of the Evangelical Church in Berlin in 1938, performed his military service and was a prisoner of war from 1939 to 1946, became professor of systematic theology at the Augustana Hochschule (Divinity school of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Bavaria) in 1947, then in Münster from 1953 to 1970. Arguing that a theology rooted in “objective salvation facts” should be seen as the function of the church, Kinder ¶ adopted a critical stance toward R. Bultmann's demytholog…

[German Version] The association was established with the approval of the German political authorities in 1936, in the context of the increasingly harsh Jewish policies of National Socialism. It was a merger of all existing associations of Protestant and Catholic Christians of Jewish descent that had formed since 1933 to counsel and mentor the so-called non-Aryan Christians affected by Germany’s racial legislation. The association, with some 80,000 members, was headed by Dr. Heinrich Spiero, a literary historian ¶ from Berlin. An official decree in 1937 required the assoc…

[German Version] (Oct 30, 1898, Flöha, Saxony – Jul 5, 1986, Bergisch-Gladbach), Dr.jur., from 1926 onward a lawyer in the service of the state, was forced into early retirement because of his objections to so-called euthanasia. From 1946 Kreyssig assumed executive functions in the ecclesial province of Saxony, the Evangelische Kirche der Union (EKU:), and the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD: Evangelical Church in Germany); he founded the Aktion Sühnezeichen (campaign for reconciliation) in 1958. Carsten Nicolaisen Bibliography Works include: Gerechtigkeit für David, …

[German Version] (Oct 11, 1875, Hanover – May 3, 1950, Loccum), Dr.theol., castle preacher in Hanover in 1904, became director of studies at the preachers' seminary in Erichsburg in 1909, superintendent in Einbeck in 1919, general superintendent in Stade in 1922, and officiated as regional bishop of Hanover from 1933 to 1946. From 1928 onward, he was also abbot of Loccum Abbey, and chairman of the General Evangelical-Lutheran Conference from 1933 to 1946 as well as president of the Lutheran World …

[German Version] (Oct 29, 1900, Lüttringhausen – Jan 17, 1945, Dachau) was appointed pastor in Holsterhausen in 1929. In 1933 he was one of the cofounders of the Confessing Church in Westphalia and a member of its administrative committee under K. Koch. His criticisms of National Socialist ideology (National Socialism) led to his arrest in September of 1944; in early December he was sent to the concentration camp at Dachau in degrading conditions. Weakened by three weeks of transport and insufficient nourishment, he died soon after his arrival. Carsten Nicolaisen Bibliography G. Steil…

[German Version] (Aug 27, 1901, Reinswalde [Złotnik] – Mar 1, 1989, Espelkamp). As a pastor in Mennighüffen (1931–1948) and a member of the Confessing Church, Wilm was interned in Dachau concentration camp from May 1942 to January 1944 for publicly criticizing the National Socialist policy of “euthanasia” (see also National Socialism). From 1948 to 1968, he was president of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, from 1957 to 1973 a member of the council of the Evangelical Church of Germany in Deuts…

[German Version] The Reichsbruderrat (“Fraternal Council”) was formed in 1934 as the executive body of the Confessing Church. After several of its members were arrested in 1937, it suspended its meetings until 1945. When the constitution of the Evangelical Church in Germany took effect in 1948, it declared its executive function ended, but it continued to address the public on current issues. Carsten Nicolaisen

[German Version] (Apr 18, 1891, Geislingen – Jan 13, 1960, Stuttgart), Dr. Dr. Theol, was professor of practical theology in Tübingen 1920–1959, also Ephorus of the Stift until 1956, and rector of the University 1933–1935. In 1933, Fezer was briefly a member of the Deutsche Christen, representative of the faculty conference in the negotiations for a new church order, and a member of the interim administration of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Despite his sympathies for National Socialism, he j…

[German Version] (Oct 22, 1880, Nuremberg – May 28, 1959, Hamburg), Dr.phil. He was appointed pastor in Schweinfurt in 1909 and dean in 1920. In 1921 he was appointed senior pastor in Hamburg; in May of 1933 he became regional bishop of Hamburg. In the same year, he became a member of the Interim Leadership and then Lutheran theologian in the Geistliches Ministerium of the German Evangelical Church. A firm believer in Lutheran ideas of order and ethnic ideology, Schöffel fully supported the totali…

[German Version] (May 26, 1897, Berlin – Feb 10, 1953, Berlin). In 1932, after passing the state examination for nursing and health care, Marga Meusel became director of the Evangelisches Bezirkwohlfahrtsamt (district welfare center) of the Inland Mission in Berlin-Zehlendorf under the chairmanship of M. Niemöller. From 1934 onward, she appealed to the joint responsibility of the church and Inner Mission on behalf of Christians of Jewish extraction who were being persecuted by the National Socialists (National Socialism: I). Her position paper Denkschrift an die Aufgabe der B…

[German Version] (Oct 21, 1902, Landsberg an der Warthe [Gorzów Wielkopolski] – Mar 28, 1990, Berlin), was appointed pastor in Friesack in 1928. From 1933 to 1946 he served as pastor in Oranienburg and was a leading member of the Confessing Church. He then served as provost and spiritual leader for Brandenburg in the Berlin-Brandenburg consistory. He served as council president of the Evangelische Kirche der Union from 1957 to 1960 and of the Evangelical Church in Germany from 1961 to 1967. In 196…

[German Version] (Oct 6, 1876, Witten/Ruhr – Oct 28, 1951, Bielefeld) was superintendent in Vlotho (1927–1948), president of the Westphalian provincial synod (1927), of the Westphalian confessional synod (1934), and of the confessional synod of the German Evangelical Church (1934–1936), and was a leading member of the administrative committee of the Confessing Church. In contrast to the Confessing Church led by a council of brethren, Koch was prepared to work conditionally with the state-organized…

[German Version] (Dec 9, 1900, Bayreuth – Nov 24, 1942, near Stalingrad) moved in 1927 as pastor – together with S. Leffler – from Bavaria to Thuringia, where in 1928/1929 they founded the National-Socialist oriented (Thuringian) Deutsche Christen (German Christians). From 1933 until entering military service in 1939, Leutheuser was a full-time member of the regional church council in Eisenach. Carsten Nicolaisen Bibliography Works include: Der Heiland in der Geschichte der Deutschen, 1934 Die deutsche Christusgemeinde und ihre Gegner, 1935 On Leutheuser: K. Meier, Die Deutsche…

[German Version] (Dec 7, 1868, Basel – Jan 28, 19553, Stuttgart) was appointed pastor in Ravensburg in 1913, dean in Reutlingen in 1920, and prelate in Heilbronn in 1927. From 1929 to 1949 he served as president of the Württemberg church (with the title Landesbischof [“regional bishop”] from 1933). From 1934 on he was a leading member of the Confessing Church; in 1941 he became the founder and leader of the Kirchliches Einigungswerk, which he made the basis of the newly organized Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). From 1945 to 1949, he …

[German Version] (Feb 4, 1855, Radevormwald – Nov 18, 1927, Göttingen), lawyer. From 1891, he was a member of the Berlin Oberkirchenrat (Protestant supreme council), from 1904 vice-president, until 1919 deputy chair of the Conference of German Protestant Churches, and from 1919 to 1925 president of the Committee of German Protestant Churches. Moeller played an important part in the reorganization of relations between church and state (I, 4) after 1918 and in the creation of the constitution of the Evangelical Church of the (Old Prussian) Union, which came into force in 1924. Carsten Ni…

[German Version] (Aug 23, 1888, Ferndorf, district of Siegen – Feb 29, 1956, Frankfurt am Main), director of the social-pastoral office of the Rhenish Church from 1926 to 1934, then pastor and superintendent in Andernach from 1934 to 1950. As an early adherent of ecumenism (Ecumenical movement: II), Menn was a member of the Ecumenical Study Commission from 1929 onward and played an important role during preparations for the ecumenical world conferences of Oxford and Edinburgh in 1937. He built up …

[German Version] (Jan 21, 1907, Ottersberg, Westphalia – Nov 6, 1999, Bonn), Dr.theol., D., D.D., became superintendent in Herford in 1940, was a member of the Westphalian church directorate from 1945 ¶ to 1949, official representative of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) to the German federal government from 1949 to 1977, and part-time army bishop from 1956 to 1972. Kunst was, among other things, a cofounder of the refugee town of Espelkamp, of the Evangelische Sozialakademie in Friedewald, of the Evangelische Zent…

[German Version] (Graf von; Mar 11, 1907, Castle Kreisau, Lower Silesia – Jan 23, 1945, Berlin). Through his family, he was shaped by traditional Protestant education and culture, but without any special church attachment. From 1929, he assumed sole responsibility for the administration of the Kreisau estate, and at the same time finished his legal training; he was then active in Berlin as a barrister and specialist in questions of international law. From the beginning an opponent of National Soci…

[German Version] (Jan 13, 1902, Groß Breesen – Sep 12, 1978, Berlin), Dr.jur., Lic.theol., Dr.theol. Harder became pastor in Fehrbellin in 1929, district and precinct pastor of the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) and member of its administrative committees (1934–1945), co-founder of the Kirchliche Hochschule in Berlin (Christian College, Colleges and Universities, Christian) established on behalf of the Confessing Church (1935). He was a tutor in New Testament there (1936–1941 and 1945–1948)…

[German Version] (Dec 2, 1867, Oels, Silesia – May 2, 1941, Berlin), Dr.jur., member of the Protestant High Consistory in Berlin from 1903, secular vice-president from 1919 and president from 1925. Kapler fulfilled important functions during the reorganization of the church after 1918. As head of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union, he also became ¶ president of the German Evangelical Church Committee in 1925, and was thus the highest representative of the Evangelical Church in Germany until 1933. Although imbued with the concepts of value…

[German Version] (Feb 16, 1881, Nuremberg – Jun 8, 1956, Munich) was first a pastor in Munich in 1920, then became director of the Predigerseminar in Nuremberg in 1922, senior church councilor in Munich in 1928, and was regional bishop of Bavaria from 1933 to 1955. In the Kirchenkampf (National Socialism: I) Meiser gained prominence because he succeeded in thwarting attempts by the political authorities to bring the Bavarian regional church into line with the Reichskirche, although he otherwise did all he could to avoid ¶ conflicts with the state. As the representative of the leg…

[German Version] I. The First Confessing Synod of the German Protestant Church (DEK) – II. The Barmen Declaration I. The First Confessing Synod of the German Protestant Church (DEK) 1. The first Confessing Synods of the German Protestant Church (Deutsche Evangelische Kirche = DEK) took place from May 29–31, 1934 in the Reformed Gemarker Kirche in Wuppertal (Barmen). It had been prepared by the organizational panel of the Confessing Community and was chaired by K. Koch, the …

[German Version] (Mar 3, 1903, Nuremberg – Jan 3, 1992, Erlangen), was professor of church history, history of dogma, confessional studies, and Christian art in Erlangen (1946–1971), rector of the university there (1956/1957), and president of the Lutheran Society (1964/1965). Löwenich rejected the absolutization of dogmatic statements and their equation with divine truth. He became known primarily as an important Luther scholar who combined his pioneering historical studies of Luther's theology w…

[German Version] (Jun 24, 1891, Stolberg – Nov 29, 1975, Berlin). After serving as pastor in Dortmund, in the Düsseltal Institute and the church boarding school in Waldhof (Uckermark), Grüber served as a minister in Berlin-Kaulsdorf (1934–1945). In 1938, in the service of the Confessing Church, he founded and administered the Protestant Aid Office for non-Arian Christians (the “Grüber Office”); he was held in a concentration camp (1940–1943); in 1945, he became provost in East Berlin and a member …

[German Version] (Feb 14, 1892, Lippstadt – Mar 6, 1984, Wiesbaden), D., D.D. After World War I, during which he volunteered for service in the navy and became a submarine captain, Niemöller studied theology ¶ in Münster. In 1924 he became an official representative of the Westphalian Inland Mission; in 1931 he became pastor of a church in Dahlem, Berlin. In 1937 he was imprisoned for several months for “abuse of the pulpit and resistance to the authority of the state.” From 1938 to 1945 he was imprisoned in the concentration cam…

[German Version] (Dec 3, 1875, Ohlau, Silesia – Nov 5, 1943, Hof). Ordained to the priesthood in 1899, Lichtenberg held various rectorates in Berlin and was appointed cathedral provost there in 1938. Convinced that political work belongs to the wordly responsibilities of a priest, he engaged in parliamentary activities after 1918. During the period of National Socialism, he spoke out for those threatened by enforced sterilization and for the persecuted Catholics of Jewish descent. In 1943, after s…

[German Version] (Dec 11, 1859, Opherdicke, Westphalia – May 23, 1933, Berlin), Dr. of Protestant theology, 1887 minister and inspector of the Berlin City Mission, 1892 head of the Protestant Johannesstift in Berlin-Spandau, 1912 independent church work, between 1917 and 1933 head of the Berlin City Mission. Philipps felt himself indebted to A. Stoecker. In 1917 he signed an appeal by Berlin ministers “Against peace in the spirit of understanding and reconciliation.” After 1918, as representative …

[German Version] (Dec 11, 1887, Fallersleben – Dec 14, 1941, Paris), a mid-level justice official. He joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party in 1923, was Prussian Minister of Justice in 1933/1934, and became Reichsminister for church affairs in 1935. Convinced that Christianity and National Socialism could be reconciled, Kerrl wanted to overcome the differences between the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) and Deutsche Christen (German Christians) by administrative means, but was not able to gain acceptance for his ideas either from the church or from the state. C…

[German Version] (Nov 21, 1900, Azendorf – Nov 10, 1983, Hengersberg, Bavaria). Together with J. Leutheuser, the pastor Siegfried Leffler moved from Bavaria to Thuringia in 1927, where in 1928/1929 they both founded the National Socialist Church Party of the (Thuringian) Deutsche Christen (German Christians), who propagated an interdenominational German national church. He became its Reichsleiter (Reich chairman) in 1936. In 1933, Leffler was granted leave from his ecclesial duties and joined the ministry of national education in Weimar. In 1939, he…

[German Version] (Jun 23, 1883, Gütersloh – Jul 31, 1945, Berlin). From 1926 to 1933 Müller was an army chaplain in Königsberg. Through his good personal relations with Adolf Hitler, in 1933 he obtained the highest offices in the German Evangelical Church: he became regional bishop of Old Prussia, then bishop of the Reich. His dictatorial politics, conducted in the spirit of the Deutsche Christen (German Christians), aimed at bringing the regional churches and church associations “into line” with the state church (National Socialism: I). M…

[English Version] 1.  Martin , (3.8.1902 Dresden – 30.5.1968 Shivta, Israel), Alttestamentler und Palästinawissenschaftler. Der Schüler A. Alts lehrte als PD in Greifswald (1927/28) und Leipzig (1928–1930), als Ordinarius in Königsberg (1930–1945) und Bonn (1946–1967); seit 1964 leitete er das Deutsche Evangelische Institut für Altertumswissenschaft des Heiligen Landes in Jerusalem. N. hatte führenden Anteil an der kult- und überlieferungsgesch. Arbeit seiner Zeit (Bibelwissenschaft: I.,5.), legte a…

[German Version] 1. Martin (Aug 3, 1902, Dresden – May 30, 1968, Shivta, Israel), Old Testament scholar and Palestinologist. After studying with A. Alt, he taught as a Privatdozent at Greifswald (1927/1928) and Leipzig (1928–1930) and as a full professor at Königsberg (today Kaliningrad) (1930–1945) and Bonn (1946–1967). From 1964 until his death, he headed the Deutsches Evangelisches Institut für Altertumswissenschaften des Heiligen Landes in Jerusalem. Noth played a leading role in 20th-century study of the Israelite cul…

[English Version] I. Geschichtlich und kirchengeschichtlich 1.  Historisch-politischer Rahmen Der N. als polit. Bewegung entstand 1919 durch Gründung der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) im völkisch-antisemitischen Milieu des Münchner Kleinbürgertums. Er fand unter Führung Adolf Hitlers bald Anklang in fast allen Bevölkerungsschichten Deutschlands und wurde 1930, als sich aufgrund der Weltwirtschaftskrise von 1929 das nach der Niederlage von 1918 in Deutschland allg. verbreitete …

[German Version] I. History and Church History 1. Historical and political context. National Socialism as a political movement was born in Munich in 1919 with the founding of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party) appealing to a nationalistic and anti-Semitic lower middle class. Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, it soon gained a following among almost all social strata in Germany. It became a political force to be reckoned with in 1930, when the worldwide economic crisis of 1929 furth…