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[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…