4 January 1934 A.D. Reformed
Churches Muzzled But Protest at Barmen—Protest Against Hitler & Nazis
Graves, Dan. “Reformed Churches Muzzled But Protest at
Barmen.” Christianity.com. May
2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1901-2000/reformed-churches-muzzled-but-protest-at-barmen-11630758.html. Accessed 26 Jun 2014.
Hitler's
Nazi regime in Germany was one of the most heinous in all history. However,
when it first came to power, it was welcomed by many German church members. One
church leader even said that Hitler's rise was a gift of mercy from God's hand.
We can understand his thinking only if we remember that it was still early in
Hitler's rule and that many Germans were afraid the Communists would take over
their country if not opposed by the Nazis. Furthermore, Hitler replaced the decadent
Weimar Republic that had produced a literature and art of despair. Large
numbers of Germans hoped that Hitler would bring spiritual renewal because he
talked about their history and traditions.
Most of the churches in Germany
were Lutheran, organized into provinces. A movement took fire to nationalize
the church under a single Reichs-bishop. This was actually a trick to bring the
church under Nazi control. In May, 1933, the unified national church produced
its constitution. The so-called "German Christians" elected Ludwig Müller, a fervent Nazi, to head it. In July, he
placed two restrictions on the clergy. A clergyman (1) must be politically
reliable and (2) must accept the superiority of the Aryan race. Hundreds of
clergy accepted these demands.
A small group of church leaders
did not. They openly opposed those German Christians who did accept the
government's terms. The dissidents insisted that the church must obey Christ
apart from political influence. In September, 1933, Martin Niemoeller sent a
letter to all German pastors, inviting them to join a Pastor's Emergency League
to oppose the unified church. Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were among
those who joined him. In October, Niemoeller asked pastors to bind themselves
by the scripture and the old confessions of faith. They pledged themselves to
protest certain violations of the faith, to stand with the persecuted, and to
acknowledge that Aryanism (with its claim of racial superiority) was a violation
of Reformation and Christian teaching.
Theologian Karl Barth,
world-famous for a commentary he wrote on St. Paul's letter to the Romans,
issued a refutation of Unified Church doctrines, and Fundamentals
a paper against the teaching of the German Christians. He said that the source
of all the errors of the so-called German Christians was that they asserted
German nationality, history, and politics were to be given equal weight with
scripture. Many pastors saw their error and resigned from the Unified Church
after Barth wrote this.
On this day, January 4, 1934, Reich-bishop Müller issued a decree which he pretended was needed to
restore order in the German Evangelical Church. This decree became known as the
"Muzzling Order," because it forbade ministers to say anything in
their sermons about the Church controversy. Müller ordered churchmen to preach
nothing but "the pure gospel."
But faithful ministers would not
allow themselves to be kept out of politics by such an order--not when politics
violated the deepest principles of faith. In fact, the very day that Müller
issued his decree, three hundred and twenty elders and ministers were already
gathered at Barmen, calling themselves the First Free Reformed Synod. They
accepted Karl Barth's "Declaration on the Correct Understanding of the
Reformation Confessions in the Evangelical Church..." More meetings were
held in the months that followed. In April, pastors who opposed Hitler formed
the Confessing Church, which they called the "legal Protestant church of
Germany." It included Lutheran, Reformed, and United churches.
The Confessing Church took its
name because it clung to the Church's great historical Confessions of faith. In
May 1934, the Confessing Church issued the Barmen Declaration, rejecting errors
of the Nazi-controlled Unified Church. The Confessing Church stood almost alone
in Germany against Nazi lies during the terrible years of the third Reich.
Because of their boldness, its leaders paid a steep price. Niemoller went to
prison. Bonhoeffer was hanged.
Bibliography
Cochrane, Arthur C. The Church's Confession Under
Hitler. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962.
Eerdman's Handbook to the History of Christianity. Editor Tim Dowley. Berkhamsted, Herts, England:
Lion Publishing, 1977.
Osbourn, Robert T. The Barmen Declaration as a
Paradigm for the Theology of the American Church. Lewiston: Mellen,
1991.
Last updated May,
2007.
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