By: Renee Nal
New Zeal
A dark chapter in German history: In the Night of Broken Glass (otherwise known as “Reichspogromnacht” or “Kristallnacht” in German) in the night from November 9 to November 10, 1938, synagogues all over Germany were set ablaze. Photo: welt.de
The Declaration of Barmen was ‘a call to resistance against the theological claims of the Nazi state.’ As history repeats and God is once again diminished in society, should Americans know this erased history?
Note:
December 8 2014 marks the 12th anniversary of of the inauguration of the Bergische synagogue, which was destroyed during Kristallnacht in 1938. The Bergische synagogue was rebuilt, finally, in 2002 only to be firebombed again during the summer of 2014 by Palestinian teenagers. In August, when I sat down to write about about this synagogue being firebombed, I dug into the history of the synagogue itself. As an author, I could not believe what I discovered, mostly from Google-translated German sources.
The land upon which the synagogue rests was sacred, as it was where the Declaration of Barmen took place by religious leaders of various denominations, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth, who were horrified to observe that the “German Christian” movement put the state before God. The Declaration of Barmen was reaffirming that Nazi principles should not be incorporated into church teachings. From the Declaration sprung the “Confessing Church,” where Pastors stood firm against Hitler’s “Positive Christianity.” Many of the church leaders were arrested and killed, but they left behind a powerful piece of erased history known as the Declaration of Barmen.
As history repeats itself many “spiritual leaders” have learned how to manipulate church teachings for political reasons. President Obama’s “spiritual adviser” Jim Wallis, for example, declared the Tea Party to be “unbiblical” last year, further asserting that they are “political extremists” who are “against poor people.”
The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) are better known as “Nazi’s.” Their revealing 25 point platform explained “Positive Christianity” this way (point 24):
We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the Germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and around us, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: common utility precedes individual utility.
Re-posted from Liberty Unyielding:
The Bergische synagogue was rebuilt in the town of Wuppertal after being burnt to the ground in 1938 during the “night of broken glass,” or Kristallnacht, a “government-sponsored terror attack.”
The land for the synagogue was donated by the Evangelical Church not far from the original site. The plot of land was particularly significant, as it was the site of the Declaration of Barmen in 1934, which was “a call to resistance against the theological claims of the Nazi state.”
The Bergische synagogue was inaugurated on December 8, 2002. The inauguration ceremony was attended by Israel’s former president Moshe Katsav and former President Johannes Rau. Security was so tight, particularly in the wake of September 11, that “manhole covers were welded shut” for the procession.
A heavily guarded procession in 2002 for the inauguration of the Bergische synagogue.
Chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Manfred Kock, spoke during the ceremony. His speech can be found here, in it’s entirety. He said in part (translated from German),
“Mutual gestures are the ones that bring reconciliation to express a backlash against all anti-Semitic impulses and excesses that undermine our country again. The disease in Europe, especially in Germany, is the anti-Semitism.”
As mentioned above, the plot of land for the synagogue was carefully chosen as the site of the Declaration of Barmen in 1934, a response to the Nazi’s “Positive Christianity,” where the “Confessing Church” emerged as a response to the attempted Nazi hijacking of Christianity (they even re-wrote the lyrics to the song “Silent Night.”)
As an aside, Dietrich Bonhoeffer became a “prominent voice” in the Confessing Church.
Hitler sought to destroy Christianity. The “Deutsche Christen,” or “German Christian” movement “was organized in strict accordance with the ‘Führer principle'” and sought “to bring the church into doctrinal and institutional alignment with Nazi ideology…”
Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy leader in the Nazi Party, who wrote the words to Mein Kampf as Hitler dictated from prison, explained the Führer principle:
“Hitler is Germany and Germany is Hitler. Whatever he does is necessary. Whatever he does is successful. Clearly the Führer has divine blessing.”
The German Christians held a national convention in 1933 in Berlin:
German Christians convention in 1933
German Christians “showed a complete loyalty to the Nazi state in their community policies and propaganda.”
The Theological Declaration of Barmen reaffirmed that God, not the state, was the only God. Many of the Pastors of the resulting “Confessing Church” were arrested and killed.
The Declaration of Barmen was “an appeal” to Christians of all denominations, in a meeting held by church leaders that stood in “opposition to attempts to establish the unity of the German Evangelical Church by means of false doctrine, by the use of force and insincere practices…” The declaration continued to affirm that “the Confessional Synod insists that the unity of the Evangelical Churches in Germany can come only from the Word of God in faith through the Holy Spirit.”
In a chilling plea, the declaration said,
“Be not deceived by loose talk, as if we meant to oppose the unity of the German nation! Do not listen to the seducers who pervert our intentions, as if we wanted to break up the unity of the German Evangelical Church or to forsake the Confessions of the Fathers!”
The Declaration of Barmen was affirming Christianity, and a denouncement of blind loyalty to the Führer. The sacred ground on which this declaration was made is now the home of the Bergische Synagogue. The gift from the Evangelical leaders to the Jewish population in Wuppertal is symbolic in their affirmation of faith.
Bergische Synagogue with the Christian church in the background via Wikimedia Commons
The Bergische Synagogue was destroyed during Kristallnacht, and was rebuilt. Last week, the Bergische Synagogue was firebombed. A neighbour called police after seeing flames. An 18-year-old Palestinian youth was arrested. The Synagogue, thankfully, did not catch fire.
This article has been cross-posted at Broadside News.
