Saturday, April 28, 2012
General Kurt Dittmar Briefcase
Here is the Original Briefcase that Belonged to General Kurt Dittmar. Born 1891 in Magdeburg, Died 1959 in Holzminden was a German General in World War II. He became a Divisional Commander in February 1941 and led the 169th Infantry Division, which was later stationed in Finland. In the summer of 1941, He participated in Operation Polarfuchs, But was evacuated from Finland a few months later due to illness. He
was posted to the Army High Command Leader Reserve in October 1941, and
became General for Special Employment in April 1942. In that post, which
he held over the remainder of his war service, he was the Official
Military Commentator of the German Armed Forces. A rumor that he
committed suicide in April 1945 was dispelled on the 23rd when he
surrendered to soldiers of the 30th U.S. Infantry Division at Magdeburg.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Rare Oval Relief of Adolf Hitler
Here is an Original Oval Relief of Adolf Hitler. This is a Rare one as if you notice, Hitler is not wearing the NSDAP Uniform. He is wearing a dress coat and shirt & tie. Also Notice there is no NS pins or badges, The tie looks like it has a NSDAP party pin? I would say this dates from 1929-1933. The word say: "Deutsches Volk hilf dir selbst, dann hilft dir Gott - Adolf Hitler" - ' German people help yourselves, then God - Adolf Hitler helps you ' This item measures 23,5 x 19,5 cm,Very nice item from the Early years of the Struggle of Power in 1933.
Hitlerjugend KS-98 Seitengewehr
Original Hitlerjugend KS-98 Seitengewehr der Wachgefolgschart (Security/Guard Duty Bayonet.) The bayonet is approx. 13" in length, with the blade being 8" The blade is made of drop forged steel, with a single fuller running approx. two-thirds of the blade. The blade has a nickel-silver plated finish, and the maker's marking "Puma Solingen". The grip is made of a two piece, cross hatched, black plastic panel, with two nickel-silver rivets, and in incised alloy and enamel Hitlerjugend diamond. It features a nickel-silver plated bird head pommel, the locking button and spring are in good working order, with a piece of red wool felt in the channel. The scabbard is made of sheet steel, with a black painted finish of which approx. 98% remains. The scabbard is complete with it's original leather frog. The blade is unsharpened, with no nicks or pits, with mirror bright factory finish, The pommel has some wear to the nickel-silver finish around the top edge. The scabbard is free from dents. The original leather washer is present. The overall condition is very excellent, There have been many Fakes made of this Rare Hitlerjugend KS-98 ans over the years are sold as Original, So do your homework and buyer beware!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
BDM Girls Greet Hitlers 50th Birthday
Here is a Rare Post Card It is Hitlers 50th Birthday in 1939. Hitler Greeting German Girls League of German Maidens - Bund Deutscher Mädel or BDM, was the girl's wing of the NSDAP youth movement, The Hitler Youth - HitlerJugend. It was the only female youth organization in NS Germany.
The League consisted of two sections:
The Jungmädel - Young Girls League, for girls ages 10 to 14, and the League proper for girls ages 14 to 18.
In 1938, a third section was introduced, the Belief and Beauty Society - BDM-Werk Glaube und Schönheit, which was voluntary and open to girls between the ages of 17 and 21.
Friday, April 20, 2012
20, April 1889 - 20, April 1945
Goebbels’ 1945 Speech on Hitler’s 56th Birthday
German citizens!At the moment of the war when so it seems all forces of hate and destruction have been gathered once again,, perhaps for the final time, in the west, the east, the southeast and the south, seeking to break through our front and give the death blow to the Reich, I once again speak to the German people on the eve of 20 April about the Führer, just as I have done every year since 1933. That has happened at good and bad times in the past. But never before did things stand on such a knife’s edge, never before did the German people have to defend their very lives under such enormous danger, never before did the Reich have to draw on its last strength to protect its threatened self.
Times such as these are rare in history. They are unique and unparalleled for the fighting generation that must survive them. Historical events of similar nature and extent fade in our memory under the pain that we bear, under the sorrows that almost overwhelm us, under tortured questions about our own future and that of our brave, sorely-tested people...
This is not the time to speak of the Führer’s birthday in the usual way or to present him with the usual best wishes. More must be said today, and by one who was won the right both from the Führer and the people. I have been at the Führer’s side for more than twenty years. I have seen his rise and that of his movement from the smallest and most improbable beginnings up to the seizure of power, and gave my best efforts to them as well. I have shared joy and sorrow with the Führer, from unprecedented historic victories to the terrible setbacks in the remarkable years from 1939 until now. I stand beside him today as fate challenges him and his people with its last, most severe test. I am confident that fate will give him and his people the laurel wreath of victory. The fact that Germany yet lives, that Europe and the civilized world have not yet fallen into the dark abyss that looms before us, is thanks to him alone.
He will be the man of this century who was sure of himself despite terrible pain and suffering who showed the way to victory. He is the only one who remained true to himself, who did not cheaply sell his faith and his ideals, who always and without doubt followed his straight path toward his goal. That goal may today be hidden behind the piles of rubble that our hate-filled enemies have wrought across our once-proud continent, but which will once again shine before our burning eyes once the rubble has been cleared.
Times like those we experience today demand more of a leader than insight, wisdom and drive. They demand a toughness and endurance, a steadfastness of heart and soul, that appear only rarely in history, but that, when they do appear, produce the most admirable achievements of human genius. Burkhardt said in his “Observations on World History”: “The fates of people and of states, of entire civilizations, can depend on whether an extraordinary person can bring forth the proper strength of soul and action. Normal minds and spirits, no matter how numerous, cannot replace such a person.”
Who can deny that only the Führer has the right to feel these words apply to him and his deeds in our and many coming generations? What can enemy statesmen say in response?
They have nothing but superior numbers, their stupid and insane destructiveness and their diabolical lust for annihilation, behind which lurk the chaos of the collapse of civilized humanity. What has come of their loud and emotional theses of happiness, what of their Atlantic Charter and their Four Freedoms?
Only hunger, misery, pestilence and mass death. A whole raped part of the earth cries out against them. Once flourishing cities and villages in every nation of Europe have been transformed into fields of craters, and hundreds of thousands, even millions of women and children in the north, east and southeast of the continent sigh and weep under the raging scourge of Bolshevism.
The most shining culture the earth has ever seen sinks in ruins and leaves only memories of the greatness of an age destroyed by satanic powers. The peoples are shaken by the most severe economic and social crises, which are but foretastes of the terrible events to come. Our enemies claim that the Führer’s soldiers marched as conquerors through the lands of Europe but wherever they came, they brought prosperity and happiness, peace, order, reliable conditions, a plenitude of work, and therefore a decent life. Our enemies claim their soldiers came to the same lands as liberators but wherever they come there is poverty and misery, chaos, devastation and destruction, unemployment, hunger and mass death. And what remains of their so-called freedom is a life that no one would dare call decent even in the darkest corners of Africa.
Here is a clear broad outline of a program of construction that has proved itself useful, humane and beneficial, positive and forward-looking, in its own as well as in all the other lands of Europe. It stands against the fantasies of Jewish-Plutocratic-Bolshevist destruction. Here stands a man, sure of himself, having a clear and firm will, against the unnatural coalition of enemy statesmen who are only the lackeys and tools of this world conspiracy. Europe once had the choice between these two. It chose concealed anarchy, and must today pay for its mistake with million-fold agony. It will not have much time any more to choose its fate a second time. It is a matter of life or death!
A British newspaper wrote a few days ago that the result of the insane policies of the enemy powers would surely be a revolution of the European peoples against the Anglo American Plutocracy, and that Hitler was the man who was hindered by the same plutocracy through an unholy alliance with Asiatic Bolshevism as he began to bring Europe political and economic happiness. That is how it is, and nothing can whitewash our plutocratic enemies of their crimes.
Opposing this apparently all-powerful coalition of destructive satanic forces brings with it tests and burdens of superhuman nature, but that is not dishonorable the opposite in fact! To bravely accept a battle that is unavoidable and inescapable, to wage it in the name of divine providence, to have confidence in it and its eventual blessing, to stand before fate with a pure conscience and clean hands, to bear all suffering and every test, never even thinking of being untrue to one’s historic mission, never wavering even in the most difficult hours of the final battle that is not only manly, it is also German in the best sense of the word! Would our people not accept this task and not fight for it as if it were the word of god, it would not deserve to live any longer, and would lose any possibility of further life.
What we experience today is the last act of a powerful drama that began on 1 August 1914 and which we Germans gave up on on 9 November 1918 just before the end. That is why we had to begin again on 1 September 1939. What we hoped to spare ourselves in November 1918 we have paid for two or threefold today. There is no escape unless the German people surrenders any kind of decent human life and is ready to forever live in a way that would shame even the most primitive African tribes.
If it is manly and German as Führer of a great and brave people to depend wholly on oneself in this struggle, relying on one’s own own strength and certainty as well as the help of god in the face of an enemy who threatens with overwhelming numbers, to fight rather than to capitulate, then it is just as manly and German for a people to follow such a Führer, unconditionally and loyally, without excuse or reservation, to shake off all feelings of weakness and uncertainty, to trust in the good star that is above him and us all. This is all the more true when that star at times is covered by a black cloud.
Misfortune must not make us cowardly, but rather resistant, never giving a mocking watching world the appearance of wavering. Rather than hoisting the white flag of surrender that the enemy expects, raise the old swastika banner of a fanatic and wild resistance, renewing the oath that we swore so often in the happy and safe days of peace, thanking god again and again that he gave us a true leader for these terrible times, feeling bound in our hearts to his sorrows and trials, thus showing the enemy world that they can wound but not kill us, that they can beat us bloody but not force us down, torture us, but not demoralize us!
Is there a single German who disagrees?
After six years of battle, could our people debase itself so low as to forget honor and duty, surrendering in the turmoil of the moment its holy and inalienable right to its great coming life for a pot of soup?
Who would dare suggest that? Who holds us in such contempt that he believes that now, just as we stand before the final and decisive round of the war, we would be untrue to all our sworn ideals, that we would throw all our hopes for the future of our Reich overboard, giving up in the midst of the confusion of misfortune that has overcome us on ourselves, our land and people and the lives of our children and children’s children?
The world speaks of loyalty as a German virtue. How could our people have withstood the tests of this war without it, and how could it survive the war’s coming end without it? For it is ending! The war is nearing its end. The insanity that the enemy powers of unleashed on humanity has gone beyond all bounds. The whole world feels only shame and disgust. The perverse coalition between plutocracy and Bolshevism is collapsing! Fate has taken the head of the enemy conspiracy .It is the same fate that the Führer escaped on 20 July 1944, amidst the dead, the wounded and the ruins, so that he could finish his work through pain and trials it is true, but nonetheless as providence ordained.
Once more the armies of the enemy powers storm against our defensive fronts. Behind them is the slavering force of International Jewry that wants no peace until it has reached its satanic goal of world destruction. But its hopes are in vain! As he has done so often before, god will throw Lucifer back into the abyss even as he stands before the gates of power over all the peoples. A man of truly timeless greatness, of unique courage, of a steadfastness that elevates the hearts of some and shakes those of others, will be his tool. Who will maintain that this man can be found in the leadership of Bolshevism or Plutocracy?
No!, The German people bore him. It chose him, it by free election made him Führer. It knows his works of peace and now wants to bear and fight the war that was forced upon him until its successful end.
Within a few years after the war, Germany will flourish as never before. Its ruined landscapes and provinces will be filled with new, more beautiful cities and villages in which happy people dwell. All of Europe will share in this prosperity. We will again be friends of all peoples of good will, and will work together with them to repair the grave wounds that scar the face of our noble continent. Our daily bread will grow on rich fields of grain, stilling the hunger of the millions who today suffer and starve. There will be jobs in plenitude, the deepest source of human happiness, from which will come blessing and strength for all. Chaos will vanish. The underworld will not rule this part of the world, but rather order, peace, and prosperity.
That was always our goal! It is our goal today. If the enemy powers had their way, humanity would drown in a sea of blood and tears. War would follow war and revolution would follow revolution, finally destroying the last remnants of a world that was once beautiful and lovely, and that will be so again.
But if we achieve our goals, the project of social construction begun in Germany in 1933 and was rudely interrupted in 1939 will be taken up again with renewed strength. Other peoples will join in not because we force them to, but rather of their own free will because there is no other way out of the world crisis. Who could show the way save the Führer! His work is the work of order. His enemies have only a devil’s work of anarchy and devastation to set against his work.
German history is not rich in great statesmen. But where one has appeared, he mostly had something to say and give not only to his own people, but to the world. What would there be European about Europe had not German kaisers and kings, counts and generals and their armies ever again withstood the onslaughts from the east! Usually only a disunited continent stood behind them that either did not understood or even fell upon Germany in the midst of its saving work for Europe. Why should it be any different today? At the present state of things, which the war is just before, or perhaps even in the midst of, a peripeteia, it is difficult to understand this great battle between peoples. One thing, however, can no longer be disputed: If there had been no Adolf Hitler, if Germany had been led by a government like those in Finland, Bulgaria or Rumania, it would long since have become the prey of Bolshevism. Lenin once said the path to world revolution leads though Poland and the Reich. Poland is already in the possession of the Kremlin, despite all the attempts of the Anglo Americans to conceal it. If Germany had followed, or would follow, what would become of the rest of our continent?
To ask the question is to answer it. The Soviets would probably already be at the Atlantic Coast, and England sooner or later would receive its just reward for its betrayal of Europe that finds its most wretched expression in its marriage with Bolshevism. In the United States too, one would soon think differently of the dreadful world phenomenon that a Jewish press entirely and fully conceals from the American public.
If the world still lives, and not only our world but the rest of it as well, whom has it to thank other than the Führer? It may defame and slander him today, persecuting him with its base hatred, but it will have to revise this standpoint or bitterly regret it! He is the core of resistance to the collapse of the world. He is Germany’s bravest heart and our people’s most passionate will. I permit myself to make a judgment that must be made today: If the nation still breaths, if it still has the chance of victory, if there is still an escape from the deadly danger it faces it is thanks to him. He is steadfastness itself. I have never seen him fail or falter, or weaken or tire. He will go his way to the end, and there awaits not the end of his people, but rather a new and happy beginning to an era in which Germandom will flourish as never before.
Listen, Germans! Millions of people look to this man from every land on the earth, still doubting and questioning whether he knows the way out of the great misfortune that has befallen the world. He will show the peoples that way, but we look to him full of hope and with a deep, unshakable faith. We stand behind him with fortitude and courage: soldier and civilian, man, woman and child a people determined to do all to defend its life and honor. He may look his enemies in the eye, for we promise him that he does not need to look behind him. We will not waver or weaken. We will never desert him, no matter how desperate and dangerous the hour. We stand with him, as he stands with us in Germanic loyalty as we have sworn, as we shall fulfill. We do not need to tell him, for he knows and must know: Führer command! We will follow! We feel him in us and around us. God give him strength and health and preserve him from every danger. We will do the rest.
Our misfortune has made us mature, but not robbed us of our character. Germany is still the land of loyalty. It will celebrate its greatest triumphs in the midst of danger. Never will history record that in these days a people deserted its Führer or a Führer deserted his people. And that is victory. We have often wished the Führer in happy times our best on this evening. Today in the midst of suffering and danger, our greeting is much deeper and more profound.
May he remain what he is to us and always was - Our Hitler!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
München 1934
Here is a Rare beer Mug from München 1934. I also have a small Bronze Badge with this Beer Stein.
SS-Führungshauptamt Fahne
The Flag Measures 80x135 It is Marked SS-FHA with a Heavy rope with two Nickle Clamps. The flag has some light soiling from being stored in an Attic foot locker sense 1945, bought it along with some German Police Magazines and pins.
The SS-Führungshauptamt (SS Leadership Main Office) (SS-FHA) was the operational headquarters of the SS. It was responsible for the administration of Officer Schools Junkerschulen, Medical services, logistics, and rates of pay. It was also the administrative and operational headquarters for the Waffen SS that was responsible for its Organisation and equipment and Order of battle of SS combat units.
The SS-Führungshauptamt, which was under the direct command of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, was formed in 1940 from some of the departments of the SS-Hauptamt and the Allgemeine SS.
Its main duty was the operational control of the Waffen-SS developing general policy on recruiting and handling special personnel requirements. By 1942, recruitment by the Allgemeine-SS had almost ceased as a result of WWII, meaning local units were responsible for maintaining their own staffing levels.
The SS-FHA had priority over all other branches of the Armed Forces in selection of recruits. Likewise, to meet the casualty rates and expansion of Waffen-SS field divisions, service in the Waffen-SS was made compulsory for all members of the Allgemeine-SS in 1941.
The SS-FHA also accepted personnel who requested voluntary transfer to the Waffen SS after being inducted into any another branch of the military of Hitlers Germany; This later included members of the Hitler Youth. When Himmler stepped down as SS-FHA chief in 1943, SS-Obergruppenführer Hans Jüttner managed the department till the end of the war.
Der Stahlhelm
Here is a Very Rare Flag from Der Stahlhelm, This Flag was at some time by it's Group membership to be made into a Banner, *Notice the Gothic Writing made in the banner, It says: Der Stahlhelm B.d.F. Standartgr. Laufeld. I bought this Flag about 30 years ago and as you can see, It condition is ok, But I would like to preserve this Rare Flag for future Generations. It is too bad the former owner of this Flag did not take the time to take better care of this Flag/Banner of Der Stahlhelm. There is alot of Moth Damage, But not serious Damage.
"Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten" the Steel Helmet, Association of Frontline Soldiers
The Stahlhelm was founded in 1918 by war veteran Franz Seldte, his brothers and some other soldiers from his unit. The association was originaly meant as both a mutual aid society for world war one veterans and as a political combat group like many other that sprung up during the 1920s.
In 1926, it numbered half a million members, by far the largest at the time. Around this time the Stahlhelm entered politics although unlike similar groups, it didn't endorse a single party prefering instead to present itself simply as Conservative. It must be said that most of those who became deputies did so as members of the monarchist DNVP or liberal-nationalist DVP.
As "volkish" elements entered the stahlhelm, it continued to slide into a more radical and authoritarian mindset that culminated in the more moderate DVP severing ties with them. The Stahlhelm eventualy joined the DNVP/NSDAP coalition that brought Hitler to power. After 1934, The Stahlhelm was first put under the command of the SA's leader and in 1935 it was disolved with its members being absorbed into the NSDAP Organisation, Either in the SA or in the veterans association. Interestingly, the later kept using a steel helmet as one of its symbols.
The Stahlhelm's logo was a german helmet, seen from the side, with the words "Der Stahlhelm" written on it in a Fraktur-like printing type. Because different representations use slightly different types, the one included as should be seen simply as a typical version of the logo. Also note that at least one representation I have seen of the logo used as a hat badge from the mid 1920s, As befits a conservative organisation, members of the Stahlhelm used mainly former flags of the country.
Photographs show them using the Imperial War Flag and black-white-red horizontal tribands most without an iron cross. At a meeting of the Harzburger Front in 1931, they can be seen using hanging banners. The design of the banner themselves would appear to be inpired by pre-weimar regimental colours but are
carried in vexilum fashion extremely similar to "Deutschland Erwache" standards used by the NSDAP.
Just like the One I have above, in the photo.
"Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten" the Steel Helmet, Association of Frontline Soldiers
The Stahlhelm was founded in 1918 by war veteran Franz Seldte, his brothers and some other soldiers from his unit. The association was originaly meant as both a mutual aid society for world war one veterans and as a political combat group like many other that sprung up during the 1920s.
In 1926, it numbered half a million members, by far the largest at the time. Around this time the Stahlhelm entered politics although unlike similar groups, it didn't endorse a single party prefering instead to present itself simply as Conservative. It must be said that most of those who became deputies did so as members of the monarchist DNVP or liberal-nationalist DVP.
As "volkish" elements entered the stahlhelm, it continued to slide into a more radical and authoritarian mindset that culminated in the more moderate DVP severing ties with them. The Stahlhelm eventualy joined the DNVP/NSDAP coalition that brought Hitler to power. After 1934, The Stahlhelm was first put under the command of the SA's leader and in 1935 it was disolved with its members being absorbed into the NSDAP Organisation, Either in the SA or in the veterans association. Interestingly, the later kept using a steel helmet as one of its symbols.
The Stahlhelm's logo was a german helmet, seen from the side, with the words "Der Stahlhelm" written on it in a Fraktur-like printing type. Because different representations use slightly different types, the one included as should be seen simply as a typical version of the logo. Also note that at least one representation I have seen of the logo used as a hat badge from the mid 1920s, As befits a conservative organisation, members of the Stahlhelm used mainly former flags of the country.
Photographs show them using the Imperial War Flag and black-white-red horizontal tribands most without an iron cross. At a meeting of the Harzburger Front in 1931, they can be seen using hanging banners. The design of the banner themselves would appear to be inpired by pre-weimar regimental colours but are
carried in vexilum fashion extremely similar to "Deutschland Erwache" standards used by the NSDAP.
Just like the One I have above, in the photo.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
The Official Pledge of Allegiance
This is Real History, And not about Hitler & National Socialism, Here in the United States how dumb have we become in this country to forget what we are taught in youth but Re-Educated in the lies of the Jewish/Marxist Mind of thinking. It is like George Orwells Book 1984, (Thought Crime, Holocaust, Anti-Semite, Racist, Hitler, Nazism) All of these words like George Bush and his WMD - Weapons of mass Destruction, Al gore and global Warming. They keep repeating the lies while hiding the real truth from you.
How many of you know The Official Pledge of Allegiance Salute Used to be a Hitler Salute.
Yes, that title is correct. Read on, Intrepid History Seekers.
The pledge of allegiance was originally written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Socialist Magazine Writer. When he wrote it for an children’s magazine, he also described a salute that he thought would be appropriate during its recital. The pledge was aimed towards children, and the magazine also gave free flags away to schools, where the pledge was originally recited. The salute they were taught to give, with one Stiff Arm Outstretched toward the Flag, was deemed the “Bellamy Salute” after its creator who had gotten the idea from a salute that the Old Roman Empire had used.
In the early 1940s, it was noticed that the salute bore a resemblance to the National Socialist Salute being used in Hitler's Germany at the time which was based off of the same original Roman Salute. As the US Entered WW2, And after Perl Harbor like the Japanese, The German here in the USA, where rounded up into Concentration Camps.* Note ( The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined) As a result, it was formally replaced by Congress with the now customary hand on heart during the pledge.
Below are three photographs showing the old salute, now in the Library of Congress, which were taken in May 1942 in Southington, Connecticut, just one month before the new salute became official. These photographs were taken by Charles Fenno Jacobs, a photo journalist who was at the time employed by the US government.(War Department)
How many of you know The Official Pledge of Allegiance Salute Used to be a Hitler Salute.
Yes, that title is correct. Read on, Intrepid History Seekers.
The pledge of allegiance was originally written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Socialist Magazine Writer. When he wrote it for an children’s magazine, he also described a salute that he thought would be appropriate during its recital. The pledge was aimed towards children, and the magazine also gave free flags away to schools, where the pledge was originally recited. The salute they were taught to give, with one Stiff Arm Outstretched toward the Flag, was deemed the “Bellamy Salute” after its creator who had gotten the idea from a salute that the Old Roman Empire had used.
In the early 1940s, it was noticed that the salute bore a resemblance to the National Socialist Salute being used in Hitler's Germany at the time which was based off of the same original Roman Salute. As the US Entered WW2, And after Perl Harbor like the Japanese, The German here in the USA, where rounded up into Concentration Camps.* Note ( The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined) As a result, it was formally replaced by Congress with the now customary hand on heart during the pledge.
Below are three photographs showing the old salute, now in the Library of Congress, which were taken in May 1942 in Southington, Connecticut, just one month before the new salute became official. These photographs were taken by Charles Fenno Jacobs, a photo journalist who was at the time employed by the US government.(War Department)
The Cross of Christ and the Swastika
This is a translation of a pamphlet produced by a
leader of the “German Christian” movement, an attempt to reconcile
Nazism with Christianity. The Nazis put a lot of effort into the movement,
but it ultimately failed.
Gerhard Hahn was a leader of the German Christians in Hanover. Their symbol, shown on the cover illustration below, was a cross over a swastika. My knowledge of German church structure is imperfect, so I’ve included the various church terms in parenthesis after their first use. Should I have gotten something wrong, kindly let me know.
The source: Gerhard Hahn, Christuskreuz und Hakenkreuz, Schriftenreihe der “Deutschen Christen” Hannovers, Nr. 1 (1934).
The cross of Christ and the swastika do not need to oppose each other, and must not do so, but rather they can and should stand together. One should not dominate the other, but rather each should maintain its own meaning and significance.
The cross of Christ points toward heaven and admonishes us:
Remember that you are Christian people, carried by the eternal love of the heavenly father, free through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, sanctified by the power of God’s spirit.
The swastika, however, points to the world as a divine creation and admonishes us:
Remember that you are German, born in German territory to parents of German blood, filled with the German spirit and essence, formed according to German nature.
Both together, however, the cross of Christ and the swastika, admonish us:
Remember that you are German Christian people and should become ever more whole German Christian people, and remain so!
Hanover, Easter 1934. Gerhard Hahn, President of the Provincial Church Council (Landeskirchentag)
The church elections in summer 1933 have shown that in the Hanoverian provincial church, the overwhelming majority of church members affirm the “German Christians,” and therefore elected “German Christian” men to church bodies (church boards [Kirchenvorstände], county church councils [Kreiskirchentage], the provincial church council).
The new provincial church council, according to the constitution, is responsible for leading the provincial church. At first, it consisted of 62 members, of whom 52 belonged to the “German Christian” faction, 8 to the “Gospel and Church” faction. One member of the “German Christians” (representative Meyer-Stirpe) soon switched to the other side, while the appointed member of the provincial church council Mission Director Schomerus-Hermannsburg), joined neither faction, but had no connection to the “German Christians” (he has since resigned). It may not be generally known that of the 45 members elected by the districts, 42 are members of the “German Christians.”
Since the “German Christians” in the new provincial council had received over 83% of the votes, they had not only the right, but also the inescapable duty to carry out the will of church members. As leader of the “German Christians,” I had no doubt that:
The hour had come for the “German Christians” to take on the leadership of our Hanoverian provincial church.
Indeed, to take it over clearly and with clear goals, which would allow for no half measures or compromises. This was not only consistent with my own desires, but also because the confidence of church members obligated us to do so. We were ready for action, and dared leave the judgment of our attitudes and our actions to the Lord of history and the church, to him only and no one else, least of all to those who during our people’s years of battle did not stand by our side. He who wishes to understand the attitudes and actions of the “German Christians” must not forget where we came from, and what we carried in our heart.
For the most part, we “German Christians” came out of the great battles of the German struggle for freedom, some fighting for years in the front ranks, on the streets and in meetings. Day and night, we marched at the side of our comrades in brown shirts, were attacked by the hatred of the red mob of satanic Bolshevism and its “bourgeois” allies. We “German Christians” came from the battle for the life and death of our people, we came from the sacrifice of Germany’s youth, from over 300 graves over which the unwritten words of Jesus shined: “No one has greater love than this, that he gives his life for his friends.”
We came out of a time of restless, selfless struggle for our German people’s comrades and for the soul of the German people, with bitter pain in our hearts because we were not understood, not understood even by many who bore office and responsibility within the church. Lack of understanding was the least we encountered, us pastors who dared to do the unheard of, to put on brown shirts and become active in “politics” (one did not see that our struggle was something entirely different than the politics of the past, and that the National Socialist German Workers’ Party only had the form of a party, but inwardly was, is, and will remain the real breakthrough of the true people’s community). As Christians, we put ourselves then in the middle of Hitler’s German freedom movement because we were convinced that God called us to it and demanded it of us.
How many National Socialists back then during the battle against the Satan of Bolshevism waited for a clear word from the church, from those who bore office and responsibility in the church. But with a few exceptions we waited in vain; to the contrary, we were accused of being “heathens” or were rejected because our language was too crude or because the hatred of our opponents involved us in fist fights or gun battles nearly every day. They adopted the viewpoint of the Jewish press, and that of a part of the so-called “bourgeois” press, which always excitedly claimed that the Nazis were to blame for these disturbances and fights! I remember how after one of those bloody Sundays in Altona a pastor reproachfully said to me:
“Well, why do you go there when you know that the Reds do not want you?” I was shaken by such lack of understanding, which could not understand that by marching through the “red” streets where German workers lived, we were showing them that we belonged to them, even if several hundred bestial and wild murders lurked on the rooftops.
We went our own lonely way, straight ahead, letting ourselves be accused of being troublemakers or rowdies, or charged with being blasphemers when we proclaimed: We see in Adolf Hitler the Führer sent to us by God (today everyone sees that, and it is probably no longer blasphemy!). But back then?
How often was I attacked when I preached in meetings that the cross of Christ and the swastika had to stand together! It was the same with my old fellow fighters Heinrich Meyer-Aurich in East Friesland and Mattiat and Jakobshagen in South Hanover. Still we fought, even if the church often did not understand us, and went our hard way because we felt obligated as Christians to our German brothers and sisters.
It was our faith that made battling for and following Hitler a holy “duty.” We saw with terrifying clarity, without any doubt, that the enemy of the German people, Bolshevism, knew very well that a Soviet Germany could come only if it succeeded in separating and removing the German from his faith and his God, destroying, eliminating, or making ridiculous everything holy in the German. Bolshevism’s campaign was satanic on the fronts of politics, the economy, culture, the arts, entertainment, and the press. The battle, however, could only be decided on the battleground on which Hitler stood; therefore, we stood by his side. There were only a few of us from “the realm of the church” who openly stood beside Hitler as believers and fighters. We old fighters thank God with pride that he called us, and opened our hearts to his call.
That is where we “German Christians” came from; one may not forget that. Then one will understand that the “German Christians” cannot limit their activity to correcting a few minor failings in church life, but rather must transform the entire relationship between the church and the people. Thus, our primarily demand:
The church must affirm without reservation the German people’s community growing out of National Socialism, and at the same time must do everything it can to make up for what has been neglected or ignored in the past!
The church must affirm without reservation Adolf Hitler’s total state, the last bulwark against the Satan of Bolshevism. It should not be forgotten that, had it not been for Hitler, we would long since have sunk into Bolshevism, and probably would no longer have had churches and ministers.
The church must affirm without reservation the Führer of the National Socialists, Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor of the German Reich. He expects the church to help build the Third Reich, and has proclaimed that National Socialist German Workers’ Party, which now forms the state, wants to stand on the foundation of positive Christianity.
It is the task of the church to create and provide this foundation. It is the content of the absolute affirmation that the church has to make if it really wants to be a people’s church.
We “German Christians” were firmly resolved to work to see that the church makes this affirmation clearly and unambiguously (that means without reservation). We are also firmly resolved to hold to this affirmation, and transform it into action. We will not be diverted from this by anything, including the quarreling of the opposition of today which has still not understood, or does not want to understand, and least of all by the forces of Reaction (regardless of how they may conceal themselves). National Socialists in the province should and must know:
The 4th provincial church council opened on 28 August 1933 at the Ständehaus
in Hanover. In accordance with the wishes of the “German Christians,” it
began with especially festive ceremonies and took on a unique stamp through
the affirmation of the National Socialist people of the church and the affirmation
of the church of the National Socialist people. In other words:
The opening of the provincial church council became a new experience for church members, since for the first time on 28 August 1933, publicly and solemnly, the cross of Christ and the swastika were placed next to each other in a positive way.
The church council customarily opens with a public worship service, which took place this time in the Market Church, the biggest church in Hanover. The service began at noon; long before, the big church was filled to overflowing, so that many people’s comrades could not gain admittance (proof, by the way, that the new call of the church was understood by the new Germany). On both sides of the altar were the many flags of the S.A., the H.J., the Stahlhelm, and the youth federations. Besides the members of the provincial church council, the church senate, and church offices, the whole church council of Hanover participated in the service. Many government offices had representatives. The rest of the church was packed with many hundreds of people’s comrades from the city and countryside.
The church service began with the hymn “Praise the Lord, Oh My Soul” The general superintendent of the Stahlhelm led the liturgy. After the song “If God is for me, All Else May Be against Me,” Provincial Bishop D. Marahrens preached a sermon on these words of Jesus: “He who confesses me before men will I also confess before my heavenly father. He who denies me to men will I also deny before my heavenly father.”
Referring to the extraordinarily large attendance at the service, the preacher asked if the joyful readiness of so many meant that that the powerful missionary urge of the church might meet a searching call of the nation in the new age. If that were to happen, it would require the efforts of many to rebuild the church in the right way. Only that rebuilding of the church with an unambiguous and clear foundation would meet the longings of our people and our fatherland. None other than Jesus Christ, the Savior who died for humanity, stands in the center of this confession. Referring to eternity and its just judgment, the sermon concluded that the church must be a “daring church”, daring in the sense that we, out of love for our people, and convinced of the truth of the Gospel, must put this complete and eternal message in support of the new age.
The organ thundered as the participants left the service and marched solemnly from the Market Church to the Ständehaus. The S.S. was at the head, followed by the S.A. band, then the banners. They were followed by the members of the church senate, the general superintendent, the representatives of government agencies, the members of the provincial church council, the members, officials, and employees of the provincial church administration the invited guests, the clergy and church officers of Hanover, the youth organizations with their banners, as well as units of the S.A. and the Stahlhelm. The bells of all the churches rang as the procession passed through Hanover’s streets. In honor of the church celebration, most buildings were decorated with the swastika flags of the National Socialist revolution.
Behind the columns of the S.A. and S.S. that lined the streets, thousands of people saluted the procession with joyful shouts of “Heil!” And throughout the entire province of Hanover, bells tolled thanks and praise to the Lord God.
The Ständehaus was decorated with the church’s flags with the cross, Hitler’s swastika, and the glorious flags of black-white-red. A large crowd gathered of those who wanted to participate in the solemn ceremony. The S.A. band played the “Netherlands Hymn of Praise,” then the crowd sang “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Then Provincial Bishop D. Marahrens spoke. Among other things, he said: As never before in the history of the people, the individual is bound to the whole of the people, which the Lutheran provincial church in Hanover joyfully affirms.
A full and strong affirmation of its ethnicity, of the purity and path it followed, an affirmation of the Reich and its freedom and honor, an affirmation of the state it serves loyally and with devotion. As part of the German Evangelical Church, the Lutheran Provincial Church in Hanover could demonstrate great service to the people. As the church of God, it had the best that the world has, it had what a people with deep roots must have for its life, and it had what the Führer of our people had to have for his people and his work.
Unrestricted in its proclamation of the Gospel and unlimited in the freedom of its witness, it gave the people and its Führer the greatest possible gift, namely a firm conscience born from the forgiveness of sins. Under the authority of the holy and omnipotent God, under which the church stands and will forever stand if it wants to remain serious Christians the people and Reich have true support in the authority of this God. And the state has its deepest, strongest, and from the human standpoint indestructible roots in the church. With this certainty, the Hanoverian provincial church affirms our state absolutely. It believes that this state is the best one possible. The Evangelical Church has always given to the state what is its due. The church gives this state and its Führer what it has, joyfully and without reservation, with a thankful heart.
After thousands had sung “Now Thank We All our God,” District President Stapenhorst spoke in the name of the Prussian government and the Prussian president. The national revolution was total, and wanted to include the whole life of the people; no part of life could remain untouched by the great events of the age. The breakthrough of the new idea of the state wanted to transform the German and his thinking, and teach each individual to sacrifice for the good of the community. The people’s community should be founded on a united religious faith. The church could not remain untouched by the storm of the national uprising.
The church must understand the call of the age. Churchmen who understand their people must so transform the church’s structure so that all people’s comrades can feel at home in the church. That great goal would be achieved when one affirmed Hitler’s liberating action, and fought side by side with him for the moral and religious renewal of our people. In this sense, he extended the greetings and best wishes of the Prussian government and its president, and at the same time called for everyone to join in a triple “Sieg Heil” to Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
Thousands of arms reached to heaven in the Hitler greeting, and thousands of people’s comrades praised the Führer with a triple “Sieg Heil.” The same thousands spontaneously sang the Horst Wessel song. Then Pastor Hahn-Elmlohe, the leader of the “German Christians” in Hanover, spoke on behalf of the provincial church council.
Like many others, he was wearing a brown shirt:
28 August 1933 will go down in the history of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover if God wills as the day in which the clear will of the church members affirmed its people in a new way, stating:
The church stands here under the cross of Jesus Christ The German people stands there, which under the symbol of the swastika has awakened.
In past decades, the subversive powers of liberalism, materialism, and Bolshevism alienated millions of German people’s comrades from the German nation. It is doubtless God’s grace that our Führer Adolf Hitler has once again won back to the nation the German people’s comrade and the German worker. Hitler could and had to achieve his goal, because he broke totally from the past and followed the entirely different, yet ancient, path of National Socialism.
In past decades, these satanic powers alienated millions of our German people’s comrades from the Evangelical Church. It is the holy duty and solemn goal of our movement of faith, the “German Christians,” to win back the German people’s comrade and the German worker, with God’s help, to the Evangelical Church. To do that, we want to, and must, follow a different, yet ancient path in the church, namely the path of Martin Luther that leads to a deep connection of church and people, of Christianity and German nature.
The cross of Christ and the swastika should not and may not oppose each other; they belong together. One must make us look to eternity, and admonish us” Remember that you are a Christian! The other points us toward the present, and admonishes us: Remember that you are a German!
Both together should and do admonish us: Remember that you are a German Christian!
It is, therefore, a holy joy to declare at this hour: As leader of the religious movement “German Christians” in this provincial church council and as the servant of our Hanoverian provincial church, I confess to you, my dear comrades from the S.A., the S.S., and the Stahlhelm, my thankful joy to God, and I confess my genuine joy in our Führer and Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Let me say openly: It was you, my comrades, who led the fight against the Satan of Bolshevism, and who know how things would be if Hitler had not called and if you had not answered. God, however, blessed our struggle.
As a representative of the church members and also the National Socialists, who will become one with the church members, I joyfully confess our Lutheran church and the Lord of our church, Christ.
Our will and desire is that this double confession will become the confession of all. If God the Lord blesses our will and lets it succeed, then and only then will that German song have a genuine, deep meaning for us German Christian people, in that moment which we sing to God:
My task is not to provide minutes of the provincial church council meeting or details of the work of the “German Christians” in this little booklet. A later volume will do that. Here, my goal is to say this to all those who are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Provincial Church in Hanover: Our church through the provincial church council has affirmed its absolute support for Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Germany. That came to clear expression at the opening session.
The provincial bishop opened the meeting at 14:45 with a talk in which he
mentioned the particular significance of this provincial church council and
remembered the work of previous provincial church councils, ending with the
following words: “Never has there been a time with as many possibilities
as today. Never before has the Evangelical Church faced as seriously as it
does today the question of how it will release and develop the life strengths
entrusted to it for the state and people. May the church joyfully use its strength
to serve the state, which it owes the people, and which the people and fatherland
cannot do without. May this be the generation that masters its tasks by God’s
grace through its determined will. He had spoken of this grace to us the previous
Sunday. According to the old custom, we now stand and hear the word of God.”
After the Scripture reading, prayer, and promises of the representatives, Pastor Hahn-Elmlohe was unanimously elected president of the provincial church council. For the first time in Hanoverian church history, a pastor in a brown shirt was the president of the provincial church council. I was determined that this would not only be for show, but rather to give this even the symbolic significance that corresponds to our will: Adolf Hitler’s people, those in brown shirts, and the church as a people’s church, belong together!
This thought and this will dominated the whole meeting, and came to especially clear expression in the speech by representative Pastor Bergholter-Harburg, who in this same meeting of 28 August 1933 called for a new structure for the provincial church council, based on the leadership principle. Among other things, he said:
We of the “German Christian” movement of faith see in this change (from the old structure) the first chance to establish the spirit of leadership within the church. The time of long speeches and convoluted minutes is over. The present day demands active leadership that pursues clear goals with a firm will. The new rhythm of work should and also must be displayed in the work of the provincial church, and I therefore ask that the proposal be accepted without further discussion.
In connection with this proposal, I felt it necessary in this significant hour to lay out several directives to help people understand the new leadership desire, and to say with total clarity what we wanted. It had to do with the position of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the coming Third Reich.
The breakthrough of the nation also meant the breakthrough of the church. What we experienced in the past hours is a witness to that fact. Our deepest wish is that this breakthrough will also lead our church to a march of faith and power that does not shy away from a fight in its belief in victory. It is our great good fortune and holiest task of our lives that we may join this march! Our goal: To give the old gospel new strength for young Germany!
The old gospel! It was the sun that formerly shined on our church. It should continue to shine on us, clear and pure. Jesus Christ remains the core and star of our church’s proclamation: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow! The whole Bible, the treasure of our church, remains our source. Justification by faith in Luther’s sense remains the banner under which we stand. We wish for a new theology that has eyes open for new knowledge from God’s creation, which we can include with the terms people, ethnicity, and race. At the same time, we want a theology that remains true to the fundamental confession of our church.
The old gospel with new strength! It is not that we want to add something to the divine power of the gospel. However, God’s call that rings through our age demands that we put our strength to new and better use for the gospel. It is not the time to criticize those who have lead our church, or not led it. Above all, we do not want to criticize others. We want only to say one thing: as members of our church at a time of upheaval, we feel called to repentance.
We have failed in some things.
We have often not been deep and brave enough.
We often were not close to the gospel, very often not close to the people. Yet as this hour we also need to remember the great and genuine accomplishments our provincial church has had in past ages. We greet the unknown pastor, the unknown church board member, the unknown church member, who have been loyal and true to the faith. But we also know that such persistence cannot be the decisive strength of our church.
We know that we can combat the de-christianizing of our people only with new personal efforts for that which alone can save our people. We therefore want to transform our church into a fighting community of those who are ready to be a brigade of those were are really and truly willing to hear God’s command, who despite all human weakness are ready to serve the living Christ in the life of today’s people. For us that means: to give the old gospel new strength for young Germany!
A new Germany is beginning to rise from the destruction of the war and the post-war period. We thank God for that. A new type of people is forming. The front soldier, white and blue collar workers, the farmer who remains true to the soil, and the S.A. man, are godfathers at its cradle. The German future belongs to it, if God wills for Germany to have a future. The work of the church, therefore, has first to be with this young Germany. It is not that we want to neglect the work of the church and the blessings of past generations. They have our love. We do not forget where we came from. However, our church is there for all its members. We look over the past to the march into the future. The church should not be a haven for old bourgeois sensibilities. It’s task must be to capture the new people.
When times change, it does not always happen smoothly and without personal struggles and pain. The pain that our church struggle has brought, and will yet bring, must be borne. We remember with respect at this hour those who worked conscientiously and successfully in our provincial church under different circumstances, but who because of the transformation in the church must leave their offices. To name one name among many, the previous chair of the provincial church board, Superintendent D. Schaaf. Our provincial church owes much to him because of his work, and he may be certain that his work is not in vain despite the changed conditions.
But new tasks demand new leadership! That is the demand of the hour: God’s new tasks demand new forces, also in the church’s leadership. The individual may be able to unite elements of the old and new eras subjectively within himself. The leadership of the church, however, must follow a clear line, and without compromise. Only that can prevent half measures and weakness. The life will of the German nation, driven by bitter need, is today unified by the great German freedom movement. Since the movement that has done that calls loudly and forcefully to the church, the church may not stand on the sidelines and sink into an atmosphere of bourgeois thinking and feeling. God has opened a door for it. It should go through it and give today’s German state what it owes the state: a joyful yes, expressed in action, of cooperation and understanding! Without giving up our church’s internal freedom, we wish a lively support on the part of the church for young Germany for the sake of the gospel and its impact.
The gospel should have its throne in National Socialist thinking and feeling. And National Socialist thinking and feeling should be at home within the church, so that it can be permeated by the free gospel that is the directing and saving command of God, sovereign over all. Give the old gospel new strength for young Germany!
A few weeks ago, our president proclaimed the word of God at a powerful Gau rally in Harburg, attended by many thousands of brown shirts. Dark thunderclouds hung over the meeting. Heavy showers fell on the city, and the thunder pounded. It was moving when, at the end of the sermon, thousands sung Luther’s song: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Our wish and our prayer is that the coming Germany learns, whatever threatens it, to stand in the faith that “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” in the confession that “Nothing Comes through Our Strength,” and in the confidence that “Although the World with Devils Filled...” That is what we want to fight for!
We welcome in this hour those of our brothers who, although sharing much of the faith with us, have not been able to join us. We honor and respect their beliefs. May all of us who struggle for the right structure of the church stand together in what in the end unites us all: “You have one master, Christ!”
Later in the meeting there was a vote to enable the church senate to make the necessary personnel changes. Pastor Jakob-Hannover, a representative of the “German Christians,” spoke along the same lines. He connected Hitler’s struggle with our obligations, and said clearly that we always had to put the cause over the person, the great tasks of the people over the interests of the individual. The enabling law was passed in its first and second reading with the overwhelming majority, against the votes of the “Gospel and Church” faction. The provincial church council sent the Reich President, the Reich Chancellor, the Prussian Minister President and Minister of Culture, the Reich Minister of the Interior, and Hitler’s agent Military Pastor Müller telegrams of greeting. That was to us an obvious duty. It was just as obvious to me that we end the meeting with a three-fold “Sieg Heil” to the Chancellor and Führer of our people. There were some who took offense, thinking that we should have closed with a prayer. To them I say that he who felt the need to pray to God in his heart as we all did had opportunity to do that. We “German Christians” refuse to be instructed by those who, during the years of struggle, were not found at Hitler’s side, but even then saw their job as criticizing and complaining. For us, Christianity consists not in words, but rather in brave, daring action, and we are happy to have God judge us. Therefore, we “German Christians” decided not to give many more or less valuable speeches, but to act, born from our unshakable faith in God, to act in ways that show love for church and people.
Everyone came at the invitation of the president of the provincial church council: the members of the provincial church council, the church senate, all the church agencies, representatives of the S.S., S.A., and HJ, the Stahlhelm, and representatives of state, provincial, and city agencies, along with many hundreds of faithful from the city and countryside.
The flags of the German Reich hung from the towering pillars of the church and preached in their language our desire:
People and church belong together,
The cross of Christ and the swastika stand beside each other!
Together, we sang the hymn “We Gather Together” and joined in prayer and the word of God. The president then read the decision of the decision of the provincial church council, which had been proposed by the “German Christians”:
As president of the provincial church council, I have called this meeting to put into practice what he promised on 28 August 1933 in the solemn ceremony at the Ständehaus, namely to always support Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Germany without reservation. The political events of the recent past have shown clearly that our German people faces a very great decision: a decision that will perhaps determining Germany’s future for centuries. One can even say it is a decision between freedom or slavery, existence or nonexistence, the life or death of the German people.
On 14 October, Adolf Hitler, the chancellor of the German Reich, for the sake of Germany’s honor and with regard to the great sacrifices in blood and lives over the past 14 years that places on us a holy obligation, and aware of the necessary to have a good conscience as the people’s Führer and in total honesty before God and the people, made
We do not need to speak of what that means for our people, of what is at stake for us and for our children. The Reich Chancellor’s words have made the seriousness and decisive importance of these days clear to the German people, and the chancellor does not weary of making it clear day after day to the German fatherland. The time for half measures and cowardly lack of responsibility is over. The time of unshakable, responsible, manly action has come. It is time for quarreling to cease, for all complaining and pessimism to disappear. At this time, we as the church want to prove that we are bound to the people, to stand by our people in godly confidence, to recognize that God’s call is sounding through this age.
Hitler, we of the church support you and your office with the strength of faith, and will not weary of praying for the blessings of the heavenly father, Amen. That means, so let it be!
All at the loyalty mass meeting affirmed it and to strengthen that affirmation, thousands joined in singing powerfully the Deutschland lied in this holy space under the cross in a solemn and public way: Germany, Germany, over everything, over everything in the world!
As the last stanza echoed, the president spoke to everyone present:
They should be in harmony!
Church and people
They should stand together inseparably in joy and sorrow, in death and need!
The cross of Christ and the swastika
They should and must stand alongside each other!
Gerhard Hahn was a leader of the German Christians in Hanover. Their symbol, shown on the cover illustration below, was a cross over a swastika. My knowledge of German church structure is imperfect, so I’ve included the various church terms in parenthesis after their first use. Should I have gotten something wrong, kindly let me know.
The source: Gerhard Hahn, Christuskreuz und Hakenkreuz, Schriftenreihe der “Deutschen Christen” Hannovers, Nr. 1 (1934).
The cross of Christ and the swastika do not need to oppose each other, and must not do so, but rather they can and should stand together. One should not dominate the other, but rather each should maintain its own meaning and significance.
The cross of Christ points toward heaven and admonishes us:
Remember that you are Christian people, carried by the eternal love of the heavenly father, free through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, sanctified by the power of God’s spirit.
The swastika, however, points to the world as a divine creation and admonishes us:
Remember that you are German, born in German territory to parents of German blood, filled with the German spirit and essence, formed according to German nature.
Both together, however, the cross of Christ and the swastika, admonish us:
Remember that you are German Christian people and should become ever more whole German Christian people, and remain so!
Hanover, Easter 1934. Gerhard Hahn, President of the Provincial Church Council (Landeskirchentag)
The church elections in summer 1933 have shown that in the Hanoverian provincial church, the overwhelming majority of church members affirm the “German Christians,” and therefore elected “German Christian” men to church bodies (church boards [Kirchenvorstände], county church councils [Kreiskirchentage], the provincial church council).
The new provincial church council, according to the constitution, is responsible for leading the provincial church. At first, it consisted of 62 members, of whom 52 belonged to the “German Christian” faction, 8 to the “Gospel and Church” faction. One member of the “German Christians” (representative Meyer-Stirpe) soon switched to the other side, while the appointed member of the provincial church council Mission Director Schomerus-Hermannsburg), joined neither faction, but had no connection to the “German Christians” (he has since resigned). It may not be generally known that of the 45 members elected by the districts, 42 are members of the “German Christians.”
Since the “German Christians” in the new provincial council had received over 83% of the votes, they had not only the right, but also the inescapable duty to carry out the will of church members. As leader of the “German Christians,” I had no doubt that:
The hour had come for the “German Christians” to take on the leadership of our Hanoverian provincial church.
Indeed, to take it over clearly and with clear goals, which would allow for no half measures or compromises. This was not only consistent with my own desires, but also because the confidence of church members obligated us to do so. We were ready for action, and dared leave the judgment of our attitudes and our actions to the Lord of history and the church, to him only and no one else, least of all to those who during our people’s years of battle did not stand by our side. He who wishes to understand the attitudes and actions of the “German Christians” must not forget where we came from, and what we carried in our heart.
For the most part, we “German Christians” came out of the great battles of the German struggle for freedom, some fighting for years in the front ranks, on the streets and in meetings. Day and night, we marched at the side of our comrades in brown shirts, were attacked by the hatred of the red mob of satanic Bolshevism and its “bourgeois” allies. We “German Christians” came from the battle for the life and death of our people, we came from the sacrifice of Germany’s youth, from over 300 graves over which the unwritten words of Jesus shined: “No one has greater love than this, that he gives his life for his friends.”
We came out of a time of restless, selfless struggle for our German people’s comrades and for the soul of the German people, with bitter pain in our hearts because we were not understood, not understood even by many who bore office and responsibility within the church. Lack of understanding was the least we encountered, us pastors who dared to do the unheard of, to put on brown shirts and become active in “politics” (one did not see that our struggle was something entirely different than the politics of the past, and that the National Socialist German Workers’ Party only had the form of a party, but inwardly was, is, and will remain the real breakthrough of the true people’s community). As Christians, we put ourselves then in the middle of Hitler’s German freedom movement because we were convinced that God called us to it and demanded it of us.
How many National Socialists back then during the battle against the Satan of Bolshevism waited for a clear word from the church, from those who bore office and responsibility in the church. But with a few exceptions we waited in vain; to the contrary, we were accused of being “heathens” or were rejected because our language was too crude or because the hatred of our opponents involved us in fist fights or gun battles nearly every day. They adopted the viewpoint of the Jewish press, and that of a part of the so-called “bourgeois” press, which always excitedly claimed that the Nazis were to blame for these disturbances and fights! I remember how after one of those bloody Sundays in Altona a pastor reproachfully said to me:
“Well, why do you go there when you know that the Reds do not want you?” I was shaken by such lack of understanding, which could not understand that by marching through the “red” streets where German workers lived, we were showing them that we belonged to them, even if several hundred bestial and wild murders lurked on the rooftops.
We went our own lonely way, straight ahead, letting ourselves be accused of being troublemakers or rowdies, or charged with being blasphemers when we proclaimed: We see in Adolf Hitler the Führer sent to us by God (today everyone sees that, and it is probably no longer blasphemy!). But back then?
How often was I attacked when I preached in meetings that the cross of Christ and the swastika had to stand together! It was the same with my old fellow fighters Heinrich Meyer-Aurich in East Friesland and Mattiat and Jakobshagen in South Hanover. Still we fought, even if the church often did not understand us, and went our hard way because we felt obligated as Christians to our German brothers and sisters.
It was our faith that made battling for and following Hitler a holy “duty.” We saw with terrifying clarity, without any doubt, that the enemy of the German people, Bolshevism, knew very well that a Soviet Germany could come only if it succeeded in separating and removing the German from his faith and his God, destroying, eliminating, or making ridiculous everything holy in the German. Bolshevism’s campaign was satanic on the fronts of politics, the economy, culture, the arts, entertainment, and the press. The battle, however, could only be decided on the battleground on which Hitler stood; therefore, we stood by his side. There were only a few of us from “the realm of the church” who openly stood beside Hitler as believers and fighters. We old fighters thank God with pride that he called us, and opened our hearts to his call.
That is where we “German Christians” came from; one may not forget that. Then one will understand that the “German Christians” cannot limit their activity to correcting a few minor failings in church life, but rather must transform the entire relationship between the church and the people. Thus, our primarily demand:
The cross of Christ and the swastika must have a positive relationship!
In other words:The church must affirm without reservation the German people’s community growing out of National Socialism, and at the same time must do everything it can to make up for what has been neglected or ignored in the past!
The church must affirm without reservation Adolf Hitler’s total state, the last bulwark against the Satan of Bolshevism. It should not be forgotten that, had it not been for Hitler, we would long since have sunk into Bolshevism, and probably would no longer have had churches and ministers.
The church must affirm without reservation the Führer of the National Socialists, Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor of the German Reich. He expects the church to help build the Third Reich, and has proclaimed that National Socialist German Workers’ Party, which now forms the state, wants to stand on the foundation of positive Christianity.
It is the task of the church to create and provide this foundation. It is the content of the absolute affirmation that the church has to make if it really wants to be a people’s church.
We “German Christians” were firmly resolved to work to see that the church makes this affirmation clearly and unambiguously (that means without reservation). We are also firmly resolved to hold to this affirmation, and transform it into action. We will not be diverted from this by anything, including the quarreling of the opposition of today which has still not understood, or does not want to understand, and least of all by the forces of Reaction (regardless of how they may conceal themselves). National Socialists in the province should and must know:
On 28 August 1933 and 25 October 1933, the church publicly and solemnly
spoke its affirmation, and is determined to hold to this affirmation and
to carry it out. 28 August 1933
The opening of the provincial church council became a new experience for church members, since for the first time on 28 August 1933, publicly and solemnly, the cross of Christ and the swastika were placed next to each other in a positive way.
The church council customarily opens with a public worship service, which took place this time in the Market Church, the biggest church in Hanover. The service began at noon; long before, the big church was filled to overflowing, so that many people’s comrades could not gain admittance (proof, by the way, that the new call of the church was understood by the new Germany). On both sides of the altar were the many flags of the S.A., the H.J., the Stahlhelm, and the youth federations. Besides the members of the provincial church council, the church senate, and church offices, the whole church council of Hanover participated in the service. Many government offices had representatives. The rest of the church was packed with many hundreds of people’s comrades from the city and countryside.
The church service began with the hymn “Praise the Lord, Oh My Soul” The general superintendent of the Stahlhelm led the liturgy. After the song “If God is for me, All Else May Be against Me,” Provincial Bishop D. Marahrens preached a sermon on these words of Jesus: “He who confesses me before men will I also confess before my heavenly father. He who denies me to men will I also deny before my heavenly father.”
Referring to the extraordinarily large attendance at the service, the preacher asked if the joyful readiness of so many meant that that the powerful missionary urge of the church might meet a searching call of the nation in the new age. If that were to happen, it would require the efforts of many to rebuild the church in the right way. Only that rebuilding of the church with an unambiguous and clear foundation would meet the longings of our people and our fatherland. None other than Jesus Christ, the Savior who died for humanity, stands in the center of this confession. Referring to eternity and its just judgment, the sermon concluded that the church must be a “daring church”, daring in the sense that we, out of love for our people, and convinced of the truth of the Gospel, must put this complete and eternal message in support of the new age.
The organ thundered as the participants left the service and marched solemnly from the Market Church to the Ständehaus. The S.S. was at the head, followed by the S.A. band, then the banners. They were followed by the members of the church senate, the general superintendent, the representatives of government agencies, the members of the provincial church council, the members, officials, and employees of the provincial church administration the invited guests, the clergy and church officers of Hanover, the youth organizations with their banners, as well as units of the S.A. and the Stahlhelm. The bells of all the churches rang as the procession passed through Hanover’s streets. In honor of the church celebration, most buildings were decorated with the swastika flags of the National Socialist revolution.
Behind the columns of the S.A. and S.S. that lined the streets, thousands of people saluted the procession with joyful shouts of “Heil!” And throughout the entire province of Hanover, bells tolled thanks and praise to the Lord God.
The Ständehaus was decorated with the church’s flags with the cross, Hitler’s swastika, and the glorious flags of black-white-red. A large crowd gathered of those who wanted to participate in the solemn ceremony. The S.A. band played the “Netherlands Hymn of Praise,” then the crowd sang “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Then Provincial Bishop D. Marahrens spoke. Among other things, he said: As never before in the history of the people, the individual is bound to the whole of the people, which the Lutheran provincial church in Hanover joyfully affirms.
A full and strong affirmation of its ethnicity, of the purity and path it followed, an affirmation of the Reich and its freedom and honor, an affirmation of the state it serves loyally and with devotion. As part of the German Evangelical Church, the Lutheran Provincial Church in Hanover could demonstrate great service to the people. As the church of God, it had the best that the world has, it had what a people with deep roots must have for its life, and it had what the Führer of our people had to have for his people and his work.
Unrestricted in its proclamation of the Gospel and unlimited in the freedom of its witness, it gave the people and its Führer the greatest possible gift, namely a firm conscience born from the forgiveness of sins. Under the authority of the holy and omnipotent God, under which the church stands and will forever stand if it wants to remain serious Christians the people and Reich have true support in the authority of this God. And the state has its deepest, strongest, and from the human standpoint indestructible roots in the church. With this certainty, the Hanoverian provincial church affirms our state absolutely. It believes that this state is the best one possible. The Evangelical Church has always given to the state what is its due. The church gives this state and its Führer what it has, joyfully and without reservation, with a thankful heart.
After thousands had sung “Now Thank We All our God,” District President Stapenhorst spoke in the name of the Prussian government and the Prussian president. The national revolution was total, and wanted to include the whole life of the people; no part of life could remain untouched by the great events of the age. The breakthrough of the new idea of the state wanted to transform the German and his thinking, and teach each individual to sacrifice for the good of the community. The people’s community should be founded on a united religious faith. The church could not remain untouched by the storm of the national uprising.
The church must understand the call of the age. Churchmen who understand their people must so transform the church’s structure so that all people’s comrades can feel at home in the church. That great goal would be achieved when one affirmed Hitler’s liberating action, and fought side by side with him for the moral and religious renewal of our people. In this sense, he extended the greetings and best wishes of the Prussian government and its president, and at the same time called for everyone to join in a triple “Sieg Heil” to Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
Thousands of arms reached to heaven in the Hitler greeting, and thousands of people’s comrades praised the Führer with a triple “Sieg Heil.” The same thousands spontaneously sang the Horst Wessel song. Then Pastor Hahn-Elmlohe, the leader of the “German Christians” in Hanover, spoke on behalf of the provincial church council.
Like many others, he was wearing a brown shirt:
28 August 1933 will go down in the history of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover if God wills as the day in which the clear will of the church members affirmed its people in a new way, stating:
The church stands here under the cross of Jesus Christ The German people stands there, which under the symbol of the swastika has awakened.
In past decades, the subversive powers of liberalism, materialism, and Bolshevism alienated millions of German people’s comrades from the German nation. It is doubtless God’s grace that our Führer Adolf Hitler has once again won back to the nation the German people’s comrade and the German worker. Hitler could and had to achieve his goal, because he broke totally from the past and followed the entirely different, yet ancient, path of National Socialism.
In past decades, these satanic powers alienated millions of our German people’s comrades from the Evangelical Church. It is the holy duty and solemn goal of our movement of faith, the “German Christians,” to win back the German people’s comrade and the German worker, with God’s help, to the Evangelical Church. To do that, we want to, and must, follow a different, yet ancient path in the church, namely the path of Martin Luther that leads to a deep connection of church and people, of Christianity and German nature.
The cross of Christ and the swastika should not and may not oppose each other; they belong together. One must make us look to eternity, and admonish us” Remember that you are a Christian! The other points us toward the present, and admonishes us: Remember that you are a German!
Both together should and do admonish us: Remember that you are a German Christian!
It is, therefore, a holy joy to declare at this hour: As leader of the religious movement “German Christians” in this provincial church council and as the servant of our Hanoverian provincial church, I confess to you, my dear comrades from the S.A., the S.S., and the Stahlhelm, my thankful joy to God, and I confess my genuine joy in our Führer and Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Let me say openly: It was you, my comrades, who led the fight against the Satan of Bolshevism, and who know how things would be if Hitler had not called and if you had not answered. God, however, blessed our struggle.
As a representative of the church members and also the National Socialists, who will become one with the church members, I joyfully confess our Lutheran church and the Lord of our church, Christ.
Our will and desire is that this double confession will become the confession of all. If God the Lord blesses our will and lets it succeed, then and only then will that German song have a genuine, deep meaning for us German Christian people, in that moment which we sing to God:
- Germany, Germany above everything,
Above everything in the world!
My task is not to provide minutes of the provincial church council meeting or details of the work of the “German Christians” in this little booklet. A later volume will do that. Here, my goal is to say this to all those who are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Provincial Church in Hanover: Our church through the provincial church council has affirmed its absolute support for Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Germany. That came to clear expression at the opening session.
The platform was filled to overflowing a sign that church members
were excited and expectant. The meeting room had an entirely new appearance,
since many representatives appeared in Hitler’s honored brown uniforms (but
only among the “German Christians”), whereas formerly dark
suits were the custom. I can say that, as faction leader of the “German
Christians,”
I was filled with pride that most of the “German Christians” wore
brown shirts to demonstrate: People and church belong together!
After the Scripture reading, prayer, and promises of the representatives, Pastor Hahn-Elmlohe was unanimously elected president of the provincial church council. For the first time in Hanoverian church history, a pastor in a brown shirt was the president of the provincial church council. I was determined that this would not only be for show, but rather to give this even the symbolic significance that corresponds to our will: Adolf Hitler’s people, those in brown shirts, and the church as a people’s church, belong together!
This thought and this will dominated the whole meeting, and came to especially clear expression in the speech by representative Pastor Bergholter-Harburg, who in this same meeting of 28 August 1933 called for a new structure for the provincial church council, based on the leadership principle. Among other things, he said:
We of the “German Christian” movement of faith see in this change (from the old structure) the first chance to establish the spirit of leadership within the church. The time of long speeches and convoluted minutes is over. The present day demands active leadership that pursues clear goals with a firm will. The new rhythm of work should and also must be displayed in the work of the provincial church, and I therefore ask that the proposal be accepted without further discussion.
In connection with this proposal, I felt it necessary in this significant hour to lay out several directives to help people understand the new leadership desire, and to say with total clarity what we wanted. It had to do with the position of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the coming Third Reich.
The breakthrough of the nation also meant the breakthrough of the church. What we experienced in the past hours is a witness to that fact. Our deepest wish is that this breakthrough will also lead our church to a march of faith and power that does not shy away from a fight in its belief in victory. It is our great good fortune and holiest task of our lives that we may join this march! Our goal: To give the old gospel new strength for young Germany!
The old gospel! It was the sun that formerly shined on our church. It should continue to shine on us, clear and pure. Jesus Christ remains the core and star of our church’s proclamation: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow! The whole Bible, the treasure of our church, remains our source. Justification by faith in Luther’s sense remains the banner under which we stand. We wish for a new theology that has eyes open for new knowledge from God’s creation, which we can include with the terms people, ethnicity, and race. At the same time, we want a theology that remains true to the fundamental confession of our church.
The old gospel with new strength! It is not that we want to add something to the divine power of the gospel. However, God’s call that rings through our age demands that we put our strength to new and better use for the gospel. It is not the time to criticize those who have lead our church, or not led it. Above all, we do not want to criticize others. We want only to say one thing: as members of our church at a time of upheaval, we feel called to repentance.
We have failed in some things.
We have often not been deep and brave enough.
We often were not close to the gospel, very often not close to the people. Yet as this hour we also need to remember the great and genuine accomplishments our provincial church has had in past ages. We greet the unknown pastor, the unknown church board member, the unknown church member, who have been loyal and true to the faith. But we also know that such persistence cannot be the decisive strength of our church.
We know that we can combat the de-christianizing of our people only with new personal efforts for that which alone can save our people. We therefore want to transform our church into a fighting community of those who are ready to be a brigade of those were are really and truly willing to hear God’s command, who despite all human weakness are ready to serve the living Christ in the life of today’s people. For us that means: to give the old gospel new strength for young Germany!
A new Germany is beginning to rise from the destruction of the war and the post-war period. We thank God for that. A new type of people is forming. The front soldier, white and blue collar workers, the farmer who remains true to the soil, and the S.A. man, are godfathers at its cradle. The German future belongs to it, if God wills for Germany to have a future. The work of the church, therefore, has first to be with this young Germany. It is not that we want to neglect the work of the church and the blessings of past generations. They have our love. We do not forget where we came from. However, our church is there for all its members. We look over the past to the march into the future. The church should not be a haven for old bourgeois sensibilities. It’s task must be to capture the new people.
When times change, it does not always happen smoothly and without personal struggles and pain. The pain that our church struggle has brought, and will yet bring, must be borne. We remember with respect at this hour those who worked conscientiously and successfully in our provincial church under different circumstances, but who because of the transformation in the church must leave their offices. To name one name among many, the previous chair of the provincial church board, Superintendent D. Schaaf. Our provincial church owes much to him because of his work, and he may be certain that his work is not in vain despite the changed conditions.
But new tasks demand new leadership! That is the demand of the hour: God’s new tasks demand new forces, also in the church’s leadership. The individual may be able to unite elements of the old and new eras subjectively within himself. The leadership of the church, however, must follow a clear line, and without compromise. Only that can prevent half measures and weakness. The life will of the German nation, driven by bitter need, is today unified by the great German freedom movement. Since the movement that has done that calls loudly and forcefully to the church, the church may not stand on the sidelines and sink into an atmosphere of bourgeois thinking and feeling. God has opened a door for it. It should go through it and give today’s German state what it owes the state: a joyful yes, expressed in action, of cooperation and understanding! Without giving up our church’s internal freedom, we wish a lively support on the part of the church for young Germany for the sake of the gospel and its impact.
The gospel should have its throne in National Socialist thinking and feeling. And National Socialist thinking and feeling should be at home within the church, so that it can be permeated by the free gospel that is the directing and saving command of God, sovereign over all. Give the old gospel new strength for young Germany!
A few weeks ago, our president proclaimed the word of God at a powerful Gau rally in Harburg, attended by many thousands of brown shirts. Dark thunderclouds hung over the meeting. Heavy showers fell on the city, and the thunder pounded. It was moving when, at the end of the sermon, thousands sung Luther’s song: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Our wish and our prayer is that the coming Germany learns, whatever threatens it, to stand in the faith that “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” in the confession that “Nothing Comes through Our Strength,” and in the confidence that “Although the World with Devils Filled...” That is what we want to fight for!
We welcome in this hour those of our brothers who, although sharing much of the faith with us, have not been able to join us. We honor and respect their beliefs. May all of us who struggle for the right structure of the church stand together in what in the end unites us all: “You have one master, Christ!”
Later in the meeting there was a vote to enable the church senate to make the necessary personnel changes. Pastor Jakob-Hannover, a representative of the “German Christians,” spoke along the same lines. He connected Hitler’s struggle with our obligations, and said clearly that we always had to put the cause over the person, the great tasks of the people over the interests of the individual. The enabling law was passed in its first and second reading with the overwhelming majority, against the votes of the “Gospel and Church” faction. The provincial church council sent the Reich President, the Reich Chancellor, the Prussian Minister President and Minister of Culture, the Reich Minister of the Interior, and Hitler’s agent Military Pastor Müller telegrams of greeting. That was to us an obvious duty. It was just as obvious to me that we end the meeting with a three-fold “Sieg Heil” to the Chancellor and Führer of our people. There were some who took offense, thinking that we should have closed with a prayer. To them I say that he who felt the need to pray to God in his heart as we all did had opportunity to do that. We “German Christians” refuse to be instructed by those who, during the years of struggle, were not found at Hitler’s side, but even then saw their job as criticizing and complaining. For us, Christianity consists not in words, but rather in brave, daring action, and we are happy to have God judge us. Therefore, we “German Christians” decided not to give many more or less valuable speeches, but to act, born from our unshakable faith in God, to act in ways that show love for church and people.
25 October 1933
Seldom has a church displayed in so festive a way its commitment to the Führer
of the people as did our Hanoverian provincial church in its loyalty mass meeting
of 25 October 1933 at the Market Church. It was during that decisive period
which Hitler left the League of Nations and had called for a new election
on 12 November 1933.Everyone came at the invitation of the president of the provincial church council: the members of the provincial church council, the church senate, all the church agencies, representatives of the S.S., S.A., and HJ, the Stahlhelm, and representatives of state, provincial, and city agencies, along with many hundreds of faithful from the city and countryside.
The flags of the German Reich hung from the towering pillars of the church and preached in their language our desire:
People and church belong together,
The cross of Christ and the swastika stand beside each other!
Together, we sang the hymn “We Gather Together” and joined in prayer and the word of God. The president then read the decision of the decision of the provincial church council, which had been proposed by the “German Christians”:
The provincial church council unanimously affirms the following decision:
For the sake of our people and in memory of our dead of the World War, the provincial church council of the Evangelical-Lutheran Provincial Church of Hanover welcomes with genuine pleasure the manly deeds of our people’s chancellor Adolf Hitler and agrees unanimously that:
We and the church members want to stand courageously and without reservation with the chancellor. We and the church members want to fight with and work for the National Socialist Germany of Adolf Hitler, not only in words, but also in sacrificial deeds.
We and the church members at this decisive time bring our prayers for the needs of our people before God, asking that he give us holy courage and make us ready for true unity among all German brothers. We and the church members pray fervently to God that he help those who lead us to carry their burdens. That is our unshakable and unanimous will, which we in this hour solemnly oath to the chancellor of the German Reich.At the conclusion of the reading, the provincial bishop spoke serious words for a serious time. The president then introduced the vote with the following words:
As president of the provincial church council, I have called this meeting to put into practice what he promised on 28 August 1933 in the solemn ceremony at the Ständehaus, namely to always support Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Germany without reservation. The political events of the recent past have shown clearly that our German people faces a very great decision: a decision that will perhaps determining Germany’s future for centuries. One can even say it is a decision between freedom or slavery, existence or nonexistence, the life or death of the German people.
On 14 October, Adolf Hitler, the chancellor of the German Reich, for the sake of Germany’s honor and with regard to the great sacrifices in blood and lives over the past 14 years that places on us a holy obligation, and aware of the necessary to have a good conscience as the people’s Führer and in total honesty before God and the people, made
a very great and serious decision about us and our people.
Although we do not want to conceal the significance of this decision, we greeted with
genuine joy this manly deed, because we sensed that through this deed that the
unhealthy, destructive bonds that burdened us for the past 14 years were
broken; because we saw that instead of more or less
reliable words from fearful, irresponsible, and unfree people, finally,
finally, a fearless, responsible, and free man has
done a saving act.One asks: What will happen?The Führer of the people acted according to that principle, and acted in a way that allows him to stand in good conscience at any time before God and the German people that God has entrusted to him. In his readiness to take responsibility, he stands before the people and calls on them to affirm his decision, the decision of the Führer. On 12 November, the German people are to give their approval and thereby express to the world their willingness to sacrifice and their confidence in the Führer.As president of the provincial church council, I feel obligated by my previous statements to call the representatives of our Hanoverian provincial church together so that the church can solemnly and publicly declare that we
The other: Is it just?
And that is what separates
The free man from the slave.
joyfully affirm that we approvethe action of the German chancellor. It is a pleasure for me to see that hundreds and hundreds of German people’s comrades have come here to be witnesses that the church does not stand aside when the future of the German people is being decided.
We do not need to speak of what that means for our people, of what is at stake for us and for our children. The Reich Chancellor’s words have made the seriousness and decisive importance of these days clear to the German people, and the chancellor does not weary of making it clear day after day to the German fatherland. The time for half measures and cowardly lack of responsibility is over. The time of unshakable, responsible, manly action has come. It is time for quarreling to cease, for all complaining and pessimism to disappear. At this time, we as the church want to prove that we are bound to the people, to stand by our people in godly confidence, to recognize that God’s call is sounding through this age.
Who wants to stand to the side?
Who still wants to hesitate and waver?
Who wants to ask “what if” and “but”?
Half measures do not win freedom and heaven!
As men of the church and as members of the church, we are conscious of our
holy responsibility, and want to proclaim solemnly and publicly Chancellor of the Reich, we of the church speak a forthright
yes to your action! Führer of the people, we of the church are ready to
sacrifice at your side!Hitler, we of the church support you and your office with the strength of faith, and will not weary of praying for the blessings of the heavenly father, Amen. That means, so let it be!
All at the loyalty mass meeting affirmed it and to strengthen that affirmation, thousands joined in singing powerfully the Deutschland lied in this holy space under the cross in a solemn and public way: Germany, Germany, over everything, over everything in the world!
As the last stanza echoed, the president spoke to everyone present:
“Now I ask all those gathered in this house of God who are not members of the provincial church council the question of whether they want to join with us as members off the church. I ask you all to rise and proclaim: Will you with pious confidence and faithful prayer, loyally and with readiness to sacrifice, stand with our Chancellor Adolf Hitler? Everyone together say “Yes!”As one man speaking from a single mouth, the answer was a loud “Yes!” To affirm it, the powerful hymn sounded out:
A Mighty Fortress is our God!
Luther’s song and the Deutschland lied They should be in harmony!
Church and people
They should stand together inseparably in joy and sorrow, in death and need!
The cross of Christ and the swastika
They should and must stand alongside each other!
Oil Painting of Der Führer by Conrad Hommel 1940
1940 portrait is by Conrad Hommel. "Der Führer und Oberst Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht"
Here is a Oil Painting in my collection last seem in the Haus Deutsche Kunst in Munich.
He painted Hitler in the pose of The Commander in Chief, The Map of the World at his feet, The Bunker in the Background.
Halt Polizei
A Field Polizei hand wand it says: Halt Polizei - Stop Police, The Green Eagle is for Military Police, there was Orange Color and white . the German soldiers called these Men of the Police Chained Dogs, Because of the Gorget they wore around their necks, It has a Eagle and the words FELDGENDERMERE.
Emailschild Reichsnährstand - Ortsbauernführer
The Reichsnährstand was formed 13 September 1933 by the Reichsminister für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft, Walther Darré, when all farmers organizations were merged into one. It was responsible for Price Control, Imports, Rationing, Distribution and Production related to Agriculture and Organized everyone working in the Agricultural Sector. When the food shortage began to be felt during the war due to the Bombings, Darré was suspended in May 1942 and replaced by Herbert Backe May 1944. Every Farming Community had these signs. It was a gift from a Friend in Ostrach,Germany.
* Note
If you see the small Medal hanging next to the sign, this was the Battle Hitler talked about in Mein Kampf. (Königgrätz den 3 Juli 1866) Historic note*
The Battle of Königgrätz - Schlacht bei Königgrätz, was the decisive Battle of the Austro-Prussian War, in which the king of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire.
* Note
If you see the small Medal hanging next to the sign, this was the Battle Hitler talked about in Mein Kampf. (Königgrätz den 3 Juli 1866) Historic note*
The Battle of Königgrätz - Schlacht bei Königgrätz, was the decisive Battle of the Austro-Prussian War, in which the king of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire.
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