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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2018
The interplay of religion, politics, and state in National Socialist Germany continues to defy facile characterizations. In 1934, mere weeks following the Röhm Putsch in which the Nazi regime committed dozens of political assassinations, Berlin hosted thousands of Baptists from across the globe who would unanimously decry nationalism and racialism and advocate for the separation of church and state. Held from August 4–10, 1934, the fifth Baptist World Congress marks the zenith of German Baptist publicity and international Baptist cooperation during the interwar period. The Congress thus provides a focal point for analyzing interwar British and German Baptist relations. This relationship reflected both international cooperation and the gradual divergence of doctrine along nationalistic lines. German Baptists experienced greater freedom of exercise under the Third Reich than under previous regimes, and they leveraged their international connections in order to further their mission. They refused to become involved in the well-documented “Church Struggle” of the Confessing Church and the “German Christian Movement,” and this refusal strained international partnerships. The German Baptist experience challenges many assumptions concerning the churches under the Third Reich as it illustrates the Nazi regime's permissive toleration of a biblicist Free Church group with propagandistically valuable international connections.
1 The Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) formally came to power with the accession of Adolf Hitler to the German Chancellorship on January 30, 1933. Hitler and his followers quickly set about consolidating power through the process of Gleichschaltung. 1933–1934 saw a flurry of new laws, administrative changes, and inventions of new offices. For extended reading on both the Nazi ascent to and monopolization of power, see the first two volumes of Richard Evans's three-volume series: The Coming of the Third Reich (New York: Penguin, 2003)Google Scholar and The Third Reich in Power (New York: Penguin, 2005)Google Scholar.
2 Often misunderstood as a Nazi imposition on German Protestantism, the Deutsche Christen were a völkisch-Christian mass movement that achieved ecclesiological success and notoriety in the 1930s. Doris L. Bergen has identified key characteristics of the Deutsche Christen in their pursuit of a Volkskirche of “true Germans” as anti-Semitism, anti-doctrinality, an emphasis on masculinity, and antinomianism. For further reading, see Bergen, , Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996)Google Scholar.
3 The term Kirchenkampf (church struggle) describes this conflict between the Confessing Church and the Deutsche Christen, but it is also employed more generally to refer to Nazi interactions with, and interventions in, the established Protestant and Catholic churches of Germany. See Conway, John S., The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933–1945 (Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 1968)Google Scholar; Barnett, Victoria, For the Soul of the People: Protestant Protest Against Hitler (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Phayer, Michael, The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000)Google Scholar.
4 Established Protestant and Catholic churches boasted the highest percentage of the population—roughly 40 million Protestants and 20 million Catholics out of a population of around 60 million. Thus, the German Baptists, numbering just under 70,000, were a numerically insignificant minority. See Schneider, Carl, “The Centenary of the German Baptists,” in Fifth Baptist World Congress Official Report: Berlin, August 4–10, 1934, ed. Henry, James Rushbrooke, (London: Baptist World Alliance, 1934)Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Fifth Congress); and Barnett, Victoria, For the Soul of the People: Protestant Protest Against Hitler (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992)Google Scholar.
5 Karl Barth returned to his native Switzerland in 1935 after he lost his professorship at the University of Bonn for refusing to swear an oath to Hitler and wrote extensively about the Kirchenkampf. Martin Niemöller was held in concentration camps from 1937–1945 for his opposition to Nazi policies. Dietrich Bonhoeffer oversaw illegal seminary activities in the 1930s and became a double-agent in the Abwehr for a German resistance movement. He was eventually arrested and executed for his role in a failed assassination attempt on Hitler. See Bethge, Eberhard, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography, rev. ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Schreiber, Matthias, Martin Niemöller (Reinbeck: Rowohlt, 1997)Google Scholar.
6 Cochrane, Arthur, The Church's Confession Under Hitler (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962; Pittsburgh: Pickwick, 1976)Google Scholar; and Conway, The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933–1945.
7 Barnett, For the Soul of the People; and Bergen, Twisted Cross.
8 Free Church groups are committed to separation of church and state. Baptist churches generally hold to local-church autonomy, as each church selects its own leaders and makes decisions as an autonomous body. Baptist churches may decide to partner with other Baptist churches in associations, unions, or conventions, but there exists no authoritative hierarchy within these structures. See Leonard, Bill, “Baptists, Church, and State: Rejecting Establishments, Relishing Privilege,” in Through a Glass Darkly: Contested Notions of Baptist Identity, ed. Harper, Keith (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2012)Google Scholar.
9 Strübind, Andrea, Die unfreie Freikirche: Der Bund der Baptistengemeinden im “Dritten Reich” (Wuppertal und Kassel: Oncken, 1995)Google Scholar. Günther Kösling penned an earlier dissertation entitled Die deutschen Baptisten 1933/1934: Ihr Denken und Handeln zu Beginn des Dritten Reiches (PhD diss., Theologische Fakultät Marburg, 1980), but Strübind's work draws upon and supersedes his narrower examination.
10 Helwys and others believed Mennonites subscribed to a Docetic understanding of the person of Christ that denied the full humanity of Christ by arguing that Jesus did not receive human flesh through Mary: Underwood, Alfred Clair, A History of the English Baptists (London: Carey Kingsgate, 1947), 46Google Scholar.
11 Leonard, “Baptists, Church, and State,” 14.
12 The main difference was a dispute concerning the extent of Christ's atonement. The Particular Baptists argued that Christ died for the elect only whereas the General Baptists asserted that Christ died for all people. See Leonard, Bill, Baptist Ways: A History (Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson, 2003)Google Scholar; and McBeth, H. Leon, The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness (Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman, 1987)Google Scholar.
13 Baptist numbers are difficult to gauge. Whereas Underwood reports the attendees’ totals, this number also includes children that were not members of the churches and other attendees that for various reasons had decided not to become members yet: Underwood, A History of the English Baptists, 201. Rushbrooke cites a much smaller member total in 1937 of around 400,000, but it may be assumed that the resulting attendee number would be higher. See, Rushbrooke, James Henry, “The Baptist Communion in Britain: Numbers, Organization and Distinctive Principles.” in Baptists in Britain, ed. Wheeler, H. Robinson and Rushbrooke (London: Baptist Union Publication Department, 1937)Google Scholar.
14 Balders, Günther, “Kurze Geschichte der deutschen Baptisten,” in Ein Herr, ein Glaube, eine Taufe: 150 Jahre Baptistengemeinden in Deutschland, ed. Hitzemann, Günther (Wuppertal und Kassel: Oncken, 1984), 21Google Scholar.
15 Carl Schneider, “The Centenary of the German Baptists,” 191.
16 Oncken, Köbner, and Lehmann were nicknamed the Kleeblatt (cloverleaf) and are considered the fathers of the German Baptist movement. Oncken remains the German Baptist par excellence in German Baptist histories, as he played the central role in leadership and vision: Rushbrooke., James Henry The Baptist Movement in the Continent of Europe, (London: Kingsgate, 1923), 28Google Scholar.
17 Balders, “Kurze Geschichte der deutschen Baptisten,” in Ein Herr, ein Glaube, eine Taufe, 19.
18 Geldbach, Erich, Freikirchen—Erbe, Gestalt und Wirkung (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1989), 130–135Google Scholar.
19 Wagner, Wiliam, New Move Forward in Europe: Growth Patterns of German Speaking Baptists in Europe (South Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 1978), 9Google Scholar.
20 C. Brauns, “Die Gemeinde des Herrn und der neue Staat,” Der Wahrheitszeuge (Kassel), August 6, 1933.
21 Railton, Nicholas, “German Free Churches and the Nazi Regime,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 49, no.1 (January 1998): 91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
22 Carl Schneider, “The Centenary of the German Baptists,” 193.
23 Romans 13:1, 4–5 (English Standard Version).
24 Traditionally described as the spiritual kingdom of Christ and the secular kingdom of the world, Luther's “doctrine” of the two kingdoms has elicited much greater analysis than can be discussed here. For further reading, see: Brady, Thomas A. Jr., “Luther and the State: The Reformer's Teaching in its Social Setting,” in Luther and the Modern State in Germany, ed. Tracy, James D. (Kirksville, Mo.: Truman State University Press, 1986)Google Scholar; and Whitford, David M., “Cura Religionis or Two Kingdoms: The Late Luther on Religion and the State in the Lectures on Genesis,” Church History 73, no. 1 (March 2004): 41–62Google Scholar.
25 Underwood, A History of the English Baptists, 74.
26 Hans Luckey, “Freedom of Religion in Germany,” Baptist Times (London), 1 September 1938.
27 Schmidt, Paul, Unser Weg: Als Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden in den Jahren 1941–1946, (Stuttgart: J. G. Oncken, 1946)Google Scholar.
28 For a thorough analysis of German Baptist reactions to the early months of National Socialist power, see Strübind (Die unfreie Freikirche, 70–124) to whom the initial impetus of this analysis is indebted.
29 Paul Schmidt, “Aus der Schmiede,” Der Wahrheitszeuge, 26 March 1933.
30 Paul Schmidt, “Aus der Schmiede,” Der Wahrheitszeuge, 12 February 1933.
31 Monatsbrief der Schwesternschaft des Diakonissenhauses Bethel 84, April 1933, 10 (Archiv das Diakoniewerkes Bethel), quoted in Strübind, Die unfreie Freikirche, 70.
32 Hans Luckey, “German Baptists and Religious Freedom: Baptist Work in the Third Reich,” Baptist Times, 11 August 1938.
33 B. Barels to H. Jelten, 16 February 1933, H. Jelten's private collection, quoted in Strübind, Die unfreie Freikirche, 73.
34 Schmidt, “Aus der Schmiede,” Der Wahrheitszeuge, 12 February 1933.
35 In at least one case, a British Baptist pastor received regular letters from a German Baptist in exchange for copies of the Baptist Times: “Our Open Forum,” Baptist Times, 27 October 1938.
36 For another analysis of British Baptist rhetoric about the Kirchenkampf—and to a lesser extent, the German Baptists—see Clements, Keith W., “A Question of Freedom? British Baptists and the German Church Struggle,” in Baptists in the Twentieth Century: Papers Presented at a Summer School, July 1982, ed. Clements, (London: Baptist Historical Society, 1983)Google Scholar. Clements's argument anticipates some aspects of the present analysis in his short paper discussing what he terms the “ideology” of religious freedom present in British Baptist interpretations of the religious situation in Germany. Given the limitations of a conference paper, however, Clements's work does not examine the complex nature of German and British Baptist relations or engage with numerous aspects of the vast (and ever-growing) historiography of religious experience in the Third Reich. As such, analysis of British Baptist rhetoric concerning the religious situation in the Third Reich has not penetrated broader historiographical conversations.
37 “Germany To-Day,” Baptist Times, 27 April 1933.
38 “Jews in Germany,” Baptist Times, 6 April 1933.
39 Schmidt, “Aus der Schmiede,” Der Wahrheitszeuge, 14 May 1933; and “German Baptists & ‘The Baptist Times,’” Baptist Times, 18 May 1933.
40 “German Baptists & The Baptist Times,” Baptist Times, 18 May 1933.
41 “Herr Hitler's Speech,” Baptist Times, 25 May 1933.
42 Carl Schwill, “Die deutschen Baptisten und die ‘Baptist Times,’” Der Wahrheitszeuge (Kassel), 6 August 1933; and “German Baptists & ‘The Baptist Times,’” Baptist Times, 31 August 1933.
43 “German Baptists and Ourselves,” Baptist Times, 31 August 1933.
44 Rushbrooke, “The Baptist Communion in Britain,” in Baptists in Britain, ed. Robinson and Rushbrooke, 35–58.
45 “The German Baptist Meetings,” Baptist Times, 7 September 1933.
46 K, “With Young German Baptists in the Rhineland,” Baptist Times, 14 September 1933.
47 “Certainly it is [safe]: hundreds of people go every week. Of course people with cameras should not start in to photograph, let us say, aerodromes or barracks!”: “Important Notes by Dr. Rushbrooke,” Baptist Times, 10 May 1934.
48 “‘The Times’ in London über den Kongress in Berlin,” Der Wahrheitszeuge, 15 July 1934.
49 “Come to Germany!” Baptist Times, 24 May 1934.
50 J. C. Carlile, “The Berlin Dilemma,” Baptist Times, 2 August 1934.
51 Between June 30 and July 2, 1934, members of the Nazi party under Hitler's order purged the leadership of the paramilitary Sturmabteilungen (Storm Troopers or SA) in order to quash SA calls for further revolution and solidify ties with the German army. Many non-Nazi political rivals met their deaths in the purge as well. It is often referred to as the “Night of Long Knives.” For further reading see Richard Evans, The Third Reich in Power, 20–42.
52 “William Carey, ein Mann Gottes und Held der Heidenmission: Heidenmission tut not!” Der Wahrheitszeuge, 10 June 1934; and “C. H. Spurgeon, ein Botschafter Jesu Christi für die Nationen: Die Wiedergeburt und der Heilige Geist,” Der Wahrheitszeuge, 17 June 1934.
53 Many narrative accounts of the fifth Baptist World Congress have appeared in print: see Strübind, Die unfreie Freikirche; Pierard, Richard V., ed. Baptists Together in Christ 1905–2005 (Falls Church, Va.: Baptist World Alliance, 2005)Google Scholar; and Priestley, David T., “Baptist Response in Germany to the Third Reich,” in God and Caesar: Case Studies in the Relationship Between Christianity and the State, ed. Linder, Robert (Longview, Tex.: Conference of Faith and History, 1971)Google Scholar. While the narrative of the congress is particularly noteworthy in itself, this article is limited to aspects of the congress most germane to the present analysis.
54 John H. Y. Briggs, “From 1905 to the End of the First World War,” in Baptists Together in Christ 1905–2005, ed. Pierard, 31.
55 Erich Geldbach, “The Years of Anxiety and World War II,” in Baptists Together in Christ 1905–2005, ed. Pierard, 78–80. Also, for debate over Hitler's policies, see “German Baptists & ‘The Baptist Times,’” Baptist Times, 18 May 1933.
56 Conrad Moehlman, “The Baptists are Going to Berlin,” Christian Century, 7 February 1934.
57 Ibid.
58 “Schreiben der Deutschen Botschaft in Washington an des Auswärtige Amt (31 Mai 1933),” in Evangelische Freikirchen und das “Dritte Reich,” ed. Zehrer, Karl (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1986), 115Google Scholar.
59 “Schreiben des Auswärtigen Amtes an Missionsdirektor Simoleit (31. Juli 1933)” in Evangelische Freikirchen und das “Dritte Reich,” ed. Zehrer, 116.
60 Geldbach, “The Years of Anxiety and World War II,” in Baptists Together in Christ 1905–2005, ed. Pierard, 76–77.
61 Fifth Congress, ed., Rushbrooke, 199.
62 John Sampey, “Impressions of the Baptist World Congress,” Western Recorder (Louisville, Ky.), 13 September 1934.
63 Time magazine (“Baptists in Berlin,” Time, 13 August 1934) reported: “The German speeches with which they were welcomed were little to the liking of the World Baptists. Hearing about Hitler, the radical ‘German Christian’ movement and the place of the Church in the Revolution, the Baptists gave only a decent minimum of applause.”
64 Fifth Congress, ed. Rushbrooke, 26.
65 For a history of Nazi anti-Semitic legal measures, see Friedländer, Saul, Nazi Germany and the Jews, vol. 1, The Years of Persecution, 1933–1939 (New York: HarperCollins, 1997)Google Scholar.
66 Green, Bernard, European Baptists and the Third Reich (Didcot: Baptist Historical Society, 2008), 51Google Scholar.
67 Fifth Congress, ed. Rushbrooke, 64.
68 Ibid., 65.
69 Strübind, Andrea and Strübind, Kim, Zwischen Himmel und Erde: Festschrift zum 100-jährigen Jubiläum der Evangelisch-Freikirchlichen Gemeinde München (Baptisten) (München: Gesellschaft für Freikirchliche Theologie und Publizistik, 2002), 88Google Scholar.
70 Harnisch, Walter and Schmidt, Paul, eds., Fünfter Baptisten-Weltkongress: Deutscher Bericht des in Berlin vom 4.–10. August 1934 gehaltenen Kongresses (Kassel: Oncken, 1934), 217–218Google Scholar.
71 Ibid., 224–225.
72 Fifth Congress, ed. Rushbrooke, 41.
73 See Connelly, John, From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933–1965 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012), 30Google Scholar.
74 “Pope Pius's Christmas Message, 1942,” in Pius XII and the Third Reich: A Documentation, ed. Friedländer, Saul (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), 131Google Scholar.
75 Although Niemöller's Pastors’ Emergency League was founded in order to aid “non-Aryan” pastors affected by anti-Semitic measures, the Confessing Church did not speak out explicitly against anti-Semitism as such. This is evident even in the celebrated Barmen Declaration, which makes no mention of the plight of Jews. For further reading, see Gerlach, Wolfgang, And the Witnesses Were Silent: The Confessing Church and the Persecution of the Jews, trans. Barnett, Victoria J. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000)Google Scholar.
76 “A Jewish View of the Berlin Conference,” Baptist Times, 20 September 1934.
77 For more on anti-Semitism among German Baptists, see Gieske, Uwe A., Die Unheilige Trias: Nation, Staat, Militär; Baptisten und andere Christen in Hitlerismus (Berlin: WDL, 1999)Google Scholar; and Strübind, Andrea “‘Wir Christen unter Zuschauern’: Die deutchen Baptisten und die Judenverfolgung in der Zeit der NS-Diktatur,” in Freikirchen und Juden im “Dritten Reich”: Instrumentalisierte Heilsgeschichte, antisemitische Vorurteile und verdrängte Schuld, ed. Heinz, Daniel (Göttingen: V&R, 2011)Google Scholar.
78 Fifth Congress, ed. Rushbrooke, 229.
79 M. E. “Berlin, 1934: Some Impressions,” Baptist Times, 16 August 1934.
80 Fifth Congress, ed. Rushbrooke, 18.
81 J. H. Rushbrooke, “The Great Congress,” Baptist Times, 25 October 1934.
82 Ibid.
83 “Jesus Christus gestern und heute und derselbe auch in Ewigkeit,” Der Hausfreund (Łódź), 23 September 1934.
84 “Notes of the Week: The German Church,” Baptist Times, 20 September 1934.
85 Schmidt, “Aus der Schmiede,” Der Wahrheitzeuge, 4 March 1934.
86 “The Baptist Times Banned in Berlin,” Baptist Times, 16 August 1934.
87 “The Baptist Times in Berlin,” Baptist Times, 27 September 1934.
88 Railton, “German Free Churches and the Nazi Regime,” 118–119. For further reading concerning the Oxford Life and Work Conference, see Smith, Graeme, Oxford 1937: The Universal Christian Council for Life and Work Conference (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2004)Google Scholar.
89 See Arthur Porritt, “Men and Matters: German Free Churches and Hitler,” Baptist Times, 29 July 1937; and Railton, “German Free Churches and the Nazi Regime,” 118–121.
90 Ernest A. Payne, “Open Forum: The German Church Conflict,” Baptist Times, 29 July 1937.
91 Rushbrooke, James Henry, “Between Berlin and Atlanta: Five Years of the History of the Baptist World Alliance,” in Sixth Baptist World Congress Official Report: Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A. July 22–28, 1939, ed. Rushbrooke, (Atlanta: Baptist World Alliance, 1939)Google Scholar.
92 Ibid.
93 Melbourn Evans Aubrey, “Christianity and the Totalitarian State,” in Sixth Baptist World Congress Official Report, 198.
94 Paul Schmidt, “Liberalism, Collectivism and the Baptists,” in Sixth Baptist World Congress Official Report, ed. Rushbrooke, 203.
95 Schmidt, Unser Weg: Als Bund Evangelisch Freikirchlicher Gemeinden in den Jahren 1941–1946.
96 “Notes of the Week: The Barmen Confession,” Baptist Times, 14 June 1933.