 ™ |
Individual quotes are cited as they usually reflect, relative to the status of that person, the state of this church at that time.
October 31: Theological Prof. MARTIN LUTHER, after developing a reputation as an Augustinian determinist, nails his 95 theses to the
door of Wittenberg Church (the student notice board), on the sale of Catholic Church indulgences (forgiveness of sins), for academic debate. His opponents (ECK, CAJETA, WIMPINA and MURNER) use claims of papal authority against his arguments, and so precipitate a crisis.
September 6: Wittenberg. MARTIN LUTHER writes to Pope LEO X and describes him as 'Daniel' in 'Babylon' while denouncing
his Roman Court (the Papal See) in his treatise Concerning Christian Liberty.
LUTHER begins his translation of the Scriptures concealed in a room of Wartburg Castle in Saxony, dressed as a country gentleman and renamed 'Squire George'.
LUTHER's translation of the New Testament into the German language is published (The September Testament).
April 8: At Flensburg colloquy of preachers, LUTHER, JOHN CAMPANUS and others are alarmed at MELCHIOR HOFFMAN's denunciation of the "magic" of the Lutheran view of the Eucharist and that the function of the Eucharist, like that of preaching, is simply an appeal for spiritual union with Christ. Refusing to retract, HOFFMAN is banished.
October: At Marburg, LUTHER and ZWINGLI disagree vehemently on the nature of the Eucharist. LUTHER condemns the Zwinglians as blasphemers for also holding to a symbolic sacrament.
October: At Marburg, LUTHER and ZWINGLI disagree vehemently on the nature of the Eucharist. LUTHER condemns the Zwinglians as blasphemers for also holding to a symbolic sacrament.
The Augsburg Confession
LUTHER, who had believed in 'freedom of conscience' at the time of his protest against Papal Rome, now denies this to those who differ with himself, agreeing that anabaptist and other Protestant extremists –
"should be done to death by the civil authority".
The Smalcald Articles
Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (by Melancthon).
Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (by Melancthon).
Formula of Concord unifying the warring Lutheran factions on the basic doctrines after Luther's death.
NIKLAUS LUDWIG VON ZINZENDORF is exiled from Saxony for his support for the Moravian community of Herrnhut.
August 4: The sermon in Berlin Cathedral at the opening of the Reichstag, by Court Preacher and Vice-President of the Prussian Oberkirchenrat, ERNST VON DRYANDER, using Romans 8:31 ('If God be for us, who can stand against us?') declares –
'Looking to the state which reared us, to the fatherland, wherein lie the roots of our strength, we know that we are going into battle for our culture against the uncultured, for German civilization against barbarism, for the free German personality bound to God against the instincts of the undisciplined masses ... And God will be with our weapons.' |
October 2: The General Committee of the Evangelischer Bund calls for a new mobilization (three days before the German armistice offer) –
| 'Now the whole people must go to the barricades! The homeland must muster itself and strengthen the Front. Every channel which leads to the life of the people must now be used to save our fatherland from the destructive purpose of the enemy.' |
November 9: The Socialist revolution creates a crisis for the government of the church and the financial support of the clergy.
November 10: The Prussian Oberkirchenrat issues a call to its congregations –
November 10: The Prussian Oberkirchenrat issues a call to its congregations –
| 'The kingdom of Jesus Christ contains sustaining and saving power for the life of our people. Its citizens are duty bound to and ready to serve in the earthly fatherland -- and now to collaborate in fulfilling new tasks where it is necessary to support the established order. In this way our Evangelical Church seeks to stand as a Volkskirche at the centre of life today, even when outside supports might have collapsed.' |
The Editor of the Kirchliches Jahrbuch (Johannes Schneider) writes –
'Where is the justice of God? ... Is not mammonism an import from America; and cold-hearted egoism England's dowry? And moral decline bound up with the insatiable virulence of France's vulgar style? Are we not seeing a triumph of lies and a success of vulgarity of a kind that was rare even in the darkest periods of history? |
German theology begins increasingly to accept the idea that involvement in the political situation is a prerequisite for a correct understanding of the Word of God in the present, thus helping further to set the stage for a nationalist co-option of the church.
Autumn: In Brunswick and Saxony, the quarterly income of a pastor is less than the weekly wage of an unskilled labourer.
Bishop OTTO DIBELIUS proposes the elimination of all Jews from Germany by prohibiting Jewish immigration so that the breed
would die out naturally. (See April 1933).
The 'Faith Movement of German Christians' (Glaubenbewegung 'Deutjze Chriten') is launched in support of Adolf Hitler.
February 1: ADOLF HITLER ends his radio address to the nation with –
'May the Almighty God take our work into His grace.'
The first Reich Conference of the 'German Christians' is held in Berlin under the banner:
'Evangelium im Dritten Reich'.
April: Bishop OTTO DIBELIUS, General Superintendent of the Kurmark Diocese in Prussia, declares in a letter that he had always been an antisemite and that –
"One cannot fail to appreciate that in all of the corrosive manifestations of modern civilizations Jewry plays a leading role." (See 1928). |
July 21: The Prussian Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat decrees that pastoral work in the concentration camps is the responsibility of the local clergy.
November 30: In Germany – the Nazi state carries out a mass-purge, executing many leaders and cremating their bodies. No
objections are raised by any religious groups, and HITLER is thanked for the "rescue operation" by the Evangelical bishop of Nassau-Hessen,
Dr DIETRICH, who in a circular letter claims that the blood-bath "demonstrated to the world" the – "unique greatness of the Führer".
April 7: In Germany - Bishop MUELLER of the German Evangelical Church disgracefully publishes a new version of CHRIST's Sermon
on the Mount, replacing so-called 'offensive' phrases, such as –
"Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the earth", with his phrase |
| 'Blessed is he that at all times is a good comrade; he will succeed in the world.' |
Note: the utter hypocrisy of a German Evangelical Protestant Captain WOLFGANG HOFFMANN.
Bishop MARGOT KAESSMANN, head of Germany's Evangelical Lutheran Church (EKD), is arrested for drunk driving in Hanover, after driving her $120,000 official limousine through a red light. The Hanover state prosecutor informs that she was three times over the legal limit, and could lose her driver's license for a year. She resigns her church office four days later.
June 11: In Denmark – Eight of Denmark’s ten bishops hand over a marriage ritual they are proposing to meet Parliament’s decision the previous week that homosexual couples can be married in church in the same way as heterosexual couples. The proposal excludes several biblical texts – such as that of Genesis account of creation. Instead the bishops have provided some texts that vicars of the state Evangelical-Lutheran Church may use, although they may also use other texts that they find more fitting. Concepts such as ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ have been eliminated from the text and replaced with ‘spouse’.
