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The ‘‘Elimination’’ of the Jews 186 Thirty years later, Brunotte tried to defend this document—one of the most prominent examples of a bureaucratic ‘‘solution’’ to emerge from the offices of the German Evangelical Church.∂∏ ∞π The Aryan Certificate for Theologians German Christian church leaders had always been more interested than the state authorities in implementing a church Aryan paragraph. After 1936, non-Aryans barred from studying theology were admitted to the church colleges established by the Confessing Church and could become ministers in the Confessing Church after taking their examinations (which were given secretly by Confessing Church members).∞ After the Godesberg Declaration, Dr. Friedrich Werner, the German Christian director of the two highest Protestant agencies (the Evangelical Central Council and the German Evangelical Church Chancellery in Berlin), sought to change this situation permanently. On 12 May 1939, the Evangelical Central Council of the Old Prussian Union Church announced that before a candidate could be accepted for theological exams, ordination, permanent employment in a parish, or service in a regional church, every theological candidate must furnish proof of his Aryan descent and that of his future wife, should he marry. To this end, the Central Council requires the questionnaire on racial descent . . . to be filled out and signed by the candidates in question , effective immediately. Where a marriage is planned, the clergyman must submit to his Consistory the announcement of the marriage, together with particulars about the descent of his future wife . . . at least three weeks before the marriage.≤ The Confessing Church now had to decide whether it would abide by the Pastors’ Emergency League pledge and the third thesis of the Barmen Declaration. After the leader of Bremen’s Evangelical Church required the Aryan certificate of all pastors under his jurisdiction (not just of future pastors, to whom the Central Council’s ordinance applied), Martin Albertz intervened.≥ On behalf of the Provisional Church Administration and ‘‘in agreement with the Conference of the Regional Councils of Brethren of Germany,’’ he called on church governments with ties to the Confessing Church, as well as the regional Councils of Brethren, The Aryan Certificate for Theologians 187 ‘‘to resist this suggestion (from Bremen) and not to comply with the request’’ and to warn their pastors ‘‘not to submit the documents demanded .’’∂ The letter ended with the words of the Pastors’ Emergency League pledge.∑ The Old Prussian Union Church Council of Brethren issued a clear statement soon after Werner’s announcement: ‘‘Whoever fills out the questionnaire presented by the German Christian church bureaucracy . . . helps translate the Godesberg Declaration of the German Christians into reality, and thereby contributes to the removal from the ministry of colleagues who are not of full Aryan descent or whose wives are not.’’∏ Once more united in common cause, the other regional Councils of Brethren issued similar statements. The regional Council of Brethren in Saxony announced that the Aryan paragraph and its consequences could not be permitted in the church, charging that the newly issued questionnaires represented the application of secular civil service laws to the ministry.π In the Mark Brandenburg region, the Confessing Church Council instructed its members not to return the questionnaire.∫ Enclosing a copy of Martin Niemöller’s ‘‘Principles Regarding the Aryan Question in the Church,’’ the Council of Brethren summarized: At that time, a false synod attempted to introduce the Aryan paragraph into the church by means of church law. But this was thwarted by the united witness of clergy who joined together in the Pastors’ Emergency League. . . . After six years of struggle, the church bureaucracy believes that . . . consciences have become apathetic and that this ground might be ripe for the taking. It [the consistory] does not dare make the matter public in the church; it would much rather carry it through without visible unrest. For this reason, it does not order the introduction of the Aryan paragraph in the church . . . but sends questionnaires to each individual pastor. Everyone must understand clearly that the church authorities’ action serves no statistical purpose. Whoever fills out and sends in the questionnaires . . . helps create a complete change in the nature of the ministry. . . . This apparently harmless request forces us to make a serious decision before God.Ω Noting that ‘‘the few purely non-Aryan pastors have long been out of office,’’ the Westphalian Council of Brethren asserted that the church should at least defend its ‘‘half-breed brethren.’’ There was no doubt that [18.224.63.87] Project MUSE (2024-04-23 15:39 GMT...

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