“Typisch Jüdisch”: Die Stellung der Ev.-luth. Landeskirche Hannovers zu Antijudaismus, Judenfeindschaft und Antisemitismus 1919–1949 (review)

"Typisch Jüdisch": Die Stellung der Ev.-luth. Landeskirche Hannovers zu Antijudaismus, Judenfeindschaft und Antisemitismus 1919-1949. By Gerhard Lindemann. [Schriftenreihe der Gesellschaft für Deutschlandforschung, Band 63.] (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. 1998. Pp. 1037. DM 138.00.)

This is an intimidating book. Its size alone is daunting: over a thousand pages long, it includes 155 pages of sources and indices. According to the foreword, the book is a lightly revised dissertation (Heidelberg, 1997); 5000-plus footnotes attest to those origins. The title deepens the potential reader's sense of dread. Gerhard Lindemann's ironic use of the stereotype "typisch jüdisch"--"typically Jewish"--shows his hand. His study of anti-Jewishness and anti-Semitism in the Protestant church of Hanover, he signals, will emphasize Christian prejudice, ecclesiastical failure, and continuity. In other words, Lindemann's book promises to be relentless, convincing, and profoundly depressing. Those who read it will discover that it delivers in all three regards. At the same time, it offers a nuanced, human account of Protestant church life in Germany across three decades. Although regional in focus, Lindemann's study resonates beyond the borders of the Hanoverian Protestant church. Anyone interested in Christian anti-Semitism, German Jewry, Nazi genocide, or religious conversion and exclusion in the twentieth century can learn much here.

Some of the most shocking parts of the book involve developments before and after Nazi rule. Lindemann devotes eighty pages to the case of the Lutheran pastor Ludwig Münchmeyer, who during the 1920's used his pulpit and his local following to keep Jews off the North Sea island of Borkum. Only after violent clashes between supporters and detractors of the anti-Semitic clergyman, intervention by state authorities, and a series of court cases did the Hanoverian Protestant church take disciplinary action. Münchmeyer's anti-Catholicism, sexually offensive behavior, and an exodus of members of his congregation from the Protestant church added ammunition against him--and worried church authorities more than did attacks on Jews. Still, Münchmeyer kept his position and his "Pastor" title until 1926.

Lindemann's reluctance to generalize can make reading even such intriguing material frustrating. Nevertheless, his discussion of the situation on Borkum reveals some significant tendencies within the Protestant leadership: fear of public disruption or scandal; acceptance of anti-Semitic stereotypes; and general weakness of will to defend the downtrodden. Those failings, troublesome enough in the Weimar Republic, would prove fatal in the Nazi era.

Most of Lindemann's book addresses the experiences of Christians of Jewish background in Hanover from 1933 to 1945. Lindemann treats this topic with sensitivity and empathy. Careful to avoid anachronistic and offensive labels such as "Jewish Christians" or "baptized Jews," he offers precision and a wealth of biographical detail. Lindemann zeroes in on key individuals, notably the pastors Paul Leo in Osnabrück, Bruno Benfey in Göttingen, and Rudolf Gurland in Meine/Gifhorn, to show how Nazi measures against people defined as Jews affected the lives and livelihoods of Christian clergymen with Jewish ancestry.

These men's stories differ greatly in the details but share overwhelmingly similar themes of persecution, humiliation, desperation, and betrayal. Both Leo and Benfey were forced out of their positions after the 1935 Nuremberg Laws. Local anti-Semites made trouble because of the men's Jewish ancestry; instead of providing protection, church authorities retired the pastors. Gurland, an ethnic German from Vilna, lasted longer, but in the wake of Kristallnacht in 1938, he too was forced to retire, as was a fourth pastor of Jewish background, namely, Gustav Oehlert in Rinteln. Like many clergy, for a brief time in 1933, Oehlert belonged to the pro-National Socialist, Protestant "German Christian Movement" (p. 584). Nevertheless, Nazi activists demanded dismissal, and church leaders agreed.

Lindemann's close-up, personal approach highlights both the everyday...