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2. Representations of the Nazi Past in Early 1945
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2 Representations of the Nazi Past in Early 1945 In spring 1945 Germany prostrate, destroyed by Allied bombs and disgraced by twelve years of Nazi rule. Its dreams of victory had been abandoned. Its government had been overthrown. Its territory had been invaded and occupied. Its enemies were now expected to take their revenge, and indeed tales of raping and pillaging by Soviet troops in the eastern provinces sent panic waves through every household. Its cities were filled with skeletons of bombed-out buildings. Communications were entirely severed. Hunger and disease, homelessness and death were apparent on all sides. The institutions of the past seemed irrelevant or powerless . Widespread feelings of apocalyptic doom gave rise to feelings of self-pity and victimization among the survivors. In all of this the clergy joined. The overwhelming pastoral needs of their parishioners made them very conscious of the public mood, and they in turn contributed to the widespread feeling that Germany, and the German race, was doomed. Despair reigned. Nevertheless, amongst the group of surviving leaders of the Confessing Church two other factors were uppermost in their minds. First, they saw the need to seize the opportunity to regain control of the whole Evangelical Church by evicting the German Christians who had so grievously misled the congregations and abused the gospel. Second, they needed to justify their position over the previous twelve years and prepare manifestos for the immediate future. After so many years of frustration, these men were now resolved to act decisively and with vigor. Inthesetaskstheyreceivedunexpectedhelpfromtheoccupationpowers.O‹cial Allied military policy in all of the occupation zones was predicated on reform and re-education, not on revenge. The mistakes of the Versailles treaty were not to be repeated. But such a task required the cooperation of the German people. In the eyes of Germany’s new rulers, the churches provided possibly the only institutions that had managed to evade complete subordination to the Nazi regime. Several leading clergymen in addition to Martin Niemöller were known to have suªered im- prisonment for their defiance of Nazi edicts. Others, like Clemens August Graf von Galen,theCatholicbishopof Münster,hadpreachedfierysermonsagainsttheNazi’s euthanasia program. On the basis of this record, the churches were therefore to be treated gently. They were to be allowed to denazify themselves. The occupation powers encouraged them to think in terms of rebuilding a new society, and they were given resources to do so when scarcity and dislocation were ever-present.1 As a result, the summer of 1945 saw some notable developments that were to have long-lasting eªects. Thanks to Allied military cooperation, the occupation powers granted the request of Bishop Wurm of Württemberg, the senior bishop, that the remaining church leaders be enabled to meet to discuss the future. Church leaders arranged to meet in the central German town of Treysa, near Fulda, in late July 1945. It was to prove a significant meeting. It marked both the triumph of the Confessing Church and the continuance of deep theological rifts within its ranks. Representations of the Nazi Past in Early 1945 | 43 Ruins of the medieval city of Nuremberg, bombed heavily in World War II and site of the infamous Nuremberg rallies, captured in film by Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will. Photo courtesy of the Archive of the A. R. Wentz Library, Lutheran Theological Seminary of Gettysburg. [54.158.138.161] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 14:32 GMT) Not the least of these was caused by the debate over how to come to terms with Germany’s and the church’s past. Bishop Wurm dominated the Treysa meeting.2 He had spent the previous two years pleading for reconciliation between the various factions within the Evangelical Church. Now was his opportunity to call all sides to collaborate on rebuilding their damaged institution. At the age of seventy-seven, and after long years of administering the church in Württemberg, Wurm enjoyed wide support. He was a staunch nationalist who therefore shared the pessimistic views about Germany’s future . Nevertheless, he resolved to take advantage of the Allies’ lenient policy to revitalize the church’s administration for the task of reconstruction ahead. His model wasclearlythatof thepre-Nazichurch,orratherof thekindof unifiednationalstructure that the Nazis had so cleverly taken over and distorted in 1933. His aim in broad terms was to “re-Christianize Germany,” but from the top downward through the hierarchical institutions of the Lutheran tradition. This task was...