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pagescontain a translationinto English an The following -of appearedin the June2007 issue ofthe Freiburger commissionedby W.E.Norton, Chairman ofthe and carried

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Hermonn Moos - Sliftung

schirmherr: Londesbischo{ Dr. ulrich Fischqr. lGrlsruhe . vorstondrvofsit onder: wolier Norton. London

Dekoncl,, Heiliggeisfslr17, 691 I 7 Tel:06221 9803'lO Ftoc980349 E: dekonot@ekihd'de gonkkonto-Nr.ol4oo79 HormonnMoos-Stifiung, Deutsche Bonk AG, 691l5 Heidelbcrg(Blz 672 7OO21l

www.moosfoundotion.com Ilermann Maas- Rescuerand Builder of Bridges

JdrgThierfeldert

Thereis a bridgein Heidelbergcalled the Hermann Maas Bridge - andit is surelyof profoundsignificance that this man should have a bridge,in particular,named after him. Forthe Heidelberg pastor Hermann Maas was a builderofbridges in two respects:on the one hand,bridges between and Christians; and on the other,bridges between Germanyand the stateof .He was alsoa saviour- onewho continuedto ministerto the spiritualand pastoral needs ofthe manypersecuted Jews and Christians of Jewish originduring the time of theThird Reich, and who helpedmany to emigrateto a safe country.

1. Careerand characteristics

HermannMaas was bom in 1877in Gengenbachinto a familyof pastorsfrom the Baden area.Having completed his studiesin theology,and following his initial yearsin the priesthood,he spent the years 1915 to 1943as the pastor at theHeiliggeistkirche (The Churchof theHoly Spirit)in Heidelberg.Maas was married to Comelie,n6e Hesselbacher,and the marriage produced three daughters. From 1945to 1965he was first theKreisdekan ("Regional Dean"), and then the Prelate, ofthe EvangelicalLandeskirche ("regionalchurch") in Baden.He was much influenced by liberaltheology, by the ecumenicalmovement and by his earlyencounter with Judaism.Maas was a pioneerof theecumenical movement and was thus involved in thefounding ofthe ecumenical " Weltbundf)r intemationaleFreundschaftsarbeit der Christen"("lntemational Alliance for AmicableCollaboration between Christians") in Konstanzin August1914. Later, he alsojoined the Verein zur Abwehrdes Antisemitismus ("Society for Defenceagainst Anti-semitism")led by the leadingStuttgart parish priest Lamparter.' From earliest youth, Maashad intensivecontact with Jews."Even in my earlyyouth, and despitebeing the son and grandsonofpastors, I felt strangelydrawn to thepeople of Israel. The majorityof myfirst friendswere Jewish."'ln 1903,as a youngclergyman, Maas took part asa guestin the6* ZionistCongress in Basle,meeting Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann andMartin Buber. He wasto remainin contactwith Buberfor therest of his life. In Basle he experiencedthe passionatedebates between those Jews who supportedthe "Uganda Plan"and the "Zionists", for whomonly Israelitselfcould be considered as the location

' Prof. (Ret.) Dr. Jdrg Thierfelder, was until 2002 Professor ofEvangelical Thmlory/Religoius Studies at the P?idagogoscheHochschule Heidelberg and Honorary Professor at the University ofHeidelberg' 2 See also Viola Schrenk, Pfarrer E&tard Lanparter (1860-1945) in Streit un Judenmission und Antisemitismrls (The Priest Eduart Lamryrter (1860-1945) and the Arcsfion ofJewish Missions and Anti- Semitism), iJ]: R iner LiicheldJiirg Thierfelder (tIG.), Wtrttembergs Protestantismus in der Weimarer Republik (lhe of Wiirttemberg in the Weimar Republi), Sttrttgan 2003, I 87- 198' 3 Except where otherwise annotated, all quotations taken from: Wemer Keller et cl Lebenfir Vers6hnung. Hermann Maas - Wegbereiter desjiidischen-clnistlichen Dialoges (Lives devoted to Reconciliation. Hermann Mqqs - Pioneer ofJudaeo-Christian Dialogue),Karlsruhe, 2'" Edition, 1997 for a Jewishstate. Maas voiced his supportfor theZionists.a Hebecarne "a Zionistin my sacredlove of thepromises in theBible".' It wasin thesebiblical promises that he saw the true Zionism: "Its constant,living presencein theprophetic promises ofa land' of justice, ofpeace,of deliverance,all theseand morego to makeup the deepestmotives behindZionism;'"

In contrastto the majority of faithful Protestants,who greetedthe so-called Machtergreifung("seizure of power") with enthusiasm'Maas was appalled' "Right from the start,I .u* Hitl". as a calamityfor the Germanpeople." He washorrified by the increasinglypowerful segmentof GermanChrtsfians who wantedto createa connection betweenNational socialism and Evangelical christianity. This groupwanted to tolerate no morepastors of Jewishorigin within theChurch (in aocordancewith theso-called .,Arian Paragraph")and would havepreferred to segregateall christians of Jewishorigin into.special congregations. As early as 1932- threeyears before the NurembergRace Lawsi- theywere demanding a prohibitionon theperformance of marriageceremonies betweenGermans and Jews.7 But aboveall, Maas-deplored the way the Churchremained silentand looked the other waY.

At thestart of 1933,Maas was preoccupied with preparationsfor his trip to Palestine Committee(April - July, 1933),which was financed by a grantfrom the German Palestine.Together with a groupof delegatesfrom the intemational Jewish women's organisationwIZo 1th"Women's Intemational Zionist organisation), he travelled from Niples to Haifa. In Napleshe witnessedhundreds of desperaterefugees from boardingthe American ship "Vulcania". In theHoly Land,he visited not onlyhistorical sitesof interestto Christiansbut alsoarchaeological excavation sites and above all, Kibbutzimas well. He tookpart in thecelebration of Jewishfestivals and leamed Hebrew.6

Whenhe retumedhome, Maas found himself the focal point of unprecedented propagandaand agitation. The local district HeadofPropaganda for the NSDAP ?NationalsozialistischeDeutsche Arbeiterpartei) demanded ofthe evangelicalDean that Maasshould be b.annedfrom preaohing.The reasongiven: "The attitudeof the parish pastorMaas, which has for yearsbeen emphatically friendly towards the Jews, is known ihroughoutthe city [. . .]. Maasis regardedeverywhere as t e Jew-lovingpastor'" Initiaiy, thechurch authorities advised Maas not to holdhis first servicefollowing his

4 c.f. also the eyewitness account given by Maas to in May 1962, copy from Landeskirchliche great Archiv in Karlsruhe,P Al.laas:. "And, notwithstanding nry tremendous admirationfor Hezl as a truly man, I spoke in opposition to him- I was agqinst the notion ofmoving the Jewish peoplefrom one place of dangerio what iight well be another such. I said - and this was of course ny religiow experience - thst Zioi alone is Zion. There is only one Zo4 and that is Zion And today we are in Zion;' 5 t manuscript, copy in the possessionofthe author. Hermann Maas, Zove oflsrael, undated ?ewritten - 6 Hermann Maas, fre Destiry) of the Jev'ish People,in: To tl,e Uqforgotten' Victims of Maniafrom 193i to I 94 5, Heidelbery 1952, 175. ? See also Eberhird Rdhm/Jiirg Thierfel de4 The Evangelical Church between the Cross and the Swastilq, Stuttgart,4' Edition 1990,p.25. Hebrew may be found in the Yad Vashem Archives in " Sevii ofthe countless letters he wrote in Jerusalem. return, so as not to place himself in danger,and Maas followed this advice. In the end, BishopJulius Kiihlewein, the Landesbischof("Regional Bishop"), lodged a protestwith the Ministry of the Interior againstthis interferencewith a man of the cloth in the practice of his ecclesiasticalactivities without any well-founded complaintshaving beenbrought, and the matter fizzled out. Following a sermonby Maas, MarianneWeber, the wife of renownedsociologist Max Weber,wrote that she had becomeaware of the Gestapo observingand noting down thosewho affended;that going to a sermonby Maas was "a to "Maas confessio"ne,a Chrisiian but perilousendeauourj'. Lit.r, joined theBekennende Kirche (the GermanConfessing Church).

2. Efforts on behalf of persecutedJews

While many Germans- including many Christians- began,after 1933,to be ashamedof their acquaintancewith Jewishpeople, Maas madeno secretof his solidarity with the Jews.He was motivated not only by charity toward thosewho were fallen amongthieves, but also by his conviction that therewas a profound connectionbetween Jews and Christians.Concerning the Reich-wide Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938,he wrote to a Jewish fellow citizen in Baden-Baden;"1 stond besideyou, not despiteyour Jewishness but becauseof it, and becausetoday I know of one single divine congregation, one single divine people to whom we, you and I, belong equally as brothers and sisters, equally attaclred, despisedand cast out by the world, and also equally secure in the love of the Almighty, whosechildren it is given to us to be." On the days of JewishHigh Holy Days, he ostentatiouslytook part in the Jewish servicesat the synagogue.Fritz Pinkuss,the Rabbiof Heidelberg(and laterRabbi of 56o Paulo)recalled in 1985:"His solidarity towards us as a human beingwas so profound thatwe spentChristmas Eve with him and he came to usfor Pesach andfor the High Holy Days of Judaism. This went sofar that I wasforced to give him an urgent warning not to endanger his own saJbtythrough his participation in our services [...J. I have rarely seensomeone prqy as deeply as he did when he came to the most important prqyer services during the High Holy Days."

Maas not only gave supportand counselto baptisedJews, he also gaveassistance to beleagueredJewish people in general.Fritz Pinkuss,when emigratingin 1938,enjoined him o'tocare for the persecutedand the old", and Maas did indeedtake care of the old peoplein the Jewishhome forthe elderly in Mannheim.He affixed amezuzah- a traditional Jewishcapsule to be fastenedto a door frame - to the door of his pastoral residence,on the groundsthat"My Jewishfriends should lvtow that they are safe at my house."Maas gatheredabout him a circle of helpers,many of whom were themselves endangered,such as Marie Baum, the lecturer in Social and Political Studies,who had lost her teachingposition at the Universityin 1933on accountof her "non-Aryan" ancestry,and Annemarie Fraenkel,ll daughterof Prof. Albert Fraenkel(world-famous for e Translator'snote: "confession" (Ger: Bekenntnis)is here usedin the senseof a declarationof one'smoral position, and of standingup to be courted. r0 JOrgThierfelder, Hermann Maas - Tun des Gerechten (Hermann Maas - To do what is Right), in: Jdrg Thierfelder/Willi Wtilfing (Ed.\, Fiir ein neues Yerhdltnis von Juden und Christen (Towards a new Relationshipbetween Jews and Christians, Weinheim 1996,p. 134. t' For more on Annemarie Fraenkel,see J0rg Thierfelder, Albert. Eine biographischeSkizze (Albert. A Biographical Sketch), in: Peter Drings et al, Albert Fraenkel. Ein Arztleben in Licht und Schatten 1864- his researchinto strophanthin).Elisabeth von Thadden,the headmistress ofa private girls'school in Heidelberg-Wieblingen,was another who supportedhim.

Maasalso used his ecumenicalconnections to helpthe persecuted Jews. At a congressof the Weltbundfiir intemationaleFreundschaftsarbeit der Christen("Worldwide Associationfor InternationalFriendship and Cooperation between Christians") in Geneva in 1935,he delivered a lectureon "TheProblem of Non-AryanChristians". His feeling wasthat suchpeople were falling betweentwo stools- not supportedby Jewishaid organisations,and supported far too little by theEvangelical Churches. Maas called for collectivesettlement in EastJordan, for schoolsin Germanythat would lay the groundworkfor this emigration,and for thefact that the nomination oflsrael remains consistentin Romans9 - 1l to beborne in mindonce more. Finally, on Januaryl, 1936 andwith Maaspresent, an "IntemationalesHilfkomitee fiir deutscheFliichtlinge" ("InternationalAid Commissionfor GermanRefugees") was founded, an organisation primarily concemedwith assistingpersecuted Jews to emigrate.

For Maas,the offensivethat had flaredup againsttheJews was not so mucha political issueas a theologicalone: "Behind the offensive against the Jews lies a denialofthe requirementthat God has imposed upon us in respectofthe Jewishpeople, their nominationand their fate,and in respectof John4.22:'For salvation is of theJews'." Thusthe attackupon the Jewswas ultimately an attackupon the faith ofthe Church.For Maas,it is thereforeincumbent upon the Church"to form a protectivefence around the wholeof theembodiment of Israel".The return of theJewish people to Israelwas also relevantto Christians.In thecommon roots shared by Jewsturd Christians (see for exampleRomans 9 to I I ) l1eperceived "an eschatologicaloneness" between the Church andthe Children oflsrael.''. "Eveniftoday, thisZionism wears a facethat is primarily secular,social and political - evenif it hasnot yet givenserious consideration to themost profoundcore ofthe JewishQuestion - yet deepinside lies something much gteater: a migrationof theJewish people to the landin whichthe Lord will at lastlead his peopleto Christin accordancewith his promises.The Zionist movement is aneschatological movementin theChristian sense."l3 A boldstatement, and one that met with disagreement.Not until afterthe war did the EvangelicalChurch give freshconsideration to thepromises made to theChildren oflsrael, which remain valid and consistent even afterthe advent ofJesus.

1 938 (Albert Frqenkel. A Doctor's Life in Light and Shadwv 1864-l9j8), Lardsberg/Lech 2004, pp 17-69, h^ere,pp 51ff. '' See Eckhart Marggraf, Die Landeskirche vor der ,,Jude4frage" und angesichts der Judenverfolgung, 1935-1945(The Landeskirche before the "Jewish Qrestion" and in the light ofthe Persecution ofthe Jews, 1935-1945),in: Gerhard Schwinge (Ed.), Die Evangelische Landeskirche in Baden und im Dritten Reich. Quellen zu ihrer Geschichte (fhe Eyangelical Landeskirche in Baden ond in the Third Reich. Resources on its History),Y ol. lY, Karlsruhe2003, 367 466, herc,p. 369. '' Maas' Christian Zionism should not be confused with the Clristian Zionism ofevangelical fundamentalists in the USA, who maintain that Chfist will not retum until tbe Jewish people have retumed to rhe Holy Land, destroyed the sanctuariesoflslam and rebuilt the Temple. In the subsequentbattle of Armageddon, millions ofpeople would lose tieir lives and the Jews would be converted to Christianity. Soe also R Hadad, Dangerous Times, in: der iiberblick ("The Overview" -joumal ofthe ecumenical movement and intemational cooperation), pp 57ff TheReich-wide Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938saw the persecution ofthe Jewsentering a newand terrible phase. A Jewishwoman tells of hermeeting with Maasat thattime: "Then,as I reachedthe synagogue [...], therewere masses ofpeople standing and gloatingin frontofthe synagogue,plus the Hitler Youthwith collectingboxes cashing in on this 'wondrous'event, namely the buming synagogue, by demandingan entrance fee of20 Pfennigto seeit. And then,barely able to seefrom all thesmoke and the tears, I ran backdown the 'Fressgass'.Somewhere [...] someoneput his armaround me and said to me,'Child, don'tcry, this is thebeginning of theend.' And it wasalways in such circumstancesthat I encounteredPrelate Maas."

In 1938,the Berlin pastor Heinrich Griiber was commissioned by theConfessional Churchto foundthe Kirchliche Hilfestellefir evangelischeNichtarier (" Ecclesiastical Aid Agencyfor EvangelicalNon-Aryans"). Many of the Jewishstaffwho workedat the mainoffice in Berlindid not survivethe Shoah.The Hilfestelle was initially tolerated by the govemmentbecause the Naziswere interestedin makingGermany "Jew-free". Maas wasthe director ofthe confidentialoflice in Heidelbergofthe"Bfiro Pfarrer Grfibef'. Althoughthe Gestapoconfiscated, and probably destroyed, all of Maas'correspondence, it hasbeen possible to reconstructsome of theconcrete details of Maas'activities as a rescuer.It hasalso been possible to find contemporarywitnesses who had close connectionswith Maas:in England,Bishop George Bell of Chichesterwas his special contact,in Switzerlandthis wasAdolf Freudenbergofthe EcumenicalRefugee Services, andin Swedenhe was in contactwith ArchbishopErling Eidem.Hewas especially passionateabout rescuing children: "I musthave travelled to Englandabout once a quarteryear in orderto savemy manychildren and Jewish families". The " Biiro Pfarrer Gr ber" wasinvolved in the "Kindertransporte",thanks to which morethan I ,000 Christianchildren of Jewishorigin were brought to England.ra

Maaswrote the followingreport of a visit to BloomsburyHouse in London,where many aid agencieshad their offices: "Over there it dawnedon me [...] to my horrorthat the peoplethere were at their wits' end,their strenglhand resources exhausted. I am haunted dayand night by the imagesthat I sawthere, this thousand-foldcrush ofpeople in the committeerooms, a plagueofpeople in narrowcorridors and stairways and in offices overllowingwith woeand misery, with vituperationand with rage,these places transformedto somedegree into aninferno by unsuitableand unloving people. Dreadful! Whatcruel deprivation, and what demonic sadism, this ruthless,never-ending round of menacesand expulsions! Oh God,what is to bedone? I tremblebefore the ordeal that loomsover us - overEurope, and eventually over the entire world - in thesedays. And all ofthisfor thesake ofan idea..."

Maasplayed a very importantpart in therescue of40 pastorsof Jewishorigin, together with theirfamilies, whom Bishop George Bell hadpersuaded the British Ministry of the ra According to one estimate, the "Kindertransporte" brought a total of9345 Jewish children to England up to the beginning ofthe war. Walter E. Norton, London, founder ofthe Hermann Maas foundation and Chairman of its Board ofDirectors, provided us with this information. See also ClaudiaPqperl, Hermann Maas und sein Eintretenf)r verfolgte Juden (Hermatm Maas and his Championing of Persecuted Jews), Publications and Reports ofthe Hermann Maas Foundation, Heidelberg, December 1997,p. 4l f. Interiorto gant permissionto enterEngland. He alsoput together, at therequest ofthe EcumenicalHead Office in Geneva,a list thatincluded many endangered pastors. Everyoneon the list wasable to leaveGermany with theso-called -Bell Ticket.Doch However,Maas pushed for a collectivevisa to be securedfor 100-200or morelay persons.

Theseefforts on behalf ofpersecutedJews created difficulties for Maasin Heidelberg.In anuncensored letter to Zurichin 1935,he wrote of thewhole madness ofthe racialist policiesofthe NationalSocialists: "Here they are after me again because I baptised a child whowas 25 percentnon-Aryan [.. .] Or in everybar in town,the gossipis thatI spokewith a non-Aryandoctor on the streetbecause I wanted to askhim, thegeneral practitioner,for someadvice in anurgent matter relating to my pastoralduties..."'' GruellingGestapo interrogations began to takeplace, and it is little shortof miraculous that Maaswas not lockedup. Maashad his own explanationfor this:." Muchprotection and a strangeand often inexplicablelack ofresolution on thepart of the Gestapo preservedme from the ultimatesanctions - the campand the noose.But I believeI may say that at that time my lmge congregationin Heidelbergstood by melike a protective bulwark,often inhibiting the Gestapoor causingthem to hesitate'"

At theend of 1940,Heinrich Griiber was arrested and sent to theconcentration Qlmps - first Sachsenhausen,then Dachau.TheBiiro Griiber wasclosed by orderofthe Gestapo at thebeginning of 1941.The sudden deportation ofthe Jewsfrom Baden and the Saar Palatinatein October1940 came as a particularshock to Maas.Maas continued to contact Griiberand Freudenberg from the Ecumenical Refugee Services in Geneva,but all in vain.In the caseofa few ofthe olderpersons, he andhis colleaguestried to use medicationsto ensuretlat theywould be classifiedas incapable ofbeing transported. Not long afterwards,he wrote: 'Now I agoniseover the fact that I did not pray to be allowed , to comewith thesepoor brothers and sisters, and to diewith them."1940 saw the onsetof a campaignthat would eventuallyremove Maas from office. First the office of Standortpfaner("Local Pastor")was taken away from him, andin 1942the Ministry of Educationand culture withdrew his permissionto providereligious instruction. Finally, the Ministryof Educationand Culture demanded that the leadership ofthe Church ,.withdrawMaas from pastoral activities". In orderto forestallhis removal from officeby a disciplinaryverdict, he was put into rctirementon July l, 1943.In 1944he was assignedto compulsorywork in .

3. HerrnannMaas, builder of bridges

For Maas,the occupation of Heidelbergby theAmericans on March 30,lg4s,felt like a deliveranceand an end to thetyranny. Initially, he was heavily preoccupied with the questionofguilt. Thememorandum "How I picturethe rebuilding ofthe Evangelical Church",composed for theEcumenical Council in Genevain August1945, begins with the sentence:"Alt rebuildingmust sturt with sweepingout, clearing up and tearing down' In the languageof the Bible this is called doing 'penance'." Maasthen proceeds to indicateclearly the guilt ofthe Churchand ofChristians. "True, we wereignorant of

t5 Thierfelder(Notes 9), p140. muchofthe horrorthat transpired. But enoughassurances have been given ofthis. Was thatwhich we did know,did see,did hear,not enough?Did we not live throughApril l, 1933,with all its inhumanitiesand its wild demagoguesin our alleyways?Did we not hearthe songsour childrenwere singing when they ran yelling through the streets,or the dreadfulsound of theirmilitary drums? Or the songsof the SA [...]? - the HorstWessel Song?Or the speechesof the Fiihrerand of the other leaders,overflowing with mockery, hatredand inflammatory demagogy? Did we not seethe bumed out synagogue- the HouseofGod with a Biblicalquotation on its-front, housing the scrolls ofthe law andthe booksof theprophets of theMost Holy? ..."'o

Maaspointed out that the EvangelicalChurches too hadto all intentsand purposes remainedsilent conceming the outrages of theNational Socialist regime, to the persecutionofthe Jews,to theNational Socialists' euthanasia programme and to the SecondWorld War"We shouldhave cried out, and riskedour livesand ourfreedom again and again.All ofus - the entire Church. Wecannot excuse ourselves, we must accuseourselyes, we do accuseourselves." When{he Jrldtic he RundschaurT resumed publicationin 1946,with an introductionfrom theFrankfurt Rabbi Dr. Neuhaus,Maas contributeda readeCsletter: " How dreadfullyheavy is the burdenof guilt that each individual memberof the non-JewishGerman population, myself includpd, must bear. We are all implicated,even ifwe lovedIsrael deeplyand opposedthese terrible forces, as I tried to do." For manywho hadexpected a criticalword or two onthe "guilt ofothers", this was clearlytoo much.At the Oberkirchenratin Karlsruhe,this was reportedas follows:"ln Heidelbergin particular,there is greatagitation in studentcircles conceming this pronouncementby a well-knownand distinguished representative ofthe Evangelical Church."

In certainrespects Maas picked up wherehe had left offbefore1945. Together with other citizensof Heidelberg he foundeda Committeefor the Victimsof National Socialism, andretumed to providinghelp for JewishChristians in need.Working together with the AmericanConsul in Stuttgart,he made it possiblefor substantialnumber of Christiansof Jewishorigin to emigrateto the USA. Maasalso worked to bring aboutthe returnof RabbiRobert Raphael Geis, who had been Rabbi of Mannheimfrom 1934to 1937.In 1952Geis became the Landesrabbiner ("Regional Rabbi') Baden.

In August 1946,the InternationalConference of Christiansand Jews in Oxford setout to emphasisethe points in commonbetween Judaism and Christianity in relationto their religiousunderstanding ofreality and to theirsocial mission. Maas, one of thefour Germanparticipants, used the conferenceas an occasion"to acknowledgean €normous guilt, a guilt with whichthe German people - seducedand swept along by events- has saddleditselfand which it will fraveto bearfor all time".The 1946conference in Oxford waswhere the foundationwas laid for theInternational Council of Jewsand Christians, whosepresent-day offices arelocated in the former residenceof Martin Buber in f6 The entire memorandum is reproduced in Gerhard Besier s/ al, Kirche nach der Kapitulation - eine Dohtmentation (Ihe Churchlollowing the Capitulation - a Doc-amentation),Vot.2, Stvllgart 1990, pp. 303-306. r7 Translator's note: Swiss-published "Iew6h Review. now ren rned Tachles. Heppenheim.Maas welcomed and collaborated with theGerman Coordination Council andits affiliatedsocieties for co-operationbetween Germans and Jews. It wasimportant to Maasthat more should be involvedhere than simple humanitarianism. His concem waswith a true coming-together,and this could not happenwithout "truly gettingto know eachother".

Maasconcemed himself most particularly with the issueof Germanreconciliation with theJewish people and with thestate oflsrael. In 1949he became the first Christian Germanto receivean official invitationfrom the state of Israel18.On July 9 1952,Maas spokeat the Cozncil of Christiansand Jews in Londonon the topic of Germanyand Peacewith Israel. In the light ofthe catastrophiofood situationin Israel,he wrote to FederalPresident Theodor Heuss, whom he knew well fromHeidelberg: "Surely the momenthas arrived to takea conoretecase as a starting-pointfor makingpeace with lsrael[...] by dispatchingsome foodstuffs to Israel."Again and again Maas urged that formally-regulatedrelationships be established with Israel,pointing out the particular significanceof this for peacein theMiddle East. By takingsuch initiatives, Hermann Maasmade a smallbut importantcontribution thal helped pave the way for theeventual establishmentof relationshipsbetween Israel and Germany (May 1965).

Maaswas accordedmany honours after the war. He took particularpleasure when, in 1966,the Yad VashemMedal was conferred upon him andhe wasawarded the honorary title Righteousamong the Nations. Asher Ben Nathan, the first Israeli ambassadorto the FederalRepublic of Germany,said at thattime: "These people were not evenconsidered to bepersons at thattime; you regarded them as havittg been made in theimage o^f God, and in so doing you riskedyour life." Together,the Ilermann MaasFoundation'", which was foundedover twenty yearsago, and the LandeskircheofBaden keephis memory alive with activitiesthat includethe bestowalof the HermannMaas Prize. And,with the HermannMaas Medal, autardedevery two years,the EvangelicalChurch of honoursindividuals, gtoups or institutionswho cany out work that is in the true spirit of HermannMaas.2o

ta T\e second ofrcial in:||,tationwenttalhe Ilamburg joumalist Rudolf Kfrstermeier,the thirdto Dr. Gertrud LuckneL fotnder ofthe Freiburger Rundbrief. te The Hermann Maas Foundation owesis existence to Prof. Dr. Emst Ludwig Ehrlich and his suggestion that a foundation would be a better use ofmoney than a commemorative fountain. 20 C.f. Joachim Mai er, Ge&jchtnis des Leidens - Qtelle des l*bens (Commemoration of &Seing - Source of Life) , on the bestowal of the Hermann Maas Medal to Eva Mendelsson and Paul Niedermann, Freriburger Rundbri ef 14 Q007), pp.3643.