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MCDS pagescontain a translationinto English an The following -of appearedin the June2007 issue ofthe Freiburger commissionedby W.E.Norton, Chairman ofthe and carried ftr;il'j:rf .,,t,'rii.:, :,r:t,f i l##aeeeu .mort to add explanatorynotes. These appear as footnotes thetranslations of hofessorThier'feJder's ori by the words "Translator's note". exists, 2. Thetext also equivalent the thesebeing for the most Churchor time, namesof varioussocieties for the first an explanatorytranslation is providedin German term is generally used. Hermonn Moos - Sliftung schirmherr: Londesbischo{ Dr. ulrich Fischqr. lGrlsruhe . vorstondrvofsit onder: wolier Norton. London Dekoncl,, Heiliggeisfslr17, 691 I 7 Heidelberg 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. For theHeidelberg pastor Hermann Maas was a builderofbridges in two respects:on the one hand,bridges between Jews and Christians; and on the other,bridges between Germanyand the stateof Israel.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 Protestantism 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 Germany 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 Yad Vashem 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