University of Cambridge Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages Department of German and Dutch Between Defiance and Compliance: The Lutheran Landesbischöfe of Hanover, Bavaria and Württemberg in the Third Reich Diana Jane Beech Peterhouse A dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2010 DECLARATIONS This dissertation does not exceed 80,000 words, including footnotes and references but excluding the bibliography. This dissertation is written and formatted in compliance with the Style Guide of the Modern Humanities Research Association. This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration. Diana Jane Beech - ‘The Lutheran Landesbischöfe of Hanover, Bavaria and Württemberg in the Third Reich’ ABSTRACT While much is known about the polarities of the Protestant ‗Church Struggle‘ (Kirchenkampf) in Nazi Germany, comparatively little is understood about the complex and collective dynamic of the Landesbischöfe of the only three ‗intact‘ churches to escape incorporation into the Nazi-dominated Reichskirche. Traditionally, literature on the Kirchenkampf has taken a simplistic ‗good-versus-evil‘ approach to the conflict and, arguably inspired by a moral need to come to terms with the less-than-glorious past of the German Protestant Church, has been unable to locate the Landesbischöfe of the ‗intact‘ churches neatly within the conventional historiographical paradigm. By taking as its subject Landesbischöfe August Marahrens of Hanover, Hans Meiser of Bavaria and Theophil Wurm of Württemberg, this dissertation examines the contribution to the Kirchenkampf of three men, who, to ensure the continued existence of German Protestantism in the Third Reich, were ultimately forced to find ways to respond to National Socialism that lay somewhere between the parameters of defiance and compliance. In order to demonstrate the collective contribution of the Landesbischöfe to maintaining the status of the German Protestant Church amidst heightening Nazi tyranny, this dissertation traces how, with reference to external personal, political and socio-cultural conditions, the bishops moved from a seeming commonality of cause to display increasingly varied responses to the manifestations of both political and ecclesiastical National Socialism. By tracing the development of their moderate but nonetheless disparate positions, this dissertation not only questions the traditional historiographical assumptions that Landesbischöfe Marahrens, Meiser and Wurm failed to resist National Socialism effectively or were, at best, collectively neutral in the conflict, but also seeks to delineate, for the first time, the crucial parts played by each of the Landesbischöfe during three distinct stages of the Kirchenkampf. In devoting each of its three central chapters to a particular phase in the conflict, this dissertation demonstrates how each of the Landesbischöfe in turn steered the ‗intact‘ ensemble through the Third Reich as a modest yet effective force of opposition to Nazi despotism. Seen as a whole, this investigation ultimately demonstrates how, through their respective turns at national Church leadership, Landesbischöfe Marahrens, Meiser and Wurm did not undermine the wider Church resistance effort but, rather, saved the Church from subjugation to Nazism more effectively than would have been possible had they stood alone. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................... i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................................................... iii EPIGRAPH ....................................................................................................................................................v PREFACE .................................................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................1 a) Preliminary Remarks and Research Objectives ............................................................................. 1 b) Historiographical and Methodological Contexts for Research ...................................................... 5 i) The Historiography of the Third Reich ................................................................................ 5 The Political-Ideological Dimension ............................................................................. 6 The Moral Dimension .................................................................................................... 8 The Historical-Philosophical Dimension ..................................................................... 10 ii) The Historiography of the Protestant Kirchenkampf ......................................................... 12 The Historical-Philosophical Bias ............................................................................... 13 The (Auto-)Biographical Bias ..................................................................................... 16 The Confessional Bias ................................................................................................. 19 c) Relevance and Intended Contribution .......................................................................................... 21 d) Structure and Approach ............................................................................................................... 23 i) Sources ............................................................................................................................... 24 ii) Chapter Outline ................................................................................................................. 25 e) A Note on Confessional Lutheranism .......................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER ONE – 1933-1935: THE MARAHRENS YEARS............................................................................31 The Landesbischöfe and the National Socialist State ....................................................................... 33 The Landesbischöfe and the Deutsche Christen ............................................................................... 46 The Landesbischöfe and the Bekennende Kirche ............................................................................. 60 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................................. 73 CHAPTER TWO – 1935-1939: THE MEISER YEARS ....................................................................................77 The Landesbischöfe and the lutherischer Flügel ............................................................................. 81 The Landesbischöfe and the Kirchenausschüsse .............................................................................. 94 The Landesbischöfe and the Acquiescing Church .......................................................................... 107 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................................... 120 CHAPTER THREE – 1939-1945: THE WURM YEARS ................................................................................124 The Dictates of War ........................................................................................................................ 127 The Landesbischöfe and Responses to Nazi Terror ........................................................................ 139 The Persecution of ‗Non-Aryan‘ Christians ......................................................................... 140 The Euthanasia Programme ................................................................................................. 147 The Holocaust ...................................................................................................................... 152 Das kirchliche Einigungswerk ........................................................................................................ 160 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................................... 168 CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................................172 EPILOGUE ................................................................................................................................................179 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................182 ARCHIVAL SOURCES ...............................................................................................................................183 SECONDARY SOURCES ............................................................................................................................186 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When deciding to entitle this investigation ‗Between Defiance and Compliance‘ I had no idea how those four words would also come to serve as the perfect epigraph for my own experience in producing this dissertation. On the one hand, the very fact I have completed such a significant piece of work is in defiance of my own belief in just how far circumstance has allowed me