Struggle to serve two master: a study of the German Evangelical Church and the National Socialist State

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to digital@library.tamu.edu, referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references (see footnotes).The formation of the German Evangelical Church in 1933 coincided with the seizure of power by the Nazi party under Adolf Hitler. The relationship between the Nazi state and the German Evangelical was dominated by Hitler's efforts to dominate all of German society through his policy of Gleichshaltung (coordination). Inside the German Evangelical Church a struggle raged between the German Christian movement and the Confessing Church to determine the relationship between church and state. The German Christians, under the Volkeskirche (people's church) concept, believed that the German Evangelical Church should become the spiritual foundations to Nazi ideology and policy. The church and state should work closely together under their new leader, Hitler. The Confessing Church, believing that the church was under obligation only to Christ, fought to keep the state from dominating the German Evangelical Church and the Nazi state from dominating all of German society