Chapter VII: Means Used by the Nazi Conspirators in Gaining Control of the German State: 6. Suppression of the Christian Churches, from Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, US Government Printing Office (Washington, DC): 1946. Volume I. pp. 263-296.
A. The Nazi conspirators sought to subvert the influence of the churches over the people of Germany.
(1) They sought to eliminate the Christian Churches in Germany.
(a) Statements of this aim. Martin Bormann stated in a secret decree of the Party Chancellery signed by him and distributed to all Gauleiters 7 June 1941:
"Our National Socialist ideology is far loftier than the concepts of Christianity, which in their essential points have been taken over from Jewry * * *. A differentiation between the various Christian confessions is not to be made here * * * the Evangelical Church is just as inimical to us as the Catholic Church. * * * All influences which might impair or damage the leadership of the people exercised by the Fuehrer with the help of the NSDAP must be eliminated. More and more the people must be separated from the churches and their organs the pastors. * * * Just as the deleterious influences of astrologers, seers and other fakers are eliminated and suppressed by the State, so must the possibility of church influence also be totally removed. * * * Not until this has happened, does the state leadership have influence on the individual citizens. Not until then are the people and Reich secure in their existence for all time." (D-75)
Hans Kerrl, Reich Minister for Church Affairs, in a letter dated 9 June 1939 to a Herr Stapel, which indicated that it would be brought to the attention of the Confidential Council and of the defendant Hess, made the following statements:
"The Fuehrer considers his efforts to bring the Evangelical Church to reason unsuccessful and the Evangelical Church with respect to its condition rightfully a useless pile of sects. As you emphasize the Party has previously carried on not only a fight against the political element of the Christianity of the Church, but also a fight against membership of Party Members in a Christian confession. * * *
"The Catholic Church will and must, according to the law under which it is set up, remain a thorn in the flesh of a Racial State * * *." (129-PS)
Gauleiter Florian, in a letter dated 23 September 1940 to the defendant Hess, stated:
Regierungsrat Roth, in a lecture 22 September 1941, to a group of Security Police, in the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) concluded his address on Security Police (Sipo) measures for combatting church politics and sects with the following remarks:"The churches with their Christianity are the danger against which to fight is absolutely necessary." (064-PS)"The immediate aim: the church must not regain one inch of the ground it has lost. The ultimate aim: Destruction of the Confessional Churches to be brought about by the collection of all material obtained through the intelligence service (Nachrichtendienst) activities which will at a given time be produced as evidence for the charge of treasonable activities during the German fight for existence." (1815-PS)
The Party Organization Book states:
(b) The Nazi conspirators promoted beliefs and practices incompatible with Christian teachings. The 24th point of the Program of the NSDAP, unchanged since its adoption in 1920, is as follows:"Bravery is valued by the SS man as the highest virtue of men in a struggle for his ideology.
"He openly and unrelentingly fights the most dangerous enemies of the State; Jews, Free Masons, Jesuits, and political clergymen.
"However, he recruits and convinces the weak and inconstant by his example, who have not been able to bring themselves to the National Socialistic ideology." (1855-PS)
"We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish materialistic spirit within and around us, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: common utility precedes individual utility." (1708-PS)
In official correspondence with the defendant Rosenberg in 1940, Bormann stated:
"Christian religion and National Socialist doctrines are not compatible. * * * The churches cannot be subjugated through compromise, only through a new philosophy as prophesied in Rosenberg's works."
He then proposed creation of a National Socialist Catechism to provide a "moral foundation" for a National Socialist religion which is gradually to supplant the Christian churches. He stated the matter was so important it should be discussed with members of the Reich Cabinet as soon as possible and requested Rosenberg's opinion before the meeting. (098-PS)
In a secret decree of the Party Chancellery, signed by Bormann and distributed to all Gauleiters on 7 June 1941, the following statements appeared:
"When we National Socialists speak of a belief in God, we do not understand by God, like naive Christians and their spiritual opportunists, a human-type being, who sits around somewhere in the sphere * * *. The force of natural law, with which all these innumerable planets move in the universe, we call the Almighty, or God. The claim that this world force * * * can be influenced by so-called prayers or other astonishing things is based upon a proper dose of naivete or on a business shamelessness.
"As opposed to that we National Socialists impose on ourselves the demand to live naturally as much as possible, i.e., biologically. The more accurately we recognize and observe the laws of nature and of life, the more we adhere to them, so much the more do we conform to the will of the Almighty. The more insight we have into the will of the Almighty, the greater will be our successes." (D-75)
Rosenberg in his book "The Myth of the 20th Century" advocated a new National Socialist faith or religion to replace the Christian confessions in Germany. He stated that the Catholic and Protestant churches represent "negative Christianity" and do not correspond to the soul of the "Nordic racially determined peoples"; that a German religious movement would have to declare that the idea of neighborly love is unconditionally subordinated to national honor; that national honor is the highest human value and does not admit of any equal valued force such as Christian love. He predicted:
"A German religion will, bit by bit, present in the churches transferred to it, in place of the crucifixion the spirit of fire the heroic -- in the highest sense." (2349-PS)
The Reich Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst), a National Socialist youth organization, was prohibited from participating in religious celebrations of any kind, and its members were instructed to attend only the parts of such ceremonies as weddings and funerals which took place before or after the church celebration. (107-PS)
The Nazi conspirators considered religious literature undesirable for the Wehrmacht. National Socialist publications were prepared for the Wehrmacht for the expressed purpose of replacing and counteracting the influence of religious literature disseminated to the troops. (101-PS; 100-PS; 064-PS)
The Nazi conspirators through Rosenberg's Office for Supervision of the Ideological Training and Education of the NSDAP and the Office of the Deputy of the Fuehrer "induced" the substitution of National Socialist mottoes and services for religious prayers and services in the schools of Germany. (070-PS)
On 14 July 1939, Bormann, as Deputy of the Fuehrer, issued a Party regulation excluding clergymen, persons closely connected with the church, and Theology students from membership in the Party. It was further decreed that in the future Party Members who entered the clergy or turned to the study of Theology must leave the Party. (840-PS)
(c) The Nazi conspirators persecuted priests, clergy and members of monastic orders. The priests and clergy of Germany were subjected by the police to systematic espionage into their daily lives. The Nazi conspirators through the Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) maintained a special branch of the Security Police and Security Service (Sipo/SD) whose duties were to investigate the churches and maintain constant surveillance upon the public and private lives of the clergy. (1815-PS)
At a conference of these police "church specialists" called by Heydrich, who was then SS Gruppenfuehrer and Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), in Berlin, 23 September 1941, SS Sturmbannfueherer Hartl, acting for Heydrich, stated that the greatest importance was to be attached to church political activity. The intelligence network in this field, he continued, was to be fostered with the greatest of care and enlarged with the recruitment of informants, particular value being attached to contacts with church circles. He closed his lecture with the following words:
"Each of you must go to work with your whole heart and a true fanaticism. Should a mistake or two be made in the execution of this work, this should in no way discourage you, since mistakes are made everywhere. The main thing is that the enemy should be constantly tackled with determination, will, and effective initiative." (1815-PS)
In a letter of 22 October 1941, Heydrich, as Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) issued detailed instructions to all State Police Offices outlining the organization of the Catholic Church and directing close surveillance of the activities, writings, and reports of the Catholic clergy in Germany. In this connection he directed:
"Reports are also to be submitted on those Theological students destined for Papal Institutes, and Priests returning from such institutes to Germany. Should the opportunity arise of placing someone for intelligence (Nachrichtendienst) purposes in one of these Institutes, in the guise of a Theological student, we should receive immediate notification." (1815-PS)
Priests and other members of the clergy were arrested, fined, imprisoned, and otherwise punished by executive measures of the police without judicial process. In his lecture before a conference at the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) in Berlin, for "church specialists," of the Security Police, 22 November 1941, Regierungsrat Roth stated (1815-PS):
Members of monastic orders were forced by the seizure and confiscation of their properties to give up their established place of abode and seek homes elsewhere (R-101-A; R-101-D). A secret order of the SS Economic Administration Office to all Concentration Camp Commanders, dated 21 April 1942, concerning labor mobilization of clergy, reveals that clergymen were at that time, and had previously been, incarcerated in Concentration Camps. (1164-PS)"It has been demonstrated that it is impracticable to deal with political offenses (malicious) under normal legal procedure. Owing to the lack of political perception which still prevails among the legal authorities, suspension of this procedure must be reckoned with. The so-called "Agitator Priests" must therefore be dealt with in future by Stapo measures, and, if the occasion arises, be removed to a Concentration Camp, if agreed upon by the RSHA.
"The necessary executive measures are to be decided upon according to local conditions, the status of the person accused, and the seriousness of the case -- as follows:
1. Warning
2. Fine
3. Forbidden to preach
4. Forbidden to remain in parish
5. Forbidden all activity as a priest
6. Short-term arrest
7. Protective custody."
On the death of von Hindenburg, the Reich Government ordered the ringing of all church bells on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th August 1934. In Bavaria, there were many instances of failure to comply with this order. The Bavarian police submitted a report outlining the above situation and stating that in three cases the taking into protective custody of recalcitrant clergy could not be avoided.
"The Parish priest, Father Johann Quinger of Altenkunstadt BA., Lichtenfels. He was taken into protective custody on 3 August on the express order of the State Ministry of the Interior, because he assaulted SA leaders and SA men who were ringing the bells against his wishes. He was released from custody on 10 August 1934.
"The Parish priest, Father Ludwig Obholzer of Kiefersfelden, BA Rosenheim. For his personal safety he was in police custody from 2400 hours on the 2 August 1934, till 1000 hours on 3 August 1934. On 5 August 1934, he said sarcastically in his sermon, referring to the SA men who had carried out the ringing of the funeral knell on their own account, 'Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do' ! "The Parish priest, Father Johann Nepomuk Kleber of Wiefelsdorf, BA Burglengenfeld, refused to ring the church bells on the 2nd and 3rd. He is badly tainted politically and had to be taken into protective custody from the 5th to the 8th of August 34 in the interests of his own safety." (1521-PS)
After Hitler's rise to power, Bishop Sproll of Rottenburg delivered a series of sermons regarded by the Nazis as damaging, and on 10 April 1938 he refrained from voting in the plebiscite. For this, the Reich Governor of Wuertemberg declared he would no longer regard Bishop Sproll as head of the Diocese of Rottenburg; made an official request that he leave the Gau; and declared he would see to it that all personal and official intercourse between the Bishop and the State and Party offices as well as the Armed Forces would be denied (849-PS). For his alleged failure to vote in the plebiscite, of 10 April 1938, the Party caused three demonstrations to be staged against the Bishop and his household in Rottenburg. The third demonstration was described as follows in a teletype message from Gestapo Office Stuttgart to Gestapo Office Berlin:
"The Party on 23 July 1938 from 2100 on carried out the third demonstration against Bishop Sproll. Participants about 2,500-3,000 were brought in from outside by bus, etc. The Rottenburg populace again did not participate in the demonstration. The town took rather a hostile attitude to the demonstrations. The action got completely out of hand of the Party Member responsible for it. The demonstrators stormed the palace, beat in the gates and doors. About 150 to 200 people forced their way into the palace, searched the rooms, threw files out of the windows and rummaged through the beds in the rooms of the palace. One bed was ignited. Before the fire got to the other objects of equipment in the rooms and the palace, the flaming bed could be thrown from the window and the fire extinguished. The Bishop was with Archbishop Groeber of Freiburg and the ladies and gentlemen of his menage in the chapel at prayer. About 25 to 30 people pressed into this chapel and molested those present. Bishop Groeber was taken for Bishop Sproll. He was grabbed by the robe and dragged back and forth. Finally the intruders realized that Bishop Groeber is not the one they are seeking. They could then be persuaded to leave the building. After the evacuation of the palace by the demonstrators I had an interview with Archbishop Groeber, who left Rottenburg in the night. Groeber wants to turn to the Fuehrer and Reich Minister of the Interior Dr. Frick anew. On the course of the action, the damage done as well as the homage of the Rottenburg populace beginning today for the Bishop I shall immediately hand in a full report, after I am in the act of suppressing counter mass meetings." (848-PS)
Reich Minister for Church Affairs Kerrl and other Party officials alleged that these demonstrations were spontaneously staged by indignant citizens of Rottenburg and caused representations to be made to the Holy See in an effort to effect the Bishop's removal from office. (89-PS)
On or about 3 December 1941, a copy of a secret decree of the Party Chancellery on the subject of Relationship of National Socialism to Christianity was found by the Security Police in the possession of Protestant Priest Eichholz at Aix-la-Chapelle. For this he was arrested and held for questioning for an unknown period of time. (D-75)
(d) The Nazi conspirators confiscated church property. On 20 January 1938, the Gestapo District Office at Munich issued a decree dissolving the Guild of the Virgin Mary of the Bavarian Diocese, together with its branches and associations. The decree also stated:
"The property belonging to the dissolved Guild is to be confiscated by the police. Not only is property in cash to be confiscated, but also any stock on hand and their objects of value. All further activity is forbidden the dissolved Guilds, particularly the foundation of any organization intended as a successor or as a cover. Incorporation as a body into other women's societies is also to be looked on as a forbidden continuation of activity. Infringements against the above prohibition will be punished according to par. 4 of the order of 28 February 1933."
The reasons for the dissolution and confiscation were that the Guild of the Virgin Mary had occupied itself for years "to a most far-reaching degree" with arrangements of a "worldly and popular sporting character" such as community games and "social evenings"; and further that the president of the society supplied the members with "seditious materials" which served for "seditious discussions"; and that the members of the Guild were trained and mobilized for "political and seditious tasks." (1481-PS)
In a lecture delivered to a conference of police investigators of Church Affairs assembled in the lecture hall of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) in Berlin, 22 September 1941, Regiersrungsrat Roth stated that about 100 monasteries in the Reich had been dissolved and pointed out that the proper procedure called for seizure of the churches at the same time the monasteries were dissolved. (1815-PS)
In February 1940, SS Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich suggested to Himmler the seizure of monasteries for the accommodation of Racial Germans. He proposed that the authorities of the monastic orders be instructed to make the monasteries concerned available and move their own members to less populous monasteries. He pointed out that the final expropriation of properties thus placed at their disposal could be carried out step by step in the course of time. Himmler agreed to this proposal and ordered the measure to be carried out by the Security Police and Security Service (Sipo and SD) in collaboration with the Reich Commissioner for Consolidation of German Folkdom. (R-101-A)
These orders for confiscation were carried out, as revealed in a letter dated 30 March 1942 from the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) Chief of Staff to Himmler mentioning claims for compensation pending in a number of confiscation cases. In this letter he stated that all rental payments to those monasteries and ecclesiastical institutions whose premises had been put to use as camps for resettlers had been stopped on receipt of Himmler's order. Concerning current developments, he stated:
"After further preparations in which the Party Chancellery participated prominently, the Reich Minister of the Interior found a way which makes it possible to seize ecclesiastical premises practically without compensation and yet avoids the impression of being a measure directed against the Church. * * *" (R-101-D)
In a letter of 19 April 1941, Bormann advised Rosenberg that libraries and art objects of the monasteries confiscated in the Reich were to remain for the time being in these monasteries and that the Fuehrer had repeatedly rejected the suggestion that centralization of all such libraries be undertaken. (072-PS)
(e) The Nazi conspirators suppressed religious publications. On 6 November 1934, Frick, as Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior, issued an order forbidding until further notice publication of all announcements in the daily press, in pamphlets and other publications, which dealt with the Evangelical Church; with the exception of official announcements of the Church Government of the Reich. (1498-PS)
By order of the State Police for the District of Dusseldorf, the Police Regulation which is quoted in part below was promulgated 28 May 1934:
"The distribution and sale of published items of any sort in connection with worship or religious instructions in public streets or squares near churches is forbidden. In the same sense the distribution and sale of published items on the occasions of processions, pilgrimages and similar church institutions in the streets or squares they pass through or in their vicinity is prohibited." (R-145)
In January 1940, Bormann informed Rosenberg that he had sought to restrict production of religious publications by means of having their rations of printing paper cut down through the control exercised by Reichsleiter Amann, but that the result of these efforts remained unsatisfactory. (101-PS)
In March 1940, Bormann instructed Reichsleiter Amann, Director of the NSDAP Publications Office, that in any future redistribution of paper, confessional writings should receive still sharper restrictions in favor of literature politically and ideologically more valuable. He went on to point out:
" * * * according to a report I have received, only 10 of the over 3000 Protestant periodicals appearing in Germany, such as Sunday papers, etc. have ceased publication for reasons of paper saving." (089-PS)
In April 1940, Bormann informed the High Command of the Navy that use of the term "Divine Service" to refer exclusively to the services arranged by Christian Confessions was no longer to be used, even in National Socialist daily papers. In the alternative he suggested:
"In the opinion of the Party the term 'Church Service' cannot be objected to. I consider it fitting since it properly implies meetings arranged and organized by the Churches." (068-PS)
(f) The Nazi conspirators suppressed religious organizations. On 28 May 1934, the State Police Office for the District of Duesseldorf issued an order concerning denominational youth and professional organizations which stated in part as follows:
"Denominational youth and professional organizations as well as those created for special occasions only are prohibited from every public activity outside the church and religious sphere.
"Especially forbidden is: Any public appearance in groups, all sorts of political activity. Any public sport function including public hikes and establishment of holiday or outdoor camps. The public display or showing of flags, banners, pennants or the open wearing of uniforms or insignia." (R-145)
On 20 July 1935, Frick, as Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior, issued secret instructions to the provincial governments and to the Prussian Gestapo that Confessional youth organizations were to be forbidden to wear uniforms, or uniform-like clothing, to assemble publicly with pennants and flags, to wear insignia as a substitute for uniforms, or to engage in any outdoor sport activity.
On 20 January 1938 the Gestapo District Office at Munich, issued a decree which stated in part as follows:
"The Guild of the Virgin Mary (de Marianisch Jungfrauenkongregation) of the Bavarian dioceses, including the diocese of Speyere, together with its branches and associations and the Societies of Our Lady (Jungfrauenvereinen) attached to it, is by police order to be dissolved and forbidden with immediate effect."
Among the reasons cited for this action were the following:"The whole behavior of the Guild of the Virgin Mary had therefore to be objected to from various points of view. It could be repeatedly observed that the Guild engaged in purely worldly affairs, such as community games, and then in the holding of 'Social Evenings'.
"This proves incontestably that the Guild of the Virgin Mary was active to a very great degree in a manner unecclesiastical and therefore worldly. By so doing it-has left the sphere of its proper religious task and entered a sphere of activity to which it has no statutory right. The organization has therefore to be dissolved and forbidden." (1481-PS)
According to the report of a Security Police "church specialist" attached to the State Police Office at Aachen, the following points were made by a lecturer at a conference of Security Police and Security Service church intelligence investigators in Berlin, on 22 September 1941:
"Retreats, recreational organizations, etc., may now be forbidden on ground of industrial war-needs, whereas formerly only a worldly activity could be given as a basis.
"Youth camps, recreational camps are to be forbidden on principle, church organizations in the evening may be pre vented on grounds of the blackout regulations.
"Processions, pilgrimages abroad are to be forbidden by reason of the over-burdened transport conditions. For local events too technical traffic troubles and the danger of air attack may serve as grounds for their prohibition. (One Referent forbade a procession, on the grounds of it wearing out shoe leather)." (1815-PS)
(g) The Nazi conspirators suppressed religious education. In a speech on 7 March 1937, Rosenberg stated:
In a speech at Fulda, 27 November 1937 Reich Minister for Church Affairs Hans Kerrl stated:"The education of youth can only be carried out by those who have rescued Germany from disaster. It is therefore impossible to demand one Fuehrer, one Reich and one firmly united people as long as education is carried out by forces which are mutually exclusive to each other." (2351-PS)
In January 1939, Bormann, acting as Deputy of the Fuehrer, informed the Minister of Education, that the Party was taking the position that theological inquiry was not as valuable as the general fields of knowledge in the universities and that suppression of Theological Faculties in the universities was to be undertaken at once. He pointed out that the Concordat with the Vatican placed certain limitations on such a program, but that in the light of the general change of circumstances, particularly the compulsory military service and the execution of the four-year plan, the question of manpower made certain reorganizations, economies and simplification necessary. Therefore, Theological Faculties were to be restricted insofar as they could not be wholly suppressed. He instructed that the churches were not to be informed of this development and no public announcement was to be made. Any complaints, if they were to be replied to at all, should be answered with a statement that these measures are being executed in a general plan of reorganization and that similar things are happening to other faculties. He concludes with the statement that the professorial chairs vacated by the above program are to be turned over to the newly created fields of inquiry, such as Racial Research. (116-PS)"We cannot recognize that the Church has a right to insure that the individual should be educated in all respects in the way in which it holds to be right; but we must leave it to the National Socialist State to educate the child in the way it regards as right." (252-PS)
A plan for the reduction of Theological Faculties was submitted by the Reich Minister for Science, Education and Training in April 1939 to Bormann, who forwarded it to Rosenberg for consideration and action. The plan called for shifting, combining and eliminating Theological Faculties in various schools and universities throughout the Reich, with the following results:
"To recapitulate this plan would include the complete closing of Theological Faculties at Innsbruck, Salzburg and Munich, the transfer of the faculty of Graz to Vienna and the vanishing of four Catholic faculties.
"a. Closing of three Catholic Theological Faculties or Higher Schools and of four Evangelic Faculties in the winter semester 1939/40.
"b. Closing of one further Catholic and of three-further Evangelic Faculties in the near future." (122-PS)
In a secret decree of the Party Chancellery, signed by Bormann, and distributed to all Gauleiters on 7 June 1941, the following statement concerning religious education was made:
"No human being would know anything of Christianity if it had not been drilled into him in his childhood by pastors. The so-called dear God in no wise gives knowledge of his existence to young people in advance, but in an astonishing manner in spite of his omnipotence leaves this to the efforts of the pastors. If therefore in the future our youth learns nothing more of this Christianity, whose doctrines are far below ours, Christianity will disappear by itself." (D-75)
(2) Supplementary evidence of acts of oppression within Germany. In laying the groundwork for their attempted subversion of the Church, the Nazi conspirators resorted to assurances of peaceful intentions. Thus Hitler, in his address to the Reichstag on 23 March 1933 declared:
"While the government is determined to carry through the political and moral purging of our public life, it is creating and insuring prerequisites for a truly religious life. The government sees in both Christian confessions the factors most important for the maintenance of our Folkdom. It will respect agreements concluded between them and the states. However, it expects that its work will meet with a similar appreciation. The government will treat all other denominations with equal objective justice. However, it can never condone that belonging to a certain denomination or to a certain race might be regarded as a license to commit or tolerate crimes. The Government will devote its care to the sincere living together of Church and State." (3387-PS)
(a) Against the Evangelical Churches. The Nazi conspirators, upon their accession to power, passed a number of laws, under innocent-sounding titles, designed to reduce the Evangelical Churches to the status of an obedient instrument of Nazi policy. The following are illustrative:
Document Number: 3433-PS; Date 4 July 1933; Reichsgesetzblatt-Page: I.471; Title and Gist of Law: Gesetz ueber die Verfassung der Deutschen Evanelischen Kirche (Law concerning the Constitution of the German Evangelical Church), establishing among other things the new post of Reich Bishop.; Signed by Hitler, Frick.
Document Number: 3434-PS; Date 26 June 1935; Reichsgesetzblatt-Page: I.774; Title and Gist of Law: Gesetz ueber das Beschlussverfahren in Rechtsangelegenheiten der Evangelisschen Kirche (Law concerning procedure for decisions in legal affairs of the Evangelical Church), giving the Reich Ministry of the Interior sole authority to determine the validity of measures taken in the Churches since 5/1/1933, when raised in a civil lawsuit.; Signed by: Hitler, Frick.
Document Number: 3435-PS; Date: 3 July 1935; Reichsgesetzblatt-Page: I.851; Title and Gist of Law: Erste Verordnung zur Durchfuehrung des Gesetzes ueber das Reschluss-verfahren in Rechtsangelegenheiten der Evangelischen Kirche (First Ordinance for Execution of the Law concerning procedure for decisions in legal affairs of the Evangelical Church), setting up detailed organization and procedures under the law of 21 June 1935.; Signed by: Frick.
Document Number: 3466-PS; Date: 16 July 1935; Reichsgesetzblatt-Page: I.1029; Title and Gist of Law: Erlass ueber die Zusammen fassung der Zustaendigkeiten des Reichs und Preussens in Kirchenangelegenheiten (Decree to unite the competences of Reich and Prussia in Church affairs) transferring to Kerrl, Minister without Portfolio, the church affairs previously handled by Reich and Prussian Ministers of the Interior and of Science, Education, and Training.; Signed by: Hitler, Rust, Koerner.
Document Number: 3436-PS; Date: 24 September 1935; Reichsgesetzblatt-Page: I.1178; Title and Gist of Law: Gesetz zur Sicherung der Deutschen Evangelischen Kirche (Law for the Safeguarding of the German Evangelical Church) empowering the Reich Minister of Church Affairs (Kerrl) to issue Ordinances with binding legal force.; Signed by:
Hitler, Frick.
Document Number: 3437-PS; Date 2 December 1935; Reichsgesetzblatt-Page: I.1370; Title and Gist of Law: Fuenfte Verordnung Zur Durchfuehrung des Gesetzes zur Sicherung der Deutschen Evangelischen Kirche (Fifth decree for execution of the law for the Safeguarding of the German Evangelical Church) prohibiting the churches from filling their pastorates, ordaining ministers, visitation, publishing of banns, and collecting dues and assessments.; Signed by: Kerrl.
Document Number: 3439-PS; Date 25 June 1937; Reichsgesetzblatt-Page: I.697; Title and Gist of Law: Fuenfzehnte Verordnung zur Durchfuehrung des Gesetzes zur Sicherung der Deutschen Evangelischen Kirche (Fifteenth decree for the Execution of the Law for Security of the German Evangelical Church) establishing in the Reich Ministry for Church Affairs a Finance Department, to supervise administration of the church property budget, tax assessment, and use of budget funds.; Signed by: Kerrl
With the help of their Reich Bishop, Bishop Mueller, they maneuvered the Evangelical Youth Association into the Hitler Jugend under Von Schirach in December 1933. (1458-PS)
They arrested prominent Protestant leaders such as Pastor Niemoeller. By 1937, the result of all these measures was complete administrative control by the Nazi conspirators over the Evangelical churches.
