The Evening Star FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1945. GERMAN CHURCHES.

Evening Star, Issue 25677, 28 December 1945, Page 4

The Evening Star FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1945. GERMAN CHURCHES.

What of the German churches? Since V-E Day that has been a foremost question in the minds of those who hope for a, reformation in Germany that will yet make her an honoured member in the family of nations. The churches, despite shortcomings, showed more resistance to Nazism, it lias been said, than the trades, unions, the universities and intellectuals, or the army. How far they may be able and ready to lead the way back from darkness has been a, subject of constant inquiry. The Confessional Church which developed out of Hitler’s attempt at political domination is the backbone of the Protestant Church in Germany to-day. Leaders of Bishop Muller’s. German Christian Church, who put Germanism before Christianity, have practically all been relieved of office; Muller himself committed suicide. The leaders of the Confessional Church are Bishop Wurm, of Wurtemberg, Dr Lilje, , Assistant Bishop of Hanover, Dr Martin Niemolldr, and Dr Asmussen. Some Germans have a better, war record than has been known generally. A church group led by Pastor Gruber, for example, rescued Jews from the Gestapo, sent them to live in the country under assumed namesj and provided them with forged ration books which church people liad made up from pages from their own books. Bishop Wurm’s group, in close association with Roman Catholics, made elaborate plans for feeding the population during a time of crisis in which Jews, foreigners, and displaced persons were explicitly included. It made plans, as well, for evangelisation, and for a new constitution under which the Church would be more independent of State support and control. On the question of how religion stands in Germany t6-day, opinions differ, as they do also upon that of German reactions to the lost war. An observer writing in the ‘ Spectator ’ states that there is a widespread awareness of religious need and church attendance on the whole is good, but disorganisation, making obstructions to work of every kind, is appalling. German religious leaders, moreover, believe that Nazism has not struck any deop roots among more than a small minority of the German youth. Their complete .ignorance of Christianity gives it often a new appeal when it comes fresh to them. Dr Niernoller has said that in the ideas of truth, justice, and liberty there is a close relationship between Christianity and democracy which must find its expression in political life. The eminent Swiss theologian, Dr Karl Barth, during a visit to Germany, saw no signs of any religious revival in that country. Church services in which he took part, in crypts and cellars, were not better at# tended than in Switzerland. But he was more firmly convinced than others that Germans 'now realise their war guilt, and he was sure that German youth had not been incurably perverted. At the same time, he made one point that goes to the heart of missionary effort for Germany. ” The Allies,” lie said, “ have not yet fully realised what must be the very beginning of the great work of re-ednea-tioiT. They are still trying the effect of wireless lectures and films for instructing the German people, while only one thing will be of any real use their own example. The better outlook on the world must not be administered in lessons, but demonstrated in practice. ‘That object-lesson,’ people said to me ironically in Germany, 1 has unhappily not yet‘begun.’” It is a requirement that makes the most difficult demand of all.