NAZIS & LORD’S PRAYER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18162, 9 August 1933, Page 11

NAZIS & LORD’S PRAYER

LUTHER VERSION ALTERED BUGLES IN CHURCH KONIGSBERG, East Prussia, June 2(5. For the first time in four centuries the. Lord’s Prayer at Divine service in Germany has 'been changed from the phrasing adopted by Martin Luther. The change was made by Pastor Mueller, Herr Hitler’s adviser in church matters and ap. army chaplain. At the service’in the SchJosswirche at Konigsbcrg to-dav Pastor Mueller paraphrased both the Lord’s Prayer and the iinol Blessing from Luther’s wording into everyday speech. .To-day’s service made it evident that the rites of the church are to bo revolutionised in the spirit of the “German Christians” —the Nazi element in the Evangelical Church. The congregation was held spellbound by ilie changes. Hymns were accompanied by the blaring martial tones of bugles and trumpets from the brass bands of the Nazi storm troops. This innovation is probably only one of the developments predicted in Hitler’s chief organ, tho Volkischor Reobachter, which declared that the appointment* of a Church Commissar for Prussia and the resignation of Pastor Bodelschwingh marked only the end of the first phase. , Avowed Hitlerite pastors and lawyers are being appointed commissioners of tho Evangelical Churck bodies in various churches iu Prussia.