NAZI INSTRUCTION TO PASTORS
REFUSAL TO TAKE OATH EXPECTED LONDON, May 18. The Berlin correspondent of The Times says that the Confessional pastors of Prussia have received registered letters instructing them to take the oath to Herr Hitler before May 20. It is believed that half of them will refuse. Faced with a Nazi order that the pastors of the Evangelical Church must take an oath to Herr Hitler or be dismissed, Dr Ludwig Mueller, on behalf of the Confessional or Opposition pastors of Prussia, 10 days ago sent a letter to Dr Werner, the Nazi Commissioner for the Church in Prussia, saying: “We have reason to believe that you are trying to introduce to the Church regulations applying to State officials. It is our duty to fight this attempt to change church ecclesiastical law." Dr Mueller in conclusion stated that the Confessional pastors had been instructed to take the oath to Herr Hitler only if simultaneously they declared that they were still bound by their ordination oath. This meant that if. as is inevitable, the two oaths clashed, the oath to Herr Hitler would take second place.
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Southland Times, Issue 23513, 20 May 1938, Page 6
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188NAZI INSTRUCTION TO PASTORS Southland Times, Issue 23513, 20 May 1938, Page 6
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