GERMAN CLERGY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 221, 18 September 1934, Page 5

GERMAN CLERGY

FIGHT FOR FREEDOM LUTHERIAN FIGHTING HYMN SUNG IN MUNICH STREETS CHALLENGE TO NAZI RULE Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) MUNICH, Sept. 16. A aeusational development in the struggle between the Bishop of the Reich, Dr. Mueller, and the Evangelical Bishops followed a sermon by Ur. Mciser, Bishop of the Bavarian Church, deploring Nazi attacks on dissenting bishops. Crowds inside and outside the churcn sang the Lutheran lighting hymn “Our God. a Tower of {Strength is He,” the lirtft time it has been heard in Munich streets since the Reformation. Nazi Hying squads attempiea to disperse the crowds some of which assembled outside the Brown House, still singing the hymn. Dr. Marahrens, Bishop of Hanover, has issued a further challenge io Dr. Mueller, claiming that four-fifths of the clergy of his diocese support him. He said; “Whoever concentrates on outward unity and seeks to compel it by force, disregarding conscience, destroys the true unity of the Church and endangers the unity of the nation.” Herr Siebert, the Bavarian Premier, speaking at Neerdlingen, warned dissenters that the Reich would not tolerate the appearance of schisms.