GERMANY: Shame & Sorrow

In Berlin last week shiny-pated Dr. Ludwig Müller once again laid out a fresh cassock. At last, after repeated postponements, the ecclesiastical top-sergeant of Hitler’s Germany was to be consecrated as Reichsbischof. But first, to extract the utmost glory from the occasion, Dr. Müller planned a big pre-consecration rally. Counting on a crowd of 60,000, he had loudspeakers rigged up in the Lustgarten between the old Imperial Palace and the Protestant Cathedral. Squads of police would be on hand to manage the pack. There would be a demonstration at the Kroll Opera House and down Unter den Linden would march a snappy parade of German Christians—the exuberantly radical semipagan backers of the Reichsbischof.

A niggling crowd of 5,000 turned out for the rally. The unhappy Reichsbischof had to cancel most of his arrangements. Docile strollers on Unter den Linden saluted the German Christians, wondered why, instead of hymns, their band blared such popular tunes as: “Laura, Laura.” and “Do You Think, Oh My Berlin Maid, That Because I Dance With You I’ll Marry You, Too?”

On Sunday Dr. Müller, who became attached to Adolf Hitler while an army chaplain in Königsberg, marched into the Cathedral escorted by black-uniformed special guards. A straggling 4,000 cried “Heil!” at the altar, which was flanked with swastika and German Christian banners. Dr. Müller recited the Apostles’ Creed, mentioned Martin Luther and Hitler, preached a sermon on sin and forgiveness. Six hundred loyal pastors and state bishops attended, some of them giving Nazi salutes. Notably absent were representatives of foreign churches and the Bishops of Bavaria and Württemberg—last two of the 28 state synods which Reichsbischof Muüller attempted forcibly to incorporate in his Reich church. When the consecration was over the Reichsbischof went outside to reiterate, over the loudspeakers set up for the crowds that were not present, that Germany now has a United Evangelical Church.

But the “unity” which Dr. Müller was supposed to achieve before his consecration remained last week a crumbly shell. Still implacably opposed to Dr. Müller’s ministry are some 8,000 of Germany’s 18,000 Evangelical pastors. Throughout Germany, opposition pastors read from their pulpits a manifesto summoning their parishioners to continue the fight against Dr. Müller whose consecration “must fill every Evangelical Christian with shame and sorrow.”