German Christians

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The German Christian (Deutsche Christen) pressure group was formed in May 1932 within the German Evangelical Church^[1] and led by Ludwig Müller.

In the church elections of November 1932, German Christians won a third of the seats in Prussia and by the mid 1930s they had some 600,000 members. This degree of influence enabled them to call, in April 1933, for a Nazi-controlled "Reich Church" to replace the federal structures of the Evangelical Church. This duly happened and the majority candidate for Reich Bishop, Fritz von Bodelschwingh was quickly replaced by Müller. The German Christians, supported by Nazi propaganda, were clear winners of the church elections of July 1933.^[2]

The German Christians were supportive of the Nazi ideas about race. They issued public statements that those Christians in Germany who had Jewish ancestors "remain Christians in a New Testament sense, but are not German Christians." Also they supported the call from the Nazi party platform for a "positive Christianity" that does not stress human sinfulness. Some went so far as to call for removal of the "Jewish" Old Testament from the Bible. Their symbol was a traditional Christian cross with a swastika in the middle and the group's German initials "D" and "C". It was claimed and remembered, as a "fact", that the Jews had killed Christ, thus appealing to and actively encouraging existing anti-Semitic sentiment among Christians in Germany.

The Nazis found the group useful during their initial consolidation of power, but removed most of its leaders from their posts shortly afterwards; from about 1935 it ceased being a significant factor.

The movement was opposed by the Confessing Church.

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