Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt

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The Stuttgarter Schuldbekenntnis, known in English as the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt, was a declaration issued on October 19, 1945 by the Council of the Protestant Church of Germany, which states in part:

By us infinite wrong was brought over many peoples and countries. That which we often testified to in our communities, we express now in the name of the whole church: We did fight for long years in the name of Jesus Christ against the mentality that found its awful expression in the National Socialist regime of violence; but we accuse ourselves for not standing to our beliefs more courageously, for not praying more faithfully, for not believing more joyously, and for not not loving more ardently.

One of the initiators of the declaration was pastor Martin Niemöller.

[edit] References

• Text of the Declaration in German and English
• Article on German Wikipedia