A Tale of Two Leaders: German Methodists and the Nazi State.

Nazi foreign policy was hampered from the start by a hostile foreign press that carried alarming reports, not only of atrocities and persecution of the political opposition and of Jews, but also of a persecution of Christians in Germany. Protestant Christians abroad were increasingly outraged by the so-called "German Christians" who, with the support of the government, gained control of the administration of the Evangelical state churches and set about to fashion a centralized Nazi church based on principles of race, blood, and soil. The militant attack by "German Christians" on Christian, as opposed to Germanic, traditions and values led to the birth of a Confessing Church, whose leaders fought to remain true to the Gospel, often at the risk of imprisonment. Such persecution resulted in calls from abroad for boycott and intervention, particularly in Britain and the United States,(1) and threatened to complicate foreign relations for the Nazi regime at a time when Hitler was still highly vulnerable. In order to win the support of the German people and to consolidate the Nazi grip on German society, Hitler needed accomplishments in foreign policy and solutions to the German economic crisis. Both were possible only with the indulgence of foreign powers.

Concerned, Nazi officials sought for effective means to influence foreign public opinion.(2) Since foreigners distrusted the German media, controlled as it was by the Propaganda Ministry, it was of limited impact. One of the most promising ways was to shape foreign public opinion from within each country. And so it was that Nazi authorities discovered that Methodists and Baptists, while insignificantly small in Germany,(3) were major denominations in the Anglo-Saxon world and offered the Nazis' best chance for influence in those countries, provided their German leaders could be enlisted in the Nazi cause.(4) This study examines the contrasting response of two Methodist bishops to the Nazi bid for assistance. The first bishop is Dr. D. John L. Nuelsen (1867-1946). A German American, he had come to Europe in 1912 to serve as bishop of the Europe Central Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which included Germany. The second, Dr. F. H. Otto Melle (1875-1947), succeeded Nuelsen as bishop of the German Methodist Episcopal Church that was organized in 1936.

I. COOPERATION UNDER BISHOP NUELSEN

Within days after the Enabling Act of 24 March 1933 launched the Hitler dictatorship, Nazi authorities approached German Methodist leaders with the request for help. Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath and Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels met with Bishop Nuelsen. They gave him the opportunity to visit prisons in the Berlin area and talk with political prisoners to verify that they were being treated fairly. The Methodist superintendents in Germany and their bishop responded with telegrams to the British and American presses protesting the reports of alleged atrocities. Nuelsen joined General Superintendent Dibelius of the Evangelical Church in a short-wave broadcast to America assuring the outside world that in Nazi Germany discipline and order reigned without bloodshed.(5)

And so began what would eventually turn into Methodist collaboration with the Nazi state. In frequent letters to editors and in articles for the American press, German Methodist leaders painted a positive image of Nazi Germany.(6) Most significant were their periodic visits to America. Since the press was always interested in news about Germany these visits were opportunities to reach wide circles of the American public and offered occasion for meetings with American public opinion makers. In late 1933 Bishop Nuelsen spent twenty-four days lecturing and meeting with bishops and various church bodies, including the Federal Council of Churches, and had occasion to explain to them the German situation.(7) In 1935 Nuelsen went on a lecture tour across America, where he contrasted Hitler's remarkable new era to the bleak years of the Weimar Republic. He credited Hitler, whom he described as a man of unquestionable character and peaceful intentions, with saving Europe from godless Bolshevism.(8) While he did express reservations about Nazi centralization of cultural life, and about their racist policies, he stressed mostly the stability, order, and renewal of values. Unemployment, he said, was no longer a problem, and German streets were free of prostitutes and beggars.(9)

Addressing what he claimed were American misconceptions of the religious situation in Germany, Bishop Nuelsen argued that the controversy within the Lutheran Church, rather than about an issue of faith, was a matter of church organizational reform with the goal of centralizing leadership. He explained that because the German Evangelical Church was a state church, it was financed by tax money. Naturally the state expected to take a hand in its organizational matters. In no European country, said Nuelsen, did the Methodist Church enjoy greater freedom than in Germany.(10)

From his episcopal residence in Switzerland Bishop Nuelsen presided over a large parish that reached from Scandinavia to North Africa. With the Nazi Revolution German Methodists began to feel the need for their own episcopate. At the 1936 General Conference in Columbus, Ohio, Methodists opened the way for this organizational restructuring, and before long the German Central Conference elected Otto Melle bishop of the German Methodist Episcopal Church. Nuelsen remained in Switzerland as bishop of the non-German area until his retirement in 1940.

II. COLLABORATION UNDER BISHOP MELLE

With senior bishop Nuelsen presiding, the 1936 Methodist Episcopal General Conference provided Germany's delegation with new opportunities to work in Germany's behalf. And once again Nuelsen lectured widely across the United States.(11) Melle had come several weeks before the General Conference was to begin so that he could have ample time for a lecture tour of his own. It was cosponsored by the German Foreign Office and the Reich Committee for National Health, which also paid for his travel expenses. Generally, Melle was to correct the negative image of Nazi Germany in America. His specific assignment was to lecture on the benefits of the Nazi eugenics law and on Nazi achievements in the alcohol question.(12)

Starting in New York, Melle's speaking engagements carried him to major cities across the country. He lectured at universities, in churches, and to pastoral conferences, and he met with public opinion makers at receptions and banquets.(13) While Nuelsen was somewhat guarded in his remarks about Nazism, Melle openly endorsed it. American papers described Melle as a man of unreserved admiration for Hitler as the savior of Germany.(14) "I am often asked," the St. Louis Star-Times quoted him, "if anything has really changed in Germany. My answer is that to me many of the things that have happened seem like a miracle. Economically, Hitler has succeeded reducing unemployment from about 7,000,000 to 1,000,000. Socially, he not only has brought new hope to the young, but has purified public life to a great extent. Plays and movies are pure now, and a parent may take his child to the theater without fear. On the newsstands pornographic magazines have disappeared. Anyone who buys or sells salacious material is in danger of being sent to a concentration camp."(15) Melle claimed that his listeners at times voiced open admiration for Hitler. In his report to the Church Ministry he told of a meeting with some three hundred high school students in Columbus, Ohio. "I will never forget how the eyes of the young people of both genders glowed as I told them about German youth and about the Reich Chancellor who had given to youth a renewed sense of self worth and faith in the future of Germany instead of the pessimism of the postwar years which had led to the brink of despair."(16)

Speaking to Methodist listeners Melle compared the Nazi Revolution to the American Revolution when, as he pointed out, English Methodists and even Wesley himself had then been unable to appreciate the American position. And yet out of the American Revolution was born the American Methodist Church. Though controversial now, the Nazi Revolution and the accompanying church controversy might, he said, in the end lead to similar religious renewal and show the rest of the world the way.(17) Mindful of the Methodist stance on temperance, Melle told them that Hitler gave youth "a wonderful example." He did not smoke, nor did he drink, and under his leadership Germany experienced a return to sound moral standards. At times Melle would pass among the audience a picture of Hitler with a caption that identified him as a Christian believer.(18) His lecture tour concluded with a luncheon at the German embassy to which Ambassador Dr. Hans Luther had invited prominent religious leaders, including the chaplain of the U.S. Congress, the Rev. Dr. Montgomery.

Throughout his tour Melle had kept in touch with German diplomats. He filed a detailed report with the Church Ministry and other government agencies about what he called his "service to Volk, Fatherland, and Adolf Hitler's new Reich" that, he emphasized, was coming from the heart ("es war mir ein Herzensbedurfnis")(19) Given the publicity that the German Methodist press had accorded his lecture tour, and in the knowledge that he had pleased Nazi authorities, Melle could now confidently face the upcoming election of the first bishop of the German Methodist Episcopal Church several weeks later.

Melle's first important propaganda assignment after he became bishop was in Britain at the Oxford World Conference on Church, Community, and State of July 1937. The Nazi state barred German delegates from attending, with the notable exceptions of the pro-Nazi Baptist, Paul Schmidt, and Bishop Melle. The two carefully planned their intended role at the conference in meetings with government officials in Berlin. While in Britain they were in close touch with the German embassy.(20) In spite of Melle's and Schmidt's attempts to prevent it, the conference voted a message of concern and solidarity regarding persecuted fellow Christians in Germany. And so, at a time when the Western press carried daily reports of new arrests of prominent leaders of the Confessing Church--among them Martin Niemoller, who was well known and highly respected abroad--Melle addressed the conference, stressing that in Germany there was "complete freedom to preach the gospel" and faulting the churches for failing the German people. He expressed gratitude for the Nazi Revolution and what he called the "national resurrection of the German people" that, he said, was a sign of the grace of God: "God in his providence has sent a Leader who was able to banish the danger of Bolshevism in Germany and to rescue a nation of 67,000,000 from the abyss of despair to which it had been led through the World War, the Versailles Treaty, and its tragic consequences, and to give it new faith in its mission and future."(21) Melle's widely reported statement scandalized the delegates and much of the Protestant world, for it was taken as a stab in the back against Christian brothers in their very hour of need. In Germany, however, the Nazi press hailed Melle as a patriotic German and a man of integrity.(22)

As Nazi totalitarian rule deepened, anti-Nazi sentiments abroad continued to build. In America they reached levels of outright hostility.(23) Among the growing number of troubling signs was an open letter of protest from the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America responding to the Niemoller trial. Under the guise of de-Judaizing Germany, the letter said, Nazi authorities had been waging war against Christianity with the goal of de-Christianizing the entire nation. The council called on the Christian world to mobilize against what it termed this "deadly attack."(24) Concerned that if this trend continued it might lead to military conflict with Germany, the German Church Ministry turned to Melle and Baptist leader Paul Schmidt requesting that they take steps "at once" to counter the adverse propaganda.(25)

The 1939 Methodist Uniting Conference in Kansas City offered the German bishop an excellent opportunity, not only for propagandistic statements, but also for the chance to meet with prominent Methodists who were likely to attend the conference, such as Secretary of State Cordell Hull or Alf Landon, former governor of Kansas and Republican nominee for president.(26) Once again Melle met with Nazi officials to plan his agenda. His main job at the conference was to prevent anti-German speeches. To this effect the Ministry also contacted Bishop Nuelsen in Switzerland who as senior bishop presided over the conference, requesting that he support Melle's efforts.(27)

Bishop Melle's 1939 lecture itinerary suggests a dizzying pace. Realizing the futility of denying there were problems in Germany, Melle, adopting a seemingly objective approach, admitted that there were indeed things happening in Germany that, he said, "we will not excuse." But he reminded his listeners that America had its problems, as well. And just as Germans who might base their view of America on reports about organized crime and gangsters like Al Capone were bound to get it wrong, so were Americans who based their view of Germany on reports in a sensationalist press.(28)

While Melle met with a receptive audience in some places, he found that the general level of hostility toward Germany had grown significantly since his 1936 visit. Reporting back to Germany, he wrote, "We are already at war with the United States--a propaganda war." The most that could be hoped for now was American neutrality. Thus he was gratified when the Conference at Kansas City adopted a resolution against what was called the "war policy of President Roosevelt." While Melle claimed credit for this resolution and also for influencing Alf Landon and Landon's foreign policy address to the Conference, I have not been able to verify his claim from other sources. Pleased with Melle's performance, the German embassy commended him for his ability to "skillfully adapt to American conditions" and recommended that the Foreign Office sponsor yet another trip for Melle for the following year.(29)

The war that began in September of 1939 ended all such opportunities. While Melle attended the General Conference in Atlantic City in 1940, he was unable to do much for Germany since most delegates sided with the Allies.(30) But less than a year from the war's end, in July of 1944, after the Allied invasion in Normandy diminished the hope of a German victory, Melle found yet another opportunity to serve his country as well as his church. Officials at the German Church Ministry had liked one of Melle's articles that described the enduring faith of German Methodists while England and America were waging war against a helpless civilian population, destroying their houses of worship. Melle offered to translate the piece himself for, as he stressed, it was important to use the correct theological terms to guard against any suspicion that it might be Nazi propaganda. Copies went to the Propaganda Ministry, the Foreign Office, and other governmental agencies for release to the foreign press.(31) On 5 July 1944, Melle took the initiative with a proposal addressed to Hitler for a propagandistic offensive directed at America. "The soul of a people is malleable," he argued, claiming special insights into the psyche of the American people. If it were possible to alienate the American people from Roosevelt and his policies, America's fighting morale would weaken. "Roosevelt has driven the American people to war with his crusade to defend liberty and Christianity. Now, however, he has joined in alliance with Bolshevism," argued Melle, and Christians were bound to be troubled by this. He suggested to press the "bad conscience" of Americans by demonstrating how religion flourished in Germany while American bombers destroyed Christian churches and their own godless Bolshevist allies advanced to wipe out all religion in Europe. Melle recommended that Germany reinstate radio worships and place news about this in the foreign press, along with a statement by Hitler blasting the false propaganda that claimed that National Socialism planned to eliminate Christianity. This, Melle reasoned, would weaken the Allied cause while building German morale. The Church Ministry forwarded the letter to Hitler's office along with its endorsement, commending Melle for his long service to the Reich. It never reached Hitler, however, since the Reich Chancellory and Hitler's secretary refused to submit it.(32)

How effective these German Methodist efforts were in influencing public opinion abroad is difficult to assess. While their propaganda provided an alternate viewpoint for the American media, in the long run they were not able to halt the escalating hostility of Americans, including Methodists, toward Nazi Germany. The notable pro-German exception among Methodist papers was Der christliche Apologete, the German American journal, which remained uncritically pro-Nazi until late 1939. In 1937 it had still blamed Germany's bad press on the Jewish moneybags (Goldjuden) who, it alleged, had preyed on the people and were now forced to leave Germany "without their loot." The Kristallnacht of November 1938 evidently led to the paper's reassessment of Nazi policy as "brutal and inhumane."(33) While German Methodists professed to be impartial regarding the controversy between German Christians and the Confessing Church, American Methodist sympathies had all along been with the latter. Even more Methodist churchmen in America questioned the wisdom of Melle's policy, and some were quite blunt in stating "that any church that gets freedom in Germany is not worthy of being a church."(34) In 1938 the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church issued a statement protesting what they called the "most flagrant exhibition of intolerance and disdain for human personality" and "crimes against civilization."(35)

III. FOUNDATIONS OF BISHOP NUELSEN'S POLICY

Why the Nazi state sought to enlist Methodist support is clear. Why Methodist leaders were willing to be used in this way is more difficult to determine. Like Christians in other churches, Methodists were caught up in the growing political and social polarization that is so characteristic of late Weimar Germany. Some witnessed the rise of Nazism with concern,(36) yet at the same time many saw it as the only effective bulwark against the even greater perils of Bolshevism.(37) Bishop Nuelsen echoed these sentiments in a letter of 1 May 1933 to an American friend when he wrote, "[I]t is clear to me that the only hope for Germany is for everybody to support the present Government and to work ... towards a modification of the present policy," adding that the alternative--communism--would mean the end.(38) And Methodist policies were, to a degree, determined by factors outside their control. The new environment of Nazi totalitarianism that posed unprecedented challenges was certainly one of these. But within this environment German Methodism itself was also changing.

Because of its foreign origin German Methodism had long struggled with discrimination in Germany, having constantly to prove its Germanness in an increasingly nationalistic society. Like other minorities that suffer from prejudice, German Methodists had to try harder to be convincing. In doing so they developed a uniquely German Methodist culture that stressed its German--as different from British and American--roots, emphasizing the Lutheran and German pietistic tradition. As their sense of German identity grew and growing nationalism displaced their sense of global identity and solidarity, German Methodists became more susceptible to the normative forces of German society. This transformation was underway for some time, but was especially evident from the start of World War I.

When Hitler came to power the tide of Nazism swept many Methodists with it. But strangely, perhaps, while it affected the membership, it was Methodist pastors who seemed most susceptible to Nazism. Many of them welcomed the Nazi Revolution as "ordained by God," and some formally joined the Nazi Party.(39) Pro-Nazi pastors and lay members wanted a "German Methodist Movement," a Methodist equivalent to the German Christians. Methodist pastors formed a Fachschaft with the goals of "penetrating German Methodism with the spirit of National Socialism" and establishing an independent German Methodist Church. Using their Nazi connections as leverage, they threatened Nuelsen with a Reich Commissary for the Methodist Church to be appointed by the state.(40) Bishop Nuelsen prevailed at the Central German annual conference against attempts to restructure the church, with the laity voting forty-five to eight against and pastors thirty-five to twenty-three in favor.(41) And, in spite of a protest delegation of "brownshirts," he replaced the Nazi superintendent Karl Albert Wenzel with the "Jew" Albert J. Ohlrich.(42) While Nuelsen was able to foil the coup by pro-Nazi elements, he could not prevent the German Methodist Church from becoming partly Nazified. A changing constituency in a new and highly dangerous political environment were determining factors that no church leader, regardless of leadership ability, could ignore and that were bound to affect policy.

Bishop Nuelsen did not lack leadership qualities. He had a strong foundation in liberal education, which he received first in Germany and then also in the United States, followed by theological studies at various universities, culminating with a D.D. from the University of Denver. He also studied Hebrew, Assyrian, ethics, and philosophy at the University of Halle and the University of Berlin, Germany. For twelve years as an academic, he taught ancient languages and exegetical theology.(43) A scholar, Nuelsen was the editor of the Deutsch-Amerikanische Zeitschrift fur Theologie und Kirche (German-American Journal for Theology and Church) that circulated also in Germany and drew on contributors from various denominations. He published some twenty books and put Methodism on the scholastic map in Germany.(44) Before coming to Europe in 1912 to assume his responsibilities as bishop, Nuelsen capped his education with practical experience in the field. He served in pastoral ministry and evangelism and then as a bishop based in Omaha, Nebraska.

Nuelsen was also a man of faith who found his source of strength and wisdom in a personal and close relationship with his Lord. His faith was clearly evident in his publications and profound Bible talks. He knew to differentiate between God, the church, and church organization.(45) He understood that if it was to have any meaning at all, the religious liberty that his church claimed for itself must first be practiced internally. For him leadership was first and foremost moral leadership. Thoroughly familiar with Robert's Rules of Order, he believed in the democratic process. But that did not mean that he was merely a neutral "vote counter," as he put it, who must not have or express any personal conviction. As chief teacher of his church, he knew he must provide the perspective needed to make a wise decision, and he must share and explain his vision. Once this was done, he must accept the decision of his constituents for his church. But as for himself, he must still follow his own conscience.(46)

Unlike so many other clergy, John Nuelsen was neither fooled nor intimidated by Nazism. He did not buy into any of it. Having been brought up in multiple cultural environments (he was the son of a missionary to Switzerland and Germany), he was cosmopolitan and had no place for the narrow, dogmatic, and racist nationalism of National Socialism. While he loved the German people and their rich cultural heritage, his allegiance was to Christ and to his church. His nationality and ethnicity were incidental.(47)

Why then did Bishop Nuelsen use his influence in behalf of Nazi Germany? Part of the answer lies in earlier history. Nuelsen had come to Europe during a time of crisis that culminated in World War I. During and after that war he had labored hard in organizing American relief for the starving population, especially for orphans and needy children. The German government honored him for this work, and the University of Berlin awarded him an honorary doctorate.(48) Throughout the Twenties Nuelsen used his influence in America to lobby against the unfair provisions of the Versailles Treaty.

With the Nazi accession to power Nuelsen found himself in a difficult situation. Given his record of support for the German cause it was impossible to refuse the Nazi request for assistance without incurring for his church the "enemy of the state" label. The consequences for the church could be harsh. For a while he thought that Nazism might overcome its radical birth and become more moderate. As a student of history he knew that revolutions passed through several stages.(49) He hoped, with some reason, that by working with the government he might help influence it toward moderation, and his hopes seemed validated when, evidently heeding Nuelsen's warning of serious foreign complications during his meeting with Goebbels and other cabinet members, Nazi authorities decided to limit the boycott of Jewish businesses to only one day, rather than one month, as was their plan.(50) And Nuelsen thought that once the Nazi state entered what he called the second stage of the revolution its leaders would increasingly feel the pain of isolation and international hostility. The more they were isolated the more they would need the Methodist Church and the more likely they would listen to advice.

Increasingly, however, Nuelsen's doubts grew. In a confidential letter that he wrote in August of 1933 to his fellow bishops in America, Nuelsen characterized Hitler's Germany as a "ruthless and unscrupulous dictatorship" where it "would require merely a stroke of the pen of Hitler" to wipe out the German Methodist Church. He saw "very little chance for Methodism in Germany" if the Nazi government remained in power. "Twenty years from now," he predicted, "its young people will have been weaned away and trained as one hundred percent Nazis." Greatly distressed, he saw "the whole work slipping away," calling it the "greatest disappointment of my life."(51) He soon realized that Nazism "cannot be understood if considered merely as a political or social movement." Nuelsen described Nazism as a mystical religion, a "racial religion," complete with its "theology of Hitlerism." It was "the official religion in Germany." It was "dogmatic; it has no need to argue and to prove; it proclaims, hammering its few doctrines into the minds of the masses by endless repetition. It is totalitarian, that is to say, it claims the whole man and all of man.... Whoever is not one hundred percent for it is against it. And those who are against it are not tolerated." He found "the tendencies and the outspoken aims of official Germany an open repudiation of everything that Christ and his redemptive work stands for," and he condemned German theologians for their callousness in defending the expulsion and discrimination of Jews.(52)

While Bishop Nuelsen perceived the perils of Nazism as few churchmen did, he was compelled to work with German Methodist leaders, most of whom had neither his insight, his sense of perspective, nor his vision. Though an American citizen, still he was responsible for German Methodism and was keenly aware that many of his pastors resented him as an outsider who did not truly understand the demands of the new age that had begun in Germany.(53)

Nuelsen agonized a great deal over his terrible dilemma. He intended to resign in 1934 after he reached the age of sixty-seven because, as he put it, to create the impression that he was in agreement with the Nazi regime was incompatible with honesty. The government wanted him to stay on. As he wrote to fellow bishops in America, it was clear that underlying Berlin's suggestion that he stay on was "the expectation that the Bishop will use his position to influence public opinion in America" in favor of Nazi Germany, "in plain words to carry on a pro-Nazi propaganda. But this very thing I cannot do with a clear conscience. Dr. Melle can say in public, as the papers reported him saying, that the present religious movement in Germany is the greatest event that has happened for the last 2000 years. I cannot say that. The longer the more I find myself opposed to the Nazi regime.(54)

But then Nuelsen concluded that his church in Germany needed him now more than ever, and he decided to continue until the General Conference in 1936. Yet it was not merely to protect the church from Nazi persecution that he stayed on and continued to use his influence abroad in Germany's interest. He feared that as he departed, the German Methodist Church would sever ties with the mother church. The church in Germany would then be deprived of the moderating influence of Methodists abroad and fall prey to rampant nationalism. Without its foreign ties the church would become irrelevant and useless to Nazism and would soon cease to exist. His public relations work in America assured him of Nazi support and gave him the leverage among German Methodists to keep the German church tied to the world church. Were he to fail in this quest, as he warned one of his Nazi pastors, he would then not hesitate to "sound the alarm in the Christian as well as the secular press" in America without giving heed to the consequences.(55)

But Nuelsen's vision extended far beyond denominational confines. For some time Methodism on the European continent had stagnated and declined. As the Board of Foreign Missions considered withdrawing from Europe altogether, Nuelsen pleaded with them to stay. For him the question of whether the Methodist Church maintained a presence on the European continent or not was not merely

 the denominational question whether or not we have Methodist congregations
 in a number of European countries. The issue is very much larger and
 infinitely more important. It is not a matter of denominational prestige. It
 is a question of upholding at this critical hour the gospel of the universal
 Kingdom of God and of brotherly love beyond the borders of the own country
 in the tremendous conflict with narrow, bigoted, in fact anti-Christian
 nationalistic interpretation of Christianity, with this modern paganism in
 the garb of the Gospel of Christ. The witness of our Methodist fathers
 against Calvinism cannot be compared in its importance with our witness
 against the curse of nationalistic Christianity. I am convinced that God has
 given the Methodist Church this particular mission in Europe. We dare not
 fail in this hour of crisis. If this terrific nationalistic wave in the
 state churches cannot be checked, there is no hope for Europe.... Let me
 stress this point. It is not a matter of denominational pride; it is the
 question of the supernational program of Christ over against the pernicious
 nationalistic corruption. This issue has never been so clearly cut and of so
 immediate importance as it is today.(56)

As he tried from 1934 to 1936 to accommodate the Nazi state without offense to his integrity, at the same time he sought to stem the tide of blind nationalism within his church that threatened its very Christian essence. But by 1936 the tension between his duties as bishop and his need to guard his own integrity had become intolerable, and he was relieved to be able to resign his responsibilities toward the German church. "I am glad and thankful," he wrote to an American friend, "that I am relieved from this evil, that in my public speeches I have to restrain myself so that I will not endanger the entire work. I would not be able to endure this much longer."(57) His last official duty in Germany was to preside over the reorganization of German Methodists and the election of their first bishop. Nuelsen used this occasion for a clarion call to witness: "And should it happen," he said, that the state should act in ways that are manifestly anti-Christian, "then a free church is more at liberty to raise its voice in obedience to God's word. We shall not rush into martyrdom, but neither must we seek to escape it by entering weakly into compromises born in cowardice. The calling of a free church includes a special calling to witness, and thus also to be a church of martyrs when that is necessary."(58)

IV. FOUNDATIONS OF BISHOP MELLE'S POLICY

Unlike Bishop Nuelsen, Bishop Melle faced no dilemma and had no intention of forsaking the German Methodist partnership with the Nazi state. Where Nuelsen saw peril, Melle heard the call of opportunity. While their nation teetered on the brink of the abyss, he and his superintendents saw the "hand of God" at work.(59)

It is tempting to explain Melle's collaboration simply as the work of "a man keenly able to tell which way the wind blows,"(60) a man unable to distinguish between opportunism and opportunity. The truth is not that simple. A self-declared patriot,(61) Melle had preached the God-and-Country gospel long before the start of the Hitler dictatorship. In 1921 he had appealed to young German American Methodists not to forget that "in your veins flows German blood and that God has breathed into you a German spirit."(62)

It seems to have been that German spirit that moved him. He eagerly seized every opportunity to be of service to the Fatherland. In 1931 he had told a member of the German parliament of the "decisive" role that the churches played in molding American public opinion and in shaping public policy. How, he asked, could his ties to the churches be utilized "to serve the grand purpose [dem grossen Ziele dienstbar gemacht werden]?" Building on the German American foundation and utilizing personal contacts, he argued, governmental representatives must work closely with Methodist and Baptist leaders, in particular, to win the friendship of Christians who were "one hundred percent American, that is, those "who consciously cultivated their Anglo-Saxon identity." He mentioned how he had coached German Ambassador Baron von Prittwitz-Gaffron in 1928 on how to foster closer ties with American clergy.(63)

Very much part of the culture of patriotism that his church had fostered for some time, Melle was representative of the changing face of German Methodism. A graduate of the Methodist seminary, Melle lacked Nuelsen's liberal educational foundation and humanist values. While he held a doctoral degree that he prized highly--he always insisted on being called "Doctor Melle"--it was an honorary degree awarded by an American college. He became bishop via the administrative route, after serving as missionary in the Balkans, as superintendent in Austria, and then as president of the Methodist seminary at Frankfurt.(64)

A nonreflective person, Melle's speeches and essays, while oratorically impressive, were shallow. He was a cheerleader, not a thought leader. Melle seems not to have been plagued by spiritual struggles or self-doubt. What Melle lacked as a scholar and thinker he tried to make up for as a doer, as a man of decision, as a mover and shaker. He engaged a great deal in self-promotion, projecting himself as a man of vision and destiny. His propaganda trips abroad were always accompanied by a flurry of news reports about them in his church press. He was a successful fundraiser, especially when in America? While Nuelsen chose to be a consensus builder--a role in which he ultimately failed--Melle preferred to work behind the scenes. A drill-sergeant in World War I, he valued organization, control, and military-style discipline. His leadership style was authoritarian and fit the Nazi fuhrer principle.

A leader must have vision and be able to judge the times. Melle thought he did and could. In 1925, years before the Nazi Revolution, Melle sensed a turning point approaching in the history of German Methodism, and he wondered whether they would grasp the true significance of the times ahead. Assessing the new situation in Germany after the Nazi Revolution and judging the times in 1933 "by the light of God," it seemed clear to him that God had answered their prayers. To be sure, God had not yet sent a religious revival, but God had "given us in Adolf Hitler a great political leader." Melle believed with "profound conviction" that in the Third Reich the time of the free church had come, a time that their Methodist forebears had "hardly imagined," and with it came the chance to move into the mainstream.(66) In 1938 he felt certain that history would "detect God's leading finger" in their work and that the "national revolution" was God's doing.(67)

And Melle saw some of his hopes for a socially integrated Methodism fulfilled as his church received special consideration from the Nazi government. The Methodist Church attained status as a corporation of public law, a privilege later to be explicitly confirmed in the annexed Warthegau where other churches lacked legal footing. Methodists received permission to buy a Jewish synagogue. Hitler became godfather to Methodist twins and to a Methodist pastor's son.(68) And a Methodist congregation requested and received a major gift of ten thousand Marks from Hitler for the purchase of an organ--the so-called "Hitler organ." It was by far Hitler's largest gift ever to a church and made for "propagandistic reasons," as a Nazi memo states.(69)

V. ASSESSMENT

Whether these attainments were worth the sacrifice in principle and integrity was openly discussed abroad. In Nuelsen's judgment the "Hitler organ" was "a rather disastrous gift."(70) American Methodists were quite embarrassed when Christian Century, reporting on Hitler's gift in an editorial entitled "Will Hitler Adopt the Methodists?," described German Methodists as "the one church group in Germany willing to play ball with Hitler."(71)

On the surface it appears that Melle's advocacy of German interests was consistent with Nuelsen's original policy, the essential difference being the degree of advocacy for Nazi interests to the point of Melle's outright collaboration. In reality, Nuelsen's policy differed from Melle's not only in degree but also in premise and intent. Nuelsen's work as a friend of Germany was born not so much of political calculations as of moral constraints. Melle, on the other hand, sought collaboration in order to advance the interests of his church and because he saw it as a patriotic duty. And, as J. Tremayne Copplestone says, "Whereas Nuelsen helped preserve the Church by resorting to strategic organizational adjustment, Melle and the ministers like him preserved the Church by making professional ethical adjustments."(72)

After the war some who had worked with him during the Nazi period argued that Melle had recognized the perils of Nazism early on and that he had used his considerable tactical talent to keep the church from harm. In this view, Melle was farsighted and flexible. He carefully avoided conflict and went as far as he could in serving his country and the Nazi state without lying or compromising the faith.(73) Melle's own postwar statements, and those of his successor, Bishop J. W. Ernst Sommer, in which they argue that the course followed by German Methodists in the dangerous environment of Nazism was the only possible one, are consistent with that view.(74) This view was also voiced by Bishop Raymond J. Wade, who predicted that in the long term history would be kinder to Bishop Melle than his contemporary critics.(75)

No Nazi himself,(76) yet Melle easily transferred loyalty to his country to the Nazi regime. On the basis of Romans 13 he and his associates believed they must be subject to the governmental authorities.(77) But it is clear from Melle's public statements and personal correspondence that Nazism offered much that appealed to him. Like most Germans he welcomed the Nazi crackdown on Bolshevism, the cleansing of German culture, and Hitler's assertive foreign policy in repudiating the unjust dictate of Versailles and annexing Austria and the Sudetenland. Thus, while the propagandist Melle was capable of stretching the truth to the point of deceit, still he was able to speak of Hitler's achievements with the power of conviction.

The fact that his own church fared better than most may have caused Melle to overlook the dark side of the Hitler regime. But while his church did fare better, still it was subject to Nazi restrictions, and Melle had reason for serious concern. Like those of other churches, Methodist youth organizations were banned. Nazi spies attended church meetings. Methodist pastors were at times hauled before the Gestapo and questioned. Like their colleagues in other churches, Methodist editors had to be members of the Nazi editors' guild, attend ideological training sessions, and follow guidelines established by the Propaganda Ministry. And that Ministry forced them to include articles without identifying the source, making the church press an extension of the Nazi state.(78) Clearly, the state had invaded the realm of Melle's church. Yet, while there were expressions of concern on the part of some members and pastors,(79) Melle seems not to have been among them. Moreover, the Hitler salute and swastika presented no problem for him.(80) He was not concerned when the students and faculty at his seminary joined the National Socialist Student Union and SA [Sturm Abteilung], and participated in their activities. On the contrary, he seemed gratified that "we have not been entirely untouched [by the political developments], and I was glad that it was so."(81) While Melle never endorsed German Christians as a movement, their commitment to masculine German virtues reflected his own. He grasped every opportunity to establish closer contacts to Nazi leaders and God-and-Country Christians like Reich Bishop Heinrich Muller and Church Minister Hanns Kerrl, whom he described as profoundly spiritual men.(82)

But this did not mean that Melle endorsed Nazism in its entirety. While some Methodists did espouse Nazi racist goals and the Methodist press specifically endorsed the Nazi policy on "racial hygiene,"(83) Melle himself appears to have abstained from any comments on the race question. And in spite of pressures from various sides, Melle retained a "Jewish" superintendent until 1939 when he assigned him to the German Methodist congregation in London, for reasons of the pastor's own safety.(84)

In defending his record, Bishop Melle maintained after the war that it had been an "impossibility for an active member of the Methodist church to advocate National Socialist ideas."(85) The reality was otherwise. Pastors, seminary students, and lay members had joined Nazi organizations, and the church boasted of their membership. Church papers promoted the sale of Nazi books, and church leaders called on members to do their "national duty" by voting for Hitler. They explicitly endorsed Hitler's domestic policy as in keeping with God's ordinance and beneficial to the church and his foreign policy as one of peace. And when it came, they supported Hitler's war of aggression as a just war.(86)

When he discussed the Oxford episode after the war with Bishop Raymond J. Wade, Melle persuaded his American visitor that in using the phrase "God in His Providence has sent a Leader," he and Schmidt had intended it to mean "God permitting."(87) Though not flawless, Melle's command of English was remarkably good, and his attempt to hide behind the language barrier is not convincing. The German equivalent of providence is Vorsehung, and Melle never questioned the use of the term in German reports and in discussions after Oxford. Rather than pleading misunderstanding when challenged for using the phrase at a ministerial conference in Germany, he defended it.(88) Indeed, Vorsehung seems to have been among Melle's favorite vocabulary, and he frequently used it in his speeches and articles.

Only once, in a bid to mend the strained relations with the Evangelical Church late in 1945, did Melle depart from his defensive stance. In personal talks with representatives of that church, he admitted that he had misjudged Nazism, that he had erred "especially with regard to the [Nazi] treatment of the churches," and that he had entered into a questionable relationship with the Nazi state. And Melle specifically apologized for his role at Oxford.(89)

We may grant Bishop Melle that he collaborated with the Nazi state in order to protect his church. For whatever reason, adaptation to and accommodation of the Nazi state was the rule in most churches and practiced on a broad scale. It seems a paradox, however, that a nonstate church that embraced the principle of separation of church and state would willingly collaborate with one of the most demonic systems in history and exploit its foreign ties in doing so. But German Methodists were not alone in this. Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists followed a similar policy. Among the most notable examples, the Congress of the Baptist World Alliance that was held in Berlin in August 1934, served the Nazi state as an opportunity to refute charges of religious persecution by demonstrating its commitment to religious tolerance and for German Baptists to voice their allegiance to the Third Reich. Baptist leader Paul Schmidt's team work with Melle at Oxford in 1937 is yet another well publicized case in a long history of service to Nazi Germany.(90) And it may have been the Methodist example that inspired Adventist leaders G. W. Schubert and Hulda Jost in 1936 to collaborate with the Ministry of Propaganda and the German Foreign Office in a propaganda trip to the United States.(91)

By joining in Nazi propaganda these church leaders deceived Christians abroad and at home about the true policies of Nazism. As insiders, leaders had the confidence of their people, which made their propaganda more effective than the Party's own. While collaborating with the state in matters of perceived mutual interest, they were silent in the face of manifest Nazi crimes.

By contrast, at least some leaders of the established church found the courage to sound a prophetic voice. One of these was Theophil Wurm, bishop of the Evangelical church in Wurttemberg. Like Melle a German patriot, a cautious Wurm played an ambiguous role as he negotiated a difficult course to preserve an "intact church."(92) Nevertheless at times he felt compelled to speak out. In 1937, in response to open attacks on Christianity by Nazi officials and the systematic de-Christianization of German education and culture, he protested to Nazi authorities and called on his pastors to be bold in warning their parishioners of the peril.(93) In 1943, when new Nazi measures threatened also the "privileged" Jews, that is, those who were married to "Aryan" spouses, he protested to various state authorities and to Hitler personally. He condemned the large-scale extermination of non-Aryans in territories under German control as "in sharpest contradiction to God's Commandment" and "an assault against the very foundation of Western thought and life: the God-given fundamental right [Urrecht] of human existence and dignity." He protested the suppression of religious liberty, the detention in concentration camps of honorable citizens, and the arbitrary use of authority.(94) In a letter to Reich Minister Lammers, Wurm wrote that "because of religious and ethical convictions, I must, in agreement with the opinion of all positive Christian circles in Germany, declare that we Christians consider this extermination policy directed against the Jews as a great and disastrous injustice committed by Germany. Killing without justification because of war and without trial is against God's command, even if the government orders it, and as every deliberate violation of God's commandment is avenged, so will this be sooner or later."(95)

While Wurm's protest fell far short of what was needed then, no such words of conscience were ever heard from Melle. Whatever the reason, it was not for lack of information. In Wurttemberg, where Methodists had entered into a close working relationship with the Evangelical state church, Melle had ample opportunity to see the anti-Christian forces at work without having to rely on the Nazi press. Melle's remarks at Oxford prompted the church authorities in Stuttgart to suspend this relationship and because of this Bishop Wurm faced indictment for slandering an "upright" German.(96) None who has read the large volume of Melle's correspondence following his Oxford speech can doubt that Melle was well aware of the real situation, and privately he admitted as much.(97)

Was Melle's church in Germany too small and vulnerable? Clearly, leaders of the established churches in Germany had the advantage of speaking from a position of strength with little fear of placing their members in jeopardy, though at times they cited this as the reason for their inaction.(98) The responsible leaders of small denominations, on the other hand, had good reason to fear the consequences--not only for their person or their church organization, but also for individual church members and their families. What former members of banned organizations could expect is clear from the example of the Jehovah's Witnesses and of the Reformed Adventists.(99) Leaders of other denominations weighed the consequences and chose not to resist.(100) Though Melle was aware of the risks involved, none of the available records from the Nazi era indicate that this was Melle's motivating concern.

The history of the church in times of adversity often exposes flaws that are normally hidden. One of the most disconcerting aspects of church history in the Nazi era is how easily Christians were swept along. Bishop Nuelsen's critique of his own church may help us understand why. The most serious problem, it seemed to him, was that nationalism had found a home in the otherwise otherworldly pietism of German Methodism. As he wrote to his fellow bishops in America, they were "victims of a terrific irresistible mass obsession."(101) Unable to differentiate between God and country, they had never asked themselves whether they were Christians who happened to be German or Germans who happened to be Christian. For all too many, and Melle among them, the honest answer would have been the latter.

Moreover, Nuelsen argued, the German Methodist Episcopal Church confined itself to a "limited pietistic gospel of strictly personal piety," a private religion separated from life, as it were.(102) This kind of Methodism focused on self-preservation and self-promotion--that naturally included evangelism--with little sense of responsibility to the world. Naive and ignorant as they were about the affairs of this world, it seemed appropriate to simply quote Romans 13:1, "Be subject to all authority," conclude that Hitler had been ordained by God, and abdicate all personal responsibility. This kind of Methodism left no room for a prophetic voice, which was considered political meddling. While thus silent on the crimes of the Nazi regime, the church used every opportunity for applause.(103)

Bishop Carl Wesley Gamer's memo regarding a "rather contrite and humble" postwar letter from Melle noted that he saw "nothing in it that would lead me to feel he would like to see a new orientation ... around the non-collaboration principle."(104) Rather than reflecting on how the Nazi catastrophe had occurred, Melle preferred to focus on the future of the German nation and state.(105) Should policy be judged on the basis of principle or results? Accused of yielding to the Nazi temptation, Melle claimed that because of his policy the church had survived the Nazi years.(106) This may well be true, but it did not survive as the voice of truth in a chorus of lies, not as a light illuminating the darkness of evil, and not as an instrument of peace and justice.

(1) Klaus Scholder, The Churches and the Third Reich, 1918-1934 (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988), 1: 261-69. Evangelisches Zentralarchiv (hereafter EZA) contains a large collection of press clippings on this subject under 5/802, 803, 804, and 805.

(2) Numerous documents tell of efforts by the Foreign Office working with the Foreign Office of the Evangelical Church (Kirchliches Aussenamt) to find ways to combat a hostile foreign press. A number of these are found in EZA 5/802. Hitler charged the Propaganda Ministry with the task to coordinate these efforts. His decision came on 10 May and again on 24 May 1933. Herbert Strahm, Die Bischofliche Methodistenkirche im Dritten Reich (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 1989), 62. See also Goebbels's diary entries, particularly for 24 and 26 March and 10 and 25 May.

(3) In 1940 Methodists numbered some 55,131 members in Germany (Strahm, 107).

(4) The German Consulate General in New York City was one of several agencies urging that the Foreign Office collaborate with Methodists to combat anti-German propaganda in the United States. Consulate General New York to Foreign Office, 7 April 1933. Politisches Archiv des Auswartigen Amts (hereafter AA), R62290: Methodisten. On Nazi appeal for Methodist assistance, see A. J. Ohlrich to Nuelsen, 27 March 1933. Methodist Archive, Zurich (hereafter MAZ), 214. All English translations from German language documents are my own.

(5) For reports on the appeal, see Der Christliche Apologete (German language weekly of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America), 5 April 1933. For the text of the appeal, MAZ/214. Also in EZA, 5/802. On the interview, see Nuelsen to Dr. J. A. Diekmann (USA), 1 May 1933, MAZ/222. Gratified, Nuelsen wrote to von Neurath "that especially now there is appreciation for the service we are able to render our Fatherland by wisely utilizing our foreign ties" (MAZ/214). All translations from the German are by the author. On the radio address, see Der Evangelist, 23 April 1933, 262, 267. Der Evangelist was the official voice of Methodism in Germany. Excerpts were also published in the German press. See also John S. Conway, The Nazi Persecution of the Churches (New York: Basic Books, 1968), 342-44.

(6) Bishop Melle even sought to influence American Methodist editorial policy. In a letter to Bishop Charles Wesley Flint of 3 November 1937 Bishop Melle urged "not to publish only news that can be used against the present Germany, but ... news that speak for Germany and her government." United Methodist Archives, Madison, N.J. (hereafter UMA), Missions, 1185-5-3:34. A notable exception is John L. Nuelsen's article, "Religion in the Third Reich," Religion in Life 3 (1933): 541-52, where he exhibits remarkable insights into German history and the mystical nature of Nazism. Nuelsen is pessimistic about the future of religion in a country where the church is reduced to a department of state.

(7) Nuelsen Circular of 16 January 1934, MAZ/219. Also, Der Evangelist, 7 January 1934, 13.

(8) Nuelsen circular of 16 January 1934, MAZ/219. See also report on Nuelsen's trip in Der Evangelist, 7 January 1934, 13. On 1935 trip, see reports in Cincinnatier Freie Presse, 22 and 23 October 1935.

(9) "Bischof Nuelsen spricht uber die Kirchenfrage in Europa," Cincinnatier Freie Presse (22 October 1935). Copy in AA, 62290.

(10) The German language Cincinnatier Freie Presse called Nuelsen a "witness of truth" whose report should end all debate about the church struggle in Germany. "Die Behauptung, in Deutschland werde die Glaubensfreiheit unterdruckt gehort ins Reich der Fabel," Cincinnatier Freie Presse. Copies in the Bundesarchiv, Abteilungen Potsdam (hereafter BA Potsdam), 51.01/23412, No. 00505/3. Also in AA, R 62290.

(11) Reporting on Nuelsen's lectures, a Baptist journal praised them as "masterly" exposition of conditions in Germany and an excellent service rendered to Fuhrer and Volk. Quoted in Der Evangelist, 1 March 1936.

(12) On the assignment and financial support, see German Embassy, Washington, D.C. to German Foreign Office, 9 December 1935. Also, D. Senzer to Foreign Office, 16 March 1936, and memo by Feuerstein of 24 October 1935. AA, R 6229. The Reichsausschuss provided Melle with RM 500.00. While the contribution of other agencies is not known, a payment of RM 6,000, a handsome sum, was made by a source that "wishes to be anonymous." "Nachtrag zum Bericht des Direktors fiber das Schuljahr 1935-36," 252. Methodist Archive Reutlingen (hereafter MAR).

(13) Melle claimed that pastoral conferences were particularly useful in shaping public opinion and policy in the United States. Melle report to Church Ministry (Haugg), 3 July 1936. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23412, No. 00587.

(14) See, for instance, "The Lord Blesses Every Step That Hitler Takes," New York Times, 23 March 1936.

(15) 24 April 1936.

(16) "Amerika-Reise, Marz-Juni 1936." BA Potsdam, 51.01/23412, No. 00587.

(17) Der Christliche Apologete, 15 April 1936. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23412, No. 00596.

(18) "Dr. Melle Praises Hitler and Pictures Nation as Happy," St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 24 April 1936.

(19) "Amerika-Reise, Marz-Juni 1936." BA Potsdam, 51.01/23412, No. 00583.

(20) Report by German Embassy in London to Foreign Office, 30 July 1937 (copy). EZA 5124. See also telegram of German Embassy London, 23 July 1937. EZA 5123, No. 252.

(21) "Church's Relations with the State: The Oxford Conference and the German Delegates," The Manchester Guardian Weekly, 30 July 1937. The official report on the Oxford Conference is found in J. H. Oldham, The Oxford Conference (New York: Clark, 1937).

(22) On Nazi praise and the controversy following Oxford, see Gerhard Schafer, Dokumentation zum Kirchenkampf (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1982), 5: 571-634.

(23) A report by the Foreign Department of the Nazi Party told of incendiary anti-German agitation especially by the Protestant clergy calling Hitler a false prophet who placed himself above Christ. Bruehl to Church Ministry (Reichskirchenministerium), 2 June 1938. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23413, No. 00270. Also, Memorandum of 10 May 1938, German Embassy (Thomsen), "Die Einstellung der evangelisch-protestantischen Kirche in Amerika zu Deutschland," BA Potsdam, 51.01/23397, No. 00552-53. It describes American concern for persecuted Christians in Germany.

(24) 10 February 1938. "Niemoeller Defied Nazi Court Openly," New York Times, 11 February 1938, 8. Reprinted in Karl Zehrer, Evangelische Freikirchen und das "Dritte Reich" (Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1986), 149.

(25) On request for help, see Church Ministry to Melle, 24 May 1938. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23397, No. 00554. On anti-German sentiments among American Protestants, see "Die Einstellung der evangelisch-protestantischen Kirche in Amerika zu Deutschland," Memorandum by the Consular Councillor of the German Embassy, 27 April 1938. Included in report by Foreign Office to Church Ministry, 10 May 1938. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23397, No. 00551-58. Also, NSDAP Auslandsorganisation (Bruhl) to Haugg. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23413, No. 00270.

(26) Landon had invited President Roosevelt and Methodist Cordell Hull to address the conference, but both declined. Landon to Roosevelt, 1 March 1939, and Roosevelt to Landon, 9 March 1939. Kansas State Historical Society (KSHS), 10/Box 134, Personal R-7, 1939. Landon to Hull, 1 March 1939, 10/Box 134, Personal E-J, 1939.

(27) Kerrl to Nuelsen, 16 June 1938. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23413, No. 00271-72.

(28) The Defender Magazine, June 1939. Copy in BA Potsdam, 51.01/23413, No. 00388-91. See also Melle's defense before the Council of Bishops, "Methodism in Germany, 1937/ 1938," in which he admitted that "no other area in the Methodist Episcopal Church has to meet larger problems and greater responsibilities." UMA/Missions, 1185-5-3:34:7.

(29) Melle report to German Embassy, 20 May 1939. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23413, No. 00375. On propaganda war, see "Was uns der Bischof Dr. Melle von Amerika erzahlt hat," Leitstern (7 July 1939). Leitstern was the journal of Methodist youth in Germany.

(30) Roy H. Short, History of the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church, 1939-1979 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1980), 65.

(31) Melle to Buchner, Church Ministry (3 July 1944), and correspondence between the Ministry and the Foreign Office, 15 July 1944. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23414, No. 00324-43. See also Strahm, 286.

(32) Melle's letter of 5 July 1944 to Hitler was sent via the Church Ministry (Muhs), which passed it with its endorsement to Reich Minister Dr. Lammers (20 July 1944), who forwarded it to Martin Bormann (3 August). Bormann responded (12 August), declining to submit the proposal to Hitler since the Fuhrer had repeatedly refused to allow religious radio broadcasts, lastly in 1941. BA Koblenz, R 43II/386 (Akten der Parteikanzlei der NSDAP), No. 10103827/1-2 (Muhs); No. 101 03831 (Lammers).

(33) On Hitler, see Rev. C. G. Meyer, "Im neuen Deutschland," 12 May 1937. On bad press, see "Die Judenfrage im Lichte der heutigen Zeit," 11 August 1937, 133-34. On changed view, see the issue of 4 January 1939: 3-4. The same issue, however, carried an article ridiculing a proposal by the Church Federation to establish a Jewish refuge in the jungles of South America: "These Jewish fellows are not interested in clearing wild forests and battling with wild beasts. They are used to managing banks, to lending money for interest, and conducting other profitable business. And now our American Jew lovers mean to send them into the jungles!" The journal ceased publication with the 3 December 1941 issue after the American entry into the war.

(34) Diffendorfer to Nuelsen, 29 April 1938. UMA/Missions, 1185-6-1:23, No. 310. Aware of the criticism of his policies, Melle felt that time was on his side and that "by and by a better understanding will come, and some of these editors will change their mind." Melle to Bishop Flint, 9 April 1938. UMA/Missions, 1185-5-3:34: 3. Occasionally their criticism found its way into Methodist publications. Responding to Melle's Oxford speech, an editorial in The Methodist Times and Leader declared its "profound regret that an accredited representative of American Methodism should have sought to borrow the influence of his great church for the furtherance of one of the most cruel persecutions in the history of Christendom." "An Episcopal Propagandist," 2 September 1937.

(35) "Methodists Ask Reich to End Persecution," The New York Times, 19 November 1938, 3. The Board of Foreign Missions in the same year issued a strong statement against the persecution of Jews in Germany. J. Tremayne Copplestone, Twentieth-Century Perspectives, vol. 4 of History of Methodist Missions (New York: The Board of Global Missions, 1949), 985. Select Annual Conferences also issued statements of condemnation. For example, see the resolution of the New York East Annual Conference, quoted in "Methodists Assail Anti-Jewish Acts," The New York Times, 20 May 1938, 14.

(36) Dwyer, 59.

(37) Rumors circulating within the church in the aftermath of the Reichstag fire told of Communist plans to burn Methodist churches and hang their pastors. Hugo Georgi to Nuelsen, 27 March 1933. MAZ, 214.

(38) Nuelsen to Diekmann, 1 May 1933, MAZ 222--Strahm 442. See also the telegram by Melle and Schmidt to Hitler, congratulating him on the "grand victories in the East" and expressing the conviction that Hitler acted as God's agent to "banish the force of Bolshevism which is the enemy of God and of Christianity." Report on Conference of the Alliance of Free Churches in Berlin, 3 December 1942. MAR, Bestand Melle/ Sommer.

(39) Pastor Gotthilf Holzer in a public speech, reported in Der Evangelist, 3 September 1933.

(40) On the attempted coup, see Nuelsen's confidential report to the Board of Bishops, 25 August 1933. MAZ/214, 5. For an example of the aims of the Nazi pastors, see the draft of the "Deutsch-methodistische Bewegung," MAZ/214. Also, Strahm, 88-96. On Party membership, see letter by Bernhard Keip to Gestapo, 17 October 1935. BA Postdam, 51.01/23412, No. 00456-57. Among these were District Superintendent Karl Albert Wenzel and his wife. See Gertrud Wenzel to Nuelsen, 15 August 1932. MAZ/214. Others, while not formal members of the Party, nevertheless endorsed it. The most outspoken of these, Pastor Hugo Georgi, former editor of the journal for Methodist youth, youth secretary, and later district superintendent (1939-52), called himself "a National Socialist by conviction" and "committed follower of Hitler": "To me the [German] people are above any organization, even above the church." Georgi to Church Ministry, 1 July 1936. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23412, No. 00573. An interesting case is Superintendent Pratsch, who served in Bulgaria. Because of his openly pro-Nazi stance, Nuelsen argued for his transferral back to Germany. Nuelsen to Diffendorfer, 29 July 1940. UMA, Missions, 1185-6-1:25.

(41) Strahm, 93.

(42) Karl Steckel and Ernst Sommer, eds., Geschichte der Evangelish-methodistischen Kirche: Weg, Wesen und Auftrag des Methodismus mit besonderer Berucksichtigung der deutschsprachigen Lander Europas (Stuttgart: Christliches Verlagshaus, 1982), 99.

(43) Der Christliche Apologete, 7 August 1940, 119.

(44) J. A. Diekmann, "John Louis Nuelsen: In Memoriam," The Bethesdan, August 1946, 5. Also, Bishop Raymond J. Wade, "Memoir for Bishop John L. Nuelsen," UMA/Council of Bishops, July 24-May 1948, 388-92.

(45.) See, for example, his letter to the pro-Nazi pastor Hugo Georgi, 15 June 1933, regarding restructuring of the church in Germany. MAZ/214. Also, Copplestone, 983.

(46.) Nuelsen's strong leadership qualities were particularly evident during the crisis surrounding the Central Germany yearly conference of 28 June-2 July 1933. See Nuelsen's correspondence with one of the militantly pro-Nazi pastors, Hugo Georgi, and also with Superintendent Bernhard Keip. Nuelsen to Keip, 11 July 1933. MAZ/214. Nuelsen to Georgi, 15 June 1933, and especially 29 August 1933. MAZ/214.

(47.) See, for example, Nuelsen's letter to Hugo Georgi of 29 August 1933, where he emphasizes that for him "my church and the community of faith and the love of the savior with those who are born of God to new life are the highest and most precious community there is. It is more precious than family or Volk or race. No community of blood can compare with the community of the spirit." MAZ/214.

(48.) On award of honorary Doctor of Theology degree, see Paul Ernst Hammer, John L. Nuelsen: Aspekte und Materialien eines biographischen Versuchs (Stuttgart: Christliches Verlagshaus, 1974): 32-33. The German Red Cross awarded him the Cross of Honor First Class, and President Friedrich Ebert conveyed his personal thanks. Strahm, 16.

(49.) See Nuelsen to Georgi, 15 June 1933: 2. MAZ/214.

(50.) Nuelsen to Rev. John R. Edwards, 12 April 1933. UMA, Missions, 1185-6-1118/No. 310. Also, see memo by H. D. Schreiber of 31 March 1933 on a meeting with Nuelsen, reporting on Nuelsen's challenge to cancel or limit the boycott to demonstrate that discipline and order reigned in Germany. EZA/51802.

(51.) John L. Nuelsen, "The Present Situation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Germany," (marked "Personal and Confidential"), 25 August 1933. UMA, Missions, 1185-6-1:18.

(52.) John L. Nuelsen, "Religion and Church in Hitler's Germany," unpublished manuscript, MAZ, 261.

(53). Hugo Georgi to Nuelsen, 31 October 1933. MAZ/214. Also Nuelsen to Heinrich Holzschuher, 8 June 1933. MAZ/214.

(54.) Nuelsen to the Board of Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 28 October 1933. MAZ/214.

(55.) Nuelsen to Georgi, 15 June 1933. MAZ/214.

(56.) Nuelsen to Rev. John R. Edwards, 12 April 1933. UMA, Missions, 1185-6-1:18, No. 310. Nuelsen made the same point in a confidential letter to the Board of Bishops of 25 August 1933: "In the fateful and fierce struggle between nationalism and internationalism ... Methodism must do its best to hold and strengthen the forces of internationalism." MAZ/214, 4.

(57.) Nuelsen to Bucher, 7 August 1936. MAZ/223, 3.

(58.) Strahm, 186, n. 352.

(59.) Melle to Diffendorfer, 24 March 1938. UMA/Missions, 1185-5-3:34/287. In 1940, reflecting on recent history, Melle said that "we can't help but see the hand of God," and he claimed to have seen "the finger of God" in the Nazi Revolution. Melle, "Der deutsche Methodismus und die neue Zeit," 8 October 1940. Printed speech. MAR/ Melle, Kse 081. Bernhard Keip, who often represented the church to the government, saw it the same way. Keip to Nuelsen, 28 January 1936 and 2 February 1936. MAZ/215.

(60.) James Albert Dwyer, The Methodist Episcopal Church in Germany, 1933-1945: Development of Semi-Autonomy and Maintenance of International Ties in the Face of National Socialism and the German Church Struggle (UMI, Ph.D. diss.: Northwestern University, 1978), 246. Dwyer also considers this view an oversimplification.

(61.) Melle, "Gebetserhorung am Kriegsende," Der Evangelist, 18 January 1919. Dr. Muhs of the Church Ministry called Melle "an upright German" of "unquestioningly patriotic stance." Muhs to Lammers, 20 July 1944. BA Koblenz, R43II/386, No. 10103827/1-2.

(62.) "Am Webstuhl der Zeit," Der Leitstern, September 1921.

(63.) Melle to Simpfendorfer, 7 September 1931. BA, R 43II/179, 77-85.

(64.) Degree awarded in 1913 by Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio. For a brief biography of Melle, see Keip to Church Ministry, 4 July 1936. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23412, No. 00575-79.

(65.) In a 1921 trip to America, Melle raised $50,000. "Bericht des Vorstands-Ausschuss," 15 August 1921, MAR. On a 1926 trip, he collected $10,000. "Protokoll," 18/19 May 1926, MAR. In 1937 he raised $25,000 from one donor. Ehnes to Diffendorfer, 1 March 1937. UMA/Missions, 1113-2-1:32.

(66.) On the 1925 statement, see "Bericht des Direktors an den Vorstand," 19 May 1925, MAR. On the 1933 statement, Evangelisches Allianzblatt, 3 September 1933. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23412, No. 00580-81. Later on he would even claim that Methodists had helped bring about the new order. Der christliche Apologete, 2 February 1938.

(67.) Melle to Diffendorfer, 24 March 1938. UMA/Missions, 1185-5-3:34. Similar statement in "Der deutsche Methodismus und die neue Zeit," address of 8 October 1940, MAR, Kse 081.

(68.) The Jewish property in the town of Guben near Frankfurt/Oder was a reward for the positive Methodist stance toward the Third Reich and for Melle's Oxford speech. Church Ministry to Regierungsprasident Frankfurt/Oder, BA Potsdam, 51.01/23414 No. 00043-44. On twins, Der Evangelist, 9 February 1936, 93. On the pastor's son, Der Evangelist, 27 January 1935, 61.

(69.) A memo of 17 August 1938 states that other gifts to churches were made without Hitler's knowledge. "The only exception was the case of the Methodist church in Schneidemtihl." BA, R43II/386, No. 101 00883-84. The gift "was made for propagandistic reasons in view of the [loyal] stance of the Methodists toward the Third Reich." The memo specifically mentions Melle's speech at Oxford. Lammers to Hess, c/o Bormann, 21 November 1938. BA Potsdam, No. 101 00692-694.

(70.) Nuelsen to Diffendorfer, 14 May 1938. UMA, Missions, 1185-6-1:23, No. 310.

(71.) 11 May 1938, 79.

(72.) Copplestone, 983.

(73.) Strahm, 226. See also Bishop Wade's recollections about meeting with Sommer and Melle during the Thirties. Raymond J. Wade, "Memoir," May 1947. UMA/Council of Bishops, July 24-May 1948, 388-92.

(74.) Their declarations of guilt were so generic as to be meaningless and naturally failed to satisfy their American critics. Melle's address to the Central Conference, 7-11 November 1946, stated: "We have humbled ourselves before God in deep and sincere repentance for our own sins and for the sins of our nation." UMA/Council of Bishops, July 1947-May 1948, 313. Translation as commissioned by Bishop Wade. The official Methodist declaration of guilt was passed by the Central Conference on 6 December 1945. The opening phrase sets the tenor for the entire document: "With a humble and contrite heart we praise God that through his undeserved grace he has not permitted the testimony of His church in Germany to be silenced." While expressing distress that crimes have been committed "in the name of our nation," it declares solidarity with their nation in bearing this guilt and atoning for it. The only admission of guilt on their part is in "failing in enduring prayer, in fearless testimony, and active love." UMA/ Council of Bishops, July 1947-May 1948, 142. See also Bishop Sommer's appeal to the Ecumenical Conference in Springfield, MA, 9 September 1947. UMA/Council of Bishops, July 1947-May 1948, 429.

(75.) Raymond J. Wade, "Memoir," May 1947. UMA/Council of Bishops, July 24-May 1948, 388-92. Wade had presided over the Scandinavian parish.

(76.) According to Melle there were attempts to recruit him for membership in the Party, but he resisted. "Statement of Bishop Melle about his political Attitude during the past twelve years," UMA/Council of Bishops, 24 July-May 1948. Before 1933 Melle, along with a number of other Methodist pastors, had been active in a small political party, the Christlich Sozialer Volksdienst, which sought to apply Christian social principles and favored a return to the Hohenzollern monarchy. Dwyer, 61-63.

(77.) He argued after the war that Scripture left no doubt that this included even "heathen" authorities. "Statement of Bishop Melle about his political Attitude during the past twelve years," 4 December 1945. UMA/Council of Bishops, 24 June-May 1948, 132.

(78.) On Gestapo, Bernhard Keip to Gestapo, 17 October 1935. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23412, No. 00456-57. Some pastors were banned from public speaking. Strahm, 196. On Methodist press, see Richard Wobith to Nuelsen, 20 March 1933. MAZ/214. Wobith, the editor of the official Methodist journal Der Evangelist, at times had to defend himself against protests by church members. In this letter he reassured his bishop: "Der Evangelist is and remains nonpolitical as long as the editor is given a free hand. In this case it was forced to include the article. That may well happen again. I am not permitted to say more, since I am pledged to absolute secrecy." See also Nuelsen to Diffendorfer, 14 November-19 May 1938. UMA/Missions, 1185-6-1:23/310. Nuelsen complained that the paper printed "all the stuff that the Propaganda ministry sends them. The situation makes my heart sick." On Methodist youth, see Johannisthaler to Nuelsen, 14 September 1933. MAZ/214. In Saxony they voluntarily joined Hitler Youth. For a summary of Nazi measures against the church, see Strahm, 279-82.

(79.) See n. 101.

(80.) Melle in Evangelisches Allianzblatt, September 1933. BA Potsdam, 51.01/23412, No.00582.

(81.) "Nachtrag," Board Minutes, 12 June 1934, MAR.

(82.) On masculine virtues promoted by German Christians, see Doris L. Bergen, Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1996), 74-81. On contacts to Nazi church leaders, see Dwyer, 79.

(83.) "Racial hygiene" and eugenics were often presented in the broader context of health reform and temperance and thus seemed to fit Methodist teaching. See, for example, "Du und der Kampf um die Zukunft des deutschen Volkes," Leitstern, August 1937, 162-66.

(84.) Privately, some Methodists responded to this case with dismay, shuddering at the prospect of God's judgment that the persecution of Jews would draw upon the German people, but there were never any official pronouncements or mention of such concern in the Methodist press. On pressures to purge the Jewish superintendent, Pastor Ohlrich, see Strahm, 149; on internal Methodist protest, see Strahm, 244. Also, Steckel/ Sommer, 99.

(85.) "Message of Bishop Melle to the Central Conference of the Methodist Church in Germany," in session in Frankfurt/Main, November 7-11, 1946. UMA, Council of Bishops, July 24-May 1948, 312-17. Melle claimed he knew "of no cases where we lost our members to the Nazi Weltanschauung, though of course single ones, compelled by the pressure of circumstances, became inactive [!] members of the party." Melle, "Statement," 4 December 1945. UMA, Missions, 1117-1-2:17: 287.

(86.) After a visit to Germany in 1945 Bishop Paul N. Garber of the Zurich area concluded: "Apparently most of the German Methodist leaders were pro-Nazi," but added, "it should be remembered the same situation existed in all other German churches." Memo, 10 November 1945. UMA/Missions, 1117-1-2:17: 287. One advertisement in Der Evangelist of 19 November 1933 recommended twenty-five books on "national literature" and great leaders such as Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goring, Horst Wessel, and Adolf Hitler (including Hitler's Mein Kampf). On voting, see "Unsere Wahlpflicht," Der Evangelist, 5 March 1933, 157. On war, see Melle Circular to pastors, 6 June 1940. MAR, Sommer/Melle files. Melle expressed gratitude to God who "in his providence" had given them the Fuhrer, had "defeated the plots of the enemies," and had granted "unparalleled success" to German soldiers.

(87.) Raymond J. Wade, "Memoir for Bishop John Louis Nuelsen and Bishop F. H. Otto Melle," UMA/Council of Bishops, 1944-48, 391.

(88.) Strahm, 215.

(89.) "Declarations by Probst H. Gruber in regard to the position of Bishop Melle," Memorandum by Dr. Hans Schonfeld, 1 November 1945. UMA/Missions, 11117-1-2:17. Because of his confession he was allowed to participate in the Marienkirche procession of 28 October 1945.

(90.) See the excellent study by Andrea Strubind, Die unfreie Freikirche: Der Bund der Baptistengemeinden im "Dritten Reich" (Neukirchen: Neukirchener Verlag, 1991). On Baptist congress, Strubind, 141-77. On other Baptist collaboration, Strubind, 228-52, 271-77.

(91.) On Methodist influence, G. W. Schubert to C. H. Watson, 5 January 1936. Archives of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 11/1934-36 1, "Schubert, G. W." On Adventist collaboration, see Roland Blaich, "Selling Nazi Germany Abroad: The Case of Hulda Jost," Journal of Church and State 35 (1993): 807-30. Also, Roland Blaich, "Health Reform and Race Hygiene: Adventists and the Biomedical Vision of the Third Reich," Church History 65 (1996): 425-40.

(92.) Term used to refer to the Land churches where the old church authorities were able to retain control. See Helmreich, 163.

(93.) See Wurm circular, "An samtliche Dekanatamter," 25 October 1937. Landeskirchliches Archiv Stuttgart (hereafter LKA Stuttgart), 115c/XI (Altregistratur).

(94.) Wurm to Hitler, 16 July 1943. Gerhard Schafer, Landesbischof D. Wurm und der Nationalsozialistische Staat, 1940-1945 (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1968), 305-307.

(95.) Wurm to Lammers, 20 December 1943. Quoted in Helmreich, 331.

(96.) Decree of 7 September 1937. On Wurm's defense, see Wurm to State Prosecutor, 14 February 1938. LKA Stuttgart, 115c/XIII. Also, Helmreich, 227.

(97.) See, for example, Melle to Dr. R. E. Grob, 7 October 1937. MAZ, 410/5. Also, Dekan Fischer to Pastor Bauerle, 26 July 1937, and Pastor Lang to Melle, 9 August 1937. LKA Stuttgart, Bund 174 (Altregistratur).

(98.) Bishop Hans Meiser responded to a 1943 call for protest by concerned pastors against the persecution of Jews, claiming that then he would be arrested, persecution would only worsen, and even church members might face persecution. Andrew Chandler, ed., The Moral Imperative: New Essays on the Ethics of Resistance in National Socialist Germany, 1933-1945 (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1998), 9.

(99.) See Christine E. King, The Nazi State and the New Religions: Five Case Studies in Non-Conformity (New York: E. Mellen, 1982), 110.

(100.) Among these was Adolf Minck, leader of German Seventh-day Adventists, who decided to accommodate the Nazi state and thus spare his church members a tragic fate. See Roland Blaich, "Religion Under National Socialism: The Case of the German Adventist Church," Central European History 26 (1993): 277.

(101.) Nuelsen circular, "The Present Situation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Germany," 25 August 1933. MAZ/214. In a letter to a friend Nuelsen told of a conversation with Melle after his Oxford speech: "I told Bishop Melle very plainly what I thought of his Oxford speech. However, he as well as our German Methodists are living in a water-tight compartment. He is convinced that he rendered a great service to Methodism as well as to Germany." Nuelsen to Diffendorfer, 14 May 1938. UMA/Missions, 1185-6-1:23/310. Exactly how many church members were Nazis is difficult to assess. According to the editor of Der Evangelist, only 10-20 percent of the letters in response to a series of pro-Nazi articles were letters of protest. Some 80 percent were pleased that these articles removed the stigma that Methodists were not "national." Wobith to Nuelsen, 20 March 1933. MAZ/214.

(102.) Nuelsen to Diffendorfer, 14 May 1938. MAZ/214.

(103.) For a critical review of the German Methodist concept of the state, see Strahm, 44-47.

(104.) Gamer, Carl Wesley, "Germany 9-5-45 to 9-18-45," UMA, Missions, 1117-1-2:17.

(105.) Stewart W. Herman, "Interview with Bishop Otto Melle of the German Methodist Church on Tuesday, September 18," in Die evangelische Kirche nach dem Zusammenbruch. Berichte auslandischer Beobachter aus dem Jahre 1945, ed. Clemens Vollnhals (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1988), 145.

(106.) Memo by Bishop Carl Wesley Gamer, 5 September 1945. UMA/Missions, 1117-1-2:17. Melle predicted that time would be much more charitable than were his contemporary critics. Christian Apologist, 24 April 1947. The American CIC concluded that German Methodism was tolerated "because of their large following in England and America." Memorandum, 25 May 1946, Counter Intelligence Corps, Region 3, 25 May 1946. UMA/1117-1-2:17, No. 287.

Roland Blaich is a professor in the history department at Walla Walla College.

Article Details

Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback
Author:	BLAICH, ROLAND
Publication:	Church History
Date:	Jun 1, 2001
Words:	13271
Previous Article:	PRIMARY SOURCES AND TEXTS IN TRANSLATION: BOOKS RECEIVED.
Next Article:	Introduction.