Accommodation and Resistance: The Church under Totalitarianism

How society remembers and grapples with the history of the Protestant churches during National Socialism and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) – these are key research interests of Professor Christopher Spehr. Since last October, the ecclesiastical historian has held the Chair of Church History at the Faculty of Protestant Theology.

A particular focus of his work concerns how parts of the church became implicated in Nazi ideology. A prime example is the Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life in Eisenach. In 2021, Spehr published conference proceedings about this “Dejudaization Institute” in conjunction with his predecessor at LMU, Professor Harry Oelke.

The pseudoscientific organization, which was founded by various regional Protestant churches in 1939, sought to erase all Jewish elements from Christian life – whether by removing Hebraic names like Abraham from the Bible or by adapting hymns and church services accordingly. “Words like hosanna and hallelujah were taken out, and the Christmas story was altered,” says Spehr. “The theologians even produced a version of the New Testament, which they called ‘God’s Message’. Similarly, they created a hymnbook that removed Jewish names and words. Happily, the texts did not catch on, and in 1945 this ghastly episode was over,” explains the theologian.

The “German Christians” movement

Christopher Spehr, who was recently elected chair of the Protestant Association for Church History of the Protestant Church in Germany, is also interested in the paths taken by the “German Christians” movement after 1945. This by no means homogeneous political current, which began to emerge within the Protestant Church in 1932, took an antisemitic, ethnonationalist stance that was ideologically aligned with the Nazi regime. It fought to establish the Leader Principle (Führerprinzip), which asserted the supremacy of Hitler’s word above all written law, within the Church and to create a single national Protestant Reich Church.

Among other things, the “German Christians” also called for the abolition of the Old Testament and for a judenrein theology. Their powerful emergence, explains Christopher Spehr, led to the Church Struggle (Kirchenkampf) starting in 1933. This was a conflict between the German Christians and the nascent Confessing Church, which resisted the “German Christians” and the unlawful encroachments of the Nazi state on the domain of the Church. Although the position of the Confessing Church, particularly as formulated in the Barmen Declaration of 1934, would ultimately prevail, “the tensions arising from this conflict lasted well beyond the post-war years,” observes Spehr. “I’m interested here in how former “German Christians” influenced the Protestant churches and how the latter dealt with this issue, especially after 1945.”

Connections between church histories of Thuringia and Bavaria

In addition to heading the Protestant Association for Church History with its research center in LMU’s Faculty of Protestant Theology, Christopher Spehr is also looking forward to cooperating with institutions such as the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism and the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History. “Munich is the ideal location for carrying out academic research in my topic area in particular,” says Christopher Spehr.

In leaving Friedrich Schiller University Jena to come to LMU, Professor Christopher Spehr crossed a certain historical divide: from the academic stronghold of the Reformation to a university with a staunchly traditional Catholic orientation. Indeed, the internationally renowned Luther scholar has come to the university of Johann Eck – one of the principal opponents of the Wittenberg reformer Martin Luther.

But there are other historical connections between eastern Germany and Bavaria as well, emphasizes Spehr. “King Ludwig II of Bavaria wanted to make Wartburg Castle his architectural model for Neuschwanstein, although in the end he was only able to recreate the banqueting hall due to the lack of space on the rocky outcrop,” he explains. Moreover, Bavaria has much to offer students of the history of the Reformation. As the site of various diets and attempts at reconciliation between the Reformers and the Catholics, Augsburg in particular is of lasting importance. The presentation of the Augsburg Confession in 1530 and the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 offer scope for new research projects and approaches.

School of democracy

The ecclesiastical history of the German Democratic Republic will remain a defining part of Spehr’s research in Munich, and not just in relation to the strained relationships of churches and religious communities with the communist state. “I’m particularly interested in the militarization and military education in the GDR and how Christians and the churches responded to them – especially against the backdrop of the introduction of compulsory military service at the start of the 1960s,” explains Spehr, who is publishing four volumes in a series on discrimination against Christians in the GDR.

Just like in the Federal German Republic, there were young people in the GDR who refused to serve in the military because of their Christian pacifist convictions. “An alternative like the civilian service, which was only recognized in West Germany after a long political struggle, was out of the question for the GDR leadership for ideological reasons,” says Cristopher Spehr.

Because the number of objectors had grown, and with it the need to integrate them in military structures, unarmed military service was introduced in the National People’s Army in 1964. The so-called “construction soldiers” (Bausoldaten) had to do hard physical labor and suffered wide-ranging discrimination.

“As the construction soldiers often came from Christian circles, the East German government, by creating these units, unwittingly facilitated networks through which regime-critical contemporaries got to know each other – and maintained contact after their unarmed military service. The construction soldiers were a sort of school of democracy.”

Ecclesiastical history from the Middle Ages to the modern era

Although the main focus of Spehr’s research is currently on recent history, the ecclesiastical historian studies the long span of time from the Reformation to the Enlightenment all the way up to the present day.

“Ecclesiastical history is composed of individual pieces of mosaic, which form an overall picture through cross-cutting thematic analyses,” he explains. One way of approaching this overall picture, for instance, is to investigate how the Christian faith has been transmitted across epochs. “Mediality plays an important role here and can be seen as a guiding thread.”

This becomes concrete not only in the sermons, hymns, and similar written sources, but also in printed materials such as the broadsides from the Reformation period, magazines and review organs from the Enlightenment era, and (church) newspapers in the 19th and early 20th century. In the age of mass media, we can add a plethora of radio and TV shows and, more recently, online and social media content.

Christopher Spehr also plans to treat these topics in the classroom and teach them through special events, excursions to historical sites, and the creation of new exhibitions. “There are a lot of highly motivated students here in Munich,” he smiles.

Since 2013, Spehr has edited the Luther Yearbook, a major international peer-reviewed publication on current Luther research. He values the working conditions in Munich: “The faculty board and members are outstanding and, together with the research center for church history, I have very good working conditions to pursue my research and publishing activities,” he emphasizes.

Moreover, he appreciates the presence of the Catholic and Orthodox Theology faculties at LMU in addition to Protestant Theology. “Three faculties of theology in one place – that’s unique in Germany and offers excellent opportunities for cooperation.”