Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:08:33.178Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Totalitarianism: Last Years of a Resister in the Diocese of Berlin: Bernhard Lichtenberg's Conflict with Karl Adam and his Fateful Imprisonment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Kevin Spicer C.S.C.
Kevin Spicer C.S.C.
Affiliation:
An assistant professor in the history department at Stonehill College and a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Among the priests of the diocese of Berlin who lived and served as parish ministers during the Third Reich, one individual stands out for his courage and willingness to risk his life and speak the Christian truth in a world often devoid of any gospel values. Monsignor Bernhard Lichtenberg (1875–1943) surpassed the other clergy of his diocese in his conscious efforts to challenge the perverse policies of the state in a consistent, profound manner. To defend the faith against encroachment by the state, Lichtenberg not only exhibited Resistenz by creating defensive barriers through his own ministry, but also publicly protested, in a rigorous manner, state actions that he deemed immoral and contradictory to Catholic values.

Type
Articles
Information
Church History , Volume 70 , Issue 2 , June 2001 , pp. 248 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Taken from the field of medicine, denoting immunity, Martin Broszat introduced the term Resistenz. According to Broszat, it included those actions that offered an “effective defense, demarcation, and curbing of the National Socialist control or its claims of control.” In contrast, he limited the term resistance (Widerstand) to those who consciously opposed the Nazi regime on political grounds.Google Scholar On this point see Broszat, Martin, “Resistenz und Widerstand. Eine Zwischenbilanz des Forschungsprojekts,” in Bayrern in der NS-Zeit, Vol. 4, Herrschaft und Gesellschaft im Konflikt, Part C (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1981), 698.Google Scholar

2. Erb, Alfons, Bernhard Lichtenberg: Dompropst von St. Hedwig zu Berlin (Berlin: Morus, 1949), 18.Google Scholar

3. Klein, Gotthard, “Bernhard Lichtenberg und die Berliner Blutzeugen 1933–1945” in Wie im Himmel so auf Erden. 90.Google ScholarDeutscher Katholikentag vom 23. bis 27. Mai 1990 in Berlin, Dokumentation, Vol. 2 (Paderborn: Bonifatius, 1990), 1703.Google Scholar

4. Beilmann, Christel, “Eine Jugend im katholischen Milieu. Zum Verhältnis von Glaube und Widerstand,” in Piraten, Swings und Junge Garde, jugendwiderstand im Nationalsozialismus, ed. Breyvogel, Wilfried (Bonn: Dietz, 1991), 70.Google Scholar

5. Schmeichen-Ackermann, Detlef, “Katholische Diaspora zwischen Rückzug und Selbstbehauptung in der NS-Zeit. Überlegungen zum Verhältnis von Milieubindung und Widerstandspotentialen am Fallbeispiel Hannover,” Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 49 (1998): 475–76.Google Scholar

6. Hürten, Heinz, “Widerstand und Zeugnis: Ein Nachwort,” in Die Katholiken und das Dritte Reich, eds. Gotto, Klaus and Repgen, Konrad, 3d ed. (Mainz: Matthias- Grünewald, 1990), 195, 198.Google Scholar On this point see also Hürten, Heinz, Verfolgung, Widerstand und Zeugnis. Kirche im Nationalsozialismus. Fragen eines Historikers. (Mainz: Matthias- Grünewald, 1987).Google Scholar

7. For a summary of Lichtenberg's many protests and actions during the Third Reichsee Hürten, Heinz, “Bernhard Lichtenberg. Zur Seligsprechung eines Seelsorgers,” Stimmen der Zeit 121 (1996): 372–80;Google ScholarPruβ, Ursula, “Seliger Dompropst Bernhard Lichtenberg,” in Zeugen für Christus. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. Moll, Helmut (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1999), 104–10;Google ScholarSpicer, Kevin, C.S.C., “The Propst from St. Hedwig: Bernhard Lichtenberg as a Paradigm for Resistance,” in The Burdens of History: Post Holocaust Generations in Dialogue, eds. Leder, Sharon and Teichman, Milton (Merion Station, Pa.: Merion Westfield, 2000), 25–40.Google Scholar

8. Hehl, Ulrich von, Kösters, Christoph, Strenz-Maur, Petra, Zimmermann, Elisabeth, eds., Priester unter Hitlers Terror. Eine Biographie und Statistische Erhebung, Vol. 2, 3d ed., VKZ A37 (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1996), 1321.Google Scholar

9. Kreidler, Hans, “Karl Adam und der Nationalsozialismus,” Rottenburger Jahrbuch für Kirchengeschichte 2 (1983): 136–37.Google Scholar See also the commentary, mainly derived from Kreidler's article in Krieg, Robert Anthony, Karl Adam: Catholicism in German Culture (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), 133–35.Google Scholar

10. On the German Faith Movement, see Nanko, Ulrich, Die Deutsche Glaubensbewegung. Eine historische und soziologische Untersuchung (Marburg: Diagonal, 1993).Google Scholar Also see Scholder, Klaus, The Churches and the Third Reich: Preliminary History and the Time of Illusions 1918–1934, Vol. 1, trans. Bowden, John (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988), 451–53Google Scholarand Scholder, Klaus, The Churches and the Third Reich, Vol. 2: The Year of Disillusionment: 1934: Barmen and Rome, trans. Bowden, John (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988), 98–102.Google Scholar

11. On Hauer see Dierks, Margarete, Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, 1881–1962. Leben-Werk-Wirkung (Heidelberg: L. Schneider, 1986).Google ScholarSee also the three articles by Hauer, : “The Origins of the German Faith Movement,” “An Alien or a German Faith?,” “The Semitic Character of Christianity,” in Germany's New Religion: The German Faith Movement, trans. Scott-Craig, T. S. K. and Davies, R. E. (NY: Abingdon, 1937), 27–84.Google Scholar

12. Kreidler, “Karl Adam und der Nationalsozialismus,” 133.Google Scholar

13. Hagen, August, Geschichte der Diözese Rottenburg, Vol. 3 (Stuttgart: Schwaben, 1960), 522–23;Google ScholarKreidler, , “Karl Adam und der Nationalsozialismus,” 134–36; Krieg, Karl Adam, 126–30. The Nazis also attacked Adam because he spoke positively concerning the Jewish people in relation to the Catholic Church: “Therefore, for the Catholic Church the Jewish history is a unique experience because the unparalleled experience of Christ took place through it.” Reichswart, 28 January 1934. See the same issue for a critique of Adam's speech.Google Scholar

14. Adam, Karl, Die geistige Lage des deutschen Katholizismus (hereafter Lage), 10 12 1939, Bundesarchiv Berlin (BArch B) NS43 20ff., 231R–232.Google Scholar

15. Adam, Karl, “Deutsches Volkstum und katholisches Christentum,” Theologische Quartalschrift 114 (1933): 40–63.Google Scholar On Adam and other Catholic theologians' response to the Third Reich, see Breuning, Klaus, Die Vision des Reiches: Deutscher Katholizismus zwischen Demokratie und Diktatur, 1929–1934 (Munich: Max Hueber, 1969), 248–49;Google ScholarDietrich, Donald J., “Catholic Theologians in Hitler's Reich: Adaptation and Critique,” Journal of Church and State 29 (1987): 19–45;CrossRefGoogle ScholarDietrich, , Catholic Citizens in the Third Reich, 180–214;Google ScholarKrieg, Robert A., “Karl Adam, National Socialism, and Christian Tradition,” Theological Studies 60 (1999): 432–56;CrossRefGoogle ScholarScholder, , The Churches and the Third Reich, 1: 425–30.Google Scholar

16. Adam, Karl, “Vom gottmenschlichen Erlöser,” in Glaubenstage und Glaubenswallfährten, Zentralkomitee der Generalversammlungen der deutschen Katholiken. (Paderborn: Bonifacius, 1934), 111–45.Google Scholar Originally printed in two parts in Deutsches Volksblatt (Stuttgart), “Christus und das deutsche Volk,” 23 01 1934 and “Die Erlösungstat Jesu Christi,” 24 January 1934.Google ScholarThe only remaining copies of these articles taken from Deutsches Volksblatt may be found in BArch B R53 198, ff. 90–91. According to extensive research and inquiries, all library and archival holdings of the newspaper were destroyed by bombing raids during the war. For an analysis of the lecture see Kreidler, “Karl Adam und der Nationalsozialismus,”Google Scholar132–33 and Krieg, Karl Adam, 123–26. The concept of Volksgemeinschaft tied directly into Adam's understanding of community within the church. On this point see Adam to Pirchen, 4 July 1940, Universität Archiv Eichstätt (UAE), Flugblatt Sammlung, No. 196.Google Scholar

17. For a discussion of theology and neoromanticism see Krieg, Karl Adam, 159–78.Google Scholar

18. Krieg, Karl Adam, 9.

19. Krieg, Karl Adam, 159.

20. Adam, Lage, f. 203R.

21. Adam, Lage, f. 231R.

22. Adam, Lage, ff. 230R–231.

23. Adam, Lage, f. 231.

24. Adam, Lage, f. 231.

25. Adam, Lage, ff. 238R–239.

26. Adam, Lage, f. 234R.

27. Adam, Lage, f. 240R.

28. Adam, Lage, f. 239R.

29. Adam, Lage, ff. 240R–241R.

30. See Schulte to Orsenigo, 27 September 1940;Google Scholar note of Sebastian concerning a talk with Bornewasser, 8 November 1940 in Volk, Ludwig, Akten Deutscher Bischöfe über die Lage der Kirche 1933–1945, Vol. 5, 1940–1942, VKZ A34, (Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald, 1983), 75, 252.Google ScholarLudwig Sebastian (1862–1943), Bishop of Speyer, noted that Adolf Cardinal Bertram (1859–1945), Archbishop of Breslau, had declared to President Hürth of the Kolpingsblatt that if the newspaper continued to print things in a similar vein concerning Adam's comments, he would close down the newspaper.Google Scholar

31. Aretz, Jürgen, Katholische Arbeiterbewegung und National Sozialismits, VKZ B25, 2d ed. (Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald, 1982), 225.Google Scholar Also see Joos, Josef, Am Räderwerk der Zeit. Erinnerungen aus der katholischen und sozialen Bewegung und Politik (Augsburg: Windried-Werk, 1951), 155–57.Google Scholar

32. Nagel to Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops of Germany, 4 06 1940, BArch B R5101 (Specific folder undetermined. Copy in the possession of the author.).Google Scholar

33. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 November 1940, in Klein, Gotthard, ed., Berolinen Canonizationis Servi Die Bernhardi Lichtenberg. Sacerdotis Saecidaris in Odium Fidei, Uti Fertur, Interfecti (1875–1943), Vol. 2 (Rome: Congregation de Causis Sanctorum, 1992), 126, (hereafter Berolinen II).Google Scholar

34. See Gellately, Robert, The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy, 1933–1945 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991), 129–58.Google Scholar

35. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 11 1940, Berolinen II, 126–27.Google Scholar

36. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 11 1940, Berolinen II, 127.Google Scholar

37. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 11 1940, Berolinen II, 127.Google Scholar

38. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 11 1940, Berolinen II, 127.Google Scholar

39. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 11 1940, Berolinen II, 129.Google Scholar Lichtenberg quoted from Mein Kampf, chap. 5: “Philosophy and Organization.” See Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, trans. Manheim, Ralph (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971), 454–55.Google Scholar

40. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 11 1940, Berolinen II, 129.Google Scholar

41. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 11 1940, Berolinen II, 129–30.Google Scholar

42. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 11 1940, Berolinen II, 133.Google Scholar

43. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 11 1940, Berolinen II, 134.Google Scholar

44. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 11 1940, Berolinen II, 135.Google Scholar

45. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 11 1940, Berolinen II, 136.Google Scholar

46. Lichtenberg to Adam, 4 11 1940, Berolinen II, 137.Google Scholar

47. Adam to Lichtenberg, 23 11 1940, Berolinen II, 138.Google Scholar

48. Adam to Lichtenberg, 23 11 1940, Berolinen II, 138–39.Google Scholar

49. Adam to Lichtenberg, 23 11 1940, Berolinen II, 139.Google Scholar

50. Adam to Lichtenberg, 23 11 1940, Berolinen II, 139.Google Scholar

51. Adam to Lichtenberg, 23 11 1940, Berolinen II, 139.Google Scholar

52. Adam to Lichtenberg, 23 11 1940, Berolinen II, 139.Google Scholar

53. Adam to Lichtenberg, 23 11 1940, Berolinen II, 139–40.Google Scholar

54. Adam to Lichtenberg, 23 11 1940, Berolinen II, 140.Google Scholar

55. Adam to Lichtenberg, 23 11 1940, Berolinen II, 141.Google Scholar

56. Adam charged Lichtenberg to review the thought of Luis de Molina, S.J. (1535–1600).Google Scholar On Molina's thought see Edwards, Francis, “Molina/Molinismus,” in Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Vol. 23, ed. Müller, Gerhard (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1994), 199–203.Google Scholar

57. For a discussion of original sin see Rahner, S.J. Karl, “Original Sin” in Sacramentum Mundi, Vol. 4 (NY: Herder and Herder, 1969), 328–34.Google Scholar

58. For an interpretation of Adam's understanding of spiritual and cultural decline in western society see Krieg, , “Karl Adam, National Socialism, and Christian Tradition,“ especially 435, 441–42.Google Scholar

59. Adam to Lichtenberg, 23 11 1940, Berolinen II, 142.Google Scholar

60. Adam to Lichtenberg, 23 11 1940, Berolinen II, 142.Google Scholar

61. Lichtenberg to Adam, 30 11 1940, Berolinen II, 143.Google Scholar

62. Lichtenberg to Adam, 30 11 1940, Berolinen II, 143.Google Scholar

63. Lichtenberg to Adam, 30 11 1940, Berolinen II, 144.Google Scholar

64. Lichtenberg to Adam, 30 11 1940, Berolinen II, 146.Google Scholar

65. Adam to Roth, 16 04 1941, BArch B R5101 21679, f. 75.Google Scholar

66. Protokoll, 29 September 1941, Mann, H. G., Prozeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg. Ein Leben in Dokumenten (Morus: Berlin, 1977), 44–45.Google ScholarThe young women's names are specified in a Note of the Gestapo, 6 October 1941, Berolinen II, 156.Google Scholar

67. For a discussion of the evidence and testimony that support the fact that Hanke's father denounced Lichtenberg see Klein, Gotthard, ed., Berolinen Canonizationis Servi Die Bernhardi Lichtenberg. Sacerdotis Saecularis in Odium Fidei, Uti Fertur, Interfecti (1875–1943), Vol. 1 (Rome: Congregation de Causis Sanctorum, 1992), 83, n. 6, (hereafter Berolinen I).Google ScholarAt first, the reason for Lichtenberg's arrest and preventive detention was not clear even to the Ministry of Church Affairs who sent a letter of inquiry to the Ministry of Interior over this question. Church Affairs questioned whether the Gestapo arrested him for a “scandalous” letter Lichtenberg had written and sent in 1941 to Dr. Leonardo Conti (1900–1945), Reich Chief of Physicians, criticizing the government's euthanasia program. Kerrl to Frick, 31 October 1941, Berolinen II, 178.Google Scholar

68. Arrest Order, Gestapo, Berlin, October 23, 1941, Berolinen II, 159.

69. Wenn Du dieses Zeichen siehst … Jude, an anonymous anti-Semitic pamphlet, October 1941, Berolinen II, 157–58.Google Scholar

70. Pulpit declaration, 10 1943, Berolinen II, 160–61.Google Scholar

71. Interrogation, 25 10 1941, Berolinen II, 165–66.Google Scholar

72. Interrogation, 25 10 1941, Berolinen II, 167.Google Scholar

73. Interrogation, 25 10 1941, Berolinen II, 166.Google Scholar

74. Interrogation, 25 10 1941, Berolinen II, 168.Google Scholar

75. Protokoll, 29 09 1941, Mann, Pwzeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg, 45.Google Scholar

76. Interrogation, 25 10 1941, Berolinen II, 168.Google Scholar

77. Interrogation, 27 10 1941, Berolinen II, 171.Google Scholar

78. Ministry of Propaganda to Berndt, 10 11 1941, Berolinen II, 193.Google Scholar

79. Interrogation, 30 10 1941, Berolinen II, 177.Google Scholar

80. Interrogation, 30 10 1941, Berolinen II, 177–78.Google Scholar

81. Interrogation, 25 10 1941, Berolinen II, 165–66.Google Scholar

82. Attorney General Berlin to Special Tribunal Berlin, 21 March 1942, BArch B R5101 23335, ff. 53–56. A letter from the SD to Kerrl confirms the charge related to the “intercessions for Jews and prisoners.” SD to Kerrl, 24 November 1941, BArch B R5101 23335, ff. 48–49.Google Scholar

83. Court Decision, 22 05 1942, BArch B R5101 23335, ff. 59–65.Google Scholar

84. Preysing visited Lichtenberg on five separate occasions: 9 12 1941, 4 May 1942, 4 November 1942, 21 March 1943, and 29 September 1943. See Berolinen, I, 41–46.Google Scholar

85. See especially, Pius XII to Preysing, 20 April 1943: “It gives us … solace to hear, that Catholics, specifically Berlin Catholics, have shown the so-called non-Aryans so great a love in their distress, and we say in this connection a special word of fatherly appreciation as well as intimate sympathy to the imprisoned Monsignor Lichtenberg.” Mann, Prozeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg, 105. Also see Pius XII to Preysing, 21 March 1944, Berolinen II, 330.Google Scholar

86. Note of Weizsacker, 10 March 1942, Mann, Prozeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg, 87. The Foreign Office seemed to be concerned about the Nuncio's involvement in the Lichtenberg affair and informed Ernst Freiherr von Weizacker, State Secretary in the Foreign Office, of this possibility. Haidlen to Weizacker, 11 November 1941, Berolinen II, 194.Google Scholar

87. Preysing, Sermon in St. Hedwig, 2 November 1941, Berolinen II, 182.Google Scholar

88. Preysing to Pius XII, 25 October 1941, Berolinen II, 169.Google Scholar

89. Klein, “Bernhard Lichtenberg und die Berliner Blutzeugen 1933–1945,” 1711.Google Scholar

90. Preysing to Gestapo, Berlin, 4 November 1941, Berolinen II, 187–88.Google Scholar

91. Preysing to Director of Tegel Prison, 22 March 1943, Mann, Prozeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg, 104. This was a great concern because Lichtenberg's weight had gone from 188 pounds on 23 October 1941 to 124 pounds on 7 March 1943. See Mann, Prozeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg, 102.Google Scholar

92. Preysing to Attorney General Berlin, 17 February 1942, Mann, Prozeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg, 85.Google Scholar

93. Report of Preysing, October 1943, Mann, Prozeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg, 112.Google Scholar

94. Interrogation, 25 October 1941, Berolinen II, 166 and Report of Preysing, October 1943, Mann, Prozeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg, 112.Google Scholar

95. Exit Form of Tegel Prison, 22 October 1943, Mann, Prozeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg, 90.Google Scholar

96. Exit Form of Tegel Prison, 22 October 1943, Mann, Prozeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg, 90.Google Scholar

97. Doctor's Certificate, October 1943, Mann, Prozeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg, 113.Google Scholar

98. Ogiermann, Bis zum letzten Atemzug, 276–78.Google Scholar

99. Gestapo, Berlin, 28 October 1943, Mann, Prozeβ Bernhard Lichtenberg, 114.Google Scholar

100. Erb, Bernhard Lichtenberg, 63–65.Google Scholar