Twisted cross : the German Christian movement in the Third Reich / by Doris L. Bergen.

Author
Bergen, Doris L. [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, ©1996.
Description
xiii, 341 p. ; 24 cm.

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks BR856 .B398 1996 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Summary note
    • How did Germany's Christians respond to Nazism? In Twisted Cross, Doris Bergen addresses one important element of this response by focusing on the 600,000 self-described "German Christians," who sought to expunge all Jewish elements from the Christian church. In a process that became more daring as Nazi plans for genocide unfolded, this group of Protestant lay people and clergy rejected the Old Testament, ousted people defined as non-Aryans from their congregations, denied the Jewish ancestry of Jesus, and removed Hebrew words like "Hallelujah" from hymns.
    • Bergen refutes the notion that the German Christians were a marginal group and demonstrates that members occupied key positions within the Protestant church even after their agenda was rejected by the Nazi leadership. Extending her analysis into the postwar period, Bergen shows how the German Christians were relatively easily reincorporated into mainstream church life after 1945. Throughout Twisted Cross, Bergen reveals the important role played by women and by the ideology of spiritual motherhood amid the German Christians' glorification of a "manly" church.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references and index.
    Contents
    • One Reich, one people, one church! : the German Christians
    • The anti-Jewish church
    • The antidoctrinal church
    • The manly church
    • The non-Aryans in the people's church
    • Catholics, Protestants, and dreams of confessional union
    • Women in the manly movement
    • The ecclesiastical final solution
    • The church without rules
    • The bride of Christ at war
    • Postwar echoes.
    ISBN
    • 0807845604 ((pbk. ; : alk. paper))
    • 9780807845608 ((pbk. ; : alk. paper))
    • 0807822531 ((alk. paper))
    • 9780807822531 ((alk. paper))
    LCCN
    95017954
    OCLC
    32430150
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