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| 1517 | October 31: Prof. MARTIN LUTHER, after developing
a reputation as an Augustinian determinist, nails his 95 theses to the
door of Wittenberg Church (the student notice board), on the sale of Catholic
Church indulgences (forgiveness of sins), for academic debate. His opponents
(ECK, CAJETA, WIMPINA and MURNER) use claims of papal authority against
his arguments, and so precipitate a crisis. |
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| 1520 | September 6: Wittenberg. MARTIN LUTHER writes to
Pope LEO X and describes him as 'Daniel' in 'Babylon' while denouncing
his Roman Court (the Papal See) in his treatise Concerning Christian Liberty. |
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| 1521 | LUTHER begins his translation of the Scriptures concealed
in a room of Wartburg Castle in Saxony, dressed as a country gentleman
and renamed 'Squire George'. |
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| 1522 |
LUTHER's translation of the New Testament into the
German language is published (The September Testament).
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| 1529 | April 8: At Flensburg colloquy of preachers, LUTHER, JOHN CAMPANUS and others are alarmed at MELCHIOR HOFFMAN's denunciation of the "magic" of the Lutheran view of the Eucharist and that the function of the Eucharist, like that of preaching, is simply an appeal for spiritual union with Christ. Refusing to retract, HOFFMAN is banished.
October: At Marburg, LUTHER and ZWINGLI disagree vehemently on the nature of the Eucharist. LUTHER condemns the Zwinglians as blasphemers for also holding to a symbolic sacrament. |
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| 1531 | LUTHER, who had believed in 'freedom of conscience'
at the time of his protest against Papal Rome, now denies this to those
who differ with himself, agreeing that anabaptist and other Protestant
extremists –
"should be done to death by the
civil authority". |
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| 1736 | NIKLAUS LUDWIG VON ZINZENDORF is exiled from Saxony
for his support for the Moravian community of Herrnhut. |
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| 1914 | August 4: The sermon in Berlin Cathedral at the opening
of the Reichstag, by Court Preacher and Vice-President of the Prussian
Oberkirchenrat, ERNST VON DRYANDER, using Romans 8:31 ('If God
be for us, who can stand against us?') declares –
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| 1918 |
October 2: The General Committee of the Evangelischer Bund calls
for a new mobilization (three days before the German armistice offer) –
November 9: The Socialist revolution creates a crisis
for the government of the church and the financial support of the clergy.
November 10: The Prussian Oberkirchenrat issues a call to its congregations –
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| 1919 | The Editor of the Kirchliches Jahrbuch (Johannes Schneider) writes
–
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| 1920 | German theology begins increasingly to accept the
idea that involvement in the political situation is a prerequisite for
a correct understanding of the Word of God in the present, thus helping
further to set the stage for a nationalist co-option of the church. |
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| 1922 | Autumn: In Brunswick and Saxony, the quarterly income
of a pastor is less than the weekly wage of an unskilled labourer. |
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| 1928 | Bishop OTTO DIBELIUS proposes the elimination of
all Jews from Germany by prohibiting Jewish immigration so that the breed
would die out naturally. (See April 1933). |
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| 1932 | The 'Faith Movement of German Christians' (Glaubenbewegung
'Deutjze Chriten') is launched in support of Adolf Hitler. |
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| 1933 | February 1: ADOLF HITLER ends his radio address to the
nation with –
'May the Almighty God take our work into His grace.'
The first Reich Conference of the 'German Christians'
is held in Berlin under the banner:
'Evangelium im Dritten Reich'.
April: Bishop OTTO DIBELIUS, General Superintendent
of the Kurmark Diocese in Prussia, declares in a letter that he had always
been an antisemite and that –
July 21: The Prussian Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat
decrees that pastoral work in the concentration camps is the responsibility
of the local clergy. |
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| 1934 | November 30: In Germany – the Nazi state carries
out a mass-purge, executing many leaders and cremating their bodies. No
objections are raised by any religious groups, and HITLER is thanked for
the "rescue operation" by the Evangelical bishop of Nassau-Hessen,
Dr DIETRICH, who in a circular letter claims that the blood-bath "demonstrated
to the world" the – "unique greatness of the Führer".
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| 1936 | April 7: In Germany - Bishop MUELLER of the German
Evangelical Church disgracefully publishes a new version of CHRIST's Sermon
on the Mount, replacing so-called 'offensive' phrases, such as –
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| 1943 | Note: the utter hypocrisy of a German Evangelical Protestant Captain WOLFGANG HOFFMANN. |
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| 2010 | Bishop MARGOT KAESSMANN, head of Germany's Evangelical Lutheran Church (EKD), is arrested for drunk driving in Hanover, after driving her $120,000 official limousine through a red light. The Hanover state prosecutor informs that she was three times over the legal limit, and could lose her driver's license for a year. She resigns her church office four days later.
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