Adolf Hitler was ideologically indifferent to the Christian church. However, he understand and saw in the German Church the immense source of opportunities for influence over the German people whom he could manipulate to his own evil end. Already weakened within by the liberal theology of the day (of which German theologians were famously in the driving seat), the German church caved in easily to Hilter's propaganda of nationalistic as well as their own anti-Jewish and Aryan ideology, and began to pull their weight behind Hitler in the form of the German Christians under the leadership of 'Reich Bishop' Ludwig Nüller, which happily sought to integrate its programme with that of the Nazi party. A number of Christian leaders, who understood the significance of what was happening, came together under the leadership of Pastor Martin Miemöller, Karl Barth, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to oppose this surrender of the gosepl to the fascism of the Nazis and in May, 1934 convened a synod at Barmen, and founded what became known as the Confessing Church, which sought to reassert the primacy of Scriptures, instead of Aryan supremacy, at the heart of the Church. The Barmen Declaration drafted by Karl Barth spelled out the position of the Confessing Church which, from then on and until the end of the war, stood—despite the internal differences among themselves—as the "one true Evangelical Church" in Germany, in opposition to the church led by Müller. Life for the Christians in the country during the entire period of Nazi rule and the war was, to say the least, extremely difficult. When WWII and Nazi rule came to an end, and the ghastly evil of what the Nazis have done came into clear light, there was naturally a great deal of soul-seaching. Fortunately for the two sides of the German church, there came also repentance, confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
Jeremy Begbie, "The Confessing Church and the Nazi: A Struggle for Theological Truth," Anvil 2.2 (1985):117-130.
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