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Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
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formallectureseriesannapolis
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00:52:34
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Title
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Song and Dance and Faith and Prayer: The Case of J. S. Bach's Magnificat
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture delivered on February 9, 1996 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
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Ruhm von Oppen, Beate
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St. John's College
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Annapolis, MD
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1996-02-09
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St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.
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sound
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mp3
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Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750
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English
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LEC_Ruhm_von_Oppen_Beate_1996-02-09_ac
Friday night lecture
Tutors
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https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d18608f1f7d2fbb158090895c9762b9e.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
Berlin Lecture on "The Year 1943 and the German Resistance to Hitler"
~tlfXMXZXIXIJ:XIEEJlXJ!XEXEIIEX.XX
of the second world waro
1943 may have been the crucial year
Churchill, in his history of that war, entitled
the volume on it "The Hinge of Fate"o
Beginning at El Alamein and
ending in Tunisia the British and Americans cleared the Germans and
Italians out of North
Africa~
The Russians inflicted the greatest
defeat so far on the Germans at Stalingrad.
That defeat increased
"'\
the readiness amo~g many~ermans to get rid of Hitler who had
sacrificed the Sixth Army instead of allowing it to retreat while
there was time.
The sudden surge in the number of Germans, especially among the
military, who were willing and eager to overthrow Hitler coincided,
however, with the Allied demand for "Unconditional Surrender".
Roosevelt had pronounced it at a press conference at the end of
his meeting with Churchill at Casablance, and Churchill had supported
it.
Stalin shrouded himself in ambiguity, encouraging some Germans
to think that they might get a better deal out of the Russians than
out of the Western powers.
The Anglo-Americans were adamant and
Unconditional Surrender meant capitulation in the West and East -at a time when their invasion and liberation of Western
Europ~
was
still in the distant future.
This was not a propitious circumstance for the opposition to
the Nazis inside Germany.
The lecture addressed itself to the
question how harmful the demand for Unconditiontl Surrender was
and came to the tentative conclusion: not very - apart from the
touch of rhetorical vaingloriousness.
It may have helped to hold
the co;f{ion of the Big Three together and that was needed to keep
1\
Stalin sweet and fighting.
The Russians were bearing the brunt
of the 'W!lr in Europe, and his demand for a second front in Western
Europe was not met until June 1944.
The lecture dealt with the activities of the German resistance
to the Nazis in 1943, which included several abortive attempts to
assassinate Hitler and equally . abortive efforts to come to some
1li-f·kt~(
agreement with the Allies.
c~
ended with other forms of resistance:
The activities of the Munich students known as "The White Rose" and
of people who helped those persecuted and endangered by the regime
activities undertaken at great risk and with considerable loes
of life.
1
~
•
�DER DEUTSCHE WIDERSTAND JM WENDEJAHR 1943
s e~Je.--
R0 h WJ
VOV)
@ee~
Erlauben Sie mir eingangs eine autobiographische Ortsangabe.
1943 sass ich in London in einer Abteilung des Foreign Office, die sich vor allem
mit der Analyse der deutschen Medienproduktion befasste:
Zeitungen,
Agenturmeldungen, Radio. Wir wussten natOrlich, dal3 Goebbels und sein Apparat
nicht die Wahrheit sprachen. Trotzdem konnte man aus ihren Ausserungen ganz
nOtzliche SchlOsse ziehen, wenn man das Zeug Tag fOr Tag las und auf Nuancen
und Veranderungen achtete.
Da kam plotzlich eines Tages etwas ganz Anderes, kein Goebbelsprodukt.
Es war ein maschinegeschriebener anonymer Bericht ·Ober ein Ereignis in
MOnchen, wo eine Gruppe Studenten Flugblatter gegen das Regime verbreitet
hatte und dafOr vom Volksgerichtshof zum Tade verurteilt warden war. Es war das
erste, was ich vom deutschen Widerstand las. Von Stund' an liess mich das Thema
nicht mehr los.
Von wem der Bericht stammte erfuhr ich erst sehr viel spater, nach dem
Kriege. Es war Helmuth James von Moltke, von dem ich damals noch gar nichts
wusste. Seine englischen Freunde hielten dicht.
Im Laufe der Zeit sah ich mehr und mehr und immer wieder, wie oft die
Religion oder der Glaube ein Bestandteil der Fahigkeit zum Widerstand war.
Spater versuchte ich, etwas darOber zu schreiben - nicht so sehr Ober den
Kirchenkampf und Ober das Verhalten der kirchlichen Organisationen und ihrer
Haupter als Ober die Rolle des Glaubens im Leben derer, die dem Massenwahn
\':
�•2•
nicht verfielen: Bei der Arbeit an diesem Thema stiess ich immer wieder
~uf
Helmuth Moltke - nicht weil er sich so viel daruber geaussert hatte • das tat er nur
ganz gelegentlich, dann aber Oberzeugend; vielmehr weil er danach handelte und
weil so viel von dem Anderen was ich fand, vom Widerstand der Frommen,
Verbindungen mit seiner Person hatte. Die Menschen, die den Ansturm der Holle
als solchen erkannten und, umgeben vom Bosen nach dem Guten strebten, sich
darum mOhten, bereit waren, etwas dafOr zu riskieren - erstaunlich viele von ihnen
-t:
schienen mit Moltke in BerOhrung gekommen zu sein. Vielleict)\kam das daher,
dass er sich so rOhrig umgetan hatte.
In diesen MOhen fanden diese Menschen
- wie mir in vielen Fallen schien - so etwas wie Gnade, etwas, was sich ihnen
q_ffenbarte und ihnen half. Diese Offenbarung - ich bin nicht ganz sicher, ob man es
so nennen kann - aber wie sonst? - war etwas, was sie entdeckten oder
wiederentdeckten, was ihnen wirklich oder wirklicher wurde. Es war nicht
Todeszellenfrommigkeit, nicht nur Hinwendung zum alten Gott nach den
ErschOtterungen des Krieges, dieses Krieges, der ja vor 1939 schon als unerklarter
BOrgerkrieg in Deutschland begonnet"
lta.,-tf {.,.
Obrigens spielt auch das hinein, das BOrgerkriegsartige, in die Tragik des
e
ausseren Krieges und seiner Zwange. ~ Krieg war ja nach Nationen und
Koalitit'onen von Nationen organisiert. Da schlug man sich nach Nationalitaten tot,
weil nur so die Nation, die Adolf Hitler zum Fuhrer hatte und die ihm bis zu seinem
Selbstmord folgte, bezwungen warden konnte. Dass er und sein System seine
eigenen Feinde im lnneren auch totschlug wusste man. Aber das Kollektiv
Deutschland, Nazideutschland musste niedergezwungen werden, um nicht nur die
anderen Lander von dieser Bedrohung zu befreien, sondern auch die
unterdrOckten und verfolgten Menschen in Deutschland.
Das VerlassenheitsgefOhl mancher Gagner des Regimes, das GefOhl im
Ausland missverstanden und nicht gewOrdigt zu sein, ist ein Teil der Tragik dieser
�•3•
Konstellation, der Tragik des Krieges. Mir scheint, es gab wirklich nur eine
Moglichkeit, die zu beenden:
den Krieg zu verlieren und
.s.o.
Hitler und seine
Helfershelfer los zu werden - es sei denn, dass es gelang, ihn und sein System
- mitten im Krieg - durch inneren Aufstand zu beseitigen. Der Versuch wurde, nach
etlichen folgenlosen Anlaufen, gemacht und er misslang. Zu viel stand ihm
entgegen, vor allem der Krieg und die patriotische Befangenheit des Volkes und
der Wehrmacht. Es war den Nationalsozialisten gelungen, Deutschland und den
Nationalsozialismus zu verketten. Und es war fOr Deutsche schwer, zu sehen dass
diese Ketten nur auf dem Wege der nationalen Katastrophe gelost werden
konnten.
Manche - vielleicht sogar viele - sahen es, durften oder wollten es sich aber
nicht eingestehen. Und so wurde weitergekampft bis Hitler tot war, von eigener
Hand.
Es gab Verschworer gegen ihn, die ihn toten wollten um die Wehrmacht von
dem ihm personlich geleisteten Eid zu befreien. Ware diese Befreiung der Gefahr
einer neuen Dolchstosslegende entgangen? Waren die Deutschen, genug
Deutsche, so weit, sich wirklich hinter die Gegner dieses Fuhrers und seines
Regimes zu stellen und die Folgen in Kauf zu nehmen? Ein "ehrenhafter" Friede
war schon 1943 kaum mehr zu erwarten.
So waren die Verschworer auf sich gestellt, auf sich und ihr Gewissen.
-..
'<=::::::
~:;>
t:ai
Weshalb nenne ich 1943 das "Wendejahr" ? Winston Churchill nannte den
vierten Band seiner Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkriegs, der sich mit diesem
Zeitabschnitt befaBt, " The Hinge of Fate ". In El Alamein, Stalingrad und Tunis
~
wendete sich der Krieg von standigen aliierten Niederlagen zu Siegen. Im Mai war
"
Afrika von den Achsenmachten befreit. Im Juli landeten die Aliierten in Sizilien und
Mussolini wurde gestOrzt. Auch im Krieg zur See hatte sich das Blatt gewendet.
Der Luftkrieg war massiv geworden und die Alliierten hatten da jetzt die Oberhand.
�. 4•
Aber auBenpolitisch war auch eine tiefere, langsamere Wende im Gange.
Im Juni 1941 hatte Hitlers Angriff auf die Sowjetunion das schwere Jahr seit dem
Fall Frankreichs beendet, in dem England
.a1Jfiln - wenn auch gestOtzt auf sein
Weltreich - dem Herren Europas Widerstand leistete. Ein halbes Jahr danach hatte
der japanische Angriff auf Pearl Harbor Amerika in den Krieg gebracht. Hitlers
Kriegserklarung machte es Roosevelt leichter, sein Volk in den Krieg gegen
Deutschland zu fOhren, ja diesem europaischen Krieg sogar den Vorrang vor dem
Krieg im Pazifik zu geben.
Aber das ungeheure amerikanische Kriegspotential brauchte Zeit um zum
Tragen zu kommen. Die von Stalin seit 1942 geforderte zweite Front liess bis Juni
1944 auf sich warten. Sie ging von England aus und hatte mit Eisenhower einen
amerikanischen Oberbefehlshaber. Er hatte schon in Nordafrika den Oberbefehl
gefOhrt, obwohl die Briten in Afrika noch die Hauptlast des Krieges trugen. Aber die
Gewichte verschoben sich zugunsten Amerikas. Churchill hatt1'# keinen leichten
Stand gegenOber dem Obermachtig werdenden Bundesgenossen im Westen, der
dazu noch geneigt war, mit dem Bundesgenossen im Osten ein argloseres
Verhaltnis zu pflegen als der britische Premierminister. Russland hatte seit 1941
die Hauptlast des Krieges in Europa getragen - jedenfalls zu Lande - und trug sie
weiter. Churchill war ein langgedienter Kommunistengegner, hatte aber, als Hitler
die Sowjetuninon angriff, so fort den neuen Bundesgenossen begrOsst, der nun
einen patriotischen Krieg gegen Deutschland fOhrte.
Stalin liess es sich 1943 angelegen sein, besonders dem Ausland
gegenOber die ideologische, die kommunistische Komponente zurOcktreten zu
!assen. Die Komintern wurde aufgelost. Im Juli 1943 wurde in Russland das
"Nationalkomitee 'Freies Deutschland' " gegrOndet, im September der Sund
Deutscher Offiziere. Eins seiner Veroffentlichungsblatter, das nach England
gelangte, trug stolz die Farben schwarz - weiss - rot.
Auch die Wortwahl der
�•5 •
Rhetorik war bemOht, das Ausland den
Kommunismus vergessen zu lassen.
Stalins Werben um die Deutschen machte dem Westen natOrlich
etwa~ Sorge.
Deutsche FOhler in ostlicher Richtung gab es sowohl seitens des Regimes als auch
seiner Gagner. Letztere waren in unserem Zusammenhang besonders heikel. Es
war nicht klar, ob sie den Zweck hatten, mit den anscheinend oder angeblich
weniger auf "bedingunsloser Kapitulation" bestehenden Russsen handelseinig zu
werden, oder den Zweck, diese Moglichkeit oder Drohung als Druckmittel auf den
Westen zu benutzen.
Aber wahrend Stalin bestrebt war, die Furcht var einer Ausbreitung des
Kommunismus zu zerstreuen, stellte er doch ganz handfeste GebietsansprOche.
Russland brauchte nach diesem Krieg Sicherheit. Bevor das Jahr 1943 um war,
thatten die Westaliierten der Verschiebung Polens nach Westen zugestimmt.
/\
~
Ausserdem hatte Stalin schon im Mai die Reaktion der Exilpolen in London auf die
Leichenfunde in Katyn zum Anlass genommen, die Beziehungen zu ihnen
abzubrechen.
In einer neuen Churchillbiographie von einem jungen englischen Historiker
warden die Zugestandnisse an Stalin 1943, 1944 und 1945 als Appeasement
bezeichnet. Der Autor hatte in einem frOheren Werk die Appeasement-Politik
Chamberlains gegenOber Hitler ~erteidigt. Churchills Entschluss, den Kampf
gegen Hitlerdeutschland nach dem Fall Frankreichs weiterzufOhren, k@isi!W er.
Dieser Kampf konnte nur in einer erhofften spateren Bundesgenossenschaft, einer
"Grand Alliance" mit Amerika und Russland zum Erfolg fOhren und musste die
Abhangigkeit Englands von diesen Bundesgenossen bedeuten. Was an dem Buch
auffallt, ist der kOhle Abstand von den Vorgangen in Hitlers Deutschland und
Hitlers Europa. 2
�. 6•
Diese aber waren es, die die GemOter erregten und den Krieg gegen Hitler,
bis zum bitteren Ende, notig erscheinen liessen. Und das Ende
.w.ar
bitter.
Englands materielle Stellung in der Welt ging dabei drauf. Die Bitterkeit zeigt sich
bei manchen Englandern noch jetzt in Feindseligkeiten gegenUber Deutschland.
Aber war diese Entwicklung, wenn man dem Hitlerismus nicht freien Laut
lassen wollte, zu vermeiden ? Schwerlich. Nicht
all.a Opfer und Einbussen waren
vorauszusehen, aber doch mehr als "Slut, Schweiss und Tranen", die Churchill
Ab 0~~J
gleich bei der Obernahme seines Amtes erwahnte.
Es war ein schwerer Kampf gegen das
·
.filn.e. Deutschland, mit dem sich
immerhin die Masse des deutschen Volkes und seiner FOhrerschaft identifizierte.
Dabei konnte man durchaus die Existenz eines "anderen" Deutschland
~nerkennen,
und viele taten das auch, aber diese Anerkennung war vermischt mit
Enttauschung und Misstrauen.
Warum geschah nichts gegen diesen Tyrannen ?
Warum waren die Reprasentanten seiner Gegner nicht bereit, die Gewinne
seiner Politik fahren zu !assen ? Gut, sie waren Patrioten und litten, wie viele
Deutsche, an dem Trauma von Versailles und wollten wieder die deutschen
Grenzen von 1937 oder 1938 oder 1914; aber sahen sie nicht, dass diese nach
allem, was geschehen war, nicht mehr in Frage kamen ? Sie wollten eine Zusage
guter Bedingungen tor ein neues Deutschland nach der Beseitigung Hitlers. Aber
sie klangen immer wieder so als ob eine solche Zusage eine Bedingung ihres
Handelns war.
Dagegen sah Helmuth Moltke schon 1939 den Verlust des Krieges voraus
(und hielt ihn sogar tor notig).2. Er sagte schon 1940 zu George Kennan (damals an
der amerikanischen Botschaft in Berlin), das wUrde wahrscheinlich den Verlust
seiner Heimat, Schlesien, bedeuten.4 Im Herbst 1941 hatte er heftige Auseinandersetzungen mit einem Verwandten, der deutscher Botschafter in Warschau
gewesen war, Uber die notigen Gebietsverzichte. Nie konne man verzichten, sagte
der Diplomat und hielt es fUr unpatriotisch, auch nur daran zu denken.5'
�-7-
Natarlich waren die Gagner des Regimes in einer ZwickmOhle. Wann sie
Zuwachs werben wollten, mussten sie diesem Hoffnungen machen und vielleicht
war die Hoffnung auf die Befreiung vom Unrechtsstaat nicht genug. Die
Generationen erfahrener Manner
hielten.
dachte~in
Kategorien, die sie fOr realpolitisch
Ab~J.
, --
Die jungen Leute von der Weissen Rose hingegen wollten vor allem das
Gewissen der Deutschen aufrOtteln. Und dator waren sie bereit, ihr Leben zu
riskieren -manche mehr, manche weniger. Christoph Probst war verheiratet und
hatte drei kleine Kinder. Aber sowohl von Hans als auch ~ von Sophie Scholl
sind AussprOche Oberliefert, die ihre Bereitschaft zeigen. So sagte Hans nach
~iner
bekannt gewordenen Hinrichtung von einer Anzahl von Sozialisten und
6
Kommunisten, es sei an der Zeit, dass auch Christen etwas taten; und Sophie
sagte:
"/is fallen so viele Menschen 1Qr dieses Regime, es wird Zeit, dass jemand
1
dagegen fallt." Dass sie mit diesem "Jemand" sich selbst meinte, sich jedenfalls
nicht ausschloss, und dass auch sie an eine Wiederverchristlichung Deutschlands
dachte, scheint mir ganz klar aus ihrem Traum in der Nacht vor der Hinrichtung
hervorzugehen, den sie ihrer Zellengenossin erzahlte. In dem Traum trug sie ein
Kind in einem langen weissen Kleid zur Taufe. Der Weg zur Kirche fOhrte einen
steilen Berg hinauf. Aber sie trug das Kind fest und sicher. Da tat sich plotzlich vor
ihr eine Gletscherspalte auf. Sophie konnte das Kind gerade noch an die
gesicherte gegenOberliegende Seite legen, dann stOrzte sie in die Tiete.f?
Fur so wichtig hatte Roland Freisler diesen Fall gehalten, dass er selbst
nach MOnchen geeilt war um die jungen Leute abzuurteilen. Nur vier Tage
vergingen z'fbschen der Festnahme der ersten drei und dem Fallbeil, das ihr
Leben beendete. Alexander Schmorell suchte zu entkommen, wurde aber verraten
und gefasst. Professor Hubers Verleger bat um Aufschub von dessen Hinrichtung,
�•8•
damit sein Autor noch sein Buch Ober Leibniz fertig schreiben konnte. Der Antrag
wurde abgeschlagen. Willi Graf musste bis Oktober auf seine Hinrichtung warten,
da die Gestapo - vergeblich - versuchte, noch weitere Namen von ihm zu erfahren.
Die Guillotine, die ihrem Leben ein Ende setzte, war eine von den etwa 19
Guillotinen, die Moltke in einem langen Bericht Ober die Zustande in Deutschland
erwahnte, den er zur gleichen Zeit wie seinen Bericht Ober die Weisse Rose
bemOht war, aus Schweden zu seinem Freund Lionel Curtis in England gelangen
zu !assen. Dieser Brief blieb in Schweden stecken und nur ein - etwas verzerrter Bruchteil, memoriert von dem amerikanischen Generalsekretar des Vereins
Christlicher Junger Manner, gelangte zum Bischof von Chichester, der ihn an Curtis
weiterleitete: Aber der Bericht Ober die Weisse Rose und ihr letztes Flugblatt
nahmen einen anderen Weg und kamen durch.
Nach einer eingehenden Schilderung des Falles, seines Hintergrundes, der
Vorfalle, der drei Studenten, der Formalitaten vor ihrer Hinrichtung, den
Nachwirkungen oder Nachwehen und der Verhaftung von Professor Huber, kam
ein Abschnitt Ober die nahere Zukunft und ein letzter Ober mogliche Hilfe aus der
Aussenwelt.
Zur Frage des "Was Nun ?"stand in dem Bericht folgendes: In Deutschland
mOsse die Sache verbreitet und weitergefOhrt werden. Das sei schwierig und
gefahrlich. Die Aufforderung des Flugblatts, aus der Partei und ihren
Organisationen auszutreten, sei allerdings unklug und solle herausediert werden:
sie wOrde zu viele Menschenleben kosten und es den Machthabern zu leicht
machen, ihre Gegner zu erkennen und auszuschalten; besser sei es, von innen
heraus zu arbeiten und die Machthaber unsicher zu machen, auf wen sie sich nun
verlassen konnen.
�. 9•
Varn Ausland konne Hilfe dadurch geleistet werden, dass man der Sache
zur Publizitat verhelfe, die Namen der Beteiligten immer wieder nenne, var allem
im Radio. Aber noch Wichtigeres sei moglich: "Dieser Fall" ( ich zitiere und
Obersetze ) "ist frei van Spionage, Kommunismus, Defaitismus, usw.
Es ist ein
klarer Fall inneren Aufstands auf Grund sittlicher Prinzipien, die eines Tages die
inner-europaischen Beziehungen leiten mOssen. Es ware ein enorme Hllfe, wenn
diese Tatsache einen Widerhall van draussen fande, wenn auch nur eine
Andeutung gegeben wOrde, dass es Krafte in Deutschland gibt, mit denen es nicht
nur moglich sondern notig ist, nach dem Krieg zusammenzuarbeiten. Andererseits
wOrde grosser Schaden angerichtet, wenn diese Vorgange nur als Symptom eines
~erfalls
in Deutschland registriert wOrden, Anzeichen dafOr, dass die Lage van
1918 wieder herannaht. Das wOrde namlich das Urteil des Volksgerichtshofes
rOckwirkend rechtfertigen ....
Es ist somit ein Fall, dessen Behandlung im
neutralen und feindlichen Ausland viel Gutes und viel Schadliches bewirken
10
kann." Soweit der anonyme Moltke.
Die BBC verlas das beigelegte letzte Flugblatt und die Royal Air Force warf
viele Exemplare, mit einer Rahmenerklarung, Ober Deutschland ab.
Als ich viele Jahre spater in den inzwischen freigegebenen Akten des
Foreign Office wieder auf diesen Bericht stiess, war er, wenn ich mich recht
entsinne, in der Kategorie mit lauter Material Ober Zersetzungserscheinungen und
deutsche Versuche, die Einheit der fiiierten Koalition zu sprengen und einen
/\
milden Frieden zu erreichen.
Dass dem anonymen Autor hochstens das Letzte
angelastet werden konnte, ergibt sich daraus, dass er Uber Zusammenarbeit nacil
dem Krieg sprach. NatOrlich warder Wunsch nach der Anerkennung des "Anderen
Deutschland" schon wahrend des Krieges auch dabei.
�• 10 •
Jedoch bevor das Jahr um war, machte Moltke doch einen Versuch, einen
verzweifelten Versuch - ob von Canaris, ob von den Kreisauern gedeckt, weiss
man nicht - den Angloamerikanern tor den Fall einer Invasion in ausreichender
Starke und mit mehr Durchschlagskraft als der des Feldzugs in ltalien, eine
deutsche Offnung im Westen in Aussicht zu stellen, die zu einer schnellen
Besetzung ganz Deutschlands fOhren wOrde und mit einem Schlage auch das
Volk von
dieser Losung
Oberzeugen
und
die
Gefahr
einer
neuen
Dolchstosslegende vermeiden wOrde. Nicht von ihm selbst, sondern von zwei
exildeutschen Kontaktmannern nach seiner Abreise aus Istanbul im Dezember, fOr
den amerikanischen Geheimdienst (OSS) formuliert, fOhrte dieses Memorandum
zu langen Auseinandersetzungen unter den Amerikanern, die man jetzt in den
~
~
Vierteljahrsheften for Zeitgeschichte nachlesen kann. Moltke selbst wurde nach
diesem Vorstoss, den er bei einer Dienstreise in die TOrkei machte, verhaftet und
ausser Gefecht gesetzt.
Es wurde nichts aus dem Plan, der, obwohl aus anderer Feder stammend,
seine Ansichten zum grossen Teil richtig wiedergeben mag. Er hatte mit Hans
Wilbrandt und Alexander ROstow, dem Hauptautor der Denkschrift, eingehende
Gesprache gefOhrt. Er hatte selbst vor seiner Abreise an Alexander Kirk, den ihm
wohlbekannten ehemaligen amerikanischen Geschaftstrager in Berlin und jetzt in
Kairo, einen Brief geschrieben, als er ihn nicht, wie erhofft, in Istanbul antraf. In
dem Brief erwahnt er auch das entmutigende Beispiel ltalien, das im September
kapituliert hatte und zum Kriegsschauplatz wurde. Das war nicht gerade ein gutes
Omen fOr innere Veranderungen in Deutschland. Es mOsse klar gemacht warden,
wie sich eine Wiederholung vermeiden Hesse. Dazu brauche man eine
gemeinsame politische Zielsetzung, ohne die es keine wirksame militarische
Zusammenarbeit geben konne. Was diese angehe, konne sowohl vom
militarischen wie auch vom politischen Standpunkt aus nur eine solche in Frage
�• 11 •
kommen, die die Lage mit einem Schlage verwandle. Und dafOr sei Geduld notig,
man mOsse warten, warten und nochmals warten bis eine Streitkraft vorhanden
12.
sei, die, mit deutscher Hilfe, unwiderstehlich sein wOrde. Die lBesorgnis Ober den
~amen Foldzug in ltalien und d~ Notwendigkeit abzuwarten bis genOgende
9~ t(trl.lft'f!?<J
Kraft tor ein 6Adef'sa™g'-9s Vorgehen in Frankreich da sei, kommt Obrigens auch in
.......
=efttJ.an'freye vor.t31n dem Memorandum steht dazu noch, dass eine solche
schnelle Entscheidung und Besetzung Deutschlands durch die Westmachte taktvoll "die Aliiierten" genannt - von der dadurch freigesetzten "wahren Stimme"
1't
Deutschlands als eine Art westliches Tauroggen begrOsst werden wOrde. Der
Bericht stiess trotz seiner diplomatischen Formulierung auf Skepsis und
~blehnung.
Trotzdem er eingangs die Annahme der zu Anfang des Jahres
proklamierten Forderung der. bedingungslosen Kapitulation beteuerte, beinhaltete
er eben doch Bedingungen. Die Grossen Drei hatten sich jedoch eben erst in
Teheran Ober die gemeinsame FortfOhrung des Krieges und einige Gesichtspunkte
der Nachkriegsregelung geeinigt. Die Westmachte konnten off/iziell auf einen
solchen Vorschlag nicht eingehen und Prasident Roosevelt, zu dem das Dokument
gar nicht durchdrang, Mitte das auch nicht gewollt. Sagar die Englander wollten
lieber Deutschland mit russischer Beteiligung besetzen. Aber anscheinend
erfuhren englische und russische diplomatische Vertreter erst im Mai 1944 von
diesem oder einem ahnlichen Vorschlag.
All das bedeutet, meine ich, nicht, dass man Peter Hoffmann in seinem Buch
Ober die Bruder Stauffenberg voll zustimmen kann, wenn er den Schluss zieht, vor
allem aus der Verzogerung der Mitteilung an die Englander und Russen, dass "die
Missachtung der Moglichkeit, Hunderttausende von Menschenleben zu retten,
nicht durch den Zwang der Kriegskoalition zu erklaren"
ist-"(,..f?J+.;-=s:-se~~fDas
Argument der Moglichkeit, Hunderttausende zu retten, war von einem sehr
16
engagierten aber nicht einflussreichen BefOrworter des Plans erwahnt warden. Die
�• 12 •
Auseinandersetzung daruber zog sich Ober Monate hin und war von sehr
unterschiedlicher Qualitat.
Moltkes alter Freund, der Journalist Wallace Deuel, der
mittlerweile far das OSS arbeitete, war auch daran beteiligt. Er legte seine Hand
fOr Moltke ins Feuer, hatte aber Zweifel an der DurchfOhrbarkeit des Plans,
besonders was die Moglichkeit und Wirksamkeit der in Aussicht gestellten
deutschen Mitwirkung
anging~rNatOrlich
war auch die Reaktion der Sowjetunion,
selbst unter der Annahme der DurchfOhrbarkeit, ein wichtiger Punkt. Der Plan
schlug vor, die Ostfront etwa an der Linie Tilsit-Lemberg zu halten. So ist vielleicht
Peter Hoffmanns Wort von der "Mlssachtung" der vorgeschlagenen Moglichkeit
etwas zu streng, und vielleicht unterschatzt er auch den Zwang der Kriegskoalition.
Er bestand ja nicht nur in dem anglo-amerikanisch -russischen Versprechen der
~ofortigen
gegenseitigen Benachrichtigung Ober deutsche Kontaktaufnahmen,
dessen Bruch den stets argwohnischen Stalin zu wer weiss was fOr
Sonderabmachungen mit den Deutschen veranlassen konnte
solche Erwagungfen auf russischer
- Anzeichen fOr
.u.nd deutscher Seite waren schon da. Worin
bestand der Zwang der Koalition?
Doch auch in der Oberzeugung, dass
Deutschland total besiegt warden musste, ohne Abmachungen und Konzessionen
und solche Bedingungen wie sie in dem fraglichen Dokument trotz seiner verbalen
Akzeptanz der "bedingungslosen Kapitulation" enthalten waren. Es kam, wenn
nicht auf "bedingte Kapitulation" dann zumindest auf eine "gesteuerte Niederlage"
hinaus. Der Hinweis des Memorandums auf eine Gefahr der Bolschewisierung
Deutschlands wirkte, von deutscher Seite kommend, eher wie ein rotes Tuch, wie
ein weiterer Versuch die Koalition zu spalten. Trotz gewisser Bedenken gegenOber
der Sowjetunion und Stalins Absichten, musste Deutschland mit
seiner Hilfe
besiegt werden. In den Demokratieo war ein Abgehen von der Koalition zu dem
Zeitpunkt undenkbar. Hitlers Pakt mit Stalin, der Auftakt zu diesem Krieg, war nur
moglich weil weder Deutschland noch Russland Demokratien waren. Solche
politischen Schaltungen konnen nur Diktatoren vornehmen.
'
,,
,,
.\
-----.. *V ~ .la-.
�- 13 -
Das Wendejahr 1943 hatte mit der fast gleichzeitigen Bekanntgabe des
Endes des Kampfes in Stalingrad und der Proklamation der Forderung
bedingungsloser Kapitulation Deutschlands, ltaliens und Japans auf der Konferenz
Matr~
von Casablanca begonnen. Im febraaf waren zwei Attentatsversuche auf Hitler
misslungen. Im April gelang dem SD eine empfindliche Schwachung der Abwehr.
Im Mai kapitulierten die deutschen und italienischen Truppen in Nordafrika. Im Juli
landeten die Aliierten in Sizilien. Mussolini wurde vom Faschistischen Grossrat
~Ee~ ol0 Jalit'o~
·
gestOrzt und ~erhaftet - sp~ffer aber Wieder von Deutschen befreit. Im September
/'
landeten die Angloamerikaner in SOditalien und die neue italienische Regierung
unter Marschall Badoglio kapitulierte und bot den Aliierten ihre Hilfe an. Die
geutschen intervenierten und kampften zah.
An der diplomatischen Front endete dann das Jahr 1943 mit der
interalliierten Aussenministerkonferenz in Moskau und dem Treffen von Stalin,
Churchill und Roosevelt in Teheran. Auf diesen Konferenzen wurde das weitere
gemeinsame Vorgehen gegen den gemeinsamen Feind beschlossen. Das etwa
war der Rahmen, in dem sich der lnnerdeutsche Widerstand gegen das
Hitlerregime 1943 abspielte.
Bevor das Jahr begann, hatte Dietrich Bonhoeffer eine Bestandsaufnahme nach
10 Jahren
1942/43
nationalsozialistischer Herrschaft gemacht, die er zur Jahreswende
Hans von Dohnanyi, Hans Oster und Eberhard Bethge Oberreichte. Darin
ausserte sich Bonhoeffer zur Frage Attentat und Staatsstreich wie folgt:
die
Dummheit sei getahrlicher als die Bosheit, die man bekampfen kann. Menschen
konnten dumm gemacht werden, konnten sich dumm machen !assen.
�• 14 •
Es sei Macbtentfaltung, die den Menschen die innere Selbstandigkeit raube, sie
erlagen dann Schlagwortern und Parolen und wOrden zum willenlosen Instrument
und zu allem Bosen tahig, und zugleich unfahig, es als Boses zu erkennen. Und
nun kommt der springende Punkt: es war fOr Bonhoeffer ganz deutlich, dass nicht
ein Akt der Belehruog sondero alleio ein Akt der Befreiung die Dummheit
Oberwinden konne. " Dabei wird man sich", schrieb er, "damit abfinden mOssen,
dass eine echte innere Befreiung in den allermeisten Fallen erst moglich wird,
nachdem die aussere Befreiung vorausgegangen ist."
Diese war es, die er mit
seineo Freunden und Vertrauteo anstrebte.
Was er dann Ober Klugheit schreibt, gehort vielleicht nicht so direkt zur
Frage Widerstand, ist aber doch relevant und · fOr einen Lutheraoer - erstaunlich.
Die Missachtung der g6ttlichen Gesetze sei nicht nur unrecht, schreibt er, sondern
unklug, und er findet es, besonders nach den Erfahrungen der letzten zehn Jahre
verstandlich, "warum die aristotelisch-thomistische Ethik die Klugheit zu einer der
Kardinaltugenden erhob."
"Klugheit und Dummheit", tahrt er fort,"
sind nicht
ethisch indifferent, wie uns eine neuprotestantische Gesinnungsethik hat lehren
wollen."
Und dann: " Es
i.S1 einfach in der Welt so eingerichtet, dass die
grundsatzliche Achtung der letzten Gesetze und Rechte des Lebens zugleich der
Selbsterhaltung am dienlichsten ist, und dass diese Gesetze sich nur eine ganz
kurze, einmalige, im Einzelfall notwendige Oberschreitung gefallen !assen,
wahrend sie den, der aus der Not ein Prinzip macht, und also neben ihnen ein
eigenes Gesetz aufrichtet, fnJher oder spater - aber mit unwiderstehlicher Gewalt erschlagen. n
�- 15 -
Dass die verantwortliche Tat, die Befreiungstat, das irdische Leben kosten
konnte, wusste er, wussten sie alle, die Widerstand leisteten. "Der Tod kann uns
nicht mehr sehr Oberraschen", schreibt er. "Unseren Wunsch, er moge uns nicht
zufallig, jah, abseits vom Wesentlichen, sondern in der FOlle des Lebens und in der
Gesamtheit des Einsatzes treffen, wagen wir uns seit den Erfahrungen des Krieges
kaum mehr einzugestehen. Nicht die ausseren Umstande, sondern wir selbst
warden es sein, die unseren Tod zu dem machen, was er sein kann, zum Tod in
freiwilliger Einwilligung." 1'6
Helmuth James von Moltke glaubte wohl weniger an eine solche
Befreiungstat. Er meinte, dass nur ein klare militarische Niederlage zur Befreiung
fOhren konne - Befreiung nicht nur von Hitler, sondern von dem, was Hitler moglich
gemacht hatte, einschliesslich des Militarismus, der • seit dem "grossen Moltke",
dem Feldmarschall Bismarcks • eine gesunde politische Entwicklung in
Deutschland erschwert hatte. Ein Miltarputsch und Staatsstreich, wie ihn die
Verschworer im Sinne hatten, konnte kaum die Grundlage eines gesunden
Staatswesens abgeben. Wie Moltke von einer Dienstreise in Schweden an seinen
englischen Freund Lionel Curtis schrieb, hielt er es fOr einen Fehler der deutschen
Opposition, dass sie sich auf eine Aktion der Generale verliess. Diese Hoffnung
war, wie er meinte, von vornherein aussichtslos. Der wichtigste Grund war ein
soziologischer: "Wir brauchen eine Revolution," schrieb er, "nicht einen
Staatsstreich; und eine solche Revolution wird den Generalen niemals denselben
Spielraum und dieselbe Stellung geben, wie sie ihnen von den Nazis eingeraumt
warden sind und noch eingeraumt werden." -11
�• 16 •
Diese Ansicht spielte sicher eine Rolle in der Auseinandersetzung zwischen
der Gruppe van Goerdeler und Beck (tar den Moltke grosse Hochachtung hatte)
und dam Kreisauer Kreis. Spannungen gab es monatelang.
Anfang Januar 1943
gab es eine Begegnung zwischen den "Alten" oder, wie Moltke sie nannte,
"Exzellenzen", Goerdeler, Beck, Popitz, Hassell, Jessen und dem Vermittler, Fritz
van der Schulenburg, einerseits, und den "Jungen" vom Kreisauer Kreis: Moltke,
Yorck, Gerstenmaier und Trott. Goerdeler wollte die jungen Manner nicht recht
ernst nehmen und versuchte, die Differenzen bezOglich der geplanten Wirtschaftsund Sozialpolitik zu verschleiern. Moltke hielt Goerdelers Programm tor eine
"Kerenski -Losung", d.h., eine unhaltbare Zwischenlosung, die zum Kommunismus
fOhren musste. Selbst Hassell fand Goerdeler "eine Art Reaktionar".w
·-
Was immer die auseinandergehenden Ansichten
innerhalb des
Widerstandes gewesen sein mogen - im Marz kam es dann zu zwei
Attentatsversuchen, die missglOckten. Kann man die Versuche als ein Zeichen
nehmen, dass die Ende Januar in Casablanca van Roosevelt formulierte und von
Churchill unterstOtzte Forderung der "bedingungslosen Kapitulation" sich nicht so
lahmend auf den deutschen Widerstand auswirkte
wie van manchen
angenommen wird? Stalingrad war ein Signal zum Handeln. Wie stark war die
Behinderung durch die neue Formel - die eigentlich nur das formulierte, was !angst
stillschweigende Annahme gewesen war? Schon 1941
hatte Churchill
angeordnet, dass jeglichen deutschen Annaherungen durch Schweigen zu
begegnen war. Seitdem waren nur noch mehr GrOnde hinzugekommen, vor allem
die Notwendigkeit, die Koalition mit Sowjetrussland und Amerika zusammenzuhalten. Sachlich hatte die Forderung ausserdem das tor sich, dass man damit
eine Wiederholung des Trauerspiels von Wilson's 14 Punkten und Versailles
vermied. Rhetorisch war sie vielleicht weniger glOcklich. Aber Goebbels hat wenig
daraus gemacht - Historiker des deutschen Widerstands hingegen mehr. 2.1
�- 17 -
Im Juni fand die dritte und letzte Konferenz der Kreisauer in Kreisau statt.
Die Hauptgesprachsgegenstande waren Aussen - und Wirtschaftspolitik, sowie die
Bestrafung van "Rechtsschandern". Diese Vokabel wurde benutzt, wail es sich bei
den Naziverbrechen nicht nur um Kriegsverbrechen sondern um prazedenzlose
Schandungen des gottlichen und Naturrechts handelte, denen schwer mit
Paragraphen beizukommen war. Die Bestrafung dieser Rechtsschander sollte
einerseits in deklaratorischer Achtung bestehen, andererseits van Deutschen oder
van einem internationalen Gericht mir deutscher Beteiligung vorgenommen
werden. In den folgenden Wochen wurden die besprochenen EntwOrfe waiter
Z'L
diskutiert und in dokumentarischer Form festgelegt. Ausserdem suchte man nach
Qeeigneten Personen, die in der Obergangszeit als "Landesverweser" fungieren
konnten.
Parallel hiermit intensivierten sich im Sommer wieder die Planungen der auf
einen Staatsstreich hinarbeitenden Verschworer. Bis im Herbst Claus Stauffenberg
zu dieser Gruppe stiess - bei dem sich Axel van dem Bussche als Attentater
meldete - war Henning von Tresckow der militarische Motor der Verschworung.
Aber Attentat und Staatsstreich waren ja nicht die einzige Art des
Widerstands. Planung fur die Zeit nach dem Umsturz oder der Niederlage gehorte
auch dazu - ebenfalls der Kampf gegen die Grausamkeiten des Regimes. In
seinem schon erwahnten Bericht Ober die deutschen Zustande, der seinen
englischen Freund nie erreichte, schrieb Moltke auch etwas Ober die Opposition
gegen das Regime, jene Manner, van denen man, wie er einer englischen Schlagzeile entnahm, "so viel hart und so wenig merkt." Er erwahnte die grossen Verluste
der Regimegegner, ihre stillen Erfolge bei der Sabotage mancher nationalsozialistscher Massnahmen, ihre Rettungsaktionen tar einzelne Menschen.
�• 18 •
Zwei dauerhafte Erfolge der Opposition hebt er besonders hervor: die
Mobilisierung der Kirchen und die Wegbereitung far ein dezentralisiertes
2..~
Deutschland. In der Tat geharten zu den Kreisauern nicht nur Kirchenmanner
beider Konfessionen wie auch Sozialisten, die dem Christentum positiv
gegenOberstanden, sondern Moltke war von Anfang an bemOht, die deutsche
Glaubensspaltung politisch zu OberbrOcken und die Hierarchen politisch zu
2A:
aktivieren. Mit dem katholischen Bischof von Berlin besprach er seit 1941
regelmaBig, wie man den Unrechtsmassnahmen der Regierung und Partei am
besten entgegentreten konnte und 1943 gelang es, den Bischof Preysing mit dem
evangelischen Bischof von WOrttembergJ~m weithin aner:kanAten Oberhaupt des'fticM glsiohgesehalteten Teils der protestantischen
-
Kirche,~
zusammenzubringen,
und beide, Preysing und Wurm, protestierten gegen Verfolgung und Tatung
.
unschuldiger
2..t;;°
Menschengruppen.
Auch
ein
Hirtenbrief
der
Fuldaer
Bischofskonferenz Ober die Zehn Gebote erregte das Missfallen des
Sicherheitsdienstes wegen seiner politischen Relevanz. Da stand namlich zum 5.
Gebot zu lesen: "Tatung ist an sich schlecht, auch wenn sie angeblich im lnteresse
des Gemeinwohls verObt wurde: an schuld - und wehrlosen Geistesschwachen
und Kranken, an unheilbar Siechen und tOdlich Verletzten, an erblich belasteten
und lebensuntOchtigen Neugeborenen, an unschuldigen Geiseln und entwaffneten
Kriegs - und Strafgefangenen, an Menschen fremder Rassen und Abstammung."
Der SD beanstandete auch, dass sich der Kommentar zum 6. und 9. Gebot mit der
Heiligkeit der Ehe befasste, auch der rassischen Mischehe.2.'T
Moltke
selbst
war
besonders
rege
in
der
VerhOtung
von
Geiselerschiessungen und verhandelte hierOber nicht nur mit Generalen sondern
2£
auch mit den zustandigen SS-Gewaltigen in Holland und Danemark.
Ausserdem
2b
�• 19 •
mag er seine Unterredungen mit den Generalen Falkenhausen und StOlpnagel
elie...
.
auch zu Sondierungen anderer Art, z.B. betreffend-6ef Moglichkeit einer Offnung
nach Westen, benutzt
haben~ Sowohl
in Holland als auch in Skandinavien
besprach er sich mit Reprasentanten des Widerstands, der in Norwegen stark von
der Kirche getragen war. Es gelang ihm auch dem bereits unter Hausarrest
stehenden norwegischen Bischof Berggrav gegen noch peinlichere Repressalien
zu helfen.
Moltke war auch in Kontakt mit schwedischen Oekumenikern und andere
Kreisauer, besonders Trott und Gerstenmaier, mit dem Vorlaufigen Weltkirchenrat
in Genf, besonders dessen Generalsekretar A.W. Visser 't Hooft, der eine grosse
.
Hllfe war.
30
·-
1945, zwei Jahre nach dem Bericht Ober die Weisse Rose, begannen wir in
London Akten aus den befreiten Gebieten und aus dem besetzten Deutschland zu
n
J)a>. ~efi.vv1 cJ.Q._s 'S'c'e., \1€..N~~/' l~q;t- ~c'~ ~~w'21
sehen, auch Papiere aus Konzentrationslagern. ~ie waren niederschmetterndl benre-{b-<J
Die Lager waren van den Aliierten Oberrannt und befreit warden. Auch die ersten
Bilder kamen nun nach England.
Da bekam ich ein Bunde! Akten - Photokopien -
aus der Reichskanzlei: Eingaben an Heinrich Lammers, Chef der Reichskanzlei.
Besonders erinnerlich ist mir ein Konvolut, das sich mit der - talschlich - so
genannten
etVi€.fr1.
"Euthanasia"
befasste. Da war ein Pastor Braune, der dagegen
tlEinspruch erhob. Und da war, auf komisch kariertem Papier, ein Protest von
~ ~ei~~htenberg. Es war wie eine Enklave des Himmels in der Holle. Von den
Predigten des Bischofs Galen hatten wir schon wahrend des Krieges gehort. Sie
wurden sogar in England veroffentlicht.
Aber hier waren weniger prominente
Manner, die offenbar ihr Leben auf's Spiel setzten um das Leben anderer zu retten.
Viel spater erfuhr ich Naheres Ober sie.
�- 20 -
Am 5. November 1943 war der Domprobst Bernhard Lichtenberg nach
VerbOssung seiner zweijahrigen Gefangnisstrafe auf dem Weg nach Dachau
gestorben. Er hatte, unter anderem, offentlich in Abendandachten in der
Hedwigskathedrale in Berlin zum Gebet fOr "die verfolgten nichtarischen Christen
und tor die Juden" aufgerufen. Obwohl er das schon lange getan hatte - schon im
November 1938 hatte er, wie er selbst in der Gerichtsverhandlung angab, damit
begonnen - war er nie van einem Gemeindemitglied denunziert warden. Das taten
dann zwei rheinische Studentinnen, die wahrend einer dieser Andachten in der
3l
Kirche waren. Der Bericht Ober Lichtenbergs Gestapoverhor hatte Moltke bei
einem seiner Besuche bei Bischof Preysing so beeindruckt, dass er ein StOck
.
.
.
.. 1· h
B ne fe
.
d
~avon in einem seiner tag 1c en
wurde freigegeben -
3 .
S'et~ ·1·1e rt e.2-Lie ht en b ergs
an~ z1
Le1c he
.
er war, schwer herzkrank, eines "natOrlichen" Tades
gestorben. Sein Bischof, Konrad Preysing, sprach bei seiner Beerdigung, zu der
Tausende kamen.
Es war die letzte offentliche Kundgebung der Katholiken
Berlins. 33
Man muss sich immer wieder vergegenwartigen - und jOngere Generationen
konnen es sich kaum vorstellen - in was fOr einem Staat diese Menschen lebten.
Das Gerichtsurteil gegen Lichtenberg mag das beleuchten. Die einschlagigen
Paragraphen
waren
Kanzelmissbrauch
und
Vergehen
gegen
das
HeimtOckegesetz. In der UrteilsbegrOndung steht dazu:
" lndem der Angeklagte in seinem Gebet ausdrOcklich tor die Juden und die
Gefangenen in den Konzentrationslagern eintrat, befasste er sich
offentlich mit den gegen die genannten Personengruppen eingeleiteten
staatlichen Massnahmen; denn der Grund dafOr, dass er sie in seine
FOrbitte aufnahm, lag nach seiner eigenen Einlassung allein darin, dass er
�• 21 •
sie um ihrer Rassenzugehorigkeit oder ihrer Weltanschauung willen fOr von
den staatlichen Behorden verfolgt ansah. Er hat also in AusObung seines
Berufes in einer Kirche vor mehreren Personen Angelegenheiten des
Staates zum Gegenstand seiner VerkOndigung gemacht. Dies geschah in
einer den offentlichen Frieden getahrdenden Weise. Sowohl die Regelung
der Judenfrage wie auch die Bekampfung staatsfeindlicher Elemente durch
Anordnung der Vorbeugungshaft in Konzentrationslagern sind Massnahmen
des nationalsozialistischen Staates, an denen die gesamte deutsche
Bevolkerung Anteil nimmt .....
Dass sich gegen seine Abendandachten
bisher niemand beschwert hatte, ..... zeigt nur, wie sehr seine Zuhorer
durch ihn schon beeinflusst waren."31
Nun war er also tot. Und inzwischen hatten diese staatlichen Massnahmen
sich auf das ganze besetzte Europa ausgedehnt mit dem Erfolg millionenfachen
Mord es.
In Deutschland war man an die Trennung der sogenannten Mischehen
gegangen, deren jOdische oder, wie es damals hiess, "nichtarische" Partner bisher
von der Deportation ausgenommen waren. Das tohrte im FrOhjahr 1943 zu der
Demonstration Berliner Ehefrauen, denen es wirklich gelang, ihre schon
verhafteten Manner noch mal freizukriegen.
Der Anlass zur Verhaftung van Hans von Dohnanyi und Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Anfang April 1943 war ein Versuch, der auch gelang, einige Juden, als
Abwehragenten getarnt, ins neutrale Ausland zu retten. Hans Oster wurde bei
dieser Gelegenheit auch kaltgestellt und war tartan in seiner verschworerischen
35"
Aktionstahigkeit stark beeintrachtigt. Es war der erste Einbruch des SD in die
Abwehr, in der sich ja, angefangen bei Admiral Wilhelm Canaris selbst, eine rege
Tatigkeit gegen das Regime entfaltet hatte.
---J:: i'\.j·~-~
�~
Ii
~J
6
~.::::;
• 22 •
"'d
..!:::,(
=(, ti' -::..,
~,~;
':> ~..:;-
Da haben wir ein Spektrum von Widerstand, von dem nur _ein Teil zu dem
gehOrte, was dann am 20. Juli 1944 in dem Versuch des Attentats und
Staatsstreichs gipfelte. Alie diese Manner - und Frauen, wie z.B. Margarete
~ -~
~ ....
~
~
un.el ~e-~ ic.id(q,e,{i <'k'.e- tW. ~~ h.s f..14' bc"Jf5~ <~,1z-p.&llc>~ ~~ t>er ~ /!}._ "t'l-l.~ ~ lh~ij l<e)lSommer vom Hilfswerk des Sischoflichen Ordinariats in Berlin/\ und junge Leute
wie die Studenten und SchOler der Weissen Rose, all diese - wie man sagt Deutschen setzten ihr Leben ein - und viele verloren es.
In Hava Sellers bewegendem Film Ober den deutschen Widerstand, "The
Restless Conscience", "Das ruhelose Gewissen", wird ein Teil von Henning von
Tresckow's Ausspruch vom 21. Juli 1944 zitiert.
lch mochte den fehlenden Teil
~itieren: >
" Wenn Gott einst Abraham verheissen hat, er werde Sodom nicht
verderben, wenn auch nur zehn Gerechte darin seien, so hoffe ich,
dass Gott auch Deutschland um unsertwillen nicht vernichten wird." 3G
Ob Tresckow Deutschland 1945, 1949, 1989, oder heute, wohl als
"vernichtet" ansehen wOrde? Es handelt sich aber -tor mich- nicht nur um
Deutschland. Gewiss, der Widerstand war eine Manifestation des "Anderen
Deutschland", und das war nach dem Krieg eine gute Sache, auch fOr
diplomatische Werbung im Ausland. Aber nicht darum geht es und nicht nur um
Deutschland. Es geht um das, was Helmuth Moltke einmal "das Bild des
Menscheo"
nannte~f Die
Unmenschlichkeit, die die Menschheit in Hitlers
Tausendjahrigem Reich erlebte, war vor allem, aber nicht nur, eine Angelegenheit
der Deutschenjt>def-\lielleicht-=SO:llto iGt-r= Sagen "de1 61~eutseneA ", eenHie-
�- 23 -
~ci+le-5-Se~t~BM~ffi--fi:Hff~~~~
Man sah, was Menschen moglich war.
Nach den zwolf Jahren waren es die Beispiele der Menschlichkeit, der
Mitmenschlichkeit, die einen wieder Vertrauen zu den Menschen, auch deutschen,
fassen liessen. Staatswesen sind pervertierbar. Mehr Menschen sind schwach als
base. Wohl denen, die in einem guten Staatswesen leben. Die Deutschen hatten
es von 1933 bis 1945 schwer. Nur starke GemOter konnten den Versuchungen und
Drohungen des Dritten Reiches widerstehen.
DafDr, dass es sie gab, muss man sehr dankbar sein.
�Anmerkungen
1.
Beate Ruhm von Oppen, Religioh and Resistance to Nazism,
Princeton 1971.
2.
John Charmley, Churohills
biography.
3.
The end of glorys a political
London 1993.
Jtlrgen Heideking und Christof Mauch, Das Herman-Dossiers
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, die deutsche Emigration in
Istanbul und der amerikanische ~eheimdienst Office of Strategic
Services (OSS), Vierteljahrshefte ftlr Zeitgeschichte (40) 1992,
So 574, Anmo 360
4.
George F. Kennan, Memoirs 1925-1950, Boston 1967, s. 121;
Memoiren eines Diplomaten, Stuttgart 1968, s. 127.
deutsch
"'
5 0 Beate Ruhm von Oppen,\H~., Helmuth James von Moltke, Briefe an
Freya 1939-1945,
6.
Mttnchen 1988, Brief vom 13.11.41,
Hermann Vinke, Das kurze Leben der Sophie Scholl.
s.
317.
Ravensburg 1980,
So 125.
Anm~
6),
s.
7o
Vinke, Sophie Scholl (s.
146.
80
Vinke, Sophie Scholl (s. Anm. 6), S. 157.
9 0 Text der "Kurzfassung" mit Begleitbrief des Bischofs in Ger van
Roon, German Resistance to Hitler: Count Moltke and the Kreisau
Circle, translated by Peter Ludlow, London 1971, So 364-367;
Originaltext in Henrik Lindgren, Adam von Trotts Reisen nach
Schweden 1942-1944, Vierteljahrshefte ftlr Zeitgeschichte (18),
1970, So 274-291; wiederabgedruckt in Michael Balfour / Julian
Frisby, Helmuth von Moltke: A leader against Hitler, London 1972,
So 215-224; deutsch in Freya von Moltke / Michael Balfour/
Julian Frisby, Helmuth James von Moltke 1907-1945: Anwalt der
Zukunft, Stuttgart 1975, S. 212-2200
10.
Wilhelm Ernst Winterhager (Hg.), Der Kreisauer Kreis: Portr~t
einer Widerstandsgruppe. Begleitband zu einer Ausstellung der
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1985,
11.
12
0
IH-eieiekisg /Ma.Yob' Herman-Dossier (s. Anm.
s.
234 f.
3), s. 567-623.
ldleia9ki:a-g / Mau.eh,t Herman-Dossier ( s. Anmo 3), So 584 f
o
�s.
130
Moltke, Briefe (s. Anm. 5), 7.1.44,
14.
Herman ... Dossier ... ~ ( s. Anmo 3), S. 590.
15.
Peter Hoffmann, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg und seine
Brttder, Stuttgart 1992,
s.
587.
360.
160 ~id.eking/ M.an-cnJ,Herman-Dossier
(s. Anm. 3),
s.
588.
170
Herman-Dossier (s. Anmo 3}, So 615-6190
180
Eberhard Bethge (Hgo), Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Widerstand und
Ergebungo Briefe und Aufzeichnungen aus der Haft, Neuausgabe,
Mttnchen 1970,
190
s.
16-200
Helmuth James von Moltke, Bericht aus Deutschland im Jabre 1943.
Letzte Briefe aus dem Gef~ngnis Tegel 1945. Berlin 1971, S 0 1946.
200
Moltke, Briefe (so Anm. 3), Brief vom 9olo43, So 450 f; Eugen
Gerstenmaier, Streit und Friede hat seine Zeito Ein Lebensbericht,
Berlin 1981, s. 169 f; Die Hassell-Tagebtlcher 1938-1944. Ulrich
von Hassell, Aufzeichnungen vom Anderen Deutschland. Nach der
Handschrift revidierte und erweiterte Ausgabe unter Mitarbeit
von Klaus Peter Reiss herausgegeben von Friedrich Freiherr
von Gaertringen, Berlin 1988, So 3470
21.
Ihr sch~rfster deutscher Kritiker ist Lothar Kettenacker in seinem
Beitrag tiber "Die britische Haltung zum deutschen Widerstand
wl!hrend des Zweiten Weltkriegs" in Lothar Kettenacker (Hgo),
Das "Andere Deutschland" im Zweiten Weltkrieg: Emigration und
Widerstand in internationaler Perspektive, Stuttgart 1977,
So 49-740
22.
Ger van Roon, Neuordefnung im Widerstando Der Kreisauer Kreis
innerhalb der deutschen Widerstahdsbewegung, Mtlnchen 1967,
S 0 550-571, und Roman Bleistein (P.g.), Dossier: Kreisauer Kreis.
Dokumente aus dem Widerstand gegen den ~ationalsozialismus.
Aus dem Nachlass von Lothar
K~nig
SoJ., Frankfurt am Main 1987,
So 239-299 und 337-3530
23 0
Moltke, Bericbt (so Anm. 19), So 38 f.
24.
Moltke, Briefe (s. Anm. 5),
25.
Ludwig Volk (Hg.), Akten deutscher Bischtlfe Uber die Lage der
Kirche 1933-1945.
938-943;
Band
6~
s.
12-14.
Band 5, Mainz 1983,
s.
675-678, 817-819,
Mainz 1985, So 19ff, 2lff, 25, 42, 62-65,
�99 r, 128, 145, 192, 202, 207, 215-220, 267-270, 283, 285, 291 r.,
293, 332, 4290 Fftr Wurms Engagement s. Heinrich Hermelink (Hg.),
Kirche im Kampf, Tttbingen 1950, s. 654 ff, 659r., sovie Gerhard
ScQ~fer (Hg.), Landesbischof Wurm und der nationalsozialistis9he
Staat 1940-1945. Eine Dokumentation. Stuttgart 1968, s. 149 ff.,
160 ff., 163 f., 165 fo
26.
So "Protokoll der Plenarkonferenz des deutschen Episkopats,
Fulda, 17o-19o August 1943 11 in Volk, Bischofsakten (s. Anm. 25),
Band 6, 133-146, und "Hirtenwort des deutschen Episkopats vom
19.8.43 - am 29.8.43 verlesen", s. 178-184, sowie "Hirtenwort
ttber die Zehn Gebote vom 19.s.43 - verlesen am 12.9.43 11 , s. 197205. Siehe auch zwei Entwtirfe von Eingaben des deutschen
Episkopats vom ~2./23o August 1943 gegen die Aufl6sung der
Mischehen und d~"Evakuierung der Nichtarier", f 0 216 ff.· und
22or. Ftir die"Handreichung an die Pfarrer und Altesten zum
fttnften Gebot der letzten altpreussischen Bekenntnissynode vom
ft
16.-17. Oktober 1943 So Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Theologe, Christ, Zsitgenosse.
Mtinchen 1967, So 795-797.
Heinz Boberach (Hg.), Berichte des SD und der Gestapo Uber Kirchen
'und Kirchenvolk in Deutschland 1934-1944. Main~l971, Nr. 264,
s.
850-855, besonders 853 Fo
280
Moltke, Briefe (so Anm. 5), Brief vom 5.6.43, s. 484-486, vom
7.6.43, s. 488, vom 12.9.43, s. 537, vom 4.-5.10.43, s. 550-552.
29.
Moltke, Briefe (s. Anm. 5), Brief vom 5.-8.6.43, So 488-491.
30.
Fttr die umfassende Darstellung der Auslandskontakte des deutschen
Widerstands siehe Klemens von Klemperer, German resistance against
Hitler: the search for allies abroad 1938-1945. Oxford 1992.
Das Buch ist dem Andenken der beiden 6kumenischen Haupthelfer,
George Bell und W.A. Visser 1 t Hoof~gewidmet.
310
Alfons Erb, Bernhard Lichtenberg, Domprobst von St. Hedwig zu
Berlin.
5o Aufl., Berlin 1968,
5),
s.
80.
32.
Moltke, Briefe (s. Anm.
Brief vom 14.11.41,
33.
Erb, Lichtenberg (s. Anm. 31),
s.
136-138.
34.
Erb, Lichtenberg (s. Anmo 31),
s.
104-105.
350
Bethge, Bonhoeffer (s. Anmo 26), So 878-885.
s.
319-323.
�36.
Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Offiziera gegan Hitler. Neue,
durchgesehene und erweiterte Ausgabe von Walter Bussmann.
Nach der Edition von Gero von So Gaevernitz.
37.
~erlin 1984, So 129.-
Bo Balfour/ Frisby, Moltke (Anm. 9), s. 184-186; deutsch in
Moltke/ Balfour/ Frisby (Anmo 9), So 184-187 (unvollstlindig).
�
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1993-07-19
FaFi-Ruhm von OppenB026
Tutors
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Text
This materiaf rn~\I h
Copyright law (Titl . !=i protected by
e 17 U.S. Code)
REVISIONISM AND COUNTER-REVISIONISM IN KIRCHENKAMPt' HISTORIOGRAPHY
by
Beate Ruhm von Oppen
Paper presented on March 18, 1970 a.t The International Scholars
Conference on "The German Church Struggle 1933-1945: What Can
America Learn?·" held at Wayne State University March 15-19, 1970.
�Prefatory note
Two passages in what follows are printed in brackets.
They are portions of my original manuscript I left
undelivered when I read my paper in the morning of
17 March.
I have decided to reinstate them (a)
because some listeners expressed a regret that the
lecture was not
lon~er
and (b) because I myself
regretted the omission when I heard Richard
Rubenstein in the afternoon.
B.R.v.o.
�REVISIONISM AND COUNTER-REVISIONISM IN KIRCHENKAMPF HISTORIOGRAPHY
Beate Ruhm von Oppen
The title on our program is a terrible mouthful.
explain how I intend to deal with it.
Let me
I shall not confine myself
to the church struggle in the narrower, purely institutional sense.
Nor would you want me to do so.
What interests us all are the
wider implications of that part of church history, that crisis of
Christianity and Christendom.
As for "revisionism and counter-revisionism" in the writing
and thinking about that era of church history, tlie allusion to what is
going on in the general field of contemporary history is deliberate.
The last few years have witnessed some striking reinterpretations
of the history of the age of Hitler.
There was A.J.P. Tarlor with his Origins of the Second World
1
War.
He rejected the version that had been more
accepted since the Nuremberg trj_als.
~r
less
But what is cux-rently
known as "revisionism" is the interpretation provided by the New
Left.
There was Alperovitz with his Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima
2
and Potsdam in 1965 and quite a lot in that vein since. The
tenor of all this is the reasonableness of the Russians and the
obduracy and uncooperativeness of the United States, amounting at
times to collusion with the Germans.
The historian Arno Mayer digs
deeper and goes back further, at least to the Russian Revolution
and the Treaty of Versailles as an early exercise in containment
3
or counter-revolution.
�2-
But what concerns us more is his contention that in the context of the
international civil war that began in 1917, the Second World War and the
extermination camps wer0 r.tthe diabolic wages of revolution ."1.ud counter
4
revolution . . . . "
Th~.:J
:i.s
mor·'~ rndi~n 1,
PVcn, th'.""! P12tcr Waiss
j
in his Auschwitz oratorio The Investigation,
which mentions the com-
plici ty of Germ.an industry in the employment of slave labor.
It goes a
good deal further than Hochhuth who, after a tr€mendously long build-up,
finally lets his Pope appear and shows him preoccupied with
investments and capitalist calculations.
" ... von brennen.der
6
Sorge um Unsere Fabriken erfilllt ... "
and so on.
You may remember that clever crack.
For the benefit
for those without German among us I should perhaps add that "Mit
brennender Sorge," the famous first words of the anti-Nazi
encyclical of Pius XI, are here put into the mouth of his heartless successor to express his "burning concern" for the coffers
of the church.
The rapacity of Rome is quite an old theme, dating
back to Luther and beyond.
':I'he
complicity of German firms in the
slave labor system is a newer one and undeniable.
But to say that
that system and the camps that supplied some of the labor were
the consequence of the Western capitalists' view of Hitler's
Germany as a bulwarlt against Bolshavism is something else again.
It would be too much of a digression to say more about
revisionism in general contemporary history and its possible points
of contact with our subject.
another thing:
But the above examples illustrate
the difficulty of isolating "historiography."
7
Once political scientists and historians like Lewy
and
�38
Friedlaender
take Hochhuth seriously enough to start their works
with favorable references to his play and its historical appendices
and message and then are in their turn accepted as scholarly and cogent,
it is not only the public mind that has been invaded by melodrama
9
That invasion, its causes and
but the academic mind too.
consequences, form part of the story of revisionism and counterrevisionism.
And one might be quite prepared to let the
academic mind go to pot, if the universities were not the new
churches where people look for
salvatio~--provided,
of course,
they are "relevant."
Ever since Hitler came to power I have been interested in
the relevance of religion to Nazism and the resistance to it.
made me go to Dahlem, as a schoolgirl,
It
to hear Martin Niemoller.
But now when I say that I am working. on this subject, the
usual question is for figures:
what statistics are there?
I do
not think that relevance can be quantified, though one may be
able to draw certain conclusions from church attendance, penalties
inflicted on clergy and parishioners, the denominational breakdown
of the membership of the SS, and the like.
But was the church, for instance, "relevant" to the man who,
among those who tried to kill
Hitle~
caree closest to succeeding?
On the eve of his attempt to kill Hitler and bring down the Nazi
system, in the evening of the 19th of July, 1944, a very tense
and busy day, Claus Stauffenberg went briefly inside a church.
You will find no mention of this in Guenter Lewy's book The
Catholic Church and Nazi Germany, not even in the slender chapter
�4-
10
on "The Problem of Resistance."
Perhaps the incident does not
affect his argument--which at most, though not at all, times he
limits to the conduct and recorded utterances of bishops and
other representatives of the institution.
It does appear in a
11
book published long before Lewy wrote.
And Peter Hoffmann in
12
his recent book on the resistance
even goes into the question of
what church it was.
enquiries.
He has made exhaustive a.nd inconclusive
So we do not know if it was a Catholic or a
Protestant one.
uncertainty.
I quite like the
ecume~ical
aspect of that
Stauffenberg was a Catholic and the son of a
13
Protestant mother--who never
conve~ted
to her husband's faith.
But Lewy al:so goes into questions of theology and motivation
~.
Therefo:r.e it is even odder that he does not mention the
fact that earlier StRuffenberg had tried to recruit a fellowCa tholic for the conspiracy by pointing to the
Catholic view on Natural Law and tyrannicid'3 which, whatever the
Protestant view might be, made it the duty of a faithful Catholic
to act counter to 2n oath of loyalty that had been rendered void
by mass murder and a ruinous military policy.
the
Both Major Leonrod,
brother officer to whom Stauffenberg had talked in this v':i."@p,
and his confessor whom Leonrod had subsequently consulted on the
sinfulness of knowing about assassination plans, were later
14
hanged.
Lewy mentions just enough of the Leonrod story to make
one VlOnder about the priest and about Cardinal Faulhaber for later
praising him
11
?.s a fight er against Nazi tyranny . "
Every-
thing is possible, and I would not put it past the Faulhaber of
1946.
But in fact, when one goes to Lewy's source, one finds
�5-
Mother Mary Alice Gallin reporting something slightly different:
a Lenten Pastoral in which Faulhaber "praised the heroism of
those who fought against the Hitler tyranny and used as
illustration ... a letter ... in which a priest from Munich wrote to
him:
'What a beautiful day--the exaltation of the Cross!
I am
condemned to death for being the confessor of a man who
15
participated in the attentat.'''
Whatevar the possible intricacies of that communication, it
strikes me as both mean and misleading to bring out mainly the
negative points of that story.
Mother Gallin used it quite properly
in a discussion of the apparent or real inconsistencies in the
attitudes of the church to rebellion.
It is, indeed, close
enough to the posthumous misappropriation of a martyr by the
establishment to give one an inkling of the rage that anyone not
totally uncritical of the establishment might come to feel if
this line were followed consistently, with never a twinge of
self-examination or whisper of regret.
Then thera is, of course, not a word in Lewy about the hanging
judge's comment on this Catholic priest for having (as a matter of
course) considered a possible assassination of Hitler under the
16
heading of tyrannicide.
Yet that was precisely what Stauffenberg
meant when he spoke to Leonrod about the duty of a Catholic, and
the greater freedom of conscience a Catholic might have compared
with a Protestant.
What keeps Lewy's resistance chapter so slim?
indictment of the church for collaboration so fat?
What makes his
Sticking to
�6-
the recorded public utterances of the hierarchs and taking them at
their face value.
Where such statements deviate from t:'J.e diplomacy that
was widely practiced under the dictatcrship; they may be used
selectively, to exclude intim?.tions of opposition.
And silence
is taken as assent--though we know quite well that it was not
17
always so taken at the time.
But it is not in order to reduce the file on collaboratiofr and
increase that on resistance that !'urge a less selective view of
the church struggle.
It is in order to take accpvnt
of the fact that the churches as institutions were
fearful crisis.
~nd
are in a
Unless we regard them as dispensable or even in
need of liquidation in the general interest, we must try to see
what good they did--a.s well as what harm--when the challenge to
Christianity and to hllmanity was at its most deadly.
And if that
is our purpose, it will not do to persist in simple compilations
18
of damning quotations.
Even the juxtaposition of staunch lay
men and women and the timid clergy, a.nd even that of the devoted
pastoral and lower clergy and the diplomatic higher clergy can be
overdone.
(With this distinction I refer more to the Catholic
constellation.)
It is, after all, conceivable that if there had
been no Concordat, yes,
even with its secret annex on the clergy
and the armed services, Goebbels would have had no cause to complain
about the danger to the National Socialist cause represented by
army chaplains at the front.
These chaplains were clearly far more
important than the Nazi propagandist army bishop Rarkowski whose
significance is, I think, exaggerated by Gordon Zahn and Guenter
19
Lewy.
I must confess that in all my work on captured German
�7-
records Rarkowski never impinged on me, whereas the troublesome
20
army chaplains, both Protestant and Catholic, constantly did.
Goebbels considered them even more dangerous than he did Bishop
Galen of Milnster whom, nevertheless, he wanted eliminated as soon
as this was feasible, i.e., after the war.
Quite clearly there
were checks and balances of a kind, of a practical and psychological
kind, even in the totalitarian system of the Third Reich.
They
did not balance enough, they did not check nearly enough--but
they were real all the same.
They even saved lives sometimes.
It is one of the merits of Peterson's book on The Limits of Hitler's
21
Power
that he almost stumbled on the religious factor among the
limits and writes about it without, however, thinking much further
about it.
He simply takes it as one of the givens of a complex
situation, like character traits or the differences between small
and big towns.
�8-
[on Monday Eberhard Bethge gave a breathtaking description
of the self-deceptions and errors of the Confessing Church.
Twice,
I think> he referred to the "room to breathe" that Confessors
enjoyed at a time, for a time.
The fallacy of the "revisionists" lies in ignoring the
fact that in order to resist the murderers, people must be able
to breathe.
Theoretical constructs cannot resist.
To postulate
a population of perfect resisters does not restore to life a
single man, woman, or child.
To sneer
~t
those who did resist
because they do not conform to the current counsels of perfection(iamf
insults not only them but also the casualties they were trying,
by their lights, to save.
dimmer than ours.
I am not so sure their lights were
Hindsight is not perspicacity.
Neither is there
merit in not having been led into certain temptations by the grace
of geography or chronology; nor, of course, is there any merit
or demerit or moral immunity in genealogy or the accidents of
birth.
That, surely, is one thing we must have learnt.]
�9-
Thus I would say:
Neither the retrospective expectation of
the impossible nor the narrow institutional approach gets us
anywhere with our subject--though, of course, questions of the role
of institutions are very important, including, naturally, the
question of the self-defense of institutions and of its cost and
benefits, both to their members and to non-members.
I incline to
the view that the self-defense of the church, the real church
(and I know that that word "real" begs a question), both
Protestant and Catholic, had benefits trat reached well beyond
their own membership.
Of course there were moments when the
defense of the institution was in conflict with the defense of
the faith and of humanity.
But to make those moments into a
comprehensive indictment of these institutions strikes me as wrong,
irresponsible, and unh:lstorical.
Penitence is one thing--and we have had quite a lot of that
here, though we have had other things too, and sometimes one was
not quite sure about who was b?.ating whose breast.
But I think
wholesale condcmnation--even self-condemnation--does not help.
There are, I
ad~it,
moments when one can understand the
"revisionist" wave that swept over all earlier accounts of the
heroism and martyrdom of the church struggle.
But when a History
22
Scholar in Oxford refers to the churches as "tools of fascism"
revisionism has gone far enough.
The pre-war historians of the church struggle may have suffered
from the weaknesses John Conway described on Monday.
Yet they were
closer to the truth, I think, than the latter-day perfectionists.
�10It strikes me as significant that George Shuster who, with
Reinhold Niebuhr, seems to have been one of the first in this
23
country to recognize and denounce the evil of Nazism,
was also
the first to write a book about the church conflict.
he gave it, Like a Mighty Army:
The title
Hitler Versus Established
Religion, may have been over-optimistic, yet the
boo~
published in
24
1935,
gave an impressive picture of the clash.
Then, in 1936,
there was John Brown Mason's Hitler's First Foes: A Study in
25
When, thirty years later, I asked an
Religion and Politics.
assistant at the New Yorlt Public Library for it, he said somewhat
sardonically, "I didn't know he had so many enemies."
By then,
of course, Hochhuth held the stage and revisionism was in full
swing.
Mason, incidentially, was a Protestant, writing about the
conflict betweeri the Catholic church and the Nazi regime.
was another.
Micklem
He published his book in 1939, under the auspices
26
of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Lewy uses it exactly
~'
It is a classic.
in his chapter on "The Church and
Hitler's Foreign Policy," merely for the translation of an announcement read from the pulpits in the diocese of Berlin after the
Munich Agreement.
"God
has heard the prayer of all Christendom
for peace," and so on.
He uses Micklem's translation in his own
27
argument of church support for Hitler,
but does not quote
Micklem's comment which follows immediately after:
please the Nazis.
"This did not
It ascribed glory to God rather than to Adolf
28
Hitler."
And so it goes, I am afraid, in much of Lewy's book.
There is a lot one can do with selective quoting and taking things
out of their context; and he has done it; and thus what John Conway
�11-
29
has called a "brilliant polemic"
is built up.
Conway was more
30
severe with FriedlaendE:lr's booli: on Pius XII;
and my guess is that
one reason was that when he saw that he had seen more of the
documents on relations between Berlin and the Vatican and he knew
what Friedlaender must have seen and had suppressed, ignored,
or distorted.
docume~ts
! had had more experience with the domestic
and developments and therefore found Friedlaender mild
in comparison with Lewy.
Also, a misinterpretation of this one
dead po:rn worries me less than false siP'plifications of the complex
doings and sufferings of a lot of people.
Perhaps a personal note will help to explain why I feel this
so strongly and also feel that--whatever the revival of German
Protestantism and its theology in the Nazi era, in response to its
almost deadly challenge--Catholics should not be forgotten in all
this.
During and after the war I was working on Germany for the
British Foreign Office.
We heard and saw more than most, certainly
more than the news media; and received more reliable information than the
press and
r~dio
(television
hardly existed in those days).
Doing
that kind of work gave one a clearer view of the hell of Hitler's
Europe than anyone else outside, and clearer, too, than most
people insj_de had.
It is, I suppose, an experience that leaves
its marks.
After the Normandy landings, captured documents began to
arrive--including concentration camp records.
They conveyed a
picture of hell and the virtual inescapability of hell.
Then the
�12-
records of the Reich Chancery arrived, the records of the
administrative, governmental, center of it all (though, of course,
there was the Party Chancery too, and the SS and concentration camp
universe had more to do with that).
Rut here was the correspondence
of Lammers, the head of the Reich Chancery.
alia, the euthanasia or
It contained, inter
killing'' material.
'~ercy
Here were the
protests of Bishops von Galen and Wurm--one Catholic, one
Protestant--of the Protestant pastor Braune and of the Catholic
priest Bernhard Lichtenberg.
in the middle of hell.
died in captivity.
prayed for the Jews.
They were like an enclave of heaven
And of thesa four it was Lichtenberg who
But then he had also publicly pleaded and
All these men were brave, Braune perhaps the
bravest.
But Lichtenberg was imprisoned, maltreated, humiliated,
31
and then died in transit to a codcentration camp.
It is
that kind of thijg "f.::hat stays with one:
proof of courage and
the p.it,lpable, visible
fidelit~.
These men had kept faith with imbeciles and epileptics and
had tried to intervene at the heart, the unfeeling bureaucratic
heart, of the political machinery, to get one kind of killing
stopped.
They even eventually succeeded, probably because the
factor that had prompted their ~ion '--~~~-grief an~ horror of )h:_C<enext of kin, remained a factor.
There
~ people
all over
w·~D ~rxir
Germany whose institutionalized brothers, sons, aunts died sudden
deaths by medical means, who night have seen their relatives quite
recently, were then told that they had died of acute appendicitis,
and knew there had been no appendix since it had been taken out
�13-
years ago.
It was these lying death certificates, which one knew
bore no relation to the actual cause of death, that may first
have conveyed to ordinary, unpolitical people the fact that the
country was, in part at least, being run by murderers.
of course, always individual families that were hit:
It was,
it was just
one person they loved or were somehow attached to who had been
made to die; it might happen quite near where they lived, or in
an institution farther away; the victims were usually taken somewhere else to be killed; some of the trPnsports became known in the
institutions affected--even children heard about them; and here
and there smoke from cremation would attract attention.
But it
was not these--usually avoidable--failures of stagecraft that
caused unrest among the people.
It was the fact that the families
of the victims were leading normal lives among other families
leading normal lives, in a state whose laws did not provide for
the killing of the incurable--let alone light cases of epilepsy-and whose legal system, despite all political distortion, was
still function;.ng.
That the whole program of medical murder was
based on a secret order by Hitler, some may have known or heard by
way of rumor--most did not.
The whole thing was surrounded by
mystery, secrecy, brutality, administrative anonymity, and
33
misleading language, even organizations with phoney names.
All
this was happening all over the country and caused individual grief
and collective unrest.
The members of the clergy who were
approached by the bereaved or those about to be bereaved or who,
like Braune, were connected with institutions that housed and cared
�14-
for the patients the system was now exterminating, these men-Braune, Lichten'be:"."g, Wurm, Galen--could and did use the argument
of inexpedi8ncy against this policy of extermination.
Popular
unrest is not a thing a government wants, least of all during
a war that demands increasing sacrifices from the people.
also used the argument of illegality.
God and the dictates of humanity.
They
And they invoked the law of
But it was almost certainly
the consideration of the inexpediency of the operation that
eventually got it stopped or almost
sto~ped.
Quite an arsenal of arguments--though God and humanity did
not cut much ice with Nazis.
Expediency did.
But even here, what
surprised me, coming on this correspondence when I did, was that
anyone protested at all--not that there had not been more protest.
And th:id protest w2.s "through channels," the channels that were
left in what sm:vived of the old system, the ancien regime.
Galen
also preached in public, referred to the matter in sermons; and
at once the radicals, or progressives, of the new regime took counsel on
how he could be silenced. ·
T~ey
or to kill him during the war.
decided it was inadvisable to touch
He was too popular in Westphalia--
indeed all over the Reich, wherever people pricked up their ears
for a voice of dissent.
Lichtenberg, on the other hand, was hardly
known beyond Berlin and even there his name meant something only
to the Catholic minority and a few lively minds outside.
Incidentally, his arrest and eventual death were due not to police
initiative or the denunciation of one of his parishioners, but to
a couple of sharp-eared and vigilant women students from the
34
Rhineland who were sightseeing in his church during a service.
�15-
It is such human
.facto1·s,
social tac tors, atmospheric factors
one has to be aware of in dealing with those years.
It may have been partly as a result of this early conditioning
by much of the documentation on the churches that I felt that
even Bockenforde was not quite just to the German bishops in
his very critical article on German catholicism in the crucial
year of 1933.
This article appeared in the Catholic monthly
35
Hochland in early 1961
and was, I suppose, the real beginning
of the revision of the earlier
favorabl~
picture.
There was a reply
36
by Hans Buchheim
37
and then a rejoinder by Bockenforde.
I felt tha:.
even Bockenforde was isolating some episcopal statements from
their contexts--or at any rate not giving enough context for
38
certainty about the significance of the quotation.
Shortly
before there was Morsey with his long chapter on the end of the
39
Center Party in the big book Das Ende der Parteien.
So the nineteen-sixties were largely occupied by critical
literature, some of it hyper-critical, but they also saw the
beginning of the documentary series put out by the Vatican and the
Catholic Academy in Bavaria and the steady progress of the
publications of the corresponding commission on the Protestant
side, the AGK or Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Kirchenkampfes.
40
In 1967 came Bethge's Bonhoeffer
misleading:
--but to call it that is
it is to my mind the best single book on the develop-
ment of events and the feel of the time and, of course, the
figure and role of Bonhoeffer.
published in translation.
It is now, at long last, to be
It is the most vivid, the most telling
�16-
picture of the era of the church struggle you ara likely to
get anywhere.
41
John Conway's book on The Nazi Persecution of the Churches
appeared soon after and its very title signalled a change.
The
book is not just about persecution, it is also about adaptation
and resistance but it gets back, at last, to the point that,
whether we call them totalitarian or not, the Nazis, once in
power, had the initiative and had church policies of their own.
They were not friendly.
Readers of German had already been reminded of that in 1965
in Friedrich Zipfel's book, Kirchenkampf in Deutschland 1933-1945.
Religionsverfolgung und Selbstbehauptung der Kirchen in der
nationalsozialistischen Zeit.
(That word "Selbstbehauptung"
is, I think, a key term in our context.)
The evidence about the relationship of the Nazis and the
churches is so vast and manifold that the argument about resistance
and collaboration can go on forever and lead nowhere, certainly to
no understanding, unless certain values and priorities are made
explicit.
One may have to agree to disagree about values; but at
least one then knows what the disagr€ement is about.
By all this
I do not mean to say that my own values and priorities are crystal
clear to me.
But very often in the polemics of the last decade I
have had the distinct impression that the basic quarrel was not
really so much about facts as about their interpretation.
Though
there are, admittedly, lots of facts, important facts that we need
to know more about.
One category of facts concerns the very
�17-
difficult questions who knew what when; also, what was knowable
at any given stage.
Here hindsight is a great hindrance, unless
one is aware of its dangers.
�18-
[These questions are complicated by the hardest question and
the most painful answer of all:
much.
the question who cared and how
Caring and knowing are connected--and so are courage and
knowledge.
In the pressures of the time certain kinds of knowledge
were dangerous.
There were, undoubtedly, such things as cognitive
courage and cognitive cowardice, factors of courage or the lack
of it that affected cognition itself.
Also much "knowing" was a
43
matter of interpretation.
Louis de Jong has shown
that the Jews
in Holland simply would not or could not believe what was going
on in the East.
They must have been lilte the many Germans who
knew of deportation but did not know of extermination.
In the
case of Jews who were themselves, as we now know, liable to
extermination, one cannot say they did not know because they did
not care.
But since in the
c~se
of non-Jews there is always the
suspicion that they did not care, or did not care enough, much
more contemporary knowledge of the mass killing is
~ow
assumed than
is probably justified.
The extreme example of wanting to know and taking steps to
find out is Kurt Gerstein.
It involved complicity.
Any knowledge
meant a kind of complicity, meant either tacit toleration of the
intolerable or attempts to counteract it which invariably involved
lies, deception, some harm to others, perhaps even murder.
Gerstein
himself became part of the system that supplied the gas with which
millions of Jews were killed.
If his own account is to be accepted
--and I do, on the whole, apart from some minor details, accept
it--he diverted
some of the supplies.
But his signature is on
�19-
the receipts for large quantities.
He signed for them in order to
divert them.
A proportion he was unable to divert or destroy.
44
He had joined the SS in order to find out about its murders.
This extreme example shows that the courage to see, the courage
45
to know, was a far from simple matter.
The present phase of recrimination indicts knowledge as well
as ignorance--knowledge, however, somewhat more than ignorance.
There is a widespread desire to incriminate.
Where so many
suffered and died, the desire to find c·:llprits who caused their
suffering and death is natural.
But it is hard to satisfy with
the truth.
Part of the truth undoubtedly is that there was less knowledge
of what we now know to have happenP-d at the time it was happening.
But the other and more painful part of the truth is that
most men (and most women, and most children) cared less than they
should have cared.
They did not love their neighbor like them-
selves--particularly not the neighbor who had been classified as
not-a-neighbor or the millions of Jews outside Germany, in occupied
Europe, especially in Eastern Europe where they were so numerous
and so segregated.
The Jewish experience of forsakenness--the sin of Christendom-is now being visited on Christianity.
was a deadly reality.
"Christian" anti-semi tism
But the mainspring and machinery of the
twentieth-century mass murder of Jews was not Christian, it was
post-Christian or neo-pagan.
Christians did not prevent the murders
but they did not instigate them.
And it is surely significant that
�20-
the Nazi agencies whose task it was to watch opposition to the
regime interpreted Christian, particularly Catholic, objections to
Nazi neo-paganism as objections to Nazi racial policies.
Nazis
and anti-Nazis were agreed on the synonymity of neo-paganism and
racism.
And that, to me, is the chief lesson to be learnt from that
epoch.
It does not mean that one ignores the anti-semitism or
cowardice or greed or cruelty of gentiles called Christians.
But it means that there is a difference between Christianity and
gentility, between Christianity and Judaism on the one hand and
paganism on the other; and the difference may be one between life
and death, earthly, physical life and death--as well as the other
kind.]
�21-
This conference may help us on toward the dialectical
synthesis mentioned by John Conway on Monday, which Victor
46
Conzemius prognosticated or hoped for when he wrote two years ago.
He had also suggested, even earlier, some such conference as this but
could do nothing to bring it about.
be a good :i.dea t'J get
Incidentally, it might
111s really outstanding sn:rvey of
the literature on the Christian churches and Nazi totali-
47
tarianism translated.
Meanwhile there is my own somewhat
shorter and less systematic article,
"N~-zis
and Christians" in
48.
World Politics, April, 1969.
---~----~-
.
-
I mention it here because church
---------~-
historians may not expect an article on our subject in that politiea1
quarterly.
Our subject has all along suffered from inter-
disciplinary as well as inter-denominational segregation.
That is
why this conference is such a wonderful opportunity to de-segregate,
to integrate, to bring together what belongs together.
Conzemius, I think, sees the essential as well as the
existential connection between the two components of the subject
of the
~~dress
with which our Chairman opened this ccnferoncc.
To sustain the tension between them without short circuits
seems to me the only way to illumination or enlightenment on the
darkest secret and the best publicized crime of Christendom.
publicity has been retrospective and blinding.
must come from elsewhere.
The
The il~umination
�22-
The church struggle was the struggle of the church to be true
to its Lord.
And I take that to be a vital concern not only to
its members but to all mankind.
I am not a member, but I am
passionately convinced of its importance.
What gave me that
conviction was precisely the experience of Hitler's millennium
and the Christian response to it.
�23-
Footnotes
1.
(London:
2.
A.J.P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War
Hamish Hamilton, 1961).
Gar Alperovitz, Atomic Diplomacy:
Hiroshima and Potsdam;
the Use of the Atomic Bomb and the American Confrontation with
Soviet Power (New York:
3.
Simon and Schuster, 1965).
Arno J. Mayer, Poli tics and
DiplOI~_acr o~ Peacema}.~~!lg: Co~tain~_
nient and Counterrevolution at --·- Versailles, 1918-1919 (New York: Knopf,
-- - - - ---- ----- - --·-· -
~'--· -~
---·
-
·-
196'1).
4.
"Uses and Abuses of Historical Analogies," paper delivered at
the Annual Mc8ting of the American Historical Association, 1967.
5.
Peter Weiss, Die Ermittlung;
(Frankfurt am Main:
play.
Oratorium in 11 Gesangen
Suhrkamp, 1965); and The Investigation; a
English version by Jon Swan and Ulu Graubard (New York:
Atheneum, 1966).
6.
Rolf Hochhuth, Der Stellvertreter.
Schauspiel, mit
einem Vorwort von Erwin Piscator (Reinbek bei Hamburg:
1963); The Deputy.
Translated by Richard and Clara Winston.
Preface by Albert Schweitzer (New York:
7.
York:
Rowohlt,
Grove Press, 1964).
Guenter Lewy, ThP. Catholic Church and Nazi GeI_"ma11y (New
McGrav'
'!T-•.L.l.
Book Company, 1964).
�24-
8.
Saul Friedlaender, "Pius X:£I and the Third· Reich.
Documentation.
Translated froil! the
Fullman (New York:
9.
A
French and German by ChRrles
Knopf, 1966).
For the invasion of the classroom by the Hochhuth
industry see Dolores Barracano Schmidt and Earl Robert Schmidt,
eds., The
Dep~ty_ _!leader:
Studies in Moral Responsibility (Chicago:
Scott, Forsman and Company, 1965).
10.
Lewy, pp. 309-321.
11.
Eberhard Zeller, Geist der Freiheit:
Juli (Milnchen:
12.
der zwanzigste
Hermann Rinn Verlag, 1954), p. 217.
Peter Hoffmann, Widerstand, Staatsstreich, Attentat.
Der Kampf der Opposition gegen Hitler (Milnchen, Piper, 1969),
pp. 465 and 808.
13.
She made a point of mentioning this to me when I saw her
in 1953.
14.
Spiegelbild einer Verschworung:
Die Kaltenbrunner-
Berichte an Bormann und Hitler Uber das Attentat vom 20. Juli
1944.
Geheime Dokumente ans dem ehemaligen Reichs-
sicherheitshauptamt.
Herausgegeben vom Archiv Peter filr
historische und zeitgeschichtliche Dokumentation (Stuttgart:
Seewald Verlag, 1961), pp. 262 f, 321-4, 435, and Christian
Milller, "19. Juli 1944" in Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, ed., 20. Juli 1944.
Die deutsche Opposition gegen Hitler im Urteil der auslandischen
�25-
Geschichtsschreibung.
Eine Anthologie (Bonn:
Presse- und
Informationsamt der Bundesregierung, 1969), p. 225.
15.
Mother Mary Alice Gallin, German Resistance to ... Hitler:
Ethical and Religious Factors (The Catholic University of
America Press, Washington, D.C., 1961), p. 288.
16.
Volksgerichtshofs-Prozesse zum 20. Juli 1944.
Transkripte von Tonbandfunden.
Deutschen Rundfunks.
17.
Herausgegeben vom Lautarchiv des
Mimeographed,
n.~.,
April 1961, p. 136.
For a discussion of some of this see Beate Ruhm von
Oppen, "Nazis and Christians," in World Politics, vol. XXI, No.
3 (April 1969), pp. 392-424.
18.
Not even subtler
p~esentations
German Catholics and Hitler's Wars:
(New York:
such as Gordon
c.
Zahn's
A Study in Social Control
Sheed and Ward, 1962).
19.
Zahn, pp. 143-172; Lewy, pp. 236-242 and 247.
20.
For documentation refer to some of the earlier Guides
to German Records Microfilmed at Alexandria, Va. (Washington,
D.C.:
The National Archives, 1960-
records were filmed selectively,
).
Later Field Commands
omitting the chaplaincy
sections.
21.
Edward N. Peterson, The Limits of Hitler's Power
(Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1969).
�26-
22.
Magdalen Goffin, "A Contradictory Hero," in The New
York Review of Books, 21 August 1969, p. 34.
(opening Lecture by Franklin Littell).
23.
See above, p.
24.
George N. Shuster, Like a Mighty Army:
Established Religion (New York:
Hitler versus
D. Appleton-Century Company,
1935).
25.
John Brown Mason, Hitler's First Foes:
A Study of
Religion and Politics (Minneapolis, 1936).
26.
Nathaniel Micklem, Natior.al Socialism and the Roman
Catholic Church, Being an Account of the Conflict Between the
\
National Socialist Government of Germany and the Roman Catholic
Church 1933-1938 (London:
Oxford University Press, 1939).
27.
Lewy, p. 219.
28.
Micklem, p. 229.
29.
John S. Conway, The Nazi Persecution of the Churches
1933-45 (London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968; and New York:
Basic Books, 1969), p. 409.
30.
Ibid., pp. 494-450.
31.
Anton Erb, Berhard Lichtenberg.
1946).
(Berlin:
Morus Verlag,
�27-
32.
argues
It was not just, as Lewy (pp. 266-7; and Conway, p. 283)
that there was a popular outcry against the euthanasia
program because the next of kin felt sympathy for the victims as
relatives, and no outcry againct the extermination of the Jews bccauso
pro~aganda;
there had been anti-semitic
another important point
of difference was the almost instant knowledge of the fate of the
victins of the euthanasia program and the lack of it in the case
of deported Jews.
33.
Infamy:
Cf. Fred Mielke and Alexander Mitscherlich, Doctors of
The StoLy of Nazi Medical Crimes ... translated by
Heinz Norden ... (New York:
H. Schuman, 1949); Alexander
Mitscherlich and Fred Mielke, eds., Medizin ohne Menschlichkeit
(Franldurt am Main:
34.
Fischer-Bilcherei, 1960) .
Cf. Otto Ogiermann, S.J., Bis zum letzten Atemzug:
Prozess gegen Bernhard Lichtenberg (Leipzig:
der
St. Benno-
Verlag GMBH, 1968), pp. 120-5.
35.
Ernst-Wolfgang B5ckenf5rde,
'~er
deutsche Katholizismus
im Jahre 1933; eine kri tische Betrachtung," Hoch land, vol. LI II
(February 1961), pp. 215-39.
36.
Hans Buchheim,
'~er
deutsche Katolizismus im Jahr 1933:
Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Ernst-Wolfgang B5ckenforde," ibid.,
(August 1961), pp. 497-515.
37.
Ernst-Wolfgang Bockenf5rde, "Der deutsche Katholizismus
im Jahre 1933:
Stellungnahme zu einer Diskussion," ibid., vol.
LIV (February 1962), pp. 217-45.
�28-
38.
Beate Ruhm von Oppen, ucatholics and Nazis in 1933,"
Wiener Library Bulletin, vol. XVI (January 1962), p. 8.
39.
Erich Matthias and Rudolf Morsey, eds., Das Ende der
Parteien (Dlisseldorf:
40.
Droste Verlag, 1960), pp. 279-453.
Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Zeitgenosse (MUnchen:
Theologe, Christ,
Christian Kaiser Verlag, 1967).
41.
42.
1945.
See note 30.
Friedrich Zipfel, Kirchenkampf in Deutschland, 1933-
Religionsverfolgung und Selbstbehauptung der Kirchen in der
nationalsozialistischen Zeit (Berlin:
43.
de Gruyter, 1965).
Cf. Louis de Jong, "Die Niederlande und Auschwitz," in
Vierteljahrshefte flir Zeitgeschichte, 17. Jg., 1. Heft, January
1969, pp. 1-16.
44.
Cf. Saul Friedlaender, Kurt Gerstein ou l'nmbiguit6 du
bien (Paris:
Casterman, 1967); Kurt Gerstein oder die
Zwiespaltigkeit des Guten, deutsch von Jutta und Theodor Knust
(GUtersloh:
Bertelsmann Sachbuchverlag, 1968); Kurt Gerstein,
the Ambiguity of Good.
Translated from the French and German by
Charles Fullman (New York:
45.
Knopf, 1969).
Friedlaender brings this out.
But he does not make it
clear that the document known as the Gerstein Report was written
in April 1945, long after the events presented by Hochhuth, who uses
and stresses Gerstein's knowledge and his attempt to communicate it
to the Vatican--but not the cost 0£ its acquisition.
�29-
46.
See above, p.
47.
Victor Conzemius,
[John Conway's paper.]
'~glises
chretiennes et totalitarisme
national-socialiste," in Revue d'Histoire Ecclesiastique, vol.
LXIII, nos. 2 and 3/4, 1968, pp. 437 and 868-948.
been reissued as a monograph:
Victor Conzemius, Eglises
Chretiennes et Totalitarisme National-Socialiste.
Historiographique (Louvain:
See note 17.
Un Bilan
Bibliotheque de la Revue d'Histoire
Ecclesiastique, Fasciule 48, 1969).
48.
It has since
�
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Revisionism and counter-revisionism in Kirchenkampf Historiography
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Typescript of a paper by Beate Ruhm von Oppen presented on March 18, 1970 at The International Scholars Conference on "The German Church Struggle 1933-1945: What Can America Learn?" held at Wayne State University March 15-19, 1970.
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1970-03-18
FaFi-Ruhm von OppenB016
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LAITY AND CHURCHES IN THE THIRD REICH
Beate Ruhm von Oppen
Paper read at a conference on "Christianity and Resistance"
University of Birmingham, England
19-23 April, 1995
�BRvO, 1
While on an official trip to neutral Sweden in the spring of 1943,
Helmuth James von Moltke wrote a long letter to his English friend Lionel
Curtis. Moltke tried to give him a picture of the state of Germany and hoped
to get it to him from Sweden.1 The letter never reached Curtis; only a rather
deficient and severely abridged, memorized version was conveyed to the
Bishop of Chichester, who passed it on. It is interesting that, though
memorized and conveyed by a professional churchman, it omitted the bit on
the churches. 2
On his way to Sweden Moltke had read some recent Reports of the
House of Lords. In his job at the Abwehr, as legal advisor to the German
High Command, he had regular access to Hansard. The Reports may well
have included the pleas of Bishop Bell in the House of Lords on 11 February
and 10 March for a differentiation between the Nazi regime and the German
people, such as Stalin had made, but which the Casablanca formula of
Unconditional Surrender called in question. Moltke told his wife that he read
the debates with great interest and not without profit.
11
11
3
What concerns me here is what Moltke said about the churches, not in
the garbled version that got through to Curtis, but in his own letter, which
rested in a Swedish archive until resurrected a quarter of a century later.
After a long, detailed, and graphic description of conditions in Germany, he
addressed the question of the internal opposition to the regime, "the men 'of
whom one hears so much and notices so little,"' as he says, quoting one of his
ltteimuth James von Moltke, Letters to Freya 1939-1945, edited and translated by Beate
Ruhm von Oppen, New York 1990, pp. 281-90.
2For the text of that version, see Ger van Roon, German Resistance to Hitler: Count von
Moltke and the Kreisau Circle, tr. Peter Ludlow, London, etc., 1971, pp. 364-67.
3Letters (see note 1), p. 277.
�BRvO, 2
English sources. He mentioned the immense difficulties any internal
resistance had to cope with and the losses inflicted by "the quick-working
guillotines. The opposition was, however, able to throw some sand into the
11
machine and surreptitiously save thousands of lives. Its chief mistake was
relying on the generals to act.
But it had done two things which, Moltke believed, would count in the
long run: the mobilization of the churches and the clearing of the road to a
11
completely decentralized Germany." He thought the churches had done great
work and he knew that some of the sermons of the more prominent bishops
had become known abroad, especially Galen's sermons against "euthanasia"
(so-called) and two sermons of the Bishop of Berlin, Count Preysing. The
state was putting great pressure on the churches, but did not dare to go too
far at present. And the churches were full, Sunday after Sunday.
Moltke's phrase about the opposition mobilizing the churches is
11
11
startling and in stark contrast with the assumptions of his later judge, the
President of the People's Court, Roland Freisler--assumptions shared, it
sometimes seems, by some historians: bishops give orders or exercise "social
control" and the faithful follow them.4 As Preisler knew, the Catholic church
was by no means as supine or supportive of the government as its postwar
critics allege. Unlike the Protestant churches, it had opposed the Nazis
before their assumption of power; and its adaptation to the new conditions
did not amount to capitulation.
In April 1940 the papal nuncio in Berlin considered it his duty to
report the following:
4see for instance Gordon Zahn, German Catholics and Hitler's Wars: A Study in Social
Control. NewYork, 1962.
�BRvO, 3
A part of the clergy have adopted an almost hostile attitude
toward Germany at war, to the extent of wanting complete
defeat. This attitude arouses not only the displeasure of the
government, but gradually also that of the entire people, as
they are almost all enthusiastic about their Leader; I therefore
fear that a painful reaction will one day follow which will divide
the clergy and even the church from the people. . . . As long as
it was merely a matter of domestic policy, it was easy for
anyone to distinguish between anti-Nazi and anti-state
attitudes; the clergy adopted the former but not the latter.
Now, when it is a matter of foreign policy ... there are only a
few who can understand that one can be against Hitler without
being against the state, i.e., without being a traitor.s
One member of the clergy he undoubtedly had in mind was Konrad
Preysing, the Catholic Bishop of Berlin. But there were others; and the
attitude observed by the nuncio was widespread among the lower clergy and
did not escape the Security Service or the Gestapo either. One has to wonder
if it was only the (unrepresentative) Protestant Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was
praying for the defeat of his country.
The Austrian clergy had little sympathy for the refusal of an Austrian
peasant, Franz Jagerstatter, to fight for Greater Germany. To Gordon Zahn is
due the merit of having discovered and publicized the story of that
extraordinary layman. Zahn had first delivered himself of a compilation on
the shortcomings of his church, full of dubious judgments, shocking
Srne Briefe Pius' des XII. an die deutschen Bischofe 1939-1944. ed. Burkhart Schneider
and others, Mainz 1966, pp. 354-56.
�BRv0,4
quotations and sociological jargon. 6 Then came the splendid book In Solitary
Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jagerstatter.7 The best part of it is
what the simple Austrian peasant Jagerstatter wrote himself. He was so
uncompromising in his refusal to serve in Hitler's army that the Gestapo
thought he might be a Jehovah's Witness, or at least under the influence of a
cousin who belonged to the sect. But no, he was a Catholic. He was not even
a pacifist--he had done some basic training earlier on. But he refused to
fight for the regime that was fighting against his church. His church,
however, was urging him to think of his wife and children and do what the
law required. The army, in the person of a sympathetic officer, even offered
him non-combatant service. But no--he would have nothing to do with that
army, not even in Russia, where it was allegedly fighting the godless
Bolsheviks. So, against the entreaties of his clergy, he went to the guillotine.
(According to Moltke's information there were nineteen of them at work in
Germany in 1943. Their installation had begun in the thirties. They were
more efficient than the hand-axe and quicker than hanging: three minutes
per execution; hanging took five.)
Where Zahn editorializes, he can go wrong--as in a surmise that in
talking about mass murder his hero may have been alluding to concentration
camps, whereas he obviously meant abortion. He was not a liberal. The
mass murder of the Jews may not even have impinged on the peasant of St.
Radegund.
What concerned Jagerstatter was not survival but salvation. He had
observed the Nazi policies against the church in Germany before the
6see note 4.
7New York 1964.
�BRvO, 5
Anschluss. When Hitler marched into his homeland, the Nazi system
developed in Germany in five years was instituted in a matter of days and
weeks. The church was not attacked at once. Cardinal Innitzer, the
Archbishop of Vienna, was a Sudeten German and rejoiced in the
incorporation of Austria into Greater Germany. He did not rejoice for long.
But first he and his bishops issued a proclamation praising National Socialist
achievements in national and social policy and economic revival. They were
not alone in this. Austrian Protestants were just as full of hopes and
illusions, and even some leading socialists shared them. Austrian church
resistance to the Nazis took about six months to form and stiffen.8
Did Jagerstatter condemn his hierarchy and clergy? He obviously
deplored their attitudes and utterances, but he understood them somewhat
better than their latter-day critics. This is what Zahn quotes of Jagerstatter's
notes:
Let us not ... cast stones at our bishops and priests. They, too,
are men like us, made of flesh and blood, and can weaken.
They are probably much more sorely tempted by the evil
enemy than the rest of us. Maybe they have been too poorly
prepared to take up this struggle and to make a choice between
life and death . . . . Perhaps, too, our bishops thought it would
only be a short time before everything would come apart at the
seams again and that, by their compliance, they would spare the
faithful many agonies and martyrs. Unfortunately, things
turned out to be quite different: years have passed and
8Erika Weinzierl, "Osterreichs Katholiken und der Nationalsozialismus," Wort und
Wahrheit, Vienna, XVIII ( 1963), pp. 417-39 and 493-526, and XX (1965), pp. 777-804.
�BRvO, 6
thousands of people must now die in the grip of error every
year. It is not hard to imagine, then, what a heroic decision it
would require for our people to repudiate all the mistakes that
have been made in recent years. This is why we should not
make it harder for our spiritual leaders than it already is by
making accusations against them. Let us pray for them, instead,
that God may lighten the great tasks which still stand before
them.9
On another occasion he wrote:
It may well be that hell holds great power over this world at
the present time, but even this need not cause us Christians to
fear. May the power of hell be ever so great, God's power is still
greater. Naturally, though, anyone who does not arm himself
with the weapons ... that Christ left behind for us in His
supreme legacy when He instituted the Most Blessed Sacrament
of the Altar, will scarcely be able to hold out very long against
these mighty enemies.10
The church had been instituted as the custodian and dispenser of the
sacrament, the means of grace. Should we not take that aspect seriously? It
is hardly ever discussed in the vast literature about the churches in the
Third Reich. Yet the Kulturkampf of the Second Reich had deprived entire
regions of their priests.
The enmity of the regime against the churches, indeed against
Christianity, was relentless, with only a few tactical adjustments during the
9solitary Witness (see note 7), p. 15.
lOJbid., pp. 231-32.
�BRv0,7
war. Towards the end of the 1960s John Conway had to remind the critics of
the Pope and the churches of this. enmity in his book The Nazi Persecution of
the Churches 1933-1945.11
The Nazis were not just anti-clerical; they were anti-Christian. Let me
add this: In public Hitler was careful about what he said. In the privacy of
his Table Talk he was quite open and indulged in denunciations of
Christianity along vulgarized Nietzschean lines: it made a people soft and
useless for great enterprises; it was the begetter of Bolshevism; it had Jewish
roots. Whatever one may think of the reliability of Hermann Rauschning as
a source, his report on Hitler's dictum about conscience as a Jewish
invention 12 rings true and agrees both with the indiscretions of the Table
Talk and the actions of the regime.13 As early as 19 34 the bloody purge of
Ernst Rohm and his associates in the S.A. included not only other enemies
like the former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and his wife, but also Erich
Klausener, the Berlin head of the lay organization Catholic Action. And it is
surely no accident that the much-quoted threat against the Jews in Hitler's
long speech of 30 January 1939 was immediately followed by a threat
against the churches if they stepped out of line and opposed the regime.14
The secret public opinion reports of the Security Service are full of
detailed observations of church opposition to and activities against the
11 London 1968.
12Hermann Rauschning, Hitler Speaks: a Series of Political conversations on his Real
Aims. London 1939, p. 220.
13Hitler's Secret conversations, New York 1953; and Werner Jochmann, ed., Monologe
im Fiihrerhauptguartier 1941-1944, Hamburg 1980.
14Max Domarus, ed., Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 1932-1945, vol. II, 1, 1939-1940,
Wiesbaden 1973, pp. 1058-59.
�'BRv0,8
programme and policies of the regime, with considerably more attention
given to the Catholics or "political Catholicism" than to the Protestants, who
were regarded as mere reactionaries and anyway always divided among
themselves. Catholic denunciations of Nazi neo-paganism were--rightly-regarded as attacks on the religion of race, and incidents of opposition to
round-ups and deportations of Jews were ascribed to church influence.
Little escaped the Gestapo and Security Service and their network of
informers and infiltrators. And Cardinal Bertram was, from his pusillanimous point of view, quite right to take fright when the last plenary meeting
of the German Catholic bishops at Fulda in 1943 drew up a pastoral letter on
the decalogue that had, in the section on "the human rights of the scond
tablet," comments on the fifth, sixth, and ninth commandments, with clear
condemnations of the wholesale killing of the innocent and the forcible
break-up of "racially" mixed marriages. The Security Service noted them too
and quoted them at length.15 They were obviously thought to have an effect
on the faithful.
The watchdogs of the regime were no doubt aware that the effects of
such pronouncements--there was a comparable one by the Confessing
Church in Prussia later that year--reached well beyond the flock of churchgoers. The churches were crowded during the war, and the crowds included
people who had not been in the habit of going to church. Thus Moltke only
went to a service held by Hanns Lilje after he had been bombed out of his
lSLudwig Volk, ed., Akten deutscher Bischofe uber die Lage der Kirche 1933-1945, vol.
6, Mainz 1987, pp. 197-205; and Heinz Boberach, ed., Berichte des SD und der Gestapo
uber Kirchen und Kirchenvolk in Deutschland 1934-1944, Mainz 1971, pp. 767-69; also
Heinz Boberach, ed., Meldungen aus dem Reich 1938-1945: Die geheimen Lageberichte
des Sicherheitsdienstes und der SS, vol. 12, Herrsching 1984, No. 348 of 7 January 1943,
pp. 4635 ff.
�BRv0,9
flat and moved in with Peter Yorck and his wife; they went to hear a rousing
sermon from the man later re-encountered in jail. Even before the war
there was that tendency. I was certainly not a church-goer, and not even
confirmed, when, as a teenager, I went with one of my schoolteachers to
hear Martin Niemoller in Dahlem in the early phase of the Third Reich.
In fact, the inhuman and godless nature of the regime created
something I would call a wider congregation, which included even nonbelievers. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's brother Klaus was once twitted for kneeling
down at a wedding service and replied that he would rather bend the knee
there than to the dictator. The alternative may have urged choices on people
who in more normal times could have avoided them. When his brother KarlFriedrich later visited him in prison, Klaus told him that he had the score of
Bach's St. Matthew Passion in his cell. Karl-Friedrich commented that it was
nice that Klaus could hear the music when he read the notes. "Yes," Klaus
answered, "but the words also! The words!" 16
And then, in such a time, believers and many unbelievers looked to
the churches and watched them. They may often have been disappointed in
what they saw and heard. An activist like Moltke did indeed take part in
the "mobilization of the churches" against the regime. And the benighted
Anglican Bishop of Gloucester, Arthur Headlam, may have had a bit of a
point when he said that Moltke's concern about the church struggle in
Germany was primarily prompted by his antagonism to the Nazi regime,
which that bishop did not share, at least not in the mid-thirties. But it was
16Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Man of Vision, Man of Courage, tr. Eric
Mosbacher et al., ed. Edwin Robertson, New York 1970, p. 832.
�BRv0,10
not the whole point.17 Fortunately George Bell, the Bishop of Chichester,
held different views.
When Fabian von Schlabrendorff was arrested in August 1944, the
police commissar told him that there were four grounds of suspicion against
him which led to the assumption of his involvement in the July plot: that
theological literature had been found in his luggage--a book on Catholic
moral theology, a book on Protestant ethics, publications on the
rapprochement between Protestants and Catholics, and a Bible. The second,
third and fourth grounds were that he had been a lawyer in civilian life, an
officer and a member of the nobility (one of Reich Labour Leader Robert
Ley's "blue-blooded swine"). The order of these suspicious circumstances is
surely noteworthy. The Nazis had never discovered the plot of 1943-because the intrepid Schlabrendorff had managed to retrieve and dispose of
the bomb that had failed to go off in Hitler's plane. But finding religious
books in the baggage of the reserve lieutenant on General von Tresckow's
staff rightly aroused the suspicions of the investigators. Schlabrendorff,
incidentally, held the view that before the Nazi challenge roused it German
Protestantism was somnolent, possibly even moribund.18
He was a dyed-in-the-wool Protestant. He was not alone in his
ecumenical interests and concerns, interests that went beyond Geneva and
Scandinavia and England and reached Rome and Roman Catholicism. Not for
17Michael Balfour and Julian Frisby, Helmuth van Moltke: A Leader Against Hitler,
London 1972, p. 71.
18fabian von Schlabrendorff, The Secret War Against Hitler, Boulder and Oxford 1994,
pp. xix-xx.
�BRv0,11
nothing did Hitler's ideologue-in-chief, Alfred Rosenberg, and his minions
denounce "Protestant pilgrims to Rome" in 1937.19
Moltke, another Protestant and the son of stoutly anti-Catholic
Christian Scientist parents, read papal encyclicals--probably the social policy
encyclicals Rerum Novarum and Ouadragesimo Anno--on the Sunday war
was declared. When he and Peter Yorck began to form what is now known
as the Kreisau Circle, they took care to include not only men of different
political experience and views, but members of both denominations-realizing the disastrous political consequences of the religious split in
Germany. In the letter to his wife about the way his trial went, Moltke
wrote that he was condemned for his friendship with Catholics, and,
sardonically, that he was going to die as a martyr for St. Ignatius. Indeed,
Roland Preisler had previously indulged in considerable vituperation against
the Jesuit Alfred Delp, a member of the Kreisau Circle, who was tried and
sentenced to death with Moltke.20 Augustin Rosch, the Provincial of the
Society of Jesus and another member of the Kreisau Circle, was arrested
while the trial was in progress.21 He survived. Lothar Konig, the least well-
19Nathaniel Micklem, National Socialism and the Roman Catholic Church: Being an
Account of the Conflict Between the National Socialist Government and the Roman
Catholic Church 1933-1938. London 1939, p. 180. Micklem also notes that in the context
of the anti-Nazi encyclical Mit brennender Sorge of March 1937, Preysing declared in
his pastorla letter of July 11th "that the Catholics had never felt themselves so firmly
united with their separated brethren nor felt so closely bound to them as at the present
time" (ibid.).
20Letters (see note 1), pp. 399 f,, 402, 404 f., 409 f.; also Roman Bleistein, Alfred Delp.
Geschichte eines Zeugen, Frankfurt am Main 1989.
21 Roman Bleistein, ed., Augustin Rosch: Kampf gegen den Nationalsozialismus.
Frankfurt am Main 1985.
�BRvO, 12
known but probably most active of the Munich Jesuits, escaped arrest.22 He
was also, like Preysing, a member of the Ausschug fur Ordensangelegenheiten, a committee of five bishops, four members of religious orders,
and a layman, which was officially concerned with the affairs of religious
orders, but was in fact a ginger group formed to overcome the paralyzing
effect of Cardinal Bertram, the chairman of the Fulda conference of bishops.
Preisler did indeed find Moltke's association with Jesuits most
objectionable. "And you visit bishops," he yelled. "What is your business
with a bishop, with any bishop? Where do you get your orders from? You
get your orders from the Fuhrer and the NSDAP! That goes for you as well
as for any other German, and whoever gets his orders from the guardians of
the Beyond, gets them from the enemy and will be treated accordingly."23
Preisler had got it back to front. The Protestant layman Helmuth
Moltke did not visit the Catholic Bishop of Berlin to get orders, but to
exchange information and to discuss the best way to fight the regime.
Moltke began his regular visits to Preysing, this most determinedly and
consistently anti-Nazi member of the German hierarchy, in July 1941.
Berlin, the young diocese of the Catholic diaspora, was lucky in its bishop,
who had opposed the Nazis even before his translation from Eichstatt in
Bavaria.2 4
22Roman Bleistein, ed., Dossier: Kreisauer Kreis. Dokumente aus dem Widerstand gegen
den Nationalsozialismus. Aus dem NachlaE. van Lothar Konig S.J., Frankfurt am Main
1987.
23Letters (see note 1), p. 403.
24see Edward N. Peterson, The Limits of Hitler's Power, Princeton 1969, pp. 295-311.
�BRv0,13
Berlin was lucky to have Preysing's right-hand man, Bernhard
Lichtenberg, the Provost of St. Hedwig's, the Catholic cathedral of Berlin, and
head of the bishop's Hilfswerk, the office for helping Jews or "non-Aryans."
After the pogrom of November 1938 he began regular public prayers "for
the persecuted non-Aryan Christians, for the Jews, and for the poor
prisoners in concentration camps." None of his parishioners ever reported
him. That was left for two visiting Protestant women students from the
Rhineland in October 1941. So he was arrested, as he had not been after
writing to Dr. Leonardo Conti, the chief medical officer of the Ministry of the
Interior and Reichsgesundheitsfi.ihrer, to protest against the killing of the
incurable and allegedly incurable inmates of institutions. But the public
prayer for the Jews led to his arrest and two years in jail for commenting on
politics from the pulpit, after serving which he was to be taken to Dachau.
He died on the way there.Zs
Berlin was lucky again, because Lichtenberg's job at the office for
helping Jews was taken on by a laywoman, Margarete Sommer, who on one
occasion, acting on Preysing's instructions, even penetrated to Cardinal
Bertram in Breslau and tried to get him to agree to a protest against the
deportation and murder of the Jews. But he insisted on incontrovertible,
undeniable proof of the latter--which she could not produce. So she failed.
But she did what she could. Gertrud Luckner did similar work with the
backing of the Archbishop of Freiburg. She was arrested and sent to
Ravensbruck concentration camp. Berlin had quite a network of people,
2Ssee Alfons Erb, Bernhard Lichtenberg, Domprobst von St. Hedwig zu Berlin, Berlin
1986.
�BRv0,14
members of the Protestant Confessing Church, too, who helped Jews evade
deportation.
Pastor Harald Poelchau, the Protestant prison chaplain at Tegel, was
one of them. He also helped innumerable political prisoners. By some quirk
of providence he had been appointed to his post in 1933--though he was a
socialist, a fact that could hardly have escaped the authorities. He was both
forthright and cunning-and indefatigable in help for others. As for his
sacramental ministrations, he once told Moltke--whose circle he joined in
1941--that he never offered communion, but that 50% of the people he
looked after asked for it spontaneously.26
What difficulties such ministrations had to overcome and what
interdenominational solidarity existed in prisons has been movingly
described by Eberhard Bethge, who was himself involved as prisoner and
ordained minister. He cooperated with Father Odilo Braun, a Dominican, in
the prison at Lehrterstrasse 3. Thus they shared the wine Bethge had
retrieved while tidying up the cell of Ernst von Harnack on the day of
Hamack's execution. They shared wafers, Bethge slipped the consecrated
host to Catholics when he distributed coffee in his capacity as prison trusty,
and sometimes he managed to bring the Eucharist to fellow-Protestants. All
these people were in solitary confinement after July 1944 and not all were
allowed visits by chaplains.27 Alfred Delp was supplied with wine and
wafers by two women who were allowed to bring laundry and other
necessities. The sergeant on duty was tolerant.28
26Letters (note 1), p. 169.
27Eberhard Bethge, "Plotzensee - die kostbare Gabe: Predigt am 20. Juli 1994,"
Evangelische Theologie, vol. 54, pp. 485-90.
�BRvO, 15
It was not just clergy that practised this solidarity. The case of the
Lubeck priests, three Catholic, one Protestant, who were tried and executed
together, was probably unique.29 The chief ecumenical push came from the
laity. Stauffenberg, the Catholic son of a Protestant mother, made it his
business to brief himself on the theology of tyrannicide. He may have felt he
had to do it because of the piety among the brave. He told Axel von dem
Bussche that tyrannicide was less problematic for Catholics, but that even
i
Luther permitted it in certain circumstances, and told him of a place in
r
r
Luther's works where he could look it up. Unfortunately Bussche never
passed that on and later even denied that it mattered to him: Notwehr. the
emergency, the need for self-defence, was sufficient.30 I still feel that
Luther, with his interpretation of Paul, especially Romans 13:1, was a great
impediment; and I wish I could find a helpful argument in his vast output.
f
I
!
'
Indeed, as Eberhard Bethge put it in his great biography of Dietrich
I
I
Bonhoeffer, "Like Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer had always believed that 'Luther
j
would say now the opposite of what he said then. 111 31 It took a sovereign
I
,_
spirit like Bonhoeffer to see that--or to claim to see it--and to act on it.
The Nazi challenge produced efforts to overcome theological and
sociological barriers. The situation in 1945 was very different from that
described by Thomas Nipperdey for the period from 1866 to 1918--which
he summed up by calling the denominational split, even among the
secularized majority, the basic religious factor, where the definition of
28Bleistein, Delp (see note 20), p. 325.
29Else Pelke, Der Uibecker ChristenprozeF.. 1943, Mainz 1961.
30seate Ruhm von Oppen, Religion and Resistance to Nazism, Princeton 1971, pp. 70-71.
31Bethge, Bonhoeffer (see note 16), p. 373.
,_
�BRv0,16
Protestantism for many Germans was anti-Catholicism and little else.32 How
tremendous the barriers were even up to 1934--and how Hitler was able to
exploit them--is fairly clear, too, in Klaus Scholder's account.33 But
something was happening to them--and it was not that secularization had
simply made them irrelevant or uninteresting.
One of the younger and earlier opponents and victims of the regime,
the 21-year-old Sophie Scholl, had a dream in her prison cell the night
before her execution. She and her brother and their friends in the White
Rose group were imbued with a sense of the need to rechristianize Germany
to overcome the Nazi regime and ideology. The tiny inner group actually
happened to extend from the Protestant Scholls to the Catholic Willi Graf and
even included one practising Russian Orthodox member, Alexander
Schmorell.34 This is how Sophie told her dream to her cell-mate:
It was a sunny day, and I was carrying a little child, dressed in
a long white gown, to be baptised. The path to the church led
up a steep hill. But I was holding the child firmly and securely
in my arms. Suddenly I found myself at the brink of a
crevasse. I had just enough time to put the child down safely
on the other side before I plunged into the abyss.35
That day she went to the guillotine, as did her brother and a friend.
32Thomas Nipperdey, Arbeitswelt und Biirgergeist, vol. 1 of Deutsche Geschichte 18661918, Munich 1991, pp. 428-530.
33Klaus Scholder, The Churches and the Third Reich, vols. 1 and 2, Philadelphia 198788.
341 am grateful to Christiane Moll for this information on Schmorell.
351nge Scholl, Die WeiF..e Rose, Frankfurt am Main 1955, pp. 101-102.
�BRvO, 17
Moltke considered the White Rose and its activities and motivations so
important that he took great pains to get a report to England, together with a
copy of their last leaflet. Unlike his letter to Lionel Curtis, this report did get
through, and the RAF later dropped thousands of copies of the leaflet over
Germany. Their effect may have been impaired by simultaneous bombing.
And Moltke's plea to the British not to treat the event as just a sign of
crumbling German morale, but as an indication that there were forces in
Germany with whom the Allies could and should cooperate, was hardly
heeded. The report ended up in the Foreign Office f1le on crumbling morale
and peace feelers put out by German opponents of the Nazi regime.
But perhaps even Moltke expected too much of the Allies after
Alamein and Stalingrad, especially Stalingrad, and over a year before the
Allied landings in Normandy. The war unleashed by Hitler and loyally
supported by the bulk of the German people had entered its last, most
massively brutal phase. And it was a coalition war, with very disparate
partners. That circumstance put severe limitations on the flexibility of
British and American policy regarding "the other Germany."
Yet some regret lingers. It is that, I supppose, that brought many of
us here. But let us give thanks for the lives and the deaths of these men and
women. It is by their deaths, and the pain of their families, that they made
possible a process of healing.
�
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Speeches, presentations, and other lectures
Description
An account of the resource
Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span>
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speechespresentationsotherlectures
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18 pages
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Title
A name given to the resource
Laity and churches in the Third Reich
Description
An account of the resource
Typescript of a paper read by Beate Ruhm von Oppen at a conference on "Christianity and Resistance" at the University of Birmingham, England. 19-23 April, 1995.
Creator
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Ruhm von Oppen, Beate
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England
Date
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1995-04-[19-23]
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St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.
Type
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text
Format
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pdf
Language
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English
Identifier
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1995-04-19
FaFi-Ruhm von OppenB007
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/8908d181ae842b8a5f7e3a6308ade933.pdf
6d521e62342a8d9c9ce342fc7660d6d7
PDF Text
Text
)
~'
ecte b
The uni ~~'.?.:?-1 _t?_~~ ' nis material may he
Copyright law (Title 11 .::>.Code)
This is going to be a funny kind of
concert, part Quaker Meeting;
lec~--ure
- part
part of it is going to be talk.
That is the most difficult part.
Difficult be cause I shHll
try to stick to my subject, music, with all the rigour I can
And I want you to do the s 2Jne.
muster.
will subordinate the talk to the music.
That means that I
We can all talk
aftervrn.rds, when there will be no more music - or only a little
·if requir·ed to make a point clear.
During the lecture I want to let the music speak, and
myself to get a word in edgeways here and there where this can
be done without drowning the music.
that the one will drovm. the other.
music, for once, dominate,,
I
There is always the danger
If nec essary, let the
After some of the musical examples
shall try to let some moments of silence elapse before t aking
up the talk again.
Partly as a measm.'e of , self-defence - the
SD Oken
music is so much more eloquent tha t a.nyfwords fall very flat
after
• .l-
l
v;
but partly al so, and more in1portantly, b e cause I
really vmnt the music to have its say and to be cons ider ed,
So I sha ll occasionally try to give you time to consider it
v hen your ears are still full of it.
1
You might even - in an
unquakerish way - Yvant to jot things dov1 that occur to you.
m
Music has al1Nays been bedevilled by irrelevant talk.
Irrelevance a1, ises all too easily - it seems almost impo ss ible
to avoid it.
I continually c atch myse lf at it.
suffer from i rre levan t t alk;
All subjects
but thi s one mos t particularly,
for some fairly obvious and some more comp licated reason s .
One of the obvious reasons is that not all people experience
music mus ic a llv ( t118.t 1 s a.n und eI'statement) £md there is a
�- 2 -
..
conspiracy to pretend that they do.
Therefore we get a lot
of talk ostensibly about music that is not really about music
at all.
I am not saying that the unrausical cannot or should
not talk about nm.sic - they can and they should : the discovery
of true extra-nmsical analogies may depend on them.
But this
matter of exnerience nm.st always be kept firmly in mind.
By
experiencing music musically I mean something that involves
the whole person, including the mind, the active, participating
mind.
Not the mind that, Yihile there is music going on,
concentrates of half concentrates on something else - be it
the Bible, p·~to, or mathematics;
or the mind that drifts off
to visions, d1"es1ns, or reminiscences.
Befo:;"'."'e we start I should like to make some remaI•lrn about
the voluminous document you have been given.
Actually they
are pretty close to the heart of the matter we want to discuss
later.
For the texts that are not originally in English
that is,
when the composer set them to music - for those texts I have
It does not scsn like
given a rough and ready translation.
is
the original.
It fis:~ neither singable nor entirely literal,
noj_" in any way loyal to a s t'lle - it is rough.
Its purpose
is mainly to give the gener•al sense of the whole snd the exact
translation of the keI vrords in the original.
The latter•, the
exact translation of key words, :ls v1hat matters most:
bees.use
the listener should kn.ov1 what certain vrords mean that have
entered into union yrith cei-·tain musical phrases.
l\Iuch of the point of the best kind of vocal
cm:T~losi tion
(and all the e:o::01n~1les to-night belong to the best ki:1C1 Cchough
there is
not
a single operatic exam:pleJ)much of the point of
such a corn:::iosition is lost if the music is actually or mentally
�3
(in the listener's mind) forced into an· adulterous union
(however loose) with different words.
In this kind of vocal
music j_t is not just the general drift of a verbal statement,
or even the precise MetLlJ.ing of the vrhole statement, that has
been corribined with music, but often it is single vrnrds or
groups of tvrn or three v;ords that are t1expressed 11 ,
by - that are
.§._\~
t1accom:panied 11
vdth particular notes or groups of
notes~
Not only in such glar•ingly obvious cases as that of
word
11
th~
charms 11 in the E:;cam.ple you will hear first (Hat once it
charms the sensell)
or the sliqhtly less obvious
not only in such cases as tle
11
grieven;
"jarring seeds 11 ruJ.d the nscatter'd
a t oms", ouu also in a case l:lke that of the llwox•ld below 11 ar:d
...-A
.,
.L
"the spheres above 11
-
right up fu::c. ther to a case of such
0
sublimation or sublimi t;)T as our final sung example to-night.,
So, to get back to the use to be :made of this docu:rient, I
Viould advise the follovJine; : don't x·ead ahead.
Sufficient unto
A..n.d as v1e get to some
Examples, I may say something about the words.
Example, I think, needs no advance e::c_planation ..
The first
<:i'-r
( .12.i-t'...$
1)
-
'Tis nature's voice, 'tis nature's voice,
Thro all the movinc; wood and creatures understood,
The universal tonsue, the universal tongue,
To none of all her num'rous race unknovm,
From her, from her it learnt
The :mighty, the mighty, the mighty art
To court the ear> or stri1rn the heart,
At once the passions to ex_;;iress·and move,
At once the passions to express,
to express and move.
We hear, and straight v!e grieve o:c· hate,
We hear, and straight we grieve or hate,
rejoice or love.
In unseen chains it does the fancy bind,
it does, it does the fancy bind.
At once it charms the sense and captivates the mind;
At once it charms the sense and captivates the mind.
�- 4 -
..
Soul of the World, inspired by thee,
The jarring, jarring seeds,
The jarring, jarring seeds of matter did agree.
Thou didst the scatter'd atoms bind
Thou didst the scatter 1 d, ~Le scatter 1 d atoms bind,
·which by thy laws of true proportion joined,
Made up of various par· ts,
!"1ade up of various parts, of various, various parts,
Made up of various parts one.perfect,
One perfect, one perfect, perfect harmony.
..
.
Thou tun 1 st this world, this vTOrld. belo33_,
The spheres above,
Who in the heavenly round
To their own nmsic move.
However persuasively put, this is a bunch of pretty bold
claims.
They were made - not uniquely - you will be f aro.iliar
with most of them - by one Nicholas Brady.
the music, is by Henry Purcell.
11
The persuasion,
These two were chosen by
The Musical Society". in London to vVJ:>ite an Ode for St. Ceci-
lia's Day in 1692 (Purcell also wrote others, but this is his
biggest).·
Cecilia, as you may know, was a Rom.211 matron and
becsI!le a Christian saint.
blind - and of music.
She is the patron .saint of the
.
«S
Musical literature is full of pieces
written in her honour, but Purcell's great OdeA.the greatest,
because the most musically relevant, the most magnificent, and
the most assertive.
(The composer himself, incidentally,
sang the number with which we started and from which I,took
my title.)
The words, I said, are by Brady (a less distinguished
poet than Joh.tL Dryden - but just listen, one day, to the
Dryden/Haendel Cecilia Ode and you will be able to disprove
for yourselves the wisdom of Beethoven's desire to compose the
words of poets worthy of his efforts, like Homer or Schiller.)
The vrords of this Ode, then/ are by Brady.
did not
sheets.
~ite
But he probably
all those repetitions that you have on your
Those are by Purcell - and I only put a minimum of
�- 5 -
them down - in the polyphonic choral number even more repeating
goes on between the different voices•
repetitions?
Because if~ou repeat something often enough, even
a lie, it will be believed?
fancy bind n?
Why did he put all those
"It does, it does, it does the
Or
ttat once the passions to express and move,
at once the passions to express,
to express and move. 11
At any rate it is
That may be the most crucial claim of all.
one that is most volub"ly and most heatedly discussed nowadays.
Here is what the
11
anti-expressionist 11 Stravinsky says:
11 I consider that nmsic is, by its very nature, essentially
powerless to e:x:oress anything at all, whether a feeling,
an attitude of mind, a psychological mood, a phenomenon
of nature, etc ••• ~E.x:oression has never been an inlierent
•
.
.
property of music.
That is by no ment:,- the purpose •••
(E.A."}lression is) an aspect which, unconsciously or by
force of habit, we have come to confuse with its essential
being ••• Music is given to us with the sole purpose of
establishing an order in things, including, and particularly,
the coordination between man and time.
Its indispensable
requirement is constructiOll:Construction once completed,
this order has been attained, and there is nothing more
to be said. 11
Q.~"'s
11
0rder.c.the coordination between man and time. ~t (PLAY Ex. 2)
/ " G o t t e s Zeit, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste,
ist die allerbeste Zeit,
die allerbe s te,
ist die allerbeste Zeit. II
Some of you may remember that.
Bach's Cantata
all 11 •
11
It is the opening "of
God's time is the best time
-
the best time of
The cantata is also called the Actus Tragicus.
a funeral piece.
It does not sound funereal.
win then : it expresses nothing?
It is
Does Stravinsky
Or the "expressionists rr vdn :
it expresses the Christian joy at a departure to a better life?
Or does Stravinsky win after all, because it "establishes an orde:r
••• between man and time 11
-
in whatever sense you may choose to
take that - either by its statement of the fact that "God's time
�-
is the best time 11
-
6 -
or by the very nature of music?
Let us ha.ve another example.
(Ex. 3)
Ich bin vergnilgt mit meinem Gliicke,
das mir der liebe Gott beschert."
11
A slow waltz.
11
But hardly gay.
You may have caught the words:
Ich bin vergnngt in meinem Glilcke 11
-
the lady says she is gay,
or content, in her happiness, or good fortune.
The oboe, and
indeed the lady rs vocal line, seems to say. ·something different
ri
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h
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c.~ ...eJ.~J"A-~
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·,,. ..... l'J. . . ~~·'· e
... ·~<:~...t.L.,.$~"'£\
1,;...... ..,,_s..,_,...,,-~
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(-c:>r something extra?).
J ·The next example, which I want to give
/'you for the sake of comparison, does not seem to me to be a far
cry:
Ex. 4
11
Erbarme dich.
o. 11
It is, most of you know it,
11
Erbarme dich 11 (Have mercy, Lord),
the plea for mercy af·ter Peter's betrayal and bitter tears in
the St. Matthew Passion.
Let us have the whole of that passage:
the three-fold challenge, tlJ.e three, increasingly emphatic,
denials, and the remorse.
It is Example 5 and you have all the
words on page 2, with a rough English translation beside them.
It is the Gospel story.
Try to stick to the German words and
only refer to the English when necessary.
Ex. 5
~
(Ex. 5)
Petrus aber sass draussen im Palast,
'Und es tra t zu ihm eine Magd und sprach:
Und du warest auch mit dem Jesu aus Galil!la.
Er leugnete aber vor ihnen allen und sprach:
Ich weiss nicht, vrns du sagest.
Als er aber zur T-8.r hinausging, sahe ihn eine andre
und sprach zu denen, die da waren:
Dieser war auch mit dem Jesu von Nazareth.
Und er leugnete abermal und schwur dazu:
Ich kenne des Menschen nicht.
Und ilber eine kleine V!eile traten hinzu die da sta.n.den
und sprachen zu Petro:
'Wahrlich, du bist auch einer -Von denen,
denn deine Sprache verr~t dich.'
Da hub er an sich zu verf luchen und zu schw8ren:
Ich kenne des l'.Ienschen nicht.
Und alsbald kr!ihete der Hahn.
Da dachte Petrus an die Worte Jesu,, da er zu ihm sagte:
Ehe der Har.in kr!llien wird,
_ 11
�- 7 Wirst du mich dreimal verleugnen.
Und ging heraus und V1einete bitterlich.
Erbarme di ch, me in Gott, u:.m me iner Zfiliren will en.
Schaue hier, shhaue hier,
Herz und Auge weint vor dir,
Weint vor dir bitterlich ••• 11
And now let us have the other, the gay lady once more.
(Ex. 6)
(Ex. 6)
~.course
when I say she says she is gay, I am not hinting
subtly that I think Bach is bungling his job.
rr express"
That he can
when he wants to "express t1 in the usual, if I may call
it that, most prosaic sense, he shovrn in his treatment of the
words llweinete bitterlichn.
I could give a lot of examples
for that kind of expression.
There are, however, other kinds
too that need illustrating.
TheT'e is a penitentialfanfilta, 11 Her1", gehe nicht ins Gericht 11
(Lord, enter not into judgment) vrhich has a suitably dovmcast,
.
.
ContrJ.. te b e"'01."' nni· DP' an?t t'nen , on
.
-o, -'-~
+:'.l~.le
~
,,-rords na.enn vor di· r 1.uird.
.-
kein Lebendiger gerechttr (for in Thy sight shall no man be
justified) breaks into a lively dance.
Is Bach bungling again?
There is no time for this first chorus fyou will have to take
my word for it), nor for the whole of the incredibly beautiful
but long aria on the vrnrds
1 "~Yie
zi ttern und wanken der sunder
Gedanken 11 (How the sinners' thoughts quake and tremble).
most incredible beauty comes in the development.
The
Unfortunately
I can only play the very beginning of it and I want to play
that because of its obvious rhyth'!lic connection with the
concluding chorale.
words
11
The chorale (Exrunple 7) starts on the
?Iun, ich weiss, du wirst mir stillen mein Gewissen, das
mich plagt 11 (Now I 1:now Thou wilt still my conscience ••• )
And the "stillingll is shown in the orchestra.
The singers
have a quarter note per syllable, and to begin with the strings
�- 8 -
"
quake below with 4 sixteenths per syllable, just as they did
in the soprano aria, then
the~,
calm dovm to triplets, then to
two eighths, then to nearly one, namely a quarter and an eighth
in 12/8 time (with the singers still in 4/4), then, ·when the
singing has stopped, to simple
postlude.
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A simple trick?
0
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( \ (.
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r
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But effective.
Bach was perfectly
~apable of more complicated rhythmic tricks; but I want to
leave those till later.
Let us first go back before the Fall, before Sin, repentance,
and anxiety.
Let us listen to the Creation of Man, as
~:l..-
presented byr:,_Joseph Haydn.
words on page 3.
It is Example 8 arid you have the
The recitative comes more or less straight
from Genesis:
Und Gott schuf den Menschen
Nach seinem Ebenbilde,
Nach dem Ebenbilde Gottes
Schuf er Lh..n.
Mann und Weib erschuf er sie,
Den Atem des Lebens hauchte er
In sein Angesicht,
�..
- 9 -
Und der Mensch vrurde
Zur lebendigen Seele.
The aria comes more or less straight from Milton - whose version
you can see below.
Haydn's version goes:
Mit wiirdt und Hoheit angetan,
Mit Sch8nheit, St!irk 1 und Mut begabt,
Gen HL11Lmel auf gerichtet
Steht der Mensch,
Ein Mann und K8nig der Natur.
Die breit gew8lbt' erhabne Stirn
Verklindt' der Weisheit tiefen Sinn,
Und aus dem hellen Blicke ~
Strahlt der Geist,
Des Sch8pfers Hauch und Ebenbild.
Actually M::iJton said (-when Satan first sees Adam and Eve):
••• the fiend
Saw undelighted, all delight, all kind
Of living creatures, new to sight 2.nd strange.
Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall,
Godlike erect, with native honour clad,
In naked majesty seemed lords of all:
.And \'rorthy seemed; for in their looks divine
The image of their glorious Maker shone,
Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure
(Severe, but in true filial freedom placed,)
vfnence true authority in men.
We only have time for
Or expressive?
One can virtually
-~
Man rising, and stand upright.
But then something happens
in the music that has no visual correlative.
In the passage
about man's sublime brow and his wisdom the music provides a
perfect non-pictorial image of the nobility and complexity of
man 1 s mind.
Let us hear that part again.
(Ex. 8b)
Does it not seem to correspond in a startling way to Iv1ilton 1 s
0 image
of their glorious Maker"'?
(Ex. 8c)
Let us have it once more.
It does not do it in words or in pictures.
Gesture comes closest to it, perhaps, but does not solve the
�- 10 -
..
When one trie$ to convey what happens in
riddle either.
the music, one is likely to use two hands to show the diversity
in the unity, the divergence of the lines of horns and strings
and their juxtaposition with the voice.
But one is just as
likely to throvv up oner s hands helplessly, for this kind of
miravle cannot really be explained, although one
ca~oint to
this and that that goes on in it.
It is not even that the various parts that make it up
It is that we are confronted with
are so many or strange.
the nature of music.
how?
It conveys something - but what, and
Or perhaps I should hy%,enate that and say
"what-and-how"?
Perhaps the
11
What 11 and the
11
How 11 are
identical.
My next example is much more complicated and quite
frankly so.
I can only pick out a few elements of it.
It is the opening chorus of the St. Matthew Passion.
I
hope the words, which you have got, ·will be of some help.
I would ask you to look at them now, rather carefully, so that
later, when you listen to the music, you need at most to glance
at them.
First, though, let me say this:
forces in this piece :
Bach employs considerable
two entire and separate orchestras,,
two choirs of four parts each, plus an extra choir of
sopranos, called Ripieno.
The two orchestras start, slowly,
After a while the first choir comes in and sings
sadly.
words that maan something like
lament 11
-
11
Come ye daughters, help me
with some repetition, but I have by no means
indicated all repetitions in the text you have in front of
you;
I
~'
hovirever, tried to indicate the difference between
the passages where four to eight voices polyphonically have
�- 11 -
their words at different times (and often have many notes to
a syllable) between such passages on the one hand, and the
passages where they are all together, on the other hand.
have underlined the latter.
underline~)
:
11
Sehet 11
-
11
Choir I goes on (altogether,
Behold 11
-
never mind the stresses fall1img
differently in English - follow the German (and to say
11
11
see" or
look" would not help either, or not much, because it only has
one syllable;
like
11 him 11 ,
and one cannot add a monosyllabic object,
because the exchange between the two choirs that
follows keeps changing que's tions.
"Behold ii, says Choir I,
11
So let us just take
Whom? n asks Choir II,
says Choir I, and goes on : "See him 11 •
11
I
Like a lrunb 11 , is the answer;
11
11
11
behold 11 . )
the bridegroom",
How 11 , asks Choir II
and as though this word "Lamb 11
had triggered something, the Ripieno choir enters, slowly,
deliberately, sounding almost unconcerned, heartless, inexorable,
with a choral tune no Lamm Gottes unschuldig 11 (0 guiltless laJUb
of God).
I have sometimes tried to cheat a bit to get the exact
English word underneath the corresponding German word, but
mostly I have simply used the English word order and I run fairly
sure you will see which Germa...n words mea...n what.
of course, what \vord is wedded to -vvhich note.
It does matter,
That is why it
seems to me best to perform a piece in the language in ·which it
'Nas composed.
One can always supply a translation for the
listener to refer to and must hope that he won't concentrate on
the trac"lslation instead of on the music.)
The slov-r can tus f irmus, that is the chorale melody sung by
the Ripieno choir, goes on (IN CAPITAL LETTERS) 11 am Stamm des·
or slawrh tered
Kreuzes geschlachtet 11 that is 11 butchered/on'-'the tree of the cross 11
�- 12 - while the two other choirs carry on with the lament and the
pointings and th0 questions and answers about the bridegroom,
(The . can tus f irmus is given in capital letters
the lamb.
thr our;i;hou t. )
Comes a s11ort orchestral interlude.
resume their exchange.
Be.hold - what? - behold the patience;
and the cantus firmus takes up
.
'
d espiseQ l1 •
Then the two choirs
11 always
four1d patient, hovvever
Then another short orchestral interlude, still in
J
the old rhytbrn, with the insistent
in the basses and grou:;Js of eighths, tied in different ways,
above - sometimes a dotted quarter, namely three eie;hths, tied
to the fi :st of
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But suddenly the pattern ch£'Lrise s.
'-"
The obstinate bass continues,
but above it there are now g;rou _ of three staccato eighths.
_:;s
And the Y1o:eds?
our guilt.
11
Look - at what, R_t vihat.,, 2t what? - look at
Surely it is no accident that this Protestant
11
Cantor, vrhen it comes to the confes:=;ion of guilt, emplo:rs the
musical equivalef\t of the Catholic triple striking of the breast.
Thou bo::r.ne 11 (it is
all rather 1~e:miniscent of th,3 Latin ·1:0::..•c.~; of t:i::; U'.::iJ·s
qul
'-_ •
toll''" ""'"CC".\+-..,
J.. "'' l"'
c .. v
c;
0.
-~11ndJ" • i1)
l<l ·'- ~
-
tteJ.~,e
•
1••1,1
e
11 .Agnus
sh_ould hqve to des_c,1 ai:r 0
-
Then the two choirs point to Christ carrying his own cross to
Dei
•
�- 13 his execution and the Ripieno choir ends by calling on Jesus
to have mercy - just as the corrt8ponding part of the Mass
concludes
~1 miserere
The two choirs once more point
nob is 11 •
to the Bridegroom, the Lamb, then comes the orchestral 2ostlude.
This introductory chorus is a long number and straightaway
sets the tone for a great and long work.
As soon as its starts
·we knmv we are in for 4 and a half hours of it., or should be.
That, too., is an aspect of the role of time in music.
time Stravinsky was talking about.
music.
To
~
The
One has to give time to
One cannot have it an.d something alse at the same time.
act as though one
.
~
is self-deception and has serious,
diabolical consequences.
So this great work starts with a grand and long number,
which by the clock usually taKts 10 or 11 minutes (the way
Schvrni tzer advocates and Scherchen actually takes is s ome.v1hat
quicker.
We m:>e now about to hear a
11
standard 11 version-} -
but, whatever the basic speed, the number itself contains two
distinct orders of time - or an image of time and eternity.
The two orchestras and choirs operate in one, the ripieno choir
clearly in another.
Its basic unit per syllable is a dotted
quarter or three basic units of an eighth( that the others
work in.
The difference, the distinctness, is further empha-
sised by the distrihution of the phrases of the cantus firmus
over what goes on belov1 and by the fact that it is a major tune
and much of what the others utter is in minor or where it is
not imt'~nor is harmonically slanted in a way to contrast vrith thE
clearly ma:;.,.,ked melody of the
Ex. 9 (Kormnt ih...r T8chter)
~·
(PAUSE.
Then: )
C&'l.
tus firnrus.
(Ex. 9·}
�- 14 -
You
lr.now~the
quotation from Stravinsky which I
at the beginning was incomplete.
I
~ave
you
ga'4e it in the form in
which it is given in a book of the "expressionist" school of
thought that has appeared relatively recently:
nhor, by Donald Ferguson.
Sally, a straw man.
Music as Meta-
Ferguson clearly needed an Aunt
So he made half a Stravinsky into his
stre:w man and quoted:
11
I consider that music is, by its very nature, essentially
powerless to express anything at all, whether a feeling,
an attitude of mind, a psychological mood, a phenomenon
of nature, etc.
Expression has never been an inherent
property of music.
That is by no mea.-ris the purpose of
its existence, •• ~xpression is) an aspect which, unconsciously or by force O.Lfiabi t, we have come to confuse with its
essential being ••• Music is given us with the sole purpose
of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time,,,Its
indispen$able requirement is construction:-- Construction
once completed, this order has been attained, and there
is nothing more to be said, 11
That is the Ferguson quotation from strawman Stravinsky,
Now,
let me give you the real Stravinsky:
11 ••• For I consider that music is, b:T its very nature,
essentially powerless· to express anything at all, whether
a feeling, an attitude of mind, a psychological mood, a
phenomenon of nature, etc •••. Expression has never been
an inherent property of music,
That is by no means the
purpose of its existence.
If' as is nearl a~ ~'
music a-:Jnears to express some hin.iz
is is oniv an~illusioil
no ·a real t •
is s_mp -~nal a ri'biT£e-.,...v.....,·rn.-.i-;-,~--- and inve erate
- acit
greement, we~
t'11rU:St un~~ a conve~- in ·d}lort, an
~ich, unconsciousl~force of habit, we have
come to confUse with its essential being.
Music is the sole domain in which man real.,.,. s the pres en'
the inroer ec vi:m of is - "GU· , ma·1 is doomed t su m -1>0yhe p.assag~1e - to i s cav :ories of
s~w~~ p a le
o ive su sta.i'1ce, and therefore
-~ ~i'Z.gorv oj_
ne o:'ip:-71.>-;-:o~~-i-v:-.-----~1-ienomeno of music is given to us with the sole
purpose of es ab_ishing an order in things, including, and
particularly, the coordination between man and time.
To
re put into practice, its indispen$able and single requirement
is construction.
Construction once completed, this order
has been attained, and there is nothing more to be said.
It·
...._ would be fu til.e to look for, or expect anything else from ....
· it.
It is precisely this construction, this achieved order
�- 15 -
which produces in us a UTulUe emotion having nothing_
~~~+-~
in uuHm1on vn.l,n our or d.
.inarv_s_e.J.~.ons
ancl our resnonses
~iliLI~p.i1-asiiDD.s nf (;LS j J ¥-i.u_a__ t-efte- "'H~o-t-oe tter define the sensation
c D.y music thf:Jll by
saying that it is~~'cca with that evoked by the
interplay of ~_1rtJitectural forms.
Goethe thoroughly
underC'
ct that when he called architecture petrified
~------'-'
_.
~-)
What interests me most in the part of Stravinsky suppressed
by Ferguson G'is the last bit about it being "precisely this
construction, this achieved order, ·which produces in us a
unique emotion.
11
The s&'lle Stravinsky, incidentall,, said
some time later, ·when asked about religion and the 1Nri ting of
relie;ious music (and as you know he writes it) : that it
cannot be done without faith.
And he did not, I think, just
say that to bamboozle the burghers.
11 A
unique emotiono ••
We obviously do not all feel it
11
who are properly moved by it.
s~me
harmful to pretend
But there is something in cornraon between those
that we do.
to the
~nd
It is useless
when we listen to music ..
The same thing in them responds
thing in the nTQsic.
One can also be improperly
moved,, by extra-musical associations.
The improper movement
can be ezploi ted and manipulated by Movie and Muzak
other Merchants.
.And I
8Jn
make1~s
and
convinced that unless v;e drive
them out where theJ have no legitimate business, and keep them
at bay, Hi-Fi, transistors, and all, we will be driven out of
our minds.
It is precisely because it is the universal
tongue that music must not be ubiquitous.
Let us, however, return to proper motion or emotion mid
to our last
I~x.runple.
V!e ~~ moved - bod:Lly and in ou:r souls.
'i'I'nat is it that does that?
the v-railing on
11 Come
In this instance it was not just
ye daughters .... 11
,_,
It is the ·way that
musical phrase has been used in a musical structure, not only
�.
- 16 having the "llih'1loved 11 cantus firmus superimposed on it, but also
-being switched about, mo-ved and used here and there, either as
the stressed or as the unstressed part of the larger unit, and
used with different words.
All our exarnple s to-day were of music with words - though
I think the most exciting part of the Haydn is the purely
orchestral part - still 1 it comes in a context of sung words.
You may have noticed that I omitted opera.
This was not done
to rig the argument in any way ( it doesn 1 t actually - opera
cuts both ways ) but in order to keep the field of discussion
manageable.
On the other hand I do want to end with ·a_ few words a~out
instrumental music.
.. It moves too - even_, and especially,
when it is far removed from any association with words •
. You 1mov1 .tl1a_t I __could give exs.mples of instrumental music that
seems to express emotion.
Much of Mozart rs instrumental music
is dovmright operatic, reminds one of dr&'llatic situations and
characters singing.
But for my last e:cample I have chosen
something to whic:h no emotional label will stick.
And yet
~t
moves.
So let Mozart have the last 1,wrd.
(Ex. 10, Minuet from
Serenade in·
C-minor)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
Title
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St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
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formallectureseriesannapolis
Text
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Original Format
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paper
Page numeration
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16 pages
Dublin Core
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Title
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The universal tongue
Description
An account of the resource
Typescript of a lecture delivered in 1963 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
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Ruhm von Oppen, Beate
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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1963
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St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.
Type
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text
Format
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pdf
Language
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English
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1963
FaFi-Ruhm von OppenB024
Friday night lecture
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/906666f4be01ee8828436adb8d8df69d.mp3
7fb0256b3063ed18cb448a05d1194a18
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
Title
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St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
Identifier
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formallectureseriesannapolis
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
audiotape (Tape 109)
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
01:21:03 (Cuts off at 01:20:23 and resumes at 01:20:52.)
Dublin Core
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Title
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Bach's rhetoric
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture delivered on October 27, 1972 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
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Ruhm von Oppen, Beate
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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1972-10-27
Rights
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St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.
Type
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sound
Format
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mp3
Relation
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<a title="Typescript" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3585">Typescript</a>
Language
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English
Identifier
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1972-10-27
Friday night lecture
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/bd24d41bfc122ecbdf84c326f644e976.mp3
8b5ffe20ef4f0b0c69fc193cd4d1d611
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
Title
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St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
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formallectureseriesannapolis
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Original Format
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audiocassette
Duration
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00:57:05
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Interpretations of the <em>Magic Flute</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture delivered on April 4, 1978, by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
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Ruhm von Oppen, Beate
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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1978-04-14
Rights
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St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.
Type
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sound
Format
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mp3
Language
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English
Identifier
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LEC_Ruhm_von_Oppen_Beate_1978-04-14_ac
Subject
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Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 1756-1791. Zauberflöte
Friday night lecture
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/bfe8d90a992062695b802c582a6150c6.mp3
96dcdd2bd7a0e62801e8ee9b83c2da02
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
Title
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St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
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formallectureseriesannapolis
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
audiotape (Tape 74)
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:52:51
Dublin Core
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Title
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Trial in Berlin
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture delivered on November 28, 1973 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
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Ruhm von Oppen, Beate
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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1973-11-28
Rights
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St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.
Type
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sound
Format
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mp3
Relation
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<a title="Typescript" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3588">Typescript</a>
Language
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English
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1973-11-28
Friday night lecture
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d9e16e6d01b0c6e705bfe60d8925470e.mp3
1649c99e84792c18c3f822050a10386b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
Title
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St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
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formallectureseriesannapolis
Sound
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Original Format
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audiotape (Tape 98, Vol. 1)
Duration
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00:59:06
Dublin Core
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Title
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Student rebellion and the Nazis (part one)
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of part one of a lecture delivered on in two parts on February 18 and 25, 1972 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
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Ruhm von Oppen, Beate
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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1972-02-18
Rights
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St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.
Type
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sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
mp3
Relation
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Sound Recording: <a title="Part Two (Audio)" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3590">Part two<br /></a>
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1972-02 (Part I of II)
Friday night lecture
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Student rebellion and the Nazis (part two)
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Audio recording of part two of a lecture delivered on in two parts on February 18 and 25, 1972 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
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Ruhm von Oppen, Beate
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St. John's College
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Annapolis, MD
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1972-02-25
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Audio recording: <a title="Part One (Audio)" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3598">Part one</a>
Typscript: <a title="Typescript" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3589">Part one and two</a>
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1972-02 (Part II of II)
Friday night lecture
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Text
.
-D.t~
This matenaI may be prot .
·
C
opyright law (Title
11 u ·s·~a by
· Oda)
STUDERT REBELLION .AID TSE NAZIS
Two lee tu ...es
given by
Beate Ruhla von Oppen
at St. John's College, Annapolis,
on 18 and 25 Feb ~a ry 1972
..,...,..
�STUDENT REBELLION AND THE NAZIS
Two lectures·. given by·.-Beat~· Ruhm von Oppen
at st. JbhnAs College, Annapolis, 18 and
25 February, 1972
I.
The Rise and Rule of Hitler
If someone were to ask why I am giving two lectures in
a row instead of the traditional single lecture, I might
give as reason an experience I had about a couple of years
agoo
It was at a university specializing in theology -- one
that had theology as one of ·its three main divisions.
It
was in May 1970, just after the American incursion into Cambodia.
There was student unrest all over the country and
talk of "revolution."
There was something like that going
on at that university on the day I spoke there.
My subject
was the relationship of the Nazis and the churches, a subject,
I had been ~old~ of spec~al interest to the people there.
But perhaps not on that disturbed .day.
period was dismal, discussion i~possible.
The question
One questioner got
up and asked1
""What about studen_t protest?••
sly question;
it was quite innocent and.proceeded from pure
It was not a
ignorance, such ignoranc·e as I was totally unprepared for .in
a middle-aged questioner.
So I gave' a brief and brutal answer
on the history of stu~ent prot~st in Germanya
that loud and
massive and effective protest existed in the period before the
Nazis came to power and the protesters ·were Nazis, or at any
rate mil.itant natioJ'.lalists, who exercised considerable pressure· on the academic establishment of the Weimar Republic -and even more, incidentally, in the Austrian Republicr
that
�-2-
once the Nazis were in power, there was hardly any open protest a
and that the first three of the famous group of Munich
students who protested in pubiic against the Nazi regime and
its war, were dead within a few days .of being caught, in 194Ja
the rest following a few months later.
A helpful colleague, a theologian and church historian.
then jumped into the breach and explained that Nazi Germany
was a police state and what that meanto
taken that as read.
I must confess I had
But the incident ·showed me that one can-
not take it as read any longer and that any description of
resistance must start wiih that which is resisted.
Also it could be that a term like "police state," being
misused too much, has lost .its meaning and like other such
terms -- "genocide," for instance, or "fascism•• or "totali tarianism," no
1ong~r
conveys anything precise or ·distinct.
But
meanings and distinctions have to be kept' clear, or, if they
have been blurred, have to be
m~de
clear again, not ·just for
love of pedantry, but for the, sake of liberty, indeed of life
itself.
Lies work best when there .is a· grain of truth in them.
The best precaution against being taken in, is the cultivation
of the habit of looking for that grain of truth and trying to
see what has been done with it.
of truth or the
fa~ts
Denying or ignoring the grain
of a matter may be magnificent ideology
and rousing rhetoric, but it is no defense against the better
liar.
Hitler was probably _the best liar there ever was.
That is one reason why we are having 1!!Q lectures, the
�-3first on the police state or whatever other name we may find
more proper for Nazi Germany, and the second on a group of
students who opposed it .and a professor who opposed and died
with them.
Two lectures are a risk, on two counts.
St. John's does not .[Q ''history."
arts.
It is not one of our liberal
We read Homer and Herodotus and Thucydidesr
Tacitus1
Plutarch and Gibbon;
~
Vergil and
Toqueville and Marx and Tolstoi
We read quite a lot of political philosophy.
that
Firstly because
We read much
.
history, from the Bible to the church fathers to the
ref.armers tci the debunkers r
.
.from Aristotle to Rousseau and
Kant to.Hegel and Darwin to the Documents of American political
history,
Yet we do not have "history" as a subject, or a
discipline.
The s·e·cond risk is rather peculiar to our moment in history, now;
but it is probably the lesser of the two risks,
here. at St. John's.
The temper of m•ny of the more vocal,
more audible and visible of our contemporaries is
or anti-historical.
is regarded as
~-historical
There is no patience with history.
"irrelevant~
-- unless, of
cou~se,
It
disjointed
bits of it can be used, torn· from their context, as ammunition
in some campaign.
The two risks may, to some extent, cancel each other out.
We cultivate, perhaps over-cultivate, rationality hereo
By
"over-cultivate" I mean a development of' the reasoning faculty
at the expense of other faculties.
increasingly, anti-rational
The temper of our time is,
and one can see what has brought
�-4-
about this reaction1
the rebellion against the shallow,
"functional" rationalism of the mechanised, mass-educating,.
manipulative age.
Our rationalism here, at
st.
John'~,
is
different -- more comprehensive -- and therefore few of us
are driven into this reactive irrationalism, in fact most of
us are quite good at resisting it.
But I often sense a divorce from reality, human reality,
psychological, political, historical reality.
For instance,
seminar discussions of Thucydides on the revolution in Corcyra and the attendant linguistic revolution in which "words
had to
chan~e
their usual meanings" tend to be perfunctory1
a few contemporary examples of the misuse of words by lying
politicians or commercial salesmen will be mentioned, but the
discussion. lacks feeling, passion, lacks, apparently, experience;
I mean1
lacks the quality of talk about something one
has really experienced;
it lacks the conviction that this is
something really evil and dangerous -- and should be resisted
or
count~racted
to the best of our ability.
of experience abounds,
The raw material
But the mental, including the emotional;
engagement rarely seems to take place.
I cannot here go into
the question of what the reasons for this inattention may
be.
Quantity of comment on the phenomenon of misused language
proves nothing -- certainly does not prove a realization of ·
the seriousness of the matter.
Neither does a concern for the purity and impeccability
of language necessarily ensure the best politics and the most
just and decent polity.
But certain peccabilities are more
�.. · ...
-5dangerous, some more insidious in their effects, than others.
The more serious linguistic sins seem to me to be very closely
related to the subject at the core of these two lecturesa
slavery and freedom, the manipulation of men (and women, and
childr~n)
and the resistance to manipulation -- a resistance
that is needed at all times and is always fraught with risks
and renunciations, but which in bad times may involve the
readiness to stake one's life.
Does that sound somewhat exaggerated?
I do not think it
is -- but perhaps we can discuss that later.
Now I must try and describe the indescribable and explain the inexplicable.
The simplest procedure may be to
mention the ways in which politics began to impinge on me at
the time when times were bad and getting worse.
The students
I am going·to talk about next week were roughly my vintage,
or belonged to the same "cohort," as, I believe, the trade
.
1.
now calls 1t. ·
They grew up at. the same time in more or less
the same country.
But I left when I was 16.
I was born in Switzerland at th·e end of the first world
war and grew up, or started to grow up, in Germany.
I cannot
think back to a time when politics was not in the air.
I re-
member ·the evidence of food shortages in my kindergarten and
elementary school days.
I remember the feeling of insecurity
communicated by all around me when the currency collapsed,
that is, when there was not just the sort of inflation we have
now, but something that gall.opped away in geometric or exponential progression, so that, for instance, a lawyer's or doc-
�-6-
tor's earnings of one day might not be enough to buy a loaf
of bread the next day.
Not long ago you could see, in the window of an antique
shop in our Main Street,.an old German 50,000 Mark note, said
to have been "used in Hitler's Germany."
as wall-paper.
Perhaps it was used
It might be more accurate to say that it was
used -- as money -- in pre-Hitler Germany, though I'd hate to
refer to the Weimar Republic as just that.
It was a specimen
of the kind of money that helped to bring abou_t Hitler's Ger-·
many.
50,000 Marks !1Q!!. would be worth about $13,000.
mal" times,
In "nor-
the dollar has recently been devalued a bit --
4 Marks were a dollar.
The date of issue on that 50,000 Mark
note was 19 November 1922.
The very fact that such a note was
printed and,:put into 'circulation was, of course, a sign that
inflat.ion had got out of hand.
In the summer of 1922 the dol-
lar was worth not 4 Marks, but over 400.
The next summer it
And by 15 November 192) it was 4 trillion
was over 4 million.
(4,000,000,000,000).
If my reckoning is right -- but you'd
better check it -- that 50,000 Mark note issued in November
1922 was worth one-eighty-millionth of a dollar a year latera
$
1.
or
1
of a cent.
-
80,000~000
800,000
pape~.
But expensive, too.
That was very cheap wall-
What it all meant, among other things, was the
pauperi~a
tion and demoralization of the middle class and the partial
destrucfion of the social fabric.
It was in that month, November 192), that Hitler, the
�-7leader of ·a tiny party •. staged his abortive putsch or coup
time,
d',tat in Munich, when he tried for the first
failed, to seize power.
That year had also se.en communist
attempts to seize power, in central Germanys
foiled.
Hitler was
sent
and
they too were
to a comfortable prison for a while
and used his leisure to write his book, Mein
Kampf.
When he
got out again, he adopted a policy of legality and with that
he eventually prevailed •
.By the time I entered elementary school, ·in 1924, a new
c.tirrency had been established and money once more was money,
tho~gh
scar.ce.
.But I noticed that
my t~achers
were not en-
thusiastic about the political system, though we dutifully and
decorously celebrated the BOth birthday of our President.
His
name was Hindenburg and he had been a famous· field marshal:.:.
in the world war, halting the Russian advance in East Prussia.
Being, as it were, a personal link. between the old, pre-war
empire and the new, post-war
re~ublic,
and loyal to the new
constitution, he was a national figure acceptable to the moderate right and moderate left and lasted a decade as head
of state, while chancellors, or heads of government, succeeded.
each other at a breathtaking rate.
The country had many po-
litical· parties. and an election system based on proportional
representation, so that votes were distributed across a wide
spectrum and large number of parties, and governments had to
be formed out of coalitions of several of them and were correspondingly shaky and shortlived•
I also remember many
elections during my school iia.ys and reports of violent rhetoric
�-8-
from left and right, as well as physical violence, street
fights, murders, assassinations.
Then, after the Wall Street crash of 1929-with its worldwide repercussion·s, there was another economic crisis a mere
six years after the beginning of the recovery from the earlier
one, with a growing, an intolerable, rate of unemployment.
It grew from 1.J million in September 1929 to J million a year
later, to ove·r 6 million in 1931.
With a total population of
about 65·million, this meant that one in every two .families
was hit.
affected.
It was not only working class families that were so
There was for instance, much unemployment among
academics too.
The.•xtremist parties. the communists and Nazis,
made great gains and .finally occupied more than half the seats
in the national parliament, where they were now able to para-·
lyze the democratic procews.
They also joined, for instance,
in a strike to paralyze the transport. system of Berlin.. Other/wise they could fight each other to the death, and did, with
casualties on both sides, despite the general strategy of the
communists at that time to treat the Social Democrats as their
enemy No. 1 -- whom they called "social fascists" for the
purpose -- and to flirt with the possibility of a Nazi
as a promising prelude to a communist takeover.
pinged of course, on a Berlin school childr
vic~ory
All this im-
the transport
strike, the posters, the polarization, the cQabination of both
extremes against the middle, and the weakness and apparent
helplessness of the middle.
When President Hindenburg appointed Hitler Reich Chancellor
�-9on JO January 19JJ, he was acting ln accordance with the letter and perhaps even the spirit of the constitution.
Hitler's
party, the National Socialist German Workers' Party (or "Mar.is"
for short, to distin&ulsl'I them from the "Sozis," or Social
Democrats), was by then the strongest party in the country,
with about one-third of the vote;
the Soc'ial Democrats had
only one-fifths ·the communists one•sixths
the Catholic Gen~
ter Party, together with its Bavarian affiliate, about the
same.
And there were many_gthers, but all of them had less
than 10% of the vote, the largest of them the Nationalists, 8.8%
Hitler became the head of a coalition government.
I still re-
member seeing the faces of these gentlemen in an evening paper that carried the announcement.
No-one.knew wha:t it meant.
had read Hitler's book.
I was somewhat scared, for I
I had had to do it secretly, at night,
with a flashlight under the bedclothes, for my parents, like
many other respectable people,
~egarded
it as pornographic --
which indeed in a manner of speaking it was.
longs
Also it was very
and that was probably why very few people read it,
though once its author had become the ruler of the land, it
wa~
widely and compulsorily distributed, for instance, as;presen.t
to newly-weds, bound like a bible.
But that did not, of
course, ensure its perusal.
Before saying anything about what I had found in that
book, let me, quickly, give you an account of the rest of my.
Berlin schooldays, to show how life at school changed in the
17 months ·before I left.
There was much talk of national
�-10-
solidarity and the Community of the People.
in personnel and in the curriculum.
rate of attrition.
half
There were changes
And there was a dramatic
My own class was reduced by more than
.
probably because girls (it was a girls' school I went
to) or their parents thought that since the new regime had set
its face against too much academic education for women (who
were not to exceed 10% of university enrolment), it was hardly
worth struggling through more Latin and trigonometry and the
rest •. up to the rather stiff school leaving exam which was
normally taken at tB •
. The teaching personnel changed in two waysa
there were a
few dismissals, of Jews -- we had very few Jews at my schoola
and our English teacher, who was a Jew, was at first said not
to be subje.ct to dismissal because he had not only served in
the war but had even been shot in the heada
but eventually he
left all the same and the next English teacher was
and that one was in due course
a teacher trainee.
r~placed
~ess
good1
by an even worse one,
The other change among the teachers was a
change of tone and colour.
A very few revealed themselves as
Nazis which, they said, they had been all along but could only .
now, at last, openly avow to be.
(On the whole the school had
been vaguely nationalistic, but far from Nazi.)
Others toed
the new line as best they could and exhibited varying degrees
of cravenness or caution or dignity, enthusiasm or moderation
or reserve.
Many new things were reguired1
the Hitler salute
at the beginning of classes, attendance at new·national celebrations that prol:iferated and at which you had, _of course,
�-11-
to stand at attention (with upraised arm) when the new national
anthem was played and sung, the old marching song of the Nazi
movement, with text by one Horst Wessel, sayings
"Raise the
flag, close the ranks, we stormtroopers march in firm and ·) "
1
steady tread.
Comrades shot by the Reds and Reactionaries are
marching on with us."
It was the battle song of the new revo-
lution.
So there was all that.
And there were changes in such
subject.s as history and science.
Let me take biology, for
that is where I had my brief hour of glory.
I had not done
well with the dissection of tulips and the like.
once biology was converted into race biology.
But I shone
Not only was
there Mendel's law, about which my father had told me before
(only that its implications and application were now rather
different from what I had gathered from him) --
~.
and this
is where the real fun came in, we now learnt about the German
races -- "Aryan," of course, all of them.
There were six, .if
I remember correctly, ranging in excellence from the Nordic
to the East Baltic.
Nordic was best because Nordic man had
created almost all the culture there was and he had qualities
. of leadership.
The Mediterranean race was also quite good
(for after all there had been ancient Greeks and Romans and
there were modern Italians, good fascists, full of leadership.)
The Mediterranean race could most easily be memorized as a
smaller, lightweight, and darker version of the Nordic&
what
they had in common were the proportions of their skulls and
faces '(long, narrow skull, long face) and the characteristic
�-12-
way of standing on one leg, with no weight on the other,
one standing and one playing
l~g,
as a literal translation
of the German. names for them would have it.
Such legs could
be seen in Greek statues and such were the legs of Nordic
man.
Now the Falic race was the next best.
It shared many
·,
of the sterling qualities of the Nordic -- highmindedness and
the rest -- but could be distinguished from it by the fact
that it stood, squarely, on two legs.
Also its face was a bit broader.
No playleg there.
That race lacked, somewhat,
the fire of Nordic man, or let us say the thumos, but made
up for it by solidity and staying power.
was fairly nordic, blond .hair, blue eyes.
The colour scheme
So was that of the
East Baltic race whose virtues were less marked that those of
the Nordic and the Falic and whose features were less distinguished, ·including a broader skull· and a broadish nose.
I
could not quite make out the use of this race, unless it was,
perhaps, territorial, to keep
not a German race.
th~
Slavs out.
The Slavs were
Then there was a German race that looked,
one mi:ght say, a bit Jewish, or perhaps Armenian, but it was
neither.
It was Dinaric and seemed to be much the same as
what earlier classifications had called Alpine.
race dwelt in the mountains.
Indeed this
It looked sturdy enough, but
not as prepossessing as the Nordics. and its head had awkward
mea::rnrernt~rrt~u
Di.n:lr.i.c ma.n had
back to his head o
'.i
prominent
nos·~ .~nd
But he had a redeeming feature 1
·
not much
he was
musical.
Now all this, of course, was good clean fun and easy to
�-1J'
visualize and memorize.
tures of well-known
rization•
pic-
Indeed there were visual aids1
personag~s
Hindenburg for
th~
to help recognition and memoFalic race, somebody like Haydn
for the Dinaric, Caesar for the Mediterranean.
Then there
was a picture of Martin Luth$r. the great Germ.an Reformer. and
I forget now what race he wa$ said to represent.
looked Slavic.
To me he
But.that, of course, could not be.
I suppose
he was declared a darker type of East Bal tic or Falic·.
All
this was child's play, and this child played it with zest and
success•
History was harder..
You could not inwardly laugh
off and outwardly play it as a parlor game.
~
You had to learn,
".
or appear to learn, appear to make your own
to some
e~tent,
in some way; at least -- you had to read, say, and write the
things that
:h~d ~een
neglected .or "falsified" in the Weimar
Republic of evil memory, under "the System• {"in der
as the Nazis referred to it).
brought out overnight.
N~w
Systemzeit.~
textbooks could not be
So we were all given a short brochure
on contemporary history, the.recent and most "relevant" .period
of Germ&ln and European. and world history.
It started ,with the
German surrender at the end of the world war {there was.only
one then; so it needed no number), a surrender brought about
by trickery
ab~oad
and treason at home, by President Wilson's
14-point peace proposal and the stab in the back of the un- .
defeated German army, a piece of treachery committed by Jews.
Marxists, and Catholics
ties.
feckless folk, with international
These traitors then set up their system of abject sur-
�-14-
render abroad and iniquity and immorality at home.
They ac-
cepted the shame:f'Ul peace treaty of Y.ersailles. which not only
saddled Ge.rmany with sole responsibility for the war. (in
Article 231, which Germ.ans called the "war guilt clause• or
"war guilt lie") 2 but also provided for the payment -- virtually
in perpetuity -- of quite crippling
reparation~ •.
Germany was
-unilaterally disarmed (whereas Wilson had envisaged universal
disarmament) and was f~rst blockaded by the British -- after
the ces·sation of hostilities -- to enforce submission, and
then, in 192J, invaded by the French, who marched into the
Ruhr. valley to seize German coal and steel production as re.
.
~
paration payments were 111 arrears. '·It was reparations that
caused the economic misery during the republican 14 years of
shame.
Attempts to revise the reparations schedule to make
it more tolerable were fruitless and fraudulent.
The last
revision provided for the.spreading of payments until 1988
'
'
and the country was dying in the. attempt to do the· victors'
'
bidding,
.
The nation would have t·o stand together and rally
round the Buehrer -- or the •people's Chancellor,• as he was
then still called
to throw off the shackles of Versailles.
The cover of this brochure had a muscular worker on it,
stripped to the waist and bursting his chains.
We also learnt about the parts of Germany that had been
taken away by the Treaty of Versailles. that dictated peace,
and about the Germans that languished under foreign domination.
We learnt that German defencelessness .was further aggravated
by the geographic position of the country•
surrounded by hos-
�-15tile powers.
Thus a bombing plane could take off from France
and fly right across Germany and land in Czechoslovakia, without
refuellin~.
. ercises.
tive.
The lesson was brought home by air raid ex-
They were not very realistic, but they were educa-
I stili
~emember
leading my little troop of classmates
to their several homes, staying close to
th~.houses,
as in-
structed, to avoid exposure to imagined falling shrapnell and
flying glass.
That was in the first.year or so of Hitler's
power, five or six years before his war.
It was useless, of
course, as an exercise in air raid precautionsr
but it was
useful for ·romenting fear and a spirit of national defence.
It also showed. that the Czechoslovak Republic, even if militarily it amounted to no more than an aircraft base, was the
power that enabled France -- or plane& based in France .-- to
bomb the wl)ole of Germany.
And in addition.-- but this point
was not given too much prominence until four years later, in
the crisis leading up to the
M~ich
settlement that dismem-
bered the Czechoslovak Republic -- in addition the country was
a political entity in which six-and-a-half million Czechs held
over ) million Germans in subjection, as second-class citizens.
Cl.early the Sudeten region had to be united with Germany.
so·much for what was taught in class and done in extramural exercises under the responsibility of the school.
there was one .other thing I should mention.
But
Schools were o-
bliged to take their pupils to certain films, propaganda films
that were being shown commercially.
So, obediently, our class
went to see the movie "Hitlerjunge Quex," the story of a Hit-
�-t6-
ler Youth of th.e working class whose father was a communist
and whose mother was long-suffering and tried to cope with
conditions and her husband, but in the end attempted suicide,
by gas, from misery and despair.
Quex (who was a very idea-
lized version of an actual Hitler Y.outh who had been killed)
first belonged to· a communist youth group, as was natural in
view of his home background.
But on one occasion, one excur-
sion, he was so revolted by their beastly ways, that he ran
away, ran through the woods, and came upon
t~e
camp of a Nazi
youth group which instantly and deeply impressed him as his
own and the country's salvation.
{It was a sunrise scene,
to make sure we all got the point.)
clean limbs, real
and hope.
c~mradeship,
Here were shining faces,
purpose, discipline, dedication,
So he jolned the Hitler Youth and·was active, devo-
tedly active· in the distribution of leaflets. and all. that.
He continued, of course to live with his parents in the working class district of Berlin.
And one day, at dawn, the
communists took their revenge and. his particular personal
en~
emy, a brute of a man, pursued him· throiigh the deserted
streets -- also through the maze. of an an"aa~ment park, a very
effective, macabre, cinematic touch
that~
and long be:f'ore ..:lU
Third Man -- and finally caught up with him and knifed him.
But Quex died for the cause, and when his friends found him,
on the point of death, and propped him up, he raised his right
arm in a salute to the German future and the camera swung up
~o
the clouds and the sound track into the- marching song of
Hitler Youth, with the lines •the ·flag leads us into eternity,
�-11-
the flag is more than death ...
The trouble was twofolds
that the film was most effec-
tive and affecting (however corny it may sound as I now tell
it) and it was made with terrific competence and with the
participation of some very good actorsr
and secondly that
,the school was under an obligation not only to take us to it,
but also to discuss it with us.
sion.
So we had our class discus-
I do riot remember much about
it except for the fact
that I decided.to play the part of aesthetic
~nd
dramatic
critic, arguing that, powerful though the movie was, it could
have been even better if it had been less black and white
(metaphorically speaking), if it had had more nuances, more
human diversity and verisimilitude.
Why did i take that line?
In order not to embarrass or endanger our teacher who was
leading the· ··discussion, who, I had reason to. believe, was
very unhappy ab9ut the Nazis, and who was.a .widow with two
children for whom she had to provide.
Then there was a film about -Joan of Arc, replete with
horrors of the Hundred Years' War.
It exposed the sadism of
the British and the brutality of the Catholic clergy.
On
that occasion I objected to the screening of atrocities; and
that was· about as far as one could go and get away with it.
Soon after, I got out of the country and cannot speak
any further from personal experience about what subsequently··
became pos.sible and impossible.
Now "impossible" is a term that strictly speaking brooks
no· comparison.
So let us look at some of the laws that·
�existed and were passed l.ater, which limited the freedom of
expression and of assembly and of organization and action.
Whatever laws may exist, and be enforced, it is, of course,
still possible to do some of the things that are forbidden1
but it becomes less likely that people will do them,
the penalties are painful.
are
-
inflicted.
becau~e
In a police state they really
Actually, Nazi Germany became something even
worse than a police stateJ
because Hitler's shock troops,,
the SS, not only permeated and took charge of the police,
but came to have a whole empire and fields of activity to
themselves, outside the reach and control of the police, and
the army.
It was the SS that ran the concentration
camp~
and extermination camps and the campaign to improve the health
of the nation (or the national economy) by k.illlng the in...
curable.
f-hey were not hampered by the law but acted di·
rectly on Fuehrer•s Oi'ders, something beyond:the law.
But I am anticipating.
Let me mention some of the lawa
that were passed and enforced.
The first and most fundamental of them was .the Decree
of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and
the State.
It was promulgated on 28 Pebruary 19JJ, four
weeks after Hitler had become Chancellor and the day after the
burning of the Reichstag building by arson.
A young Dutch
anarchist boasted of the deed and was eventually sentenced
to death by the Supreme Court.
Ostensibly
rected against communist acts of violence.
th~
decree was di-
In fact it was
used against all who could be said to be endangering the State,
�-19including, for instance, members of the
cler~
who made bold
It ltOt
to continue to preach and practise Christianity.
only tightened up· provisions or increased penalties under
the criminal code for such offences as treason, arson, the
use of explosives, and the taking of
But it alsQ.
hosta~es.
suspended "until further notice" a number of basic rights --
,
.
and it remained in .effect until the end of Hitler's rule.
Three weeks later, on 21 March t93J, there was a Decree
"for the defence of the government of national resurgence ..
against malicious attacks."
(It is the word Ernebung I am
translating here as "resurgence.•
The word can also mean
uprising, but also uplift and elevation.
T.
s.
Eliot found
it untranslatable or c·hose to treat it as such in "Burnt
Norton," the first of the Four Quariets, published, l think_,
in 19J5 1 an:d showing an amazing
remote~ess
or
from_
tivity to the world and language of pc;>lit,ics.
insensi-
I am sure he
neither meant harm nor intended a sinister joke.when he
wrote the passage about
E~heb~ng
without motion, _ concentration
without elimination ••• J · ,,
and this at a time when the strongest connotation of Erhtl!mg
• f
was not· elation or elevation. but the revolution enacted by
the Nazi Movements
and when concentration camps had been
instituted by that Movement -- the first of them in March
19:33 ·- precisely for the elimination ot undesirables.
London Times had a very
goo~ co~responde~t
The
in Germany and
Mr. Eliot must surely have read that paper occasionally.)
�-20-
So the Decree ·of 21 March t93J was to protect the government "of national resurgence1" and what the word Erhebung in
the title meant and the text of the decree spelt out was that
this protection of the law was not only for the government
but also for the "organizations supportiqg it."
protection of government and party
organ~zations
It was the
against •mal•.
ice" -- and "malice" was construed to include factual statements that were false or badly distorted.
This decree was
very effective·in silencing criticism.
The Nazis even tried to sile·nce foreign critic ism -- and
to some extent succeeded.
suasion even abroad.
They had means of pressure and per-
They had hostages at home -- for instance
the half million German Jews.
The one-day boycott of Jewish
shops and businesses on 1 April 19J) was presented as an act
of retalia'tion and warning against Jewish-insti.gated atrocity
propaganda abroad.
(Where sensationalism had, indeed, occa-
sionally got the be.tter ot factual reporting.)
On 24 March 193J there
parliament and limiting its
·~·
the Enabling Bill,· passed by
r~ghta
in favor of the executive.
This was the "Law to alleviate the sufferings of the People
and State."
I am translating the title
or
the law as best I
can -- though the word ".f!2!," here rendered as "sufferings,"
or perhaps I should say "plight?"• is another of those many-
facetted and multi-level German words, with meanings ranging
from "misery" to
use of the word.)
"em~rgency."
(I won't here go into Wagne.r's
This Behebung (literally•
I
lifting1 or al-
leviation) Behebung der ttot· yon Volk UQd Staat demanded·
�.-21-
stro11g measures and the government's hand was to be strengthened against potential paralysis by parliament.
There were
still parties in that parliament, though the communists, after
having done quite well in the elections of 5 March, were prevented from taking their'seats,
These elections, now far from
free.though they were, still only gave the Nazis
44~
of the
But by mid-July all other parties were aboliahed and it
vote,
may have had symbolic signiticance that the "Law against the
formation of new parties." the law instituting the one-party
state, was promulgated on t4 July ,19J).
On the same day there
was a law on·plebiscites, which could now be coupled with elections,
The one-party rule was further buttressed by a law,
of 1 December 19)J,. "to safeguard the unit.Y
party an4 State,
o~
Meanwhile there were also certain administrative measures
and reorganizations,
l!ll!& -- a term.taken
There was something called Gleichschal~rom
mechanics and meaning synchroni-
zation or co-ordination, or bringing into line.
Gleichschal-
. tung was applied to constitutional and administrative streamlining, as in the laws of March and April 1933, for the
Gleichschaltung der Laender mit dem Reich, that is, the co-.
ordination of the Laender, or States, with the Reich, or national ·government and administration.
It was aimed at
cent~al~
ization and the weakening or abolition of powers enjoyed by
the states constituting Bismarck's Reich and the Weimar Republic.
Perhaps I should add another word to our glossary1
Reich.
It means realm or kingdom or empire.
The Holy Roman
�-22-
Empire was, in German, Das Heilige Roemische Reich.
It was
finally and officially abolished by Napoleon, in 1806.
When
Bismarck united Germany in 18?1, he founded the second German Reich,
or
empire.
The official name of the Weimar Repub-
lic wa.s also Deutsches Reich, but the Nazis did not count
that and adopted the name Third Reich to describe their own
though not officially, not in international discourse.
But Reich, as I said, could also mean "kingdoa," as in
Reich Gottes "the kingdom of God" -- and it was this over-
tone that Hitler played on when he ended a long speech at nis
first big public appearance after his inauguration as Reich
· Chancellor with a long sentence affirming his faith in the
German people and the resurrection of the nation and "the
new German Reich of greatness and honour and power and glory.
and righteousne~s. Amen." 4 Yes, he saids "Amen." It wa~
an allusion to, and a secular usurpation
ending of the Lord's prayer.
or,· the Protestant
Compare this tastelessness and
blasphemy with the editing of a ·sentence in John Kennedy's
inaugural address, which went through many drafts.
draft had a sentence that rans
"We celebrate today not a
victory of party, but the sacrament of democracJ•"
final text this becamea
The fir,st
In the
i
"We observe today not a victory of
party but a celebration of freedom." 5 The blasphemy was
edited out.
Hitler, unlike Kennedy a lapsed Catholic, pro-
bably thought references to nationai resurrection and invocations of power and glory (of the German Reich, not the
Reich Gottes) would appeal to the Protesiant majority of the
�-2Jcountry -- which was much more nationalist than the Catholics and whose support he needed.
But to return to Gleichschaltung for a moment1
it was
not only L1ender that were being co-ordinated with the Reich,
but other organizations were also brought into line, and
th~
.
term was also used for the change of orientation or thinking,
certainly of all expression of thinking (though this meaning
was not in official use, only inofficiala
it often cropped.
up in -private comment .by critics of the regime).
Not only
were laws passed for the rigid control of all cultural
acti~
vities and the press and radio, not only-was there a law a-,
gainst "malice," but all language bacame subject to "regulation" -- explicit in the ministries and in instructions to
editors, but conveyed quite clearly by implication to the
general public too.
This Sprachregelung was extremely ef-
:fecti ve and of a thoroughness now almost unimaginable.
Even
George Orwell can hardly give one an idea ·or the pervasiveness of it or of the feel of a linguistic universe in which
things could no longer be called by their proper names.
This
was why all :forms of non-verbal communication became so very
important.
Let me give you two examples to illustrate this.
Let us take the word "murder."
of the government.
It was taboo for actions
When,iin the bloody purge of the summer
of 1934, the Nazis murdered Erich Klausener, the head of the
Catholic Action, they announced it as suicide.
Mr. Klein
recently gave me the issue of the paper of the Diocese of
B.erlin reporting Klausener•s death. 6
The front cover is oc-
�-24cupied by his picture under the title of the paper and its
emblem, a lamb with the inscription "Behold the Lamb of God,"
in Latin.
On the next page there is the announcement of his
unexpected death on JO June 1934 (and everyone knew the meaning of that date), the requiem mass for him in the
~resence
of the Bishop and all the members of the chapter of the Cathedral of
st.
an
Hedwig,
address by the Bishop, anm the bur-
ial of the ashes -- (ashes) --, with all liturgical observances, in consecrated ground.
The page after that carries
the Bishop's last salute to t·he deceased, and then there are
five more pages of obituaries.
Not a word about suicide.
Not a word about murder,
But the fact that the ashes -- the
Nazis had evidently thought it wiser.to cremate the body -were given· Christian burial and that the funeral was a
event in the
Ca~holic
gr~at
diaspora of Berlin, gave the lie to the
Nazi version of his death.
But such publicity was not to be
possible much longer. ·
Ten years later, after the .failure of the attempt of 20
July 1944 to kill Hitler and oust the Nazis, there were series of secret show trials of the conspirators.
a contradiction in terms, but I can explain•
This may be
admission to the
trials·and reports on them were completely controlled.
The
"show" aspect is harder to explain, but it was real enougha
those trials
were filmed and the film was !ntended to be
shown after suitable editing.
Very little of it survives
after editing by Goebbels and the Allies,
The most moving
moment in what those two sets of censors and the vicissitudes
�-25of war spared, comes in a sequence when one of the defendants,
in order to ·explain why he took part in the conspiracy,
re~
ferred to "the many murders" -- only·to be instantly interrupted by the presiding judge, yelling, with pretended incredulity (or perhaps .he could really not believe his ears)a,
"Murders?"
He then subjedted the defendant to screaming a-
buse and asked him whether he was not breaking down under
weight of his villainy.
~he
The accused, as far as I could tell
from the film, wanted .to.treat this as a rhetorical questions
but when the judge insisted on an answer, yes or no, paused
for.a moment and then,
quietly~
"No."
saids
After which
there was further loud invective· from the judge.7
dant was sentenced to death and hanged.
to death· and hanged in those trials.
The defen-
Many were sentenced
But ve.ry few were able
to say $.nything. so clear and unsettling to the regime as this
man with his explicit mention of murders and· his final .lie•
So there was this careful regulation of language and
there were laws circumscribing people's freedom ot action and
of expression.
All the laws I mentioned before were enacted
in Hitler's first year of power.
that came later.
I shall just mention a few
President Hindenburg finally died, having
been very doddery .before, in early August 1934.
On 1 August
19J4 there was a law on the office of Head of State and it
united the offices of President and Chancellor.
had them both.
Hitler now
On the next day a new oath was administered
to the armed forces, sworn personally to the new Commanderin-Chief, "the Fuehrer of the German Reich and People, Adolf
�-26Hitler."
In March 1935 there was an armed forces law, intro-
ducing conscription.
The Treaty of Versailles had limited
the size of the German army to 100,000 men and
sti~ulated
long periods of service in order to prevent the training of
large numbers of short-term recruits.
It was that small and
highly professio.nal army that now served as nucleus of the
new.
In September of that same year, 1935, the so-called
Nuernberg Laws were passed by the Reichstag which was meet-.
ing not in Berlin but in the city where the annual party
ral.lies were held.
'£hese laws, one relating to citizenship
and one to·::the protection of German bl.ood and honour (this
was the wording of the title) deprived Jews of certain civil
and social right.a, including the right to marry anyone but
J.ews or to· have extramarital intercourse with gentiles.
Jews
(and other undesirables) had already been.eliminated from the
civil service by·the law for the "restoration ·or the
sional civil service" passed in ·April 1933.
profes~
By the way1 in
1935 it was still possible for Jews to leave the country ..
But there was the problem of where to go and how to find a
livelihood.
This may illustrate it1
the American immigration
quota for Germany was not fully taken up until 19J8.
After
the pogrom of November t9J8, that German quota had a waiting
list.
Professional discrimination and economic
disabili~ies
had been increasing before, but i t:··,was only the excesses of .
November 1938 -- staged after the fatal shooting of a German
diplomat in Paris by a y-oung Polish Jew -- that made it clear
�-2?"that worse might be in store.
There was a policy of mounting
discrimination, then of segregation, finally, during the war,
of deportation to the East, and of extermination.
was .!l.Q! promulgated in a law.
state secret and carried out
But that
On the contrary, it was a
administr~tivaly,
th~
Most of
.
victims of that last phase were not German.:Jews, but Palisi\,
Russian, and other Jews from all over Hitler's Europe,
The expansion of the Reich began with the annexation of
Austria in March 1938 and the law bearing the curious title
"Law on the reunification of Austria with the Reich,"
Wha'f; .
was being united was the country of Hitler's birth and the
country he adopted and which adopted him with such catastrophic
consequences for itself and for. the world.
Hitler actually
·became a.German citizen less than a year before he became .. ·
German Chancellor,
The dodge to get· him naturalized was his
appointment by some of his sympathizers and purely on paper •..
of course, as a civil servant of the litt·le sta·te of Brunswick, in order to enable him to run in the Presidential election of March 1932, a few days later.
The American consti-
tut1on seems a' bit more careful in that respect.
There were many Austrians and many Germans who wanted
the Anschlus§, the joining of the two countries.
peace· treaties after the world war forbade it.
had wanted itr
But the
Many liberals
but perhaps the conditions of 1938 were
the most propitious.
~ot.
Propitious or no, they brought about
the Greater German Reich (as distinct from Bismarck's Lesser
Germany that had excluded Austria) and a flanking threat to
�-28-
Czechoslovakia.
That country was dismembered a few months
after.
All this happened in a state of peace,
The state of war
did not come about until September 1939 when Hitler, having
made a pact with Stalin, marched into Poland. without a declaration of war,, but •returning (Polish) fire,• as the offi-
cial German communique had it.
Poland was subdued and par-,,,
titioned between the Germans and the Russians.
France fell
the following summer, after neutral Denmark, Norway, Holland,
Belgium, and Luxembo'l,lrg,
ally Mussolini joined in.
That was the stage at which
Hitle~'s
Hitler failed to invade Britain
but instead invaded Russia in June 1941.
Japan and America
, entered the war in December of that year, over two years
ter its
b~ginning,
It did not end in Europe, until the
a~
Amer~
icans and t:he Russians met in the middle of Germany in May
1945, and in Asia until two atom bombs had been dropped on,
Japan, in August 1945.
Did all this happen because .people had not taken the precaution of reading Hitler's book?
Not solely1 though it
might have helped with some of their decisions if they had
done so.
Hitler's strongest card was the Treaty of Ver~ailies. ,_
His initial strength and his support in the period of con•
solidation.of power came from the German sense of national
injury and the real grievances.
So long as he was just seen
as the man who was working, by hook or by crook, for the revision or abolition of that treaty, he had support for his
�-29foreign policy far beyond the ranks of his own party.
Peo-
ple were willing to . .allow some of the more distasteful
components of his domestic policy for the sake of the liberation of the country from the shackles of Versailles.
The first move in that direction came during Hitler's
first year in power, in October 19JJ, when he took Germany
out of the League of Nations as a protest against continued
discrimination against Germany in the disarmament negotiations.
He got this step endorsed by a plebiscite combined
with new elections (only one party now to choose from)
and.the result was indeed more favourable than the 44% of the
previous March, more than twice as good.
Before the
voting~
to show the people and the world that Hitler had the backing
of the greatest sages in the land and of the academic establishment, there were declarations of support (entitled, ..
"Bekenntnisse," or confessions of faith) from representatives
of that establishment, including, for instance, the theologian Hirsch at Goettingen and the philosopher Heidegger at
Freiburg, both Rectors of their universities. 8
The declara-
tions were enthusiastic, bo•bastic, and.nauseating.
The
language in which they were couched was very German and v-irtually untranslatable.
The "official" translations appended
for foreign readers cannot have impressed the world with the
efficiency of the German translation industry.
I shall not
try now to improve on them but content myself with saying
that when I made Miss Brann read the German text to me while
I checked the official translation, she lost her customary
�-JOcomposure and delicacy forbids mention of the number of letters in the word she used to give utterance to her reaction.
Actually I did not think the word either appropriate or adequate and shall refer to the matter as the Hirsch-Heidegger
syndrome.
By that I denote the abdication of political re- .
sponsibility and the intoxication with high-sounding and
meaningless words1
the use of language not in an attempt to
get at the truth of a political matter, but to glorify the
winds of change or the march of history or the peoplehood of
a people or the leadership of such· a leader.
When this is
done by a Heidegger in somewhat substandard heideggerian German, it is a very, very bad thing.
He soon relented, of courses
he may even have
repente~.
As Ernst .Nolte, one of his students, later turned historian
and a great .. authority on fascism, put it in an essay on the.
types of behaviour among academic teachers in the Third Reioha
"It was not long before Heidegger, with his turn T.o Hoelderlin,
joined the widespread tend~.ncy to retreat from t;
Socialist reality ••• " 9
.:r
National
Nolte, incidentally, dOe$ not think
that Heidegger was so lamentably subject to the
mental climate because of his philosophy.
~revailing
.
He does not consi-
der the· possibility, which I regard as a probability, that
Heidegger's lack of mental resistance may have been due to
his relationship with language.
have been his linguistic tin
e~r
It is my feeling that it must
that failed to warn n,im of . .
people who spoke Hitler's language.
And the students?
One m·ust not and one cannot
general~
�ize -- but they were, on the whole, well ahead of the general
development, in the vanguard.
Nazi students took the lead
and won the votes in the elections to student organizations
long before Hitler seized power aad Professor Heidegger saids
"Let not theses and ideas be the rules of your beingl
The
Fuehrer himself and he alone is the German reality and law,
.
today and in the future." 10
To some extent it
1.!
true to say
that "National Socialism came to power as the party of you~n.• 11
But it is not the whole truth.
I shall try to go into that
a little more next time.
I am sorry to end on such a negative note today.
the
~irsch-Heidegger
But .
syndrome was, unfortunately, significant,
and fairly widespread, and Nazi student activism not only
followed and accompanied. but preceded it.
Youth was in the.
· vanguard of'.-the Nazi movement and revolution.
Also the
average age of the representatives and leaders of that party_
was well below that of other parties, a fact.from which the
Social Democrats, in particular,,suffered acutely•
lacked dynamisms
They
the Nazis had it.
Next Friday I shall try to show how six members of the,
universtty of Munich. five students and one professor, thought
and felt and acted in the midst·of that dynamism •
•
�-32II.
':.:!·:;;~
The Case of the White Rose
The negative note I finished on last Friday concerned
the German universities, whose student organizations were
captured by Nazi activists long before Hitler and his party
captured the chancellorship and command posts of the country
and established a police state 1 or rather something even beyond a police state.
There was also that rather appalling
phenomenon I called the "Hirsch-Heidegger syndrome," an intoxication1 a passing intoxication, perhaps, certainly in
the case of Heidegger~ but none the less real and productive
.of real con$equences
~t
the time.
In Heidegger's case I
suggested that the loss of sobriety may have been due to the
patient's relationship with language, that is, not with h. is
1
philosophy,· but with his failure to test words used in the
political context for their meaning
.
.
~nd
implications.
The appeals ,·by prominent representatives. of the academic
'
,
:
estabiishment to the German electorate to vote for Hitler
after his first significant step.in foreign affairs, leaving
the League of Nations, . were, as I mentioned, printed and
.
.
translated and also disseminated abroad, as "Bekenntnisse,"
confessions of faith, in the new Germany and its leader
Adolf Hitler.
Let me quote you the official preface to thls collection
of "confessions" by leading academics.
I shall quote it in
the official translation, for that, after all, was what the
wider world read,
It is a bit
roughly what it meant.
t~nny,
but I shall then say
It was headed "An Appeal to the In-
telligentsia of the World" and ran1
�-3~
All science is inextricably linked with the mental
character of the nation whence it arises. The
stipulation for the successful scientific work,i8•
therefore, an unlimited scope of mental development and the cultural freedom of the nations. Only
from t.he co-operation of the scientific culture of
all nations -- such as is born from and peculiar
to each individual nation -- there will spring the
nation-uniting power of science. Unlimited mental
development and cultural freedom of the nations
can only thrive on the basis of equal rights, equal
honour, equal political freedom, that is to say,
in an atmosphere of genuine, universal peace, On
the basis of this conviction German science appeals
to the intelligentsia of the whole world to cede
their understanding to the striving German nation -united by Adolf Hitler -- for freedom, honour,
~tistice and peace, to the same extent as they would
for their own.12
There are troubles with the translation of this document,
of course.
It is not very English.
For "science," for
instance, read scholarship, or learning.
For other words it
is harder. to substitute English equivalents, for in some
cases there-are none.
~ental
The German original of what became the
character of the nation" was something called
"geistige Art des Volkes,tt and that bristles with difficulties
and booby-traps.
Not only because the word
"~"
had on the
one hand its denotation of "people" (and there was and is no
other word
of
!•rac~."
for~),
on the other hand it had connotations
-·
But also a once harmless word like ttArt " meaning
"kind" (or perhaps even "character" as the official translation put it) had ceased being harmless and now had a racial
overtone as well, a matter later made quite clear in racial
legislation which used the term "artfremd,• or alien, to refer to alien blood •
.But the gentle reader abroa¢l could not know this and was
�probably no more than slightly bemused by the language
served.u~
to him in this document and others.
What did get
across, though, was the plea for equal rights, egµal honour,.
equal freedom -- that is•
tion against Germany.
the plea for an end to discrimina-
(It was over the matter of persistent
discrimination in the disarmament negotiations that Hitler
had taken Germany out of the League of Nations.)
for "equality" had a tremendous effect abroad,
This plea
It really
did seem no more than fair, and perhaps even aiming at a more
properly balanced international stabilit_y (the ngenuine, unitiii
versal peace". of the translation).
But also equal rights, honour, and freedom meant allowing Germany
to
conduct her domestic affairs her own way.
That, too, co.uld be presented and seen as no more than the
right that ·91 ther was or should be the right of !!lI country.
The nation state
~·
after all
effective political unit.
a_nd it still is -- the
And it was only a country consti-
tuted or re-constituted after the first world war, like Poland, that had
speci~l
clauses on the protection of minori-
ties, notably Jews, written into its peace treaty. 13
But
then Poland was a country with a large Jewish population and
a bad history of· anti-Semitism.
Germany's Jewish population
was small and German anti-Semitism no worse than anybody
else's
indeed until the 1920s Germany attracted Jews from
Poland and Russia, because it was such a civilised country.
Let me here interpolate something that is in a curious,
a mysterious way both central
~nd
peripheral to the story of
�Nazi Germany•
the part the Jews played in that story.
it should have been peripheral may strik~ you as odd.
on the practical plane it really was1
That
But
the other nations did
not go to war with Hitler or fight the Germans to save the
Jews.
And it is a mistake •. a serious mistake, to concentrate
on the fate of the Jews in that drama to the exclusion of
all else.
It is an understandable m~stake, because regarded
-as a people the Jews did have the heaviest losses proportionately to their number.
The ·Poles were only decimated,
that is, they lost about one-tenth of their population.
.
The
.
··Russians, even by their own accounts, only lost 20 million
people.
But of the -roughly 11 ·mill.ion European Jews between
·four-and-a-half and 6 million -- about half -- were done to
death by the Nazis. 14
The exact figure is hard to establish.
And it is not the thing that matters most.
-
What ·does is th•
Jewish experience of forsakenness -- and that can never be
brought home to non-Jews by numbers.
But neither must it be allowed to perpetuate Hitler's
heresy.
What was that heresy?
true theologya
That genealogy is the only
that it is by the blood of a "race" that we
are saved or damned.
That whole sad ·chapter of ·history has been vulgarized in
a number of ways.
The saddest of them is the vulgarization
that falls into Hitler's own trap, his own way of publicly
presenting or misrepresenting what he was really afters
the
vulgarization that sees that conflict as one of Jews and gentiles, or •Aryans .. as the Nazis called them•
or as one of
�Jews and Christians.
That last mistake even the Nazis did
not make1. on the contrary, they.were so concerned to deChristianize the gentiles -- with Hitler, of course, as the
saviour of the gentiles -- that one of the forms t·heir attack
on 'Christianity took was to treat it as a Jewish thing and
therefore to be rejected by the Germans.
One can even take this further.
Hitler, the great liber-
ator, once said to one of his followers who later left him,.
perhaps because of this dictum and all it stood fora
"Con-
science is ~-Jewish invention. 015 Hitler was out to remove·
the .invention and.its inventors.·
This makes it clear, or at least;·;;strongly suggests, that
behind the "racial" struggle stood a more.fundamental onea
war of religions
a
not of Christianity versus· Judaism, but ot
a new heathenism against the Jewish
~
Christian faith and
tradition.
!h!!1
was the central significance of the Jews in that
drama, as central as that of the.relationship of Jews and
Christians1
and of Christians -- the nominal and the other
kind -- to Christianity and to humanity,
But now I must get down to the White Rose, the rose that
bloomed· despite the dynamism of 'the destroyers to which r·referred last week.
The Nazis undoubtedly were dynamic.
"The White Rose" was the name chosen by a group of Munich
students and a professor and friend of theirs when they
launched a campaign of leaflets against the Nazis.
called them "Leaves
They
or leaflets -- of ·the White Rose."
�-37Its blooming was brief., . its
p:r;ep~ration
long.
As for its
after-effects -- who is :to ... say what they were or may be?
The one woman among them, a girl of 21, her name was
Sophie Scholl, had a dream the night before her execution a.nd
told it to her cell-matea
It was a sunny day, and i was ca;rrying a little
child, dressed in a long white gown to be baptized•
The path to the church led up a steep hill. But I
was holding the child safely and surely in my arms.
All of a sudden I ·found myself at the brink of ~
crevasse. I had just enough time to set the child
down on the other side before I plunged into the
abyss.16
·
Willi Graf was the last of the six,to die. 17
says that he "was not a dynamic person."
His sister
That is probably
what makes him the most impressive of the six to me.
Let me
give you her phrase in its context, and in her words•
Willi was not a political type of person in the superficial sense. He had no natural inclination to
revolutionary action. But when intellectual freedQm.
of choice is not guaranteed, or development in accordance with his own inner law, or simply being
human, when a regime on the contrary negates all
this and enforces.forms of thinking and of life
which keep violating human dignity most deeplya
then a young person with sound in·stincts and a sense
of watchfulness and faith will rebel, If he is
moreover plucky·and prepared for sacrifice and is
confirmed and encouraged by likeminded tttends,
then he must ~ctively resist such enslavement and
finally become an antagonist of the spirit of the
times. Thus Willi was driven to the role of having
to rebel quite against his own disposition.
And then she quotes the sentence which stands as motto over
the whole short memoir of her brother.
(
First Epistle of James, verse 22.
It is taken from the
She found it in a diary
her brother had kept in 1933 -- the first year of Hitler's
power, when Willi was 15 -- where it stood
s~ddenly,
all by
�-)8-
itself, in the midst of boyish descriptions of group meetings
and excuraions1
It was this sentence•
"But be ye doers of
the word, and not hearers only,"
She then goes on•·
Ever since 19)4 the .conflict with National Social~
ism had been. a burning problem for Willi and his
friend~.
The question 'What should we J!2 against
it?• became the cardinal point of their thinking,
.Even the question of tyrannicide was discussed one
night at their Easter meeting in i934,.,Tha friends
were agreed that it was not enough to he indignant
in small closed circles. ("They discuss." she
quotes Willi on a visit by relatives, "the usual
stuff, see the dangers, but think they.have to stick
it out1" and mhe then continuesa) ·He wrestled with'
these problems, just because he inclined far more
to a contemplative life and habitually subordinated
politics to metaphysical values. He was not a dy~
namic person1 on the contrary, he liked to keep
hie reserve and loved order. But the constant occupation of his thoughts with "our situation" (as.
he called the definition of his own and his friends'
attitude to their time) finally put him on the path
that seemed to him inevitable. The determination
to let his im~er attitude become daed grew slowly
but steadily. When the war starte 1 Willi said f~om
the outset that it must and that it would be lost.
This conviction separated.him from many.people, even
from some of .the friends of his youth who believed
they had to defend their fatherland at all costs.
His inner loneliness increased more and more and
especially when he was drafted in January 19 0 and
started training in a medical unit in· Munich,18
4
After his final arrest, Graf himself was asked by the
Gestapo•. the secret police, to give them an account of his
life,
-
And this is what he told.them•
-
He was born in 1918, in the Rhineland,
In 1922 his
family moved to the Saar.
His father became a manager in a
firm of wine wholesalers.
Willi
h~d
two sisters, · The family
led a co•fortable, though frugal, life.
Religion was the center of the children•s education and
�they were taught
to
respect parents and superiors.
Willj's
father was a man of probity in his professional and private
life and demanded the same of his children.
He was severe
when Willy showed signs.of dishonesty or disobedience.
Willy's mother was affectionate and totally dedicated
children and the welfare of her family.
~o
her
Willy was initiated
into the observances apd life of the church at an early age.
and .tne seasons were filled with the spirit of religion,
(By that. I suppose. he meant that he experienced the seasons
conaciously
a~
parts of the church year.)
At the age of 10
Will~
was sent to what the Germans call .
a humanistisehes Gvmnasium• that is, a high school teaching
Greek and Latin.
His special inte·rests were German literature,
religion,. and later Greek and music1
tory.
also geography and his-·
He liked to construct things in his free time, worked
on light and bell systems. and tried to understand the mysteries of radio.
He liked to go walking, especially in the summer vacations,
came to know and love his country and became a lover of nature.
During his last years at school, he had a chance to visit faraway places in Germany, Italy, and Yugoslavia, and he relished
the experience of dista.nt lands· and of different people with
other customs.
The precious memories of these walking tours
sustained him throughout the rest of the year.
His mother opened the eyes of her children, when they
were still quite young. to the social and economic sufferings
·of others.
He was taught to.do without certain things so
�-41>-.
that a poorer child could benefit.
He occasionally accompanied his mother on charitable missions, 19
The actual phrase Graf used in his draft autobiography
"Thus I learnt the significance ot per-
for the Gestapo wasa
sonal charity."
He was clearly trying to stress the contrast
to the welfare state approach of the Nazis.
The document --
his police autobiography -- is characterized throughout by
!!!2 thingsa
the judicious omission of certain incriminating
features of his
bi~graphy
of which I $hall speak later1
and
the equally judicious inclusion of statements intended to educate his enemies or at least to put on record the convictions
that animated him.
By "omissions .. I mean, for instance, the
discretion observed on the precise nature and circumstances
of those walking tours1
they were undertaken.-- at some risk
by a very c··lose-knit illegal youth group.·
By the attempt to
educate -his enemies I. mean references t.o "p-ersonal charity,"
or religion -- even the appreciation of strange peoples and
their ways.
This brief life then continuesa
Will~
said of himself
that he always had a great need for attachment and had close
frJiandships with playmates and schoolmates.
This was the way
that led him to the Catholic youth organizations to which.he
belonged for many years and where his interest in religious
and literary questions was further developed by likeminded
companions.
His religious and "ideological"· development was
fairly unproblematic.
He grew from the childlike notions
·formed at home and in his first religious instruction into
�the big world of faith, in whoa• docttlnes he felt secure
and protect•d•
Even violent and long di•cusaions with boys
who thought differently could only endanger this security
temporarily, but.not in the long run.2~
L•t me here mention something not altogether irrelevant.
Hia trienda'
famous
nicknam~
tor
Will.~
Pi~niah long-dist~nce
was
11
111.lrmi."
Nurmi was a
runner -- actually he ran what
would now be called middle distances -- and a hero of the
Olympic gamea of 1920, 1924 1 and 1928 especially Amsterdam,
1928, where he won ) medals,
Clearly Willj's friends
pi~k•d
on this name because of .Willi's tenacity and his capacity for
independence, even loneliaees.
Mr, Crockett says that one
ot the most interesting things about Nurmi wae that he would
warm up for two. hour.a be tore a· run.
He was a th&Qldng run-
ner.
Willt'• (police)
aut.ob~ography
continues•
In November
1937 he went to the university of Bonn to study medicine.
Since the au11laer of 1.935.he had
~ee~.determined
to become a
~ .;
doctor, because, he said, he thought that would give him th·e
beet opportunity to help others.
"This seemed to me," I am
quoting him verbatim now, •the most beautiful task, giving,
as it does, a chance to put into· practice the commandment
which to me is the moat compelling of all, to love my neighbour.
But I also worked on philosophical and literary ques-
tions in order to
con~inue
my intellectual education and to
make finner th• ~truc~ure of my religious viewa.• 21
(Actually hia sister says that if it had not been fqr
�-42the Nazis, Willi would have gone into philosophy or theology, not into medicinea
and that he only chose that sub-
ject of study because it was relatively free from ideological interferences
yet that does not make Willi's statement
to the Gestapo a lies
truth,
it was merely less than the whole
and it gave him a chance to remind his captors of a
commandment they also learnt as children, only perhaps less ·
well.
Even the mention of the year 1935 as the year in which
he decided to study medicine in order to help his.fellow-men
may have been deliberate•
that was the year in which the
Saar. territory,· deta.ched from Germany by the
Tr(!a~y.
of Ver-
sailles, had the plebiscite envisaged by th•t treaty and voted
~o
rejoin Germany.
Willi and his friends had observed devel-
opments in Germany with
grow~ng
but until 1935 they
alarms
had been rr·ee from the pressures to which the inhabitants'
not to say the inmates, of the Reich were subjected.)
He read a lot, Willi continued his official autobiography, especially modern German ·writers and
philosophical works.
He had time
fo~
theologic~l·
and
active sports and the
enjoyment of music.
I shall quote the end verbatim tooa
•ouring these years
'
I experienced the smaller and larger conflicts between the
church and offices of the state and party and could not understand them, because no state can have permanence -without religion ••• All order is from God, be it the family, the state,
or the people,n22
This young man of 25 knew more clearly and firmly what
�even the boy of 15 had known when Hitler began to destroy
the old order to build his own . New Order. an order without
God ... but with the. new idols of race· and people, and with
the divine Fuehrer himself ·something between prophet and
deity.
Lutherans had greater trouble discerning and opposing
·the ungodly nature of this new civil authority.
They did
not discuss tyrannicide in.t9J4, and ~ery few of them even
later.
Incidentally•
I did not mean to advocate tyrannicide
in the discussion the other day.
I merely
~eant
that it was
a thing that might be considered in the face of murderous
fanaticism.
However, let us have a few more facts of Will;O;. Graf 's
life.-
T~eY com~
from his surviving sister, from friends,
from letters and diaries.
He belonged to a Catholic youth
organization until it was suppressed, and then he belonged to
an
illegal successor organiza,ion.
He made not concessions
to associates he co~sidered faithless.
When he was 15, in 1.9331
ije struck off from his address book names of boys who had belonged to his group and who were now in the Hitler Youth.
He
refused to join the Hitler Youth, although he was threateded
with non-admission to the school leaving exam, the precondition ot university entrance, unless he became a member.
early arrest in January 19)8
An
there were numbers of arrests
for activities in.· illegal youth groups -- was terminated by
an amnesty to
CE!'l
.
.2)
ebrate the annexat i on of Austria •.
�The autobiography he wrote for the Gestapo after his
later arrest was, of course, not only aimed at not incriminating himself, but also at not incriminating family and friends•
Those ;vears of semi-illegality were a good training in careful formulation,
~itude.
And his qircumspection was combined with for~
Although he was kept alive for months after
t~e
execution of the ·others, bec•use the investigating authorities.
hoped to get more facts and names and leads from him, with
all kinds of threats, he did not.oblige.
cut off his head
too~on
He had also been
a
So in the end they
12 October 1943.
careful reader and given to writing
things down that impressed him.
With friends he trusted he
loved to discuss the most serious" questions passionately and
thoroughly, and preferably by night.
The le.gal and later l.llegal youth groups also gave their
members much training in the endurance of physical hardship
and developed their resourcefulness and stamina.
In fact
Willj became exactly what Hitler wanted his boys, the Hitler
Youth, to bes
and he had put it in a winged word that Nazi
youth leaders were forever quoting•
swift as greyhounds, hard as steel."
said "Krupp steel.")
"Tough as leather,
(Well -- Hitler actually
But there was one vital differencea
that w111i Graf combined these qualities with a mind of his
own and an unshakable faith.
A greyhound actually is a dog, though a very noble kind
of dog,
?ou can condition the reflexes of a dog.
condition the reflexes of human beings too.
You can
But you should
�_45...
not try to make men into nothing but conditioned reflexes.
And these are the chief lessons of the Nazi period to me1
how terribly manipulable people are, especially in our twentieth centurys
pulability.
-
but also that there are· limits to this mani-
And there is a ridera
we must help to set the
limits and defend them.
Back to Willj Graf, though.
in 19.37.
He began his medical .studies
In January 1940 he was called ··up and trained in a
medical unit in ·Munich.
his old friends.
This transfer separated him from
He served in Germany, on the Channel Coast,,
in Belgium and france, Croatia and Serbia1
finally in Po-
land and Russia.
In April 1942 he.got study leave and returned to-Munich.
Apart tram his m•dical studies, he worked in philosophy and
theology· and took an increasing interest in liturgical ques,.
tions and in psychology.
fencing.
When there ·was time, he did some
He joined the Bach Choir and went to concerts
whenever he could.
It was then, looking for·new friends, that he got to
know a brother and sister, Hans.and Sophie Scholl, and their
friends Christoph Probst and Alexander
Sch~orell.
With them
-- the .men were all medical students on leave from the army
and Sophie a student of biology and philosophy and·musical
psychology.
They were all agreed in their opposition to the
Nazis and shared many interests, chiefly in writing that
mattered .and -- despite their different denominations, they were.
united by shared Christian convictions.
Jointly they came to
�the conclusion that they ought to engage in active propaganda
against the Nazis and that this should now take. the form of
24
leaflets.
This may be the moment to describe the very different
route by which Hans Scholl reached that point·.
had a ringleader, it was Hans Scholl.
scribed as
a "dynamic"
.!!! ma what is delllf!
per$on.
Born in 1918, the same year as
son of .a small town mayor.
~igger town, Ulm.
If the group
Will~
Graf, he was the
But later the family moved to a
They had three daughters and two sons, of
whom Hans was the elder.
They were Protestants, the mother
probably more pious than the father.
I am not sure what their politics were, only that the
father was .opposed to the Nazis from the outset.
also spent :time in jail for this opposition.
what form this opposition took.
Hitler •tthe scourge of God."
Later he
I do not know
I only know that he called
That may have been what did it.
But it was long before, at the very beginning, that Hans
Scholl, finding his father's disapproval of this great new
llbvement reactionary, decided to join the Hitler Youth, and
his brother and sisters followed him. 2 5
·Ten
ye~rs
after Hitler nad come .to power, Dietrich Bon-
hoeffer, a Protestant theologian opposed to the Nazis -- he
later died on the gallows -- wrote of the great masquerade of
evil.
He said1
"For evil to appear disguised as light, be-
neficence, historical necessity; and social justice, is sinp~y
bewildering to anyone bro\Jght up in the world of our
�traditional ethical conc.epts1
but for the Christian who
bases his life on the Bible, it precisely confirms the radical malice of evi1.• 26 .
It may seem strange now.
effective,
And the
youn~er
But the masquerade
I
~
very
Schells were swept away by·the
idea of a real people's community, the social justice and
equality promised by Hitler, and they joined the march of
history.
In doing that, Hans Scholl was not unlike many of'
·other young Germans opposing their hidebound parents.
It was not the Bible that showed Ha.:i~ Sc.holl the error
of his way.
To that he only came much later.
What first
put him off was the fact that the fellowship of the Hitler
Youth had an element of regimentation -- something of the
Gleichschaltung I mentioned last time.
His surviving elder sister mentions an incident that
gave !l!£
momentarily -- to thinks
but the.moment passed.
She writes1
We were taken seriously -- taken seriously in a
quite remarkable way -- and.that.aroused our enthusiasm, We felt we belonged to a large, wellorganised body that honoured and embraced everyone. from the ten year old to the grown mano We
sensed that there was a· role for us in the historic process, in a movement that was transforming
the masses into a Volk. We believed that.whatever
bored us or gave us a feeling o~ distaste, would
disappear of its~lf. Once a fifteen year old girl,
after we had. gone to lie down under the wide,
starry sky at the end of a long cycling tour, said
in our tent, quite suddenly and out. of the blue,
"Everything would be fine. but this thing about the
Jews I just can't swallow." The troop leader assured us that Hitler knew what he was doing and for
the sake of the greater good we would have to accept certain difficult and incomprehensible things.
But the girl was not satisfied with this answer,
�-48-
Others took her side, and suddenly the attitudes in
our varying home backgrounds were reflected in the
conversation. I spent a restless night an that tent,
but in the end w.e:.··were just too tired, and the next
day was inexpressively splendid and filled with new
experiences~
The conversation of the night before
was for the moment forgotten. In our group there
developed a sense of belonging that car~ied us safe~
ly through the difficulties and loneliness of adolescence, or at least ·gave us that illusion.
The maddening.thing about Inge Scholl's book, if I may
say so, is that she hardly ever gives a
~
fQr anything.
But this sounds like an early incident to me, earlier than
the·Nuernberg Laws ~ven -- let alone the pogrom of 19J8 or
the deportations that started in the war.
It probably took
place about the time when nothing much was being done yet about the Jews,- apart from verbal an.d pictorial vilification
and the removal from the civil service.
But it is another.matter she mentions as an early cause
of her brother's discontent,
He liked to sing.and ne sang
to his.troop, accompanying himself on the guitar.
he sing?
What did
The songs of the Hitler Youth -- and I have studied
their official song book (edition· of 1_941) and was amazed to
find many good songs in it.
But Hans also sang foreign
songs -- Norwegian or Russian, or something like that.
leaders forbade it.
He disregarded the prohibition.
threaten·ed punishment.
His
They
He got depressed,
But there was a great experience in store for him.
He
was to be the flag bearer for his troop at the big a_nnual
Party Rally in Nuernberg.
back disillusioned.
He went with high hopes.J. and came
The full implications of the regimentation
-- not only of the Hitler Youth, but of the whole show, all
�- 49 -
or
Get'man life as the Party clearly intended to fol'lll it in
1 ts own image -- ·al.1 this had now come home to him •.
And there was the odd book his leaders would not let him
read, because the author was a Jew, or a pacifist.
But the final break came after a promotion:
had the rank
or
Fll).nlei~tflhrer
150 or so boys.}
for itself and
Hans now
(which meant being in charge
or
His troop had designed and made a banner
sh~wed
up with it at a parade before some
higher-ups of the ff1tler Youth.
A boy of twelve carried it.
A superior Hitler Youth leader demanded its surrender.
There
The boy stood firm.
were to be no private flags or emblems.
He stood a bit less tinn when the surrender order was given
for the third time..
Hans intervened.
slapped the Hitler Youth superior.
care·er in
th~
Ri tler Youth.
Be stepped forward_ and
-
That was the end of his
.
His subsequent membeieship in an
illegal youth group ended in arrest and some weeks in
But he too, like Willi
G~ar,
jail~
benefited from the post-AnschlU§.!
amnesty.
Gttadually all the young Scholls heard
things that happened to people they knew.
or
disturbing events
They now asked thei
rather about the meaning or some of this and it seems that old
Scholl did call things by their proper names and even disabused
his offspring of the notion -- very widespread in all those
dreadful twelve years -- that whatever horrible things might
be happening, they were the doing of wild or mean or sadistic
subordinates or loeal potentates or tough men -- and that the
Ffth re r did not know about them.
�-soFather Scholl explained to his children that this really was
unlikely,
Hitler knew.
Fatner Scholl also tried to exp!ain
how such a man could come to power.
found it any easier than·I do.)
(I don ··t suppose he
Finally it seems that he
told his children that he wanted them to be free and upstanding, whatever the difficulties,
That, at last, bridged the generation gap whiqh -- like
many another gap -- Hitler had exploited so skillfully.
I~ al:so
Rilke was not
sent Hans back· to the sources. the fowida.tions.
m~oh
poet, Hoelde.rlin 1
Plato and Socrates,
and Pascals
help, neither was Stefan George. or another
nor was Nietzsche.
th~
Hans finally found
early Christian authors, Augustine,
and the Bible, whose words, as his sister says,
now acquired for him a new and surprising significance, an
overwhelm~ng
relevance and immediacy, and an undreamt of
splendour •
. He was a student of medicine now.
And the war came.
After a while he was drafted for a medical unit and served
in the French
campaign~
Then he was sent to Munich as a
soldier-student, a member of a military student unit.
It
was a strange ·1ife, commuting between barracks and the university. and the clinic.
And all this in a steadily worsenlng
political climate, with oppression growing harsher every day
and-more and more becoming known -- piecemeal and not always
reliably
about the crimes of the regime.
It was mimeographed copies of
a ·sermon
of the Bishop of
Muenster against e·uthanasia, the secret killing
or
incura~le~
�which,, h.owever, cquld not be ·kept altogether secret, siaee
'
I
•
~
'
•'
•: _
~
':
'L
•
••
it ~~s C:l~.r:r;,ie,d on ipside Germany -- it was Bishop Galen• s
pq'Q+~9 ~~~P\90 ~bo~t
this crime, his denunciation of it as
not- ori,+y ilQlllsnral but also illegal, a sermon· preached in a re·I.
1i
., ': ·~::·
•
mote part of q,rmany, but disseminated throughout Germany in
mimeographed copiell
-~
secretly, of course -- that made Hans
Soholl.thihk of leaflets as a possibility.
He was relieved
that someone, at last, had spoken, ope.nly.
And, it seemed,
such open speech cobld be spread.
He
was not alone.
In
partic'ul~r,
he had a fatherly
friend and mentor, Carl Muth, the former editor of a Catholic
monthly, Hoch.}.and, now suppressed -"'." whom he had met in an
almo•t accidental way and whom he thenceforth saw almost
daily, learning all the while, and growing
There were others too.
~learer
and stronger.
The underground intellectuals of
Munich -- middle-aged or older men most of them, whom the
Nazis had eliminated from public life -- were an impressive
bunch.
They
included such pe.ople. as Theodor Haecker, trans-
lator and exponent of Newman and Kierkegaard. 27
•.•'
Arid there w.ere friends among the· students, especially
... m9ng
th~
military-medical students•
The closest among them
was -was-·Alexander Schmorell, son of a Russian mother whom ·
~~'los~ ••~
an infant and who was brought up by a Russian
nurse after the family's flight to Germany, where his father
married again and became
great
an~
friends.
a well-known
physician.
Alex had a
romantic love tor Russia, which he shared with his
Then there was Christoph Probst, the only one of
�them to be married, a very young father of two children, with
a third on the way.
And finally there was Willi Graf.
Sophie Scholl came to Munich to study biology and philosophy in the spring of t942, when she had just turned 21,
She was three years younge:ti than her brother Hans.
She had
had to do her labor yg war service before being allowed to
become a student.
Kurt Huber.
Her philosophy professor was a man called
He was a somewhat strange man, but, as far as
the Scholle and their friends were concerned, the best man in.
the university.
his Theodicy.
university.too.
They all went to his lectures on Leibniz and
And they got to know him better outside the
And he introduced them to other people.
They met for readings and discussions.
In· the early summer of t 942 the. first leaflets turned up.
Hans Scholl:·. had started them, and he had been so discreet
that even his sister at first did not know he was connected
with them until she saw a marked passage in a book he had.
It was a passage in Schiller's es.say on the legislation of
Lycurgus and Solon and was clearly the source of the first
l.eaflet.
This had had long quotations from the essaya
Considered in.the light of what he wished to accomplish, the legislation of Lycurgus is a masterpiece
of ·political science and human psychology. He wanted to establish a powerful, self-sustaining, indestructible state. Political strength and durability
were his aim, and this aim he accomplished insofar
as circumstances permitted. The admiration aroused
by a superficial glance at· his achieveme.nt must give
way to strong condemnation when his aims are compared with those of humanity. Everything may be
sacrificed to the best interests of the state ex·. oept the end ·which the state· itself is designed to
serve. The state is not.an end in itself. It is
�important only as a means to the realization of an
end which is no other than the development of all
the faculties of man and cultural progress. If a
constitution hinders this development, if it hinders
intellectual progress, it is harmful. and worthless,
no matter how ingeniously it is conceived and how
perfectly it may function in its own way. Its durability is to be regretted rather than admired. It
is only a prolongation of evil. The longer such a
state exists, the more detrimental it becomes •••
Political service was achieved and the ability to
perform it was developed by sacrificing all moral
sensibilities. Sparta knew nothing of conjugal
love, maternal affection, filial piety, friendship.
·It recognized only citizens and civil virtues •••
A state law required the inhuman treatment of
slaves. In these hapless victims mankind itself
was insulted and maltreated. In the Spartan code
the dangerous principle was laid down that men were
to be considered as a means, not as an end, thus
· abolishing by law the foundations of natural rights
and morality. All morality was sacrificed to achieve an end which can be valuable only as a means
to the establishment of this morality •••
How much more beautiful is the spectacle of the
rough warrior, Caius Marius, in his camp before
Rome who sacrifices vengeance and victory because
he cannot bear the sight of a mother's tears •••
The republic of Lycurgus could endure only if the
mental development of the people was arrested, and
thus it could maintain its existence only if it
failed to fulfill the highest and only true purpose
of political government.
This firsi5 leat.fl(tt b.ad · lMqun w;t:bb the wends t
Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be "governed" without opposition
by an irresponsible clique subject to base inatincts.
It is surely a fact that to-day every honest German
is ashamed of his government. Who among us has any
conception of the dimensions of the shame that will
befall us and our children when one day the veil
has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of
crimes -- crimes that infinitely exceed all measure
-- reach the light of day? If the German people are
already so corrupted and decayed in thair iniost
being that they do not raise a hand and,frivolously
trusting. in a questionable law of history,yield up
�·~
--
..
'1l"'f."'
----------------
-
#.
-~·
''
'
-54man•s highest possession, that which raises man above alllother creatures, if they surrender free
will, the freedom of man to seize and turn the
wheel of history in accordance with rational decisions1 if they are so devoid of all individuality,
have already gave so far along the road toward becoming a spiritless and cowardly mass - - then, then
8
indeed they deserve their downfall ••• 2
To anticipate, let me say that there were six leaflets
in all, in thousands of copies.
mously and secretly.
They were distributed
anony~
Those, many of them, that were sent
through the mails, were mostly posted in the cities to which
they were sent, in order to avoid any hint to the police that
Munich was the headquarters of this activity.
Risky train
journeys were undertaken by several members of the group to
take leaflets to cities like Stuttgart, Augsburg, Vienna,
Salzburg.
Willy Graf even took a duplicating machine to a
friend in the West and recruited friends and sympathizers and
collaborators where he could.
Recipients were assured that
their names had simply been taken from telephone directories
to free them of the fear that they might be on some list and
thus exposed to punishment.
The leaflets usually had quotations towards the end of
their text, as this first one used Schiller on the lawgivers.
The second leaflet begana
It is impossible to engage in intellectual discussion with National Socialism because there is nothing intellectual about it. It is false to speak of
a National Socialist philosophy (Weltanschauung)
for if there were such a thing, one world have to
try by means of analysis and discussion either to
prove its validity or to fight it. In reality,
however, we have a totally different picturea even
in its first beginnings this movement depended on
the deception of one's fellowman, even then it was
�-55rotten to the core and could save itself only by
constant lies, After all, Hitler states in an early edition of "his" boo)c.{a book written in the
worst German I have ever read, and yet it has been
el.evated to the rank of a Bible in this nation of
poets and thinkers)• 'It is unbelievable to what
extent one must deceive a people in order to rule
it.• If at the start this cancerous growth in the
nation was not too noticeable, .it was only because
there were still enough forces at work that operated for the good, so that it was kept at bay, As
it grew larger, however, and finally attained power •••
the tumor broke open, as it were ••• The ma.jori ty of
former opponents went into hiding, the German intelligentsia fled to a dark cellar, there, like
night-shades away from light and sun, gradually to
choke to death~ Now the end is at hand. Now it is
our task to find one another again, to enlighten
each other, never to forget and never to rest until
even the last man is persuaded of the urgent need
of his struggle· against this system. When thus a
wave of rebellion goes through the land, when 'it
is in the air,• when many join the cause, then in
a last mighty effort this system can be shaken off.
After all an end in terror is preferable to an endless terror.
The leaflet went on to speak of the murder of Jews ·-,.
J00,000 in Poland -- and of Poles, and of the need for more
than compassion.
Doing noth.ing constituted complicity.
they tolerated these things, Germans were guilty.
Now that
they had recognised the Na,zis in ·their true colours,
had the duty to destroy them.
If
G~rmans
This leaflet ended with quo-
tat ions from Lao-Tse.29
The third discussed forms of government and utopias
the highest of them, it said, being the City of God.
present state was a dictatorship of evil.
--
The
Something had to
be done about it and cowardice must not hide behind·a cloak
of prudence.
Only passive resistance could be offered, but
that must be offered wherever possible.
Military victory
over Bolshevism must not be the prime concern of Germans, but
�-56on the contrary the defeat of the Nazis.
There were sugges-
tions for various forms of sabotage, though no blueprint for
general action could be given and everyone should use what
opportunities offered in whatever way seemed best.
This leaf-
let concluded with a quotation from Aristotle's Politics, a
passage
on
tyranny.JO
The fourth leaflet had an appeal to Christians to attack evil where it was strongest.
It was strongest in the
power of Hitler • . It had a quotation from Ecclesiastes and
one from the German poet Novalis on Christianity as the
foundation of peace.
It also had a postscript, assuring the
reader that The White Rose was not in the pay of any foreign
power, addingi
"Though we know that National
Soci~list
pow-
er must be broken by military means, we are trying to achieve a renewal from ~ithin."Jt
Then there was a long hiatus1
for the men were sent to
Russia during the long vacations between
semesters~
they saw in the East confirmed them in their resolve.
saw Jews in labor gangs.
prevailing in Poland.
What
Hans
All saw the miserable conditions
All fell in love with the Russians.
When they returned to Munich in November, they resumed
their secret work with redoubled energy and it became quite
feverish.
There were two more leaflets, the last a special
appeal to students and it began with the· shock
the staggering German defeat at Stalingrad.
the "intellectual
w~rkers,"
prod~ced by
The students,
should not allow themselves to
become the tools .of the regime, but put an end to it.
A re-
�-57cent incident at Munich university had shown that the students
could stand up to the Party.
stud.ents.
The nation was looking to the
It ended "Our people are rising up against the
National Socialist enslavement of Europe in a fervent new
breal(through of freedom and honor,"3 2
spec~acular
The incident referred to had in fact been
and encouragings
but it had also been unique.
The Nazis saw
to it that it remained unique.
At the 470th anniversary celebrations of the university.
the Bavarian Gauleiter had addressed a crowd
students, many of them in uniform, on the
of
abQut JOOO
mea~ing q:f
the e-
vent and of the place of students in the German struggle.
As for women students, he had no
objec~ion
to their occupying
places at the university,· but he did not see. why th.ey should
not present the Fuehrer.with children, for
for every year at the universitya
instanc~
a son
if they were not attrac-
tive enough to get a man by their own efforts, he'd be glad
to send one of his adjutants to,.·each one of them and they
could be assured of an enjoyable experience.
At this there was unrest in the auditorium.
Women stu-
dents in the gallery stood up, prepared to'.leave.
stopped.
They were
The other students, especially those in qniform on
the ground floor booed so much that the Gauleiter had to interrupt his speech.
Later he did speak on, but
broken and he kept being interrupted.
th~
spell was
He was furious and
gave the order for the women students to be held in custody.
The leader of the Nazi
studen~
organization demanded a volun-
�-58tary identification of the women protesters upstairs.
24
identified themselves and were arrested at once.
The SS
pushed the other students out of the auditorium.
When they
emerged from the building they found all the rest of the men
students standing outside, like a wall, and giving them an ovation.
they
They had stood there for over an
~roke
stude~t
hou~.
In groups
through the cordon, got inside, seized the Nazi
leader, beat him up and held him as hostage until
the women were set free.
At that moment the police arrived.
The students also turned on the police and fought their way
through into the city.
But some of them were
atmosphere, however, was electric.
The
arre~ted.
Students of the most di-
vers,e disciplines suddenly found themselves acting together.
And suddenly all were friends1 and the population qf Munich
was on their" side.
The Gauleiter called another meeting a couple of weeks
la.ter and threatened to close the university if peace and
order were not restored.
The men·would be seQt to.the front,
the women into the factories.
his earlier speech.
set free.
But he also, apologized for
Those who had been arrested had been
Clearly the students had won, this round.
But it
was to be the only round.
It may even have led to the end of the White Rqse.
The
Scholls and their friends were, of course·, immensely. heartened by this experience of spontaneous solidarity against a
foulmouthed party functionary.
But they may have overesti-
mated the permanent potential that could be mobilized against
�-59the Party.
In any case they. now became bolder.
things on the walls of Munich in the night•
ler," and "Freedom."
this.
They wrote
"Down with Hit-
They managed not to get caught doing
They were armed to shoot their way out if necessary.33
But on 18 February 1943 Hans and Sophie took a suitcase
full of eopies of the last leaflet to the university, spread
them about in corridors and on the stairs while lectures were
in progress and doors closed, and finally threw the rest down
the central
lightsh~ft
from an upper floor.
The janitor saw
them and took instant action to apprehend them.
They were
arrested and taken away.
That was on a Thursday.
Their trial, together with
Christoph Probst, was on the following Monday.
It was conai..
ducted by the People's Court and they were sentenced to
death and beheaded the same day.34
week between
th~ir
There was less than a
being caught and being dead.
Graf, Schmorell and Huber were also arrested and tried,
together with eleven other defendants, in mid-April•
sentences ranged from acquittal to death.
The
Three women stu-
dents, for instance, got prison sentences for failing to report treasonable activities,35
Graf, Huber, and Schmorell were sentenced to death, Huber having already been expelled from the Faculty of the university by his colleagues.
doctorate,36
He had also been deprived of his
'
.
In the case of.the first three, incidentally,
the Schells and Probst, there had been an assembly of the
student body, called by the Nazi student organization, in the
�-60evening of the day on which the three were executed, to denounce them and to declare the loyalty of the student body
to the Fuehrer and the National Socialist Movement·.
dance, again, at least according to the report of the
Atten:..
Dis~
trict Student Leader, was about 3000,37
The parents of Graf and Schmorell asked for clemency.
Hitler personally turned down the request,38
Huber's pub-
lisher asked for a stay of execution, to enable his· author
to finish his book on Leibniz, arguing that it would redound
to the greater glory of German culture.
He was allowed to
work on it in his; -pr1son cell until July, b_ut he did not
finish his book before they took him to the guillotine,39
There were about twenty of them in-use in Germany at that
time,
Willi Oraf died last, in October of that year, 1.94J.
Before asking for your ·permission to add a postlude and
a:.·postscript to our discussion on rhetoric in politics and
the di.fference between manipulation and persuasion, I should
like· to sum up in two sentences what the story of these students seems to me to shows
In order to recognize manipula-
tion and to think not only analytically but also constructively about politics, they needed Plato and Aristotle _and
suchlike authors.
To find the courage and strength needed
to stand up to the power of the manipulators, they
~eeded
faith,
But here is a postlude, on a matter closely connected
with the subject of rhetoric and persuasion.
�-61~he
five students of the White Rose all sang in the Munich
Bach Choir, until the end.
out .!h!!. they sang.
was.
One day I hope to be able to find
But I can imagine what kind of thing it
It was not all Bach but it was all serious music, I am
sure, music whose words mattered.
What you let out of your mouth always matters, of course.
At a time when language has become debased, corrupted, mean-.
ingless or prohibited, what you sing matters even more.
It
would be interesting to know what the Nazis allowed to be
sung (and perhaps I shall have a chance to find out some time).
I know that Haendel was censored -- some of Haendel.
Willi
Graf went to two performances of the Messiah in December 1942,
his last advent season.
After the first occasion he wrote in
his diary that it was an indescribable experience.
What
pressed him ..were the faith and piety behind the work.
•
im~
He
went again, though the second time there was standing room
only.
Again he was deeply impressed, especially by the
ari~
"I know that my Redeemer liveth.". He mentioned it again in
a letter to his sister -- they had heard it together -- his
\_,
last letter, dictated to the prison chaplain before his
execution. 40
But Bach is much more powerful with his words than Haendel and I just w.onder what the Nazis did with cantatas and
J.
motets, or, for that matter, with the Magnificat --
- ...
~usicr
.
that, for instance, mentions God's son or servant Israel.
Could they allow it to be sung when they had decided to
force
'-I;
every male Jew to have the middle name "Israel" on his pap(:!rs?
1"'.
�(
\
-62This was for purposes of identification and segregation, like
the later edict forcing all Jews to wear the yellow Star of
David on their clothes.
Could the
Na~is
allow choirs to sing
"Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.
h~m1
Let Israel rejoice in him that made
let the children of Zion be joyful in their King ••• ?"
That
is Psalm 149, verse 1 and 2, which Bach set in his motet
"Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied.•
Or could they permit, even
in Latinif: the singing of Luke 1, v. 54-55•
11
He has helped
his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy1
as he
spoke to our fathers·, to Abraham and to his seed forever,"
seeing how .Bach hammers home the "Abraham" in his Magnificat ..
and spreads the seed throughout the ages?
Could the Nazis
allow such words to be sung, especially when they were set in
such persuasive and memorable ways?
Or did they insist that
only songs to the !l!U! lord or idol should be sung and those
that did not too explicitly conflict with the new idolatry?
I do not know all the relevant deliberations of the
Ministry
or
Propagan.da or the Ministry of Education or the
Reich Chamber of Music.
that kind of thing.
They were the.controlling bodies for
But I know, for instance, that at one of
his staff conferences in April 1942, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, ·the
Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, explained
that he prohibited a broadcast of the
Mo~art Reguie~
the pre-
vious December because, and I quote, "its very sombre and
.
,. _·;
' .
world-negating text would have had a bad effect on moraleln ..
...
:.
•
•
:'"~·
• ·-·1-':·.
the exceptionally serious situation then preva1l1ng1" adding"
�-6Jthat this was, however, an exceptional case.
One could not,
hesa1d, "destroy or regard as non-existent the earlier cultural achievements of a people just because· the content of
these cultural achievements .. ·ran "counter to a new ideology•
and he explained "that a distinction must be made between a.
historical approach and enjoyment of the cultural achievements or earlier periods on the one side and the development
of one's own ideology on the other.• 41
The bodies charged with ideological control must have
weighed the risk of dangerous Christian indoctrination on
the one side against the risk, on the other side, not. only of
jettisoning the German cultural heritage, but also of making
the anti-Christian character of the. regime too clear.
With the churches under pressure and severely circumscribed in 'what.they were permitted to do and say, and persecuted, and prosecuted, when they exceeded those limits, concert halls and choral societies were obvious places where the
old creed might still be fostered surreptitiously.
Lest you· think t.hat I overestimate this factor, .let me
give you three examples, two on the Christian side, one on
the Nazi side.
A brother of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, not a par-
ticularly churchy man, was in a Berlin jail under sentence of
death.
When the only surviving brother who was still at li-
berty {Dietrich, too, was in prison) vis'ited his br.other
Klaus and said how nice it was that Klaus could hear, in his
mind·' s ear, the music of the Matthew Passion when he read the
score he had in his pri.son cell, Klaus said a
"But the words
�-64also!
The words!"42
Willi Graf recorded in his diary on ? December 1942 (the
day, incidentally, after that first Messiah) that he spent
the first part of the evening singing in the Bach Choir.
thought it went quite well and addeda
He
"The words of the
Christmas songs and of the Schuetz motet have their special
meaning.
It is good to be able to do such things."4J
Another
thing he did right up to the end was to prepare and perform
church litargies with his friends.44
Despite the soldiering
and the medical stud.ies !!ll! the secret political work, he
found time and clearly felt a need for it.
The Nazis, on the other hand, made children, and grownups, sing songs .for their Movement and for Germany, and
dinned into all the doctrine that there was arid would be no
Germany but-.Hitler's Gerll8.ny.
And the boys who had innumerable
times sung the words -Germany, here we are1
we consecrate
our death to thee as our smallest deeds
when death comes to
our ranks, we shall be the great .seed."
were, of course,
singing something plagiarized from Tertullian, a perversion
of Tertullian, who said that the blood of the martyrs is the
seed of Christians.
These phild martyrs were sacrificed,
and sacrificed themselves, !or the fatherland up to the last
minutes of the war, manning the anti-aircraft guns and fighting the Russians at the approaches and in the streets of Berlin
-- 15 and 16 year olds formed into local battalions. As a
surviving female Hitler Youth leader put ita
make true the vows of their songs."45
"They wanted to
�-65However relaxed Goebbels may have sounded in that
Propaganda .Miniatry conference in t942, the internal intelligence network .of the SS never relaxed its vigilance where
the church.es were conce·rned and kept complai,ning about "church
music as a means of denominational propaganda.•
"Denomina-
tional" meant roughly what in America is sometimes called
Sectarian,"
The word was used instead of "Christian," which
was what was reall;t: meant.
The fiction, which was very.
strenuously maintained, was that the Nazi Party and Movement
-- which in its official Party Program, promulgated in 1922
and.never carried out, had subscribed to something nebuloua
called
11
Positive Christianity"46 (a matter I shall be glad
to enlarge upon if asked) -- the fiction was that the Nas1•
wanted abo"-9.
all to untte all Germans and therefore had to
fight the divisive activities of the Protestant and Catholic
11
denominationa."
But in thls Security Service report from
which I have quoted, as in others, -it is crystal clear that
what they were in tact fighting was the Christian faith itself, and any attempt to foster it,
This report, in October
1940, complained of the systematic expansion of performances
of church music all over the Reich, both in churches and in
concert halls.
These events, the report said, were of high
quality and very popular, made most effective propaganda for
the churches, and were apt to call forth' ovations from the
audiences that amounted to demonstrations.4?
In April 194J, a long report on church influence on the
young had a special section on the dastardly use the churches
�-66were making of singing as a vehicle of Christian education. 48
In January 1944, another long report on liturgical reform and
the extra-mural promotion of church music, mentioned the fact
that in Alsace, for instance, the Protestant church was sys-
' tematically replacing sentimental hymns of the 19th century
by musically more valuable chorales of the
mation.
time of the Refo·r-
Even brass music was being revived in the reform
movement.49
All this caused. great and, I think, ·justified c·oncern to
the watchdogs of the regime.
did not even
realit~
What they did not say, perhaps
(like the deaf adder that stoppeth her
ear)50 was that brass in church music did not just add to the
fun (or, as we might say here, enjoyment, as of cheese cake
with. cherries) but has a rousing and invigorating effects
they may not have known that the chorales of the time of the
Reformation were not just musically superior to the soppy
stuff of the Romantic era, but textually too.
The Germans had begun before ·any other people to sing
hymns in their own language.
translated the Bible,
creatin~
When Luther came, he not only
something .that is worthy to
stand beside the English Authorized Version (the American
"King James Bible") but also, being very musi.cal, made the
chorale into a most important and powerful vehicle of the new
persuasion, making congregations sing.
He put a
lo~
lic Latin hymns into German and wrote more himself.
of CathoSince
!h!D, the Protestants in Germany have always had the better
hymns than the Catholics -- until both declined in the cen-
�-67tury of Beethoven, Schubert, and Wagner.
When the crucial
contlict W:ith the neo-pagan movement approached and during
the crisis itself, most musical Christians, but especially
the Protestants, realized they needed more to sustain them
than the spineless songs of the t9th century, the needed
words and music that really meant something.
And whereas
the Catholics were largely preserved from apostasy by the
clarity of their doctrine and the prescribed observances of
their faith, Protestants may be said, I think, to have been
pulled out of their.initial confusion.not only by some of the
more clearheaded and courageous parsons.and. laymen and laywomen, but also by a return to the truths proclaimed in Bible
and Hymnal.
And perhaps even wordless music, provided it is pure,
has some such power.51
Kurt Huber, this professor of philosophy, also taught -and wrote on -- music, both the physiology and psychology of
hearing and music, and, his special love, .!2.!!! music, the
real rooted stuff - ... that was in fact being rooted out,
trampled underfoot, by "the march of history," by this mass
movement that called itself "voelkisch."
Though physically.
somewhat handicapped -- he had. had infantile paralysis --· he ·
went to great lengths to hear and preserve what still existed ·
of such music.
A companion he once took on a musical moun-
tain trip to a rather inaccessible part of the Bavarian Alps,
to hear the yodelling.of the dairymaids there, reports that
�-68•he·n they left and had already gone a certain distance, these
wpmen sent a kind of farewell yodel after them.
Huber stopped
in his tracks, asked his companion for writing material, and
jotted down the yodel in figured bass notation,
so, tears· of emotion streamed down his face,52
know.what that emotion was.
As he did
I th,ink I
It was the emotion that. made
Victor Zuckerkandl speak· of "the miracle of the octave• and
on which, if I understand him aright,
st. Thomas (Aquinas)
bases one of his proofs of God, the one from·"governance.•
That may be an odd one to think of when the world was -- and
still is
so visibly out 9f joint.
All the more moving, I
would say, to hear or see an ex·ample, a representation, or
· symbol of that governance.
harmony,
To hear the pre-established
�-------------..
-69Notes
t,
See, for instance, Peter Loewenberg, "The psychohistoric.al origins of the Nazi youth cohort," The American Historical Review, volume 76, No. 5 (December 19?t),
PP• t4S?-1502,
2.
The Treat of Peace Between the Allied and Associated
Powers and German
with amendments and Other Treat
En a ements si ned at Versailles June 2
Part VIII was on Reparation. Its Section I General
Provisions) started with Article 231 which read1 "The
Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany
accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies
for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied
and Associated Governments and their nationals have .been
subjecte4 as a consequence of the war imposed upon them
by the aggression of Germany and her allies ...
J. T.S, Eliot, Four Quartets (London 1944), P•
9~
4.
Max Domarus, ed., Hitler.
5.
Theodore
6.
Katholisches Kirchenblatt fur das Bistum Berlin, XXX, No.
28 (15 July 1934).
Reden und Proklamationen 1 2t enossen.,.
1 4 • Kommentiert von einem deutschen Ze
Munich 19 5 , p. 20 •
c.
So~ensen,
Kennedy (New York 1966), P• 271.
A copy of the film, what remains of it, can be seen and
heard at the National Archives in Washington. A parti•l
transcript of the trial also. survived. For one relevant
fragment see Volksgerichtshofs-Prozesse zum 20,. Juli 1944 1 .
Transkri~te von Tonbandfunden. Herausgegeben vom
Lautarchiv des Deutschen Rundfunks (April 1961), p. 1221
for another see Gert Buchheit, Richter in roter Robe,
Preisler, Prlsident des Volksgerichtshofes (Munich 1968),
P• 24?.
a.
_
Bekenntnis der Professoren an den deutschen Universitaten
und Hochschulen zu Adolf Hitler und dem.nationalsozialistischen Staat, tJberreicht vom Nationalsozialistischen
Lehrerbund Deutschland / Sachsen (Dresden, n.d.), PP• 1Jt4 and J6-37 (Heidegger) and 15-17 and 38-40 (Hirsch).
Ernst Nolte, "Zur Typologie des Verhal tens der H.ocnschullehrer im Dritten Reich," Aus Politik und Geschichte,
Beilage. zur Wochenzeitung "Das Parlament," B 46/65
(17 November 1965), P• 11, For a series of lectures on
the subject of the Germari universities in the Third Reich,
�-10given at the University of Munich, see Die deutsche Universitat im Dritten Reich., Acht Beitr•ge (Munich 1966).
Fritz Leist, one of ·the contributors, who discusses pos~ibilities and limits of resistance at universities,
knew Willi Graf well and helped him and the White Rose
group.
10.
Karl Dietrich Bracher, The German Dictatorship.· The oriins structure and effects of National Socialism
Translated from the German by Jean Steinberg ••• New York
1970), P• 268r it is a quotation from ·Heidegger's Rec.:.
toral Address, Die Selbstbehauptung der deutschen Universi tit. ( Breslau 19J4), J>P• 22 ff •. ·
11.
Walter z. Laqueur, Young German*. A history of the German youth movement {New York 19 2), p. 191.
12.
Bekenntnis der Professoren (see note 8), P• 29, and for
the original "Ein Ruf an die Gebildeten der Welt," P• 5.
.
.
.
.
1 J.
Treaty of Peace .between the United Statee of America, the
British Empire, France, Italy and Japan, and Poland,
signed at Versailles, June 28, 1919 -- especially Articles
2,J, · a.nd 7-12. Also the letter, dated June 24, 1919,
addressed to M. Paderewski by the Presiden~ of the Conference transmitting to him the Treaty to be signed by
Poland under Article 93 of the Treaty of Peace with Ger-·
many.
14.
For the most comprehensive treatment of the subject see
Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews
(Chicago t 961).
15.
Hermann Rauschning, H"tler s eaks. A series of Conversations with Adolf Hitler on.his Real Aims London 1939),
p. 220. The quotation went on1 ttlt is a blemish, like
circumcision."
16. · Inge Scholl, Die Weisse Rose (Frankfurt 1955), PP•. 101-102.
For an American version see Inge Scholl, Students Against
T rann a The Resistance of the White Rose Munich 1 4219 3. Tran lated ••• by Arthur R. Schultz Middletown,
Connecticut 19?0).
·
17.
This account of his life is largely based on Gewalt und
Gewissen. Willi Graf und die "Weisse Rose." Eine
Dokumentation von Klaus Yielhaber in· Zusammenarbeit mit
Hubert Hanisch und Anneliese Knoop-Graf (Freiburg 1964).
18.
Ibid,, PP• 24-25.
19 • .!ill•• PP• 37-JB.
20.
!bid., P• JS.
�-?1-
22,
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
2,'.l.
llll·. PP• 18-19.
24.
Ibid.• PP• 25-27.
21.
PP• .38..; 39.
P• 39.
..
l;
What follows is largely based on the bo.ok by his surviving sister, Inge Scholl, Die Weisse Rose (see note 16).
Dietricb· Bonhoeffer, Widerstand und Ergebung, Aufzeichnt!!ABlll
aus der Haft. H.e.rausgegeben. von Eberhard Bethge
{Munich 1964) 1 p. 1.0. cf.· :L'etters and Papers from Prison.
Revised edition,
1967), P• 2.
Edited by Eberhard Bethge {New York
.
Christian Petry, Studenten aufs Schafott. Die Weisse Rose
und .ihr Scheitern (Munich t 968). PP• 36~42 •
28. . Ibid., pp. 1,5)-155. Translation of Schiller taken from
Frederick Ungar, ed., Friedrich Schiller. An Anthology
f'or our Tim.e. In new En lish tra.nsla.tions an the ori:-.
gi.nal' German, • ,
New York 19 59 , pp.' 21 J-219,
.29~
Ibid., PP• 156-158 •
30.
Ibid., .l'P• 159-161,
31.
Ibid., PP• 162-164,,
'.32.
Ibid.,
-
JJ.
Ibid., PP• 98-101.
PP• 164-167,
J4 • .!£.!.g., PP• 175-183 for text of indictment arid press notice about tria~ and execution. Also Students against
Tyranny (see note 16), PP• 105-118 and 148, for translation of indictment, se~tence, and press notice.
(n~te 27)t
PP•
195~211.
for
JS.
Ibid., PP• 119-13? and Petry
text of sentence.
J6.
~., PP•· 219-220,
J?,
Ibid., PP• 220-221.
JB..
~.,
J9.
Clara Huber, ed., Kurt Huber zum GedAchtnis. Bildnis
eines Menschen,·Denkers und Forschers, dargestellt voo
sei_nen Freunden (Regensburg 1947), PP• JO-J2.
4o.
Gewalt und Gewissen (see note t?}, PP• 87, 89, and 12J •.
p. 21 t.
�ST. JOHN"S COLLEGE LIBRARY
-'\#]£~ HUI lll 1
-72-
_
41.
Willi A, Boelcke, ed., The Secret Conferences of Dr.
Goebbels. The Nazi Pro a anda War 1
-1
• Transla.ted ••• by Ewald Osers
:ew York 1970 • P• 234.
42.
Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Man of Vision.
Man of Courage. Translated from the German by Eric
Mosbacher, Peter and Betty Ross, Frank Clarke, William
Glen-Doepel. Under the editorship of Edwin Robertson
(New York 1970), p~ 8)2.
43.
Gewalt und Gewissen (see note 17), P• 87.
44 • .!.!?.!9,., PP•
89~93
and
95.
45.
Meli ta Maschmann·, Fazi t. Kein Rechtfertigungsversuch,.,
(Stuttgart 1963), p. 159.
46,
Walther Hofer, e"d,, Der Nationalsazialisrnu,.c;;.
1933-1945~
(Frankfurt 1960), pp. JO-J1.
Dokumente
Heinz Boberach, ~d., Berichte des SD und der Gestapo
ttber Kirchen und Kirchenvolk in Deutschland 1 4-1 44
Mainz 1971 , PP•
8,
48.
.I.hi2·' p. 801.
49.
.!.Q!g., PP• 877-880,
50 •
Psalm 58.(57), verse 4.
.51
I
Willi Graf clearly felt something of the sort when he
made the following entry in his diary, on 21 January
194), after hearing two cello suites by Bacha "This
music has a tremendous seriousness and with it a
structure of a kind rarely encountered elsewhere. It
tells of an order of which at one time a man was capaple.
We can only receive it for a future which is going to
be quite different." (Gewalt und Gewissen -- see note
17 -- po 94.) Compare what Stravinsky wrote when he
attacked the notion of music as "expression1" "The
phenomenon of music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and
particularly, the coordination between .!!lfill and ~.
·
To be put into practice, its indispensable and single
requirement is construction. Construction once completed;
this order has been attained, and· there is nothing more
to be said. It would be futile to look for, or expect
anything else from it. It is precisely this con~truction,
this achieved order, which produces in us a unique emotion having nothing in comm'On with our ordinary sensations and our responses to the impressions of daily
life." (Igor Stravinsky, An Autobiography -- New York
1 962 -- p. 54. )
Kurt Huber (see note 39). P• 113,
�
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Student rebellion and the Nazis (two parts)
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Typescript of a lecture delivered on in two parts on February 18 and 25, 1972 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
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Sound recording: <a title="Part One (Audio)" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3598">Part one</a>
Sound recording: <a title="Part Two (Audio)" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3590">Part two</a>
Friday night lecture
Tutors
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Text
TRIAL
IN
BERLIN
Beate Ruhm von Oppen
A FORMAL LECTIJRE DELnrnRm AT ST JOHN-ts COLLEGE
�The place of the trial was Berlin, the time January 1945; the court
the so-called People's Court, the highest court for political crimes, such
as treason. It was meeting in a requisitioned building, the court building
having been destroyed by bombs. The presiding judge was Roland Freisler,
the same that had tried and sentenced some rebellious students in Munich
in
1943~
He had tried many cases since. The present one now was one of his
laste Three weeks later he was killed in a massive air raid on Berlin. The
chief defendant in this trial in the last winter of the war was a thirtyseven year old lawyer and landowner by name of Moltke, Count Moltke. He
had a whole string of names. The court only used the first, Helmuth.
The war was approaching its end. The British and Americans had sustained and defeated Hitler's last gamble, a winter offensive in the West, in
the Ardennes. The Russians were about to enter Germany on a broad front in
the East.,
The trial in Berlin was a treason trial@ But, as the defendant wrote
to his wife,
'~his
affair is really somewhat better than the celebrated Huber
case. For even less actually happened. We did not so much as produce a
leaflet~"
What hs meant by "the celebrated Huber case" was the case of those
Munich students and their Professor, Kurt Huber, who had been sentsnced to
death for writing and spreading leaf lets against the Nazis. The group had
chosen "The White Rose" as its
of years
ago~
name~
I lectured about it in Annapolis a couple
In the subsequent discussion the name of the group and the
students who chose it were referred to as rather too "exquisite" and concentration on leaflets as a way of fighting the Nazis was criticized as unrealistic:
why didn't they rather gather arms. My response was to ask what a handful of
students could be expected to do against the kind of regime I had tried to
describso I had probably failed to set it off clearly enough against a mare
police stats, let alone pre-revolutionary America, or, for that matter,
Richard Nixon's. Incidentally, thoss students had, in fact, carried arms, for
strictly tactical purposes: when they went out at night to write slogans on
walls and expected to have to shoot their way out if the police arrived@
That question "why didn't they?" and the counter-question "what could
they do?" stand for a whole range of "why didn't they" questions, question•
of methods and purposes, means and ends. And together they raise the question of
�-2-
what is sometimes called "realism,."
Why did the defendant in the Berlin trial two years later consider
his case "even better" than the case of the White Rose? Because, he said oddly
enough, "even less actually happened."
We shall have to see what in fact did happen. And then we might try to
discuss whether we agree or disagree that such a case was "better." The
discussion may be difficult and should be delicate; it muat be conducted with
some awareness of the prevailing circumstances -- which there is now no time
to describe. When I say that the Nazi system went beyond a mare police state
I mean that its legal and extra-legal methods and instruments of persuasion and
of coercion were more comprehensive and more
dreadful~
It was a one-party
state in which all rival parties and organizations were forbiddene The press,
the media, !11 publications were strictly controlled, and so were the pulpits,
though the regime did not dare go all out in a frontal onslaught on the
churches. But National Socialism had the character of a counter-religion. It
was especially intent on the indoctrination of the young~ Ta have any kind
of career at all presupposed membership in the Hitler Youth, which was officially
compulsory, though some managed to escape it. The Nazi Party, or, to give it
its full name, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, was not only a
party, but a Movement, one which swept much before it that had seemed quite stable
before. Once in power it engendered and exploited psychological pressures among
the people that ware unprecedented in modern
society~
or, for that matter, in
any society. There was, in addition to new laws, prisons and the legal administration of justice, the whole universe of concentration camps, even in peace
time; during the war they proliferated and once Hitler had decided on tha destruction of the Jews of Europe, death camps
we,re
added in the East. Their
existence and operation was secret, a State Secret. Rumor was always rife -and always punishable -- and reliable and comprehensive information impossible
to coma by. In peace-time the unauthorized getting and spreading of information
could be punished as defamation of the state or of the Party or Movement; in
war-time it might rank as treason@ Anyone resisting the system had a hard time and
a short expectation of life.
!
I
iJ
�-3-
For someone who had opposed the Nazis from the beginning, the
defendant in that trial in Berlin in January 1945 had had a surprisingly
long life. But then Helmuth James van Moltke, who achieved the age of
thirty-seven, bore a name that 1JJas renowned in the annals of German
history; and he was a trained lawyere Hitler hated lawyers. He knew
why~
The defendant's great-grand-uncle Helmuth von Moltke was the
general who had enabled the Prussian chancellor Bismarck to beat the
Austrians and the French and to unite the German states in the second
German Reich. The name of Moltke still had some magic in Hitler's Third
Reiche The family estate Kreisau, in Silesia, which had been the old
Moltke 1 s reward for his services to the fatherland, had passed to his
great-grand-naphewe In fact Helmuth James had had to take it on, quite
suddenly and not at all enthusiastically, in 1929, at the age of
22~
during
the world economic crisis produced by the Wall Street crash, which coincided
with the discovery that Kreisau was very heavily in debt, with bankruptcy
quite probable. He sat to work with a will, and within a year he had, by
dint of great skill, extremely hard work and negotiations, made Kreisau
solvent once more,
The defendant's mother was of British-South-African
James Rose Innes
descant~
her father, was a famous chief justice in South Africa,
renowned for his liberalism
His grandson Helmuth James van Moltke's legal
flair and training may have been a factor that prolonged his life. In the
end it did not save it,
it enabled him to go exhaustively into all the
possibilities of defence against the charges brought against him. He even had
the effrontery to argue in mitigation the fact that he had never made a secret
of his critical attitude, but on the contrary had, as he thought it was his
duty and that of any servant of the state, warned against policies and practices
he saw as dangerous and
harmful~
The court's reaction to this line of defence is not recorded. In fact all
we have on the course of the trial is Mcltke 1 s own fairly full account and
comment which he smuggled out to his wife in three letters between being tried,
sentenced, and hanged; and the official Top Secret text of the sentence, with
reasonso
�-4-
What were those reaeone? That the defendant had had knowledge of
a plot to overthrow the government, declined to join it and warned his
friends against it, but did not report it to the authorities. And that
he himself formed a circle to seize power, in case of a German defeat,
with people who were not National Socialists.
These reasons were spelled out in greater detail, as follows:
The accused was administrator and finally owner of the family estate
Kreieau in Silesia. He was also a lawyer, specializing in international
law and admitted at the British Bar. His membership in Nazi Party organizations was minimal, just enough to allow him to carry on his farming and
legal practice. In the war he was employed as legal advisor to the Supreme
Corrmand of the Armed forces. He always took -- the official account now adds
somewhat suddenly and incongruously
-- an interest in religious and ec-
clesiastical questions, iri the relationship between church and state and the
question of "rechristianization", as well as in agrarian policy and the
decentralization of administration.
Around 1941, the official account goes on, he began to think about
the future in case the war should be lost, and started discussing it with
friends and acquaintances, none of whom were National Socialists and some of
whom had since been convicted as traitors. In 1942 and 1943 there were two
longer meetings at Kreisau, the first dealing with re-christianization and the
relations of church and state. The Jesuit father Alfred Delp -- who was a
co-defendant at this trial and also sentenced to death
spoke about the
Catholic view on social policy, with special reference to the papal encyclical
Quadrageeimo Anno. And Moltke later checked with a Catholic Bishop that the
hierarchy still endorsed that document. The second Kreisau meeting dealt with
questions of administration and the relationship of the states and the Reich.
There was also a search for people who would be suitable and willing to carry
out the policies that were discussed.
Meanwhile there had been contact with the conspiratorial circle of
Carl Goerdeler, the former Mayor of Leipzig, to which Moltke was opposed because
�-5-
he considered it reactionary, (while he, let me interpolate, was
interested in establishing common ground between socialists - many
of them
and
v~ry
anti-clerical - as wall as conservatives and liberals
Christians~
between trade unions and the churches of both de-
nominations; the Protestant church being far more to the Right in
Garmany than the Catholic.)
The official document summed the case up in the following words:
"All Count Moltke did constitutes treason: high treason in the midst
cf warw He cannot lessen its gravity by saying that he
thinking and did not
procs~d
w~s
only
to carrying out planse For he did more
than think : he also gathered a circle for the discussion and deuelcpment
of plans; and finally he looked for msn to carry them 01.rtu,, 11 The reasoning
of the sentence gees en ta argue that auen thinking about the case of
defeat is criminal; and that the definition of trsaacn cannot be limited
to a man out to rob us of our way of life
his own exercise of
force~
In
peace that might be en acceptable limit. But in War the outer enemy counts
on the internal opponent and vice
versa~
Moltke 1 s treason must be regarded
as a particularly grave case. He spread defeatism and helped the enemy@
At this point twc articles cf the penal code were adduced: paragraph
83 (on organizational cohesion) and paragraph 9lb (on aiding an
; in
addition, paragraph 5 of ths Special Penal Ordinance for War which dealt
with activities or utterances detrimental to the national def enca or to
to Moltke's defeatism end its
morale, and which was evidently made tc
inf ectiaus effects or potential
But, the
cf the sentence went on, this was not all~ From
1940 onward Moltke heard about and mambara of his circle wera in contact with
the gr·oup of
Carl
Goerdelar~
Beck
This group was plotting to overthrow the gauarnmente Maltke
was against itl' on the
Lo~don
former chief of general staff) end of
~
inteir
alia~
that
h~
knew from his visits to
before ths war that Goardeler 1 s British contacts were
confin~d
to
right-wing reactionariesg Yet finally he agreed to a meeting of the two groups
at which he explained his opposition to
Goerdeler~
The meeting broke up in
�-6-
acrimony. Moltke continued to warn his associates against the Goerdeler
group. Yet he did not report it to tha authorities. This omission alone
would be punishable by death under paragraph 139 of the Penal Code. But
the real point was that all these things were part of a whole and meant
that Moltke made himself into a servant of the enemy and therefore had to
be punished by death.
~
So much for a summary of the sentence.
Actually the death penalty was not mandator¥ under any of the laws
that were adduced. Much therefore depended on the judge and his impression
of and reaction to the accused. Ths judge was Roland Freisler, the most
radical and ruthless of the Nazi judges
Hitler himself once referred ta
him as a 'Bolshevik' in his Table Talk@ He
was~
as I have said, the same
judge that had presided over the court that sentenced the l"lunich sh1dents,,
But that was nearly two years earl!Gr, in February
1943~
During
the last
winter of the war and after the initial rage and vengeance against all who
ware connected with the plot of July 1944 was spent, after thousands of
arrests and hundreds of executions, during the winter of the Russian advance
on Germany and the last German offensive in the West, it was observed that
the Pecpla 1 a Court wee perhaps
a bit more lenient in its
sentences~
Therefore Moltke, whc had been cpposad ta asaassination, indeed ta any
attempt ta overthrow the regime by force, and who had baen under arrest
since January 1944, six months before Stauffenberg planted his bomb and
failed ta kill Hitler, on 20 July 1944, Moltke had, it would seem, a chance
of getting away with a prison sentence@
The official arguments 1 for all their harping on . .hi-a education .and
elevated position and the greater responsibility these carried with them, were
not very convincing on the naad to kill him and Delp, but not Eugen Gerstenmaier,
a Protestant cleric, or church official, anoths:r Kreisauer and c:o-defem::ant
who, unlike the other twc 1 was actually arrested at Stauffenberg 1 s conspiratorial headquarters in the war ministry in Berlin in the evening of 20 July 1944,
and who nonetheless got af f with a seven year jail sentence@
There
~~,of
course, plenty of other things
Moltk~
had dona that the
court did not know about and that would have laid him open to severe punishments
In the absence of such knowledge and of convincing arguments in the aff icial
�-7-
explanation of the sentence, we must now turn ta the trial itself@
Moltke's own account of it is reliable and has been preserved
-- I am tempted to say "as by a miracle" or a whale series of miracles.,
first the very fact that he was able to write it, able not only psychologically but physically. Usually those condemned to death were hauled
straight off to the gallowse Moltke was taken back to his prison
Then, the Protestant prison chaplain, Harald Pcelchau, was a friend af
his and
bean a member cf his circle, a fact that was never found out
in the year of investigation. This
to his wife and back
He also
to
it out af
to
trial,. /:\nd shB
to
letters from Moltke
out tha account cf the
he hands of the
all his other letters and the Kreiseu
Silesia became a theatre cf war end ia now
Whan we turn to Moltka's awn account, we find that all these flat
in the official sentence about
away amang other t
Moltke~s
interest in
of
and decentralization
like
that
even the mention of Kr9isau discussions of Catholic views on social
concealsd rather then ravealad ths drama
the trial, and cancasled it
reason, the same reason that made Moltke urge his wife to
account cf the trial to
known. Three times he
steted it in his latt9rs
The f
2t time
caHsd ::1.t the
of the tLrhole
the third time the drama or
What was that crux
and
the way the trial had
him to death? It
the trial
t
however much their actions
cf the offic!sl sentence were flat, tortuous, and unconthe document
put in
what
wa~
Top Secret, th® court did not dare
bean elicited from the mouth cf the judge, farced from
him by the complete and inccmtr·mJertibla non-violence of the dsfendant, a
defendant who was able and willing to take his stand on principle, willing to
�stake his life, able to manage his defense in a way that did not permit
his accusers to pervert the cause of his condemnation as was commonly
done.
Let me give you those three places in Moltks's own
words~
trans-
lated: I am canuinced they are an accurate reproduction of what went on in
that court. He had a lawyer's memory.
The first. After the discussion of the charge of defeatism and of
preparations for the time after the Nazis, Moltke goes on to FreislerWs
diatribe:
But now came the crux of the whole thing. "And who was
present? A Jesuit father! Of all people a Jesuit father!
And a Protestant minister, end three ethers who were later
sentenced to death for complicity in the July 20 plat!
And not a single National
So~ialistl
eey: that doss remove the
!
No~
not ons$ I must
A Jesuit father, end
of civil
disobedience! And you also knew the Drovincial Head of the
ans of the
off foials of
• ha uieits Count Moltke
not
s most.
Kreisau! And you are
no decent German would touch
who have been excluded
f r:om all
service bacauae of their attitude
If I
there is a Provincial of the Jesuits in a town, it is
almost enough to keep ms out cf that town altogether! And
the other rauerend gentleman. Whet was he after there? Such
psapla should confine their attentions to the hereafter and
leave us here in peace! And you went visiting Bishops! looking
far something you had last, I suppose! Where do you get your
orders from? You get your ordere f rcm the Fuehrer end the
National Socialist Party! That goes fer you as much as for any
other German; end anyone who takes his orders, no matter under
�-9-
what camouflage, from the guardians of the other
world, is taking them from the enemy, and will be
dealt with accordingly."
"And so it went on," commented Moltke, "but in a key which made the
earlier paroxysms appear as the gentle rustlings of a breeze." After this
climax, he added, the end came in about five minutes.
He summed up this first account of what went on in court in these
words:
This concentration on the chur.ch aspect of the case
corresponds with the intrinsic nature of the matter
and shows that Freisler is a good political judge
after all. It gives us the inestimable advantage of
being killed for something which (a) we really have
done and which (b) is worthwhile.
A bit later in the same letter he commented:
The best thing about a judgment on such lines is this:
It is established that we did not wish to use force; it
is further established that we did not take a single
step towards setting up any sort of organization, nor
question anyone as to his readiness to take over any
particular post
though the indictment stated other-
wise. We merely thought ••• And in face of the thoughts
of ••• three isolated men, their mere thoughts, National
Socialism gets in such a panic that it wants to root out
everything they may have infected. There's a compliment
for you •••• We are to be hanged for thinking together.
Freisler is right, a thousand times right; and if we are
to die, I am in favour of dying on this issue.
But he hoped that their death could be turned to some immediate account and
added:
I am of the opinion -- and now I am coming to what has got to be
done
that this affair, properly presented, is really
somewhat better than the celebrated Huber case. For even
less actually happened. We did not so much as produce a
�-10-
leaflet. It is only a question of men's thoughts
without even the intention to resort to violence •••
All that is left is a single idea: how Christianity
can prove a sheet-anchor in time of chaos. And just
for this idea five heads ••• look like being forfeited
tomorrow 9 •• Because he made it clear that I was opposed in principle to large estates,
tf-1at
I had no
class interests at heart, no personal interests ~t ~li,
not even those of my outfit, but stood tor the cau·P
of all mankind, for all these reasons Freisler has
unwittingly done us a great service, insofar as it may
prove possible to spread the story and make full use of
it. And indeed, in my view, this should be done both
at home and abroad. For our case histories provide
documentary proof that it is neither plots nor plans
but the very spirit of man that is to be hunted down •••
All this was written after the prosecutor had asked for the death
sentence for Moltke and four co-defendants, but before the court had pronounced. The next day, January 11, brought the decision: Moltke and Delp
and one other were to die, Gerstenmaier got off with a prison sentence. On
that day Moltke once more returned to the drama of the 10th when he wrote:
The following, as it turned out was the really dramatic
thing about the trial. During the procedings all factual
charges had proved to be untenable and were dropped •••
Schulze (the prosecutor) in his summing-up expressly
stated that this case "differs radically from all parallel
cases, for in the conversations there was no mention of
violence or organised opposition" -- whereas the question
under discussion was the practical demands of the Christian
ethic, nothing more. And it is for this alone that we stand
condemned.
Moltke continues:
In ona of his tirades freisler said to me: "Only in
�-11-
one respect does National Socialism resemble
Christianity: we demand the whole man. I
do~'t
know if the others sitting there took it all in,
for it was a sort of dialogue between Freisler
and me -- a dialogue of the spirit, since I did
not get the chance actually to say much -- in the
course of which we got to know one another through
and through. Freisler was the only one of the whole
gang who thoroughly understood me, and the only one
of them who realized why he must do away with me.
There was no more talk of me as a "complex character"
or of "complicated thinking" or of "ideology," but:
"the figleaf is off." But only so far as Freialer
was concerned. It was as though we were talking to
each other in a vacuum. He made not a single joke at
my expense, as he did
agai~t
Delp and Eugen. No, in
my case it was all grimmest earQest. "From whom do
you take your orders,
fr~m
the other world or from
Adolf Hitler? Where lie your loyalty and your faith?"
Rhetorical questions, of course. At any rate Freisler
is the first National Socialist who has grasped who I
am.
Then there was a pause during which the Catholic prison chaplain visited
Moltke and he was shaved and given some coffee and something to eat, and
then he resumed the letter:
The decisive phrase in the proceedings was: ".... Cmietiufty
has one thing in common with us National Socialists, and
one thing only: we claim the whole man."
And later this letter, which supplements and
amplifies his earlier report,
goes on to describe how the Christian component of the case came to be singled
out, by the providential elimination not only of all connections with plans
for a violent overthrow of the regime but also of co-defendants and charges
and motivations that would have enabled the court to pin blame on individual
�-12-
or sectional interests. "And so finally I am selected," Moltke writes,
as a Protestant, am attacked and condemned primar.ily
because of my friendship with Catholics, which means
that I stood before Freisler not as a Protestant, not
as a big landowner, not as an aristocrat, not as a
Prussianj not as a German
elimin~ted
~-
all that was definitely
earlier in the trial •• ~No, I stood there
as a Christian and as nothing else@ "The figleaf is
off," says Freisler.
Yes~
every other category had
been removed.
Yau can read those letters in a
little.book~•
There is also a full-length
**
biography that gives some of the historical and sociological context of the
life that culminated in this trial@ The question is
figure very prominently in that biography
~~
~
though i t doss not
whether there is a real and
necessary connection between the Christian convictions of this political
convict end his life end actions up to that final
dialogue~
I think there is@
Moltke himself certainly thought there was.
*
*
*
It was in the summer of 1940, when France had fallen, Russia was still
neutral and in
with
, and Hitler was at the pinnacle of his
power and seemed invincible, that Moltke had started,
, to collect
the secret standing seminar cf ccnasruatives 1 liberals, socialists, Protestants
and Catholics, far the discussion af a human
order ta supersede the
Nazis' so-called New Order. One of the first things the group found itself in
agreement on
and that included the socialists
~~
was the need to
rechristian~
ize Germany if it was to be re-humanizeda This did net mean a clericalization
cf politics or education. It meant a restoration and defence of the freedom of
religion and of conscisnceg
*A German of the Resistance .. The last Latters of Count Helmuth James van
Third Edition® Berlin: Henssel
**Michael Balfour and Julian
Verlag~
Frisby~
1972~
Helmuth von liJoltke; A Leader Against
Hitler. London: Macmillan, 1972 9 and NGw York: Ste Martin's Press, 1973.
l"loltke~
�-13-
Thi9 experience of the rediscovery of the central political
relevance of Christianity during the years of Nazi rule is described
at greater length in a chapter of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics. I
hava often been struck by the way Bonhoeffer's writings era exemplified
or paralleled in Moltke's life. The two men knew each other. They even
travelled together to Scandinavia on a wartime mission, in the spring of
1942, for the Abwehr
or Counter-Intelligsnce department, the "outfit"
Moltke referred to in his prison letter, a hotbed of conspiracy against
the Nazis, whose heads, Canaris and Oster, were later executed too. Otherwise Moltke and Bonhosffar had little contact and they did not see eye to
eye on the desirability of assassinating Hitler. But more of that anon©
What matters hers is the discovsry both men and many others mads in the Nazi years
that there was a close connection between Christianity and civilization and
between apostasy and barbarism,
Bonhaeffsr put it, that
or~as
11 R~ason~
culture,
all these concepts which until
had served as battle
ver::y
the
Jesus Christ himself 1 had
Ch:r
come very near indaed ta
'?
also in
lJ~consc1ous
which deeiree not to fall victim to
the Antichrist to take
comment an the truth cf both statements
that "He that is not
is not with me
It could, or course
is
ove:r~
be
9
is
e.nci often is :i
could be restored and defended without religious
that
Moltke himself
sanction~
ht so in the earlier phase of the Nazi regimso But subse=
quent experience taught him otherwise® During the war, in the spring af 1942 1
in a long letter en the German situation which he managed to get ta a friend
in England 1 he wrote:
Perhaps you will remember that, in discussions before the
war, I maintained that belief in God was not essential for
coming to the results you arrive at* To-day I know that I
wee wrong, completely wrong. Yau know that I haue fought
the Nazis from the first day, but the amount of risk and
readiness for sacrifice which is asked from us now, and that
which may be
aak~d
from us tomorrow, require more than right
�-14-
ethical principles, especially as we know that
the success of our fight will probably mean a
total collapse es a national unit. But we are
ready to face this.
This last consideration must have been a very serious one. Among
his oppositional friends and associates Moltke was probably unique in not
only not being a nationalist but not even a patriot. The others felt that
in opposing Hitler they were the real patriots, however much the Nazis
might arrogate a monopoly of patriotism to themselves. But Moltke was above
even those considerations and the consolations and conflicts they gave rise
to. Yet he knew that the fight against the Treaty of Versailles had been
Hitler's trump card at home and abroad and that the threat of another such
treaty or a worse one made domestic resistance a desperately lonely undertaking.
In such an undertaking one needed a faith to sustain one, faith that
fortified one against being overwhelmed by the historic events of the moment
and their massive psychological effects, and faith that had indeed a connection
with "another world'' from that dominated not only by the Nazis but by all
those who thought like them elsewhere: or those who, at any rate, could not
free themselves from the coils of collective thinking.
This, of course, is natural enough in time of war, even one that, like
the second world war, has an aspect of international civil war about it. Even
in peace people find it difficult or even undesirable to think of themselves
and others except as parts of collectivitiesQ In fact nowadays that is how
"identity" tends to be defined: in terms of menbership of this or that collective:
black, white, red; racial, religious, national, or sexual. But in war the need
to feel one belongs to some group or other becomes even stronger. And
nations~
naturally, lay claim to their nationals and require them to perform services
and observe loyalties.
Moltke, incidentally, did at one time think of emigrating, leaving his
Silesian estate -- to which he was very much attached
leaving his law practice
in Berlin, leaving his German roots and connections, and trying to make a go of
�-15-
it in England where he qualified as a lawyer by virtually commuting
across the Channel in the late
193~!e;but
he had understandable
hesitations, and when the war broke out, he was in Germany.
He then worked as a legal advisor to the German High Command and
did his utmost to persuade his superiare of the benefits of international
law. He laboured to prevent or reduce breaches of it by the Germans, even
to interpret infractions by the other belligerents in ways that favoured
them. In human terms this meant, for instance, getting people classified
as prisoners of war whose status under the Geneva Conventions might be rather
dubious, or arguing against the slave trade that foreign labour should not
be forcibly drafted to Germany but that people should rather be allowed to
man their own industries at home in the occupied countries, or it might mean
fighting against Hitler's order that any captured Russian political Commissars
should not be treated as prisoners but were to be shot at once.
Moltke was indefatigable in this work and achieved an amazing amount of
success considering his relatively junior rank. Some of his successes might
not be lasting -- but even just prolonging someone's life or liberty was worth
the effort. His powers of persuasion must have been prodigious. What he ascribed
them to himself, apart from hard work (he was always in command of his facts),
was the appeal he could make, beside all arguments of expediency he might
marshal, to the residual decency in people, who might even be relieved, on
some occasions, to hear someone say things that had once been generally accepted
as true and good, but which were now as generally relegated to the status of
sentimentality or worse.
In the pursuit of such "sentimentality," or one might call it "justice"
or "humanity", he had to keep and use his head. Theatrical gestures would have
helped no-one. But this need to keep his head worried him at times, when he
wondered whether he was getting hardened, just as he had already worried earlier
whether the mere fact of staying and carrying on might not help maintain the
facade behind which the Nazis did their devilish work. The strain of this sometimes became almost unbearable.
�-16-
A latter of October 1941 may give you an idea of
this~
It was
written at a time when Russia was but America was not yet in the war.
In his official position Moltke had access ta classified information,
the kind of thing that never got into the
press~
He writes:
The day has been so full of ghastly news that I
can't write collectedly although I came back at
5 and have had tea= What I mind most at the moment
is the inadequacy of the reaction of the military.
Falkenhausen and Stuelpnagel [they wars the generals
in charge of Belgium and France] have returned to
their places instead of resigning after the latsst
incidents,
n~w
and
horribl~
orders are going out
and nobody seems to care@ Haw can one bear oneYa
share of guilt?
In one part of Serbia two villages have been reduced to ashes and of the inhabitants 1,700 men and
240 women have been executed® This was called the
"punishment" for the attack on three German soldiers@
In Greece 240 men were shot in one village® The
uillaga was burnt down, the women and children were
left on the apct to mourn their husbands and fathers
and hcmsso In France extensive shootings are going on
as I writs© In this way c9rtainly mora than a thousand
and thousands more
Germans are being habituated to murder® And all that is
child's play compared to what is happening in Poland
and Russiae Is it right for me to learn of these things
and yet sit at my table in a
wall~haated
room and drink
tea? Do I not thereby make myself into an accomplice?
What shall I say when I am asked: "And what did you do
during this time?"
I
!
I
�-17-
Since Saturday they have been herding the
Berlin Jews together. They are collected at
9.15 in the evening and shut into a synagogue
overnight. Then they are sent, with what they
can carry to Lodz and Smolensk. The authoritues
want to spare us the sight of how they are left
to perish in hunger and cold and that is why it
is done in Lodz and Smolensk. A friend of Kiep's
saw a Jew collapse in the street; when she wanted
to help him get up, a policeman intervened, prevented~her
and kicked the body as it lay on the
ground, so that it rolled into the gutter. Then he
turned to the lady with a last vestige of shame and
said: ''Those are our orders."
How can one know of such things and still walk
about a free man?
His actions gave the answer. It was not a question of the "right" to refrain
from an instant reflex. It was a case of duty. There were things he could do
or could try to do, and those he did, accepting the risk of arrest, but not
courting it.
Hatching or joining a plot to kill Hitler was not among those things.
This was not because he lacked the courage but because, unlike Bonhoeffer, he
judged it to be wrong, for several reasons. One of them was his conviction that
the assassination of Hitler -- even if it succeeded, and he had his doubts
about that -- would not cure the Germans of Hitlerism but might, on the contrary,
make a martyr of him and give rise to another legend, worse than the one that
had vitiated politics after the first world war, when it was said and widely
accepted that the undefeated German army was stabbed in the back by traitors at
home. Moltke was convinced that the only cure for the German disease was a clear
military defeat -- not the whole cure, of course, but a necessary part. And the
Nazis would have to be in charge until that def eat was accomplished so that the
responsibility for it should be unmistakably theirs.
This does not mean that he was enthusiastic about the Allied policy of
�-18-
demanding "Unconditional
Surrender~"
especially about the way that slogan
affected propaganda. It was launched by Roosevelt and accepted by Churchill
at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, at a time when the Russians
were bearing the brunt of the war and clamouring for a second front in the
Westo The battles at Stalingrad and in North Africa were, at last, turning
the tide of the war, and Roosevelt probably got carried away by historic
echoes, by the elation of
Amarica~s
growing power, and by the desire to assure
the hard-pressed Russians, and more particularly the ever-suspicious Stalin,
that the Western allies would never conclude any kind of negotiated peace with
whatever kind of German regime* Whenever Germans opposed to the Nazi regime
tried to establish contact with the West, Roosevelt refused to have anything
to do with these "East German junkers" as he called them and the British
government rejected all such fselars as aiming at a "soft peace" or a split in
the coalition between the Wast and Soviet Russia" When Stauffsnberg finally
tried and failed to kill Hitler and remove his regime, the official mood in
London was one of relief at the failure; the reason given was Moltke 1 s: that
the plot, if-it had succssdad, would only have meant another stab=in-the-back
legendQ Publicly Churchill made a scathing comment, in the House of
Commons~
on
the German top-dogs now being at each other's throats. Much later, after the
war, he mads amends for this and paid tribute to the plotters.
But there was another reason for the unwillingness in London and
Washington to consider any oppositional German approaches" It was the feeling
that Germany needed a thoroughgoing social revolution or re-construction and
that this would have to be brought about or facilitated by Allied occupation,
by American, British, and Russian occupation (the Franch were included at a
later stage, at de Gaulle's insistence). The Russian part has, actually,
happened.
Moltke and his friends had their own plans for social change -- including,
incidentally, the nationalization of some key industries. They proposed to take
mining, iron and steel, the basic chemical industries and fuel and power into
public ownershipo They also had their own plans for the purgation of the body
politic and the punishment of war criminals and of Nazis who had committed
crimes in Germany. They were convinced that punishment J2y Germans in conjunction
�-19-
with the International Court at The Hague, rather than by the victors1 was
not only desirable and possible, but would also be more efficacious.
Others of the Kreiaau discussions and proposals still have a
curiously prophetic ring about them, especially those concerned with the
need to create smaller social and political units, units in- which people can
once more feel they belong and amount to something, feel responsible. The
plans for a federal structure of Germany and for a united Europe anticipated
some actual later developments. The need for the re-christianization of
Germany that they felt so strongly in the hell of the Nazi counter-religion
may have found some counterpart in the growth of Christian Democratic parties
in Western Europe; and it is probably no accident that it was the Christian
Democrats in France, Germany, and Italy who made the first bold moves after
the war to get away from the stranglehold of nationalism and the nation state,
to found some kind of European unity.
These developments may not quite have taken the form that was or
indeed could be envisaged by the internal opponents of Hitler's Fortress
Europe, but their recognition of the dangers of totalitarianism in all its
forms and of the manipulability of mass societies, their search for remedies,
retains its relevance to the problems of our day.
The People's Court in Berlin knew of the Kreisau discussions and their
outcome only in vaguest outline. The incriminating evidence was very sparse.
Moltke and his associates had been extremely careful and circumspect while at
liberty, and brave and resourceful
under interrogation, some of it -- though not
in Moltke's own case -~accompanied by torture. The court did know of the
selection of Regional Commissioners that were to take over after the removal of
the Nazis and of the instructions that the Kreisauers had drafted for them. But
the chief emphasis in the trial was on their temerity in thinking of and providing
for a German defeat; not on working for it, but on thinking about it. Freisler
knew as well as Moltke what narrow limits are set to effective action against
a totalitarian regime. He had no inkling of Moltke's effectiveness within those
limits. But he sensed and said what was the basis of that effectiveness and the
real danger to the regime: the faith that was opposed to the Nazi faith.
�-20-
The Christian faith had, since the Reformation, split Germany
into mutually hostile Protestant and Catholic factions and had been subject
to erosion in the decades before Hitler, exploiting the split and the loss of
faith, offered himself as the new Saviour.
It must have been this realization that made Moltke, the Protestant,
so determined and methodical in his contacts with the Catholics, not only
with the Jesuits, but also with layman and with the Catholic Bishop of
Berlin, Count Preysing, who happened to be the most clear-headed and recalcitrant member of the German hierarchy as far as the Nazis ware concerned.
(Incidentally, Preysing had written a rather interesting article on Thomas
More on the occasion of MoreYs elevation to the sainthood, in 1935,
lJillim
and at a time when such a canonization had clear
political overtones.) Moltke saw Preysing quite regularly for the discussion
of current problems and what could be done about them, right down to the
content and style of pastoral
letters~
Moltke had the reputation -- rightly or wrongly -- of being incapable
of telling a lise He was certainly capable of telling less than the whole
truth. In the conduct of his court case he withheld as much incriminating
information as hs could, and that was a lot. Ha was very
careful~
as were
his associates, to limit tha damage, and blame what could not be denied on the
dead or on those who were for other reasons beyond the reach of the regime.
The prosecution never learnt of the third Kreisau meeting (one concerned with
foreign policy, the punishment of Nazi criminals, and the instructions to ba
given to the post-Nazi Regional Commissioners)© It did not know what want on
at countless smaller meetings in Berlin, at meetings with resistance leaders
abroad or with representatives of the German occupation
SS
~on
~
military or even
whom Moltke got to work to reduce the harm they were doing and ta
increase the good. He did not volunteer information to his interrogators about
his part in the rescue of the Norwegian Bishop Beraqrav or of the Danish
Jews~
So what he says in his letters about his trial is true: he was
condemned not for what he had dona but for what he ~· His widespread and
energetic and dangerous activities on behalf of victims of the regime, his
�-21-
efforts to foil and counteract the purposes of the Nazis and to prepare for a
human political order to supersede theirs (and that very preparation, those
discussions, were, of course, invaluable for the preservation and fortif ication of mental health in Hitler's madhouse) - all these activities were
the expression of tte kind of man he was, a man who took his Christianity
more and more seriously. George Kennan, who only knew him in the early
stages of his clandestine activities, described him, in his Memoirs, as "the
greatest person, morally, and the largest and most enlightened in his concepts" that he met on either side of the battle lines in the second world
war.
I did not know him at all. I have only read hundreds of his letters,
letters in which he is very much alive, in his integrity, his intelligence,
his seriousness, and his caustic wit. They give a picture rather different
from that in the literature about him. On the basis of my knowledge of the
period and of those letters I would even suggest that he was a realist.
�
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Trial in Berlin
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Typescript of a lecture delivered on November 28, 1973 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
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Friday night lecture
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Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
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Song and dance and faith and prayer: the case of J. S. Bach's <em>Magnificat</em>
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Audio recording of a lecture delivered on February 09, 1996 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1996-02-09
Friday night lecture
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Text
Beate Ruhm von Oppen
February 9, 1996
Song and Dance and Faith and Prayer:
The Case of J. S. Bach's
MAGNIFICAT
I.
This lecture will deal with the subject of words and music. It will examine what words can
do for music and, more importantly, music for words -- and both, in the case of a sacred text, for
believers and unbelievers.
Words are needed as a vehicle for the human voice -- unless the singer is content to sing,
and the composer to compose, just hummed notes or nonsense syllables. The singer has the
obligation -- which not all singers fulfill -- to enunciate the text clearly and with a sense of its
meaning. Some singers quail before the meaning of some texts. The question is: should they sing
them? They may have to impersonate someone who does believe the message of those words.
What will not do is slovenly diction, disrespect for the words -- treating them as though only the
voice of the singer (or the vocal line of the composer) matters. Singers who have no respect for the
words -- their sound and their meaning -- should confine themselves to singing "lalala" or
"mimimi," but preferably not in public.
What can music do for words? That is a vast subject. A good poem is not necessarily made
better by being set to music. Different composers can set the same text quite differently.
Sometimes the same composer sets the same text in different ways at different times. There are
such examples in Bach's Passions, cantatas, and motets, and in his Latin and German Magnificats.
For example, he set even a famous phrase like ''The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"
differently in the Matthew Passion and in Cantata No. 70 (Watch ye! Pray ye!), where it gets quite
cursory treatment in a tenor recitative about heavenly aspirations and the body as the jailor of the
spirit. The Matthew Passion is the more memorable, and no wonder: there Bach gave it his full
attention. He was setting Holy Scripture. It comes in its biblical context, as part of a
�3
pronouncement by Jesus when he finds his disciples sleeping, instead of, as he had asked them,
watching with him while he prayed. So Bach illustrated and musically embodied it, imitated, if
you will, the willingness of the spirit and the weakness of the flesh.
I do not have time to discuss the question of singing translations - it would require at least
a whole hour to itself. We can, if you want to, discuss it in the Question Period.
But there is a more profound question, and one that worried church authorities and
reformers: Does music detract from the word of God? Popes and church councils have at various
times issued edicts about how sacred texts should be set: for instance, not floridly, in a display of
the voice, but on the principle of "one syllable one note." Martin Luther, who was very musical,
was determined not to let the devil have the best tunes and welcomed music into the church
service and himself wrote hymns. He said that the notes make the words come alive. The Swiss
reformer Huldrych Zwingli, who was even more musical, banished music from his church as too
distracting; there was the vanity of the singers and the concentration of the congregation on their
performance rather than on the Word. Calvin came somewhere in the middle. He allowed the
sober singing of metricized psalms.
Augustine had been tom in two directions. In chapter 33 of Book X of his Confessions
Bishop Augustine of Hippo had this to say about sacred words and music, or music in church:
The pleasures of the ear did indeed draw me and hold me ... but You
have set me free. Yet still, when I hear those airs, in which Your words
breathe life, sung with sweet and measured voice, I do, I admit, find
a certain contentment in them, yet not such as to grip me too close, for
I can depart when I will. Yet in that they are received into me along
with the words which give them life, such airs seek in my heart a place
of no small honour, and I find it hard to know what is their due place.
At times indeed it seems to me that I am paying them greater honour
than is their due - when, for example, I feel that by those holy words
my mind is kindled more religiously and fervently to a flame of piety
because I hear them sung than if they were not sung: and I observe
that all the varying emotions of my spirit have modes proper to them
in voice and song, whereby, by some secret affinity, they are made
more alive. It is not good that the mind should be enervated by this
bodily pleasure. But it often ensnares me, in that the bodily sense does
not accompany the reason as following after it in proper order, but
having been admitted to aid the reason, strives to run before and take
the lead. In this matter I sin unawares, and then grow aware.
�4
Yet there are times when through too great a fear of this temptation, I
err in the direction of over-severity - even to the point sometimes of
wishing that the melody of all the lovely airs with which David's
Psalter is commonly sung, should be banished not only from my own
ears, but from the Church's as well: and that seems to me a safer course
when I remember often to have heard told of Athanasius, bishop of
Alexandria, who had the reader of the psalm utter it with so little
modulation of the voice that he seemed to be saying it rather than
singing it. Yet when I remember the tears I shed, moved by the songs
of the Church in the early days of my recovered faith: and again when
I see that I am moved not by the singing but by the things that are
sung - when they are sung by a clear voice and proper modulation I recognize even more the usefulness of this practice. Thus I fluctuate
between the peril of pleasure and the profit I have found: and on the
whole I am inclined - though I am not propounding an irrevocable
opinion - to approve the custom of singing in church, that by the
pleasure of the ear the weaker minds may be roused to a feeling of
devotion. Yet whenever it happens that I am more moved by the
singing than by the thing that is sung, I admit that I have grievously
sinned, and then I should wish rather not to have heard the singing ....
Time marched on, and with composers like Monteverdi and Bach church music began to add
instruments and to dance.
II.
Now let us look at the specific case of the Magnificat. The story, the text, comes from the
first chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Here we have it in the wording of the Latin Bible, the Vulgate,
which was kept even in Bach's Protestant church for especially festive services. The pregnant
Virgin, Mary, is visiting her cousin Elisabeth, whose pregnancy is sufficiently advanced for the
babe in her womb -- who will become John the Baptist - to leap for joy at the approach of the
unborn Saviour. And Elisabeth blesses Mary and the fruit of her womb. Then comes Mary's song
of praise. The Magnificat became a liturgical part of the daily Vespers. Bach wrote his Magnificat
first for Christmas 1723, his first year in Leipzig. That first version was in E-flat and was
interlarded with Christmas songs. The later and deservedly better-known version is in D. It is
leaner and sticks to the pure text of Luke. Bach gives the opening number, verse 46, to a five-part
chorus and festive orchestra, with three trumpets, flutes, oboes, and kettledrums. I won't play the
�5
whole of it, just enough to give you an impression. (Ex.1)
The next verse, the next number, is given to one of the solo sopranos: "And my spirit hath
rejoiced in God my saviour." Again, let us hear a part of it. (Ex. 2)
The next verse, minus the two last words, is given to the other solo soprano, with an oboe
d'amore to emphasize the humility (or low estate) of the handmaid whom all coming generations
will call blessed. Listen to those two linked numbers, especially the cunning preparation of the
boisterous entry of the generations and their proliferation. Some of the cunning lies in the way the
solo voice leads up to it, some in the build-up of the chorus, starting with eighth notes, then
splitting into sixteenths, and ending with a final flourish for all the voices together. It makes you
think. I think Bach means to make you think, not just to be exhilarated. (Ex.3)
After all that tumult comes the solo Bass with verse 49 or No.5: "For he that is mighty hath
done to me great things .... " Is there something incongruous in these words in the mouth of a
booming Bass? Clearly he is not impersonating Mary -- despite the pronoun "mihi" "to me." Does
the incongruity -- if that is what it is - affect the message? To me that aria is one of the less
thrilling, but not necessarily for that reason, in an otherwise consistently compelling work; but I
know that there are people who are particularly fond of it. It has such a jolly bounce. Is that just
a matter of taste?
It is clear why that verse had to go to the Bass: because of its mention of the "might" of the
Lord, the words "qui potens esf'. Bach was that literal. Might belongs to the mightiest voice. (Ex.
4) The later word "power" or "might", "potentia," goes to the chorus, in No. 7.
There will be no further distractions of that sort in this work. With No. 6 begins what I
call the revolutionary sequence. It extends to Nos. 7,8, and 9, and possibly -- this is discussable to No. 10. It speaks, it sings, it dances of God's mercy for them that fear him and his humbling
and punishment of the proud. It is very explicit -- musically as well as verbally. But it is not a call
to revolutionary action. God does it all.
No. 6 is a lovely Siciliano, in 12/8 meter, for Alto and Tenor and two flutes and muted
�6
strings, singing of God's mercy on generation upon generation of those that fear him. The "fear,"
the words "timentibus eum," get very special musical treatment. (We will have copies of the
notation in the Question Period, for those who are interested in it.) The "timentibus" starts
,., I\
harmlessly enough, but then builds up to a cry of a diminished fifth (on 2-6b!) and just before the
peaceful close a trembling in the Tenor. He quakes as he descends. The instruments maintain the
peace, almost an air of Paradise, throughout. (Ex. 5)
No. 7 is another loud chorus, with trumpets and kettledrums, on the power of the Lord's
arm and his scattering of the proud. Their dispersal is described quite graphically before the
challenging shout on "superbos" (the proud), in a chord as startling as the "Barrabas" in the
Matthew Passion. It is followed by a shocked silence and then, and only then, for "the imagination
of their hearts," the "mente cordis sui," a broad Adagio, a double cadence, first on b-minor, then on
the relative D-major. (Ex. 6).
The electrifying Tenor aria, No. 8, in £'-minor, elaborates the Lord's putting down the
mighty, with one of Bach's favourite, strings only, whiplash accompaniments; and then there is the
audible lifting up of the humble. (Ex.7) That verse is the revolutionary heart of Mary's song. The
outcry against the proud prepared it, with its interlocking tritones in the diminished seventh chord.
Relief comes in No. 9, which is given to the Alto and two flutes. The flutes hug each other
in mellifluous parallel thirds and sixths, occasionally imitate each other, and at the end have a most
eloquent, a downright punitive, perhaps even vindictive silence. Why? Because "He hath filled the
hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent away empty: dimisit inanes." The alto also
sounds gleeful about it. They play
,. A. " ,.,.. "' ,.
1 2 3 4 5 3 4,
or
do re mi fa so mi fa
f\ ,..,..,.,..,..,.
171231 2,
do ti do re mi do re
then NOTHING. Only the continuo sounds a discreet 1 below; an empty plate with a vengeance, if
you will. (Ex. 8)
After that bit of wit, that dangling silence, that broken-off cadence -- and Bach can speak
�7
volumes in a bar, even a beat - after those four numbers against the proud, powerful and rich, and
for the lowly and humble, there comes, at last, the traditional tune of the Magnificat, the 9th Psalm
Tone, also known as the Tonus Peregrinus. Here it is given, wordless, but instantly recognizable, to
two oboes playing in unison and slow motion, while a trio of upper voices delivers No. 10:
"Suscepit Israel, puerum suum ...": "He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy."
A quiet and most moving quartet. (Ex. 9)
It leads to the movement most of you know and have sung, the fugue "Sicut locutus est,"
the reference -- or appeal? - to God's promise to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed. (Ex. 10)
And that ends the Virgin's song in Luke. But in the Vespers liturgy this canticle is
followed by the doxology, the "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit." It is
in common time, 4/4, dominated by triplets, and then, with a switch to 3/4 for the words "Sicut erat
in principio ... ," "As it was in the beginning... ", we return to the musical_beginning, once more with
all the instrumental splendor of trumpets and kettledrums and flutes and oboes. And a single,
lapidary "Amen" concludes the work. (Ex. 11)
III.
It is an amazing work. So rich, and so economical. It has no da capo arias, no symmetrical
structures that take time to repeat their first section after a contrasting middle section. The whole
thing takes half an hour or less. Just think of the very different pace of the Matthew Passion,
whose da capo arias, especially in the second part, where they interrupt the trial and execution, can
at times strike one as excessively ruminative, so that one may wish that Bach would get on with the
story. The burden of getting us back to it, and to the biblical text, then always falls on the
Evangelist, with his recitativic account of what happened. Nothing happens here: God has done it
all, and the baby will be born in due course. The listener is kept constantly on his toes, so to
speak, and never has to be dragged back to the action from a soulful excursion into commentary,
�8
beautiful music, but with texts that can strain credulity and patience. True, the Passion scores with
interspersed chorales, hymns known to all, with great dramatic and homiletic effect, inserted at
suitable moments in the plot, bringing in the congregation. And they, of course, have texts that are
next in distinction to those of the Gospel itself. But the Magnificat is pure, unalloyed scripture.
IV.
The musico-rhetorical devices serve the text, are its handmaiden if you will, willingly
subordinated to the message. But what uncanny skill she displays! Bach's music makes words
come alive that have suffered from misuse or neglect or inattention.
There is the wordless eloquence of instruments and there is the eloquence of silence - the
appalled silence after the outcry against the proud, the silence of the flutes leaving an empty space
in the last bar of the "Esurientes" (for the rich that are "sent away empty") where they refuse to
conclude their cadence; or the oboes with the Magnificat tune, as wordless cantus firmus in the
"Suscepit Israel."
v.
What about the "dance" in my title? The song and dance? Take the slow, rocking "Et
misericordia" in 12/8 meter, with its muted strings. You could dance a slow waltz to it. You could
cradle a child with it. Is it not perfect to bring home the peace of the Lord's kindness or the
motherliness of the Virgin? Yes, but there is a condition: fear of the Lord - which, as we know, is
"the beginning of wisdom"; and so we have the special attention Bach gives to the words
"timentibus eum."
The "Esurientes" dances too, in slow duple meter with some syncopation. The flutes lead;
and then the singer comes in with his (or her) "implevit," the plenitude, the filling with good
�9
things, the liberality, the generosity of the Lord, with melismatic flowing sixteenths, three and a
half bars of them, 53 of them on one syllable.
There is something physical in such flow, especially if it is, as here, highlighted by off-beat,
detached, wordless monosyllables in the flutes. This physicality has a message - just as, for
instance, David's dance before the Ark had a message. It is up to us to listen to those messages.
When the instruments dance, there is a message in that, too, as there is in the human voice when it
makes the very words dance. In the Alto and Tenor duet "Et mzsericordia" the music rocks and
u lvv/uu
sways against the "natural" or prosaic declamation of the words: instead of "Et misericordia" we get
"e{ m'fse/.i%o{d'fa~' Such verbal and physical rhetoric (you might almost call it body-language) does
seem to me to do something that mere words cannot do. If it does not inculcate faith, it does at the
very least suspend disbelief.
VI.
If you sing it, do you express that faith? The music certainly fixes the words in the mind
and will keep bringing them back to you -- often out of the blue, when you may be thinking of
something else or nothing in particular or, most interestingly, in answer to a question in your
mind.
What about the "prayer' in the title? If you utter such words, are they a prayer? If you are
incapable of prayer, or have been put off by some "free," preachy, opinion-conveying, non-liturgical
prayers in church, is it not a good thing to sing what you cannot say?
Like the stammerer who
cannot get a sentence out but can sing it? Or is such singing a mere substitute that gives you an
illusion of piety, or, as Augustine put it, a feeling of devotion?
If you refuse to make the message your own, even for the duration of rehearsals or
performances, you may have to refrain from singing it. But by refusing to sing, or even to listen,
you are depriving yourself of the bulk of the best of Western vocal music. Some people have
�10
suggested changing the texts, some have even done it. I may as well say here that I am against
doing that. (In the case of Bach's St. John Passion it would mean changing the Gospel text).
It just is a fact that the world would be immeasurably poorer without church music - and
that deprivation would affect unbelievers too, perhaps them especially; likewise believers who may
be shaken and alienated by what goes on in their churches. They have the refuges: the concert hall
or recordings or choir rehearsals.
There they can magnify the Lord to their heart's content. Or they can, if they like, belittle
or insult or deny him. Bach just makes that much harder. It was no empty formula or flourish
when he ended all his works with the letters S.D.G.: Soli Deo Gloria: "to God alone the Glory."
�Luke I
Magnifies
my soul
46
(And Mary said.) My soul doth magnify the Lord.
47
No. 1. IMagnificatlanima mea ldominuml
And my spirit hath rejoiced
the Lord
No. 2. Et exultavit spiritus meus
And rejoiced my spirit
in Deolsalutarilmeo
in God my Saviour.
in God my Savior
No. 3. Quia rexpexit [humilitatemJ
48
For he hath regarded the low estate
For he has regareded the humility
ancillae suae;
of his handmaiden:
of his handmaiden
ecce enim ex hoc
for, behold, from henceforth
or, behold, from henceforth
beatam me dicent
all generations shall call me blessed.
blessed shall call me
No. 4. lomnes generationesl
all
generations
No. 5. Quia fecit mihi lmagnal
49
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things;
and holy is his name.
50
And his mercy is on them that fear him
from generation to generation.
51
He hath shewed strength with his arm.
For he did to me great things
Quilpotenslest et sanctum nomen ejus.
who is mighty, and holy
his name
No. 6. Et lffiisericordiaJ a pro genie in progenies
At his mere
om generation to generation
timentibus eum.
of them that fear him.
No. 7. Fecit ~rill§] in brachio suo,
He made strength with his arm,
ldispersit superbosl
he hath scattered the proud
he scattered the proud
mente
cordis sui.
in the thinking of their hearts.
in the imagination of their hearts.
�·'· ·-·· ~·L.:=::.: _ ""''"""'.::.!
_
f-\:.·-'~-•i:t;..,
u'- ::;cde
He ut down the mi hty from their seat.
Et exaltavit humiles
and exalted them of low degree.
and raised the humble.
No. 9. Esurientes jimplevitJ
bonis
53
He hath filled the hungry with good things;
The hungry he filled withl good th(ngs
et
divites
dismisit inanes
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
and the rich he dismissed empty.
No. 10. Suscepit
Israel puerum suum
54
He hath holpen his servant Israel.
He rotected Israel his servant
recordatus misericodiae suae
mindful
of his mercy
No. 11. SicutllQciiiu~est ad patres nostros
As
in remembrance of his mercy;
he spoke
[Abraham]
55
As he spoke to our fathers,
to our fathers,
et semini ejus,-Jin-'--sa_e_c_u_la-,.I
To Abraham and his seed
No. 12. Gloria Patri,
to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.
down the ages.
gloria Filio
Glory be to the Father and the Son,
Glory be to the Father, glory be to the Son,
Gloria
et Spiritui Sancto
and to the Holy Ghost;
ql<!.!1t. be also to the Spirit;
[Sicut erat in principio]
As it was in the beginning,
As it was in the beginning,
et nunc, et semper
is now, and ever shall be,
and now, and always
et in saeculajsaeculoIUilll
world without end.
down the ages.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
�
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Song and dance and faith and prayer: the case of J. S. Bach's <em>Magnificat</em>
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Typescript of a lecture delivered on February 09, 1996 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
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1996-02-09
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lec Ruhm von Oppen 1996-02-09
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Friday night lecture
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Text
BACH'S. RHETORIC
Beate Ruhm von Oppen
27 October 1972
I
r
DI>- ar I GI r fGl~rrl fl f rl rG §D
4
I
�B A
c H
I
s
RHE T 0 R I C
Beate Ruhm von Oppen
Those of you who have read Albert Schweitzer's great book
on Bach may remember the genesis of it from the preface by Charles
Widor.
He describes how he,
Wider, told Schweitzer one day when
they were playing the chorale preludes that though he could easily
see the logic of Bach in his preludes and fugues, he found much
obscurity in his treatment of chorale melodies 0
excessive contrasts of moods?
Why these
Why the use of contrapuntal
motifs that bore no relation to the mood of a hymn tune?
Young Schweitzer told the master that all this became clear
from the texts.
most.
Widor told him which pieces had puzzled him
Schweitzer told him the texts by heart, and translated
them into French on the spot.
The riddles were solved.
The
two then spent afternoons going through all the 'choral'e pieludes
and Schweitzer showed Wider, as Wider says in his preface, a
Bach whom he had only very dimly divined before.
He then asked
young Schweitzer to write an essay on the chorale preludes for
French organists.
Schweitzer soon found that he had to include
the cantatas and passions, to explain things.
And that was the
beginning of his book on Johann Sebastian Bach, the musicien-po~te,
or musician-poet, as he called him.
The man who was to have spoken here
to-ni~ht,
Nicholas Nabokov,
.,
once said to Mr. Klein, many years ago, that Bach's texts do not
matter, that they did not matter to Bach.
In proof he mentioned
the fact that Bach often re-used music with a new text that had
previously been composed for another texto
I am here to refute
that view and I propose to address myself not only to that
objection to taking Bach's texts seriously, but to other objections
too:
that the declamation is often not the declamation such texts
would have were they read or spoken, even in a heightened form;
that often they are submerged in the music, inaudible or unintelligible;
and that some of the texts, some non-biblical texts
his librettists served up to him, were uninspired, weird, or
in doubtful taste.
�- 2 Let me dispose of this last point straightaway and say that
I am not unduly impressed or depressed by it.
Tastes have changed
since Bach's day and some of the conceits, some banking or cooking
or medical metaphors in a few of the texts may strike us as odd
as may some of the loving, almost amorous exchanges between the
soul and the savior in others.
But one can live with such
oddities and they are neither numerous nor important.
important is Bach's musical treatment of themo
What is
And I for one
am against editing them out, as some pe.ople, even Albert.Schweitzer,
have suggested.
Though Bach could do wonders with almost any text, he was,
it seems to me, at his best when setting and interpreting the
Bible.
Indeed I would not call him a fifth evangelist, as has
been the fashion for some decades now, but a church father, an
interpreter, an exegete of Holy Scripture.
I
could now proceed in Thomistic fashion, giving the other
mostly but not only secularist -- objections one by one, and
then my answers.
fact that I
What makes that procedure impossible is the
can only detain you for about one hour and that I
want to leave half of that to Bach himself.
You ought to hear
at least as much of what he does as of what I have to say about
it.
What he does takes time.
and with time.
Music takes time;
it works in
To allow Bach to have his say means that one
must listen to what comes before a certain crucial point, even
if one .1.'
vnen brutally cuts off or fades out after that point.
~
I
might as well start with the Nabokov objection, the
existence of what are called "parodieso"
The most massive
case of re-use of pre-existing music is the Christmas Oratorio.
Some wri te rs have argued that this cluster of six church cantatas
was composed before the secular cantatas with which it shares a
dozen numbers.
I am not convinced.
I think that here, too,
as in all other known cases of parodies, the ~ecular work came
first, the sacred later -- though some parallel numbers of the
one and the other may go back to a common earlier source. ·
�- 3 -
The Ch:·istmas Oratorio is not only the most massive case of
parody, but it is also the one that comes closest to convincing
people that parodies do prove Bach did not really care what words
he combined his music with.
however,
th·~
As far as I am concerned it is,
only case where one could say an original number .was
"better" than the later adaptation.
For the Christmas Oratorio
Bach drew fairly extensively on a secular cantata (BWV 213) about
young Hercu:.es at the crossroads, of Virtue and Voluptuousness
(or Pleasur1!).
a tenor aria.
You'will hear the beginning of both versions of
In the secular version it is sung by Virtue who
tells young Hercules that on her wings (yes, it is "her" despite
the tenor voice) the budding hero shall soar and rise as on the
wings of an eagle, towards starso
schweben,
r·~ally,
The soaring, on the word
sensibly, "soars," hovers, floats in the air,
having been lifted up, off the ground, most powerfully and
elegantly
b~-
the octave swoop to a syncopated tonic and run up
to the domiJLant, all in the first bar, on the words "Auf meinen
Flti.geln" -- "QEon my wings. 11
Let us hear it.
EXAMPLE 1)
Cantata Ho. 213, Hercules at the Crossroads,
and Christmas Oratorio
··i'. •rt J1._
. · . . . - -· ,t'
c~
iuZ~
t ~t tl -F})l 'ffi\"'~-!DI: ::
R0 <.~J"' <solc.;;t to <)~'<- -----~-----~..:> ( b~-;
J.if .tu., &-f<'..v\ Ir(be.V\_:. .
{\Li r
/
In the Christmas Oratorio this E-minor aria is lowered to
D-minor and the tenor sings it as a song of dedication to the
infant savior and asks for strength and courage for a Christian
lifeo
The first words are "Ich will nur dir zu Ehren leben. 11
The "leben" comes where the "schweben" did before.
As we shall
see later, i1eightlessness was a feature of Bach's music on the
effects of
,~race.
But in this one
instance I myself feel the
music has a more immediate connection with the explicit verbal
�- 4 metaphor "schweben" (for "to hover, or glide") than the implied
metaphor of "leben" (for "to liveo")
But let us listen to both, the D-minor version iri the Christmas
Oratorio, and for contrast, once more, the E-minor version in the
Hercules cantata.
(EX.AMPLE 2 and EXAMPLE 3)
So now you have heard the one example which I myself consider
somewhat superior in the original, secular versiono
In all the
other cases of adaptation I find the sacred "parody" superior to
its secular original and, where it is an adaptation of an earlier
sacred composition, not inferiorq
The traffic was all one way,
from secular original to sacred adaptation or "parody," or from
secred original to sacred adaptation -- never the other way round,
from sacred to secular.
The four short Masses are cases in point here.
Greek
11
They are
Kyries 11 and Latin "Glori as'" short Lutheran Massee, which
use music previously composed for German ohurch cantata.a.
In
the original the music often seems tailor-made for the verbal
cadence of the German text, with such a close fit that even
vordless instruments seem to say the words of the text or at least
clearly refer to it.
And yet that music re-combines with the
different and shorter Greek and Latin texts of the Mass with
triumphant success.
Does that prove the texts did not matter to Bach?
bit of ito
Not a
The meanings of both texts are connected and in the
setting of the words Bach has been both inspired and metioulous
about fit and fitness.
One last word about the Christmas Oratorio.
You have heard
the first bars of the arias sung by Virtue and the Christmasversion
of it..
There is not time -- but neither is there need -- to play
the lullaby sung by Voluptuousness in the cantata about young
Hercules and the cradle song in jhe Christmas Oratorio -- same song,
the one in B, the other in Go
One can choose to be shocked or
amused by the transformation of the singer of that lovely tune
from Voluptuousness to the Virgin Mary.
I am amusedo
But I
see no reason why the nativity scene should not have the tenderness
previously given to the allegorical figure of Pteasure.
Neither
�- 5 -
can I get too excited about the fact that the Christmas Oratorio
begins with a ket t ledrum taken over from the original of the
opening number, a secular cantata beginning
or "Sound ye drums." (B\l.1V 214)
"T~net,
ihr Pauk:en,"
It was a nice literal touch to
delight the groundlings in the secular work.
It is in no way
out of place in the jubilant first number of the Christmas Oratori o ,
which starts with words that do not have an explicit mention of drums.
So much for the problems posed by the parodieso
With my next
example I want to illustrate two points connected with the question
of declamation.
I
could, of course, just take one piece by Bach and use the
hour to show and discuss what happens in that.
But I have decided
to accept the challenge of our absent lecturer and to attempt a
systematic refutation.
Different pieces must be used to make
different points, though one piece never illustrates one point
I would therefore ask you to listen in a . bi-focal sort
only.
of way:
for the main point to be made in a
pi~ce
that is played,
but not to the exclusion of all else that may be relevant to the
subject of Bach's rhetoric.
cantatas and the Magnificato
My examples will be drawn from the
To include anything from any Motet
would, I decided reluctantly, take too long.
to St. Matthew I take as read (and heard)
Sophomore~
The Passion according
or, for Freshmen and
still in the offing -- and f or the Passion according t o
St. John there is, alas, no time.
Nei t her is there for the
B-minor Mass.
Of the roughly two hundred extant church cantatas only a
portion are available on record;
cantatas a much higher proportion.
of t h e rough dozen secular
A couple of examples I
wanted to use were once available on records, but no longer are.
The ones I have now chosen seemed best for the purpose, but may
not be;
in any case it was quite difficult to make a choice, a
necessarily
invidi~us
are available.
and painful choice, among the riches
t~~t
Some of you can certainly think of equally good
or even better examples, and I hope you will mention them in the
question period.
Yo 1 may ask:
i
on records?
why restrict the examples to what is now available
My answer is that the voices, both human and instru-
�- 6 -
mental, are very important for an assessment of Bach's rhetoric and
I want to give you as much of them as I can.
If you want to read
about the subject and try things out on the voice or piano, there
are the books by Westrup and Whittaker, Spitta, Gchweitzer, Pirro,
Parry, Terry, Tovey, and others.
And there are all the scores in
the libraryo
And do consider Bach's texts and his treatment of them, listen
to what he tried to !22:X when he sango
of translation.
Consider, also,the problem
We might discuss it in the question period.
For words did matter to Bach;
they assuredly and audibly
mattered to him when he set them to music in the service of his
church and of his Lord and God, the word made flesh.
Most of the
cantatas were written when he was cantor of the church and choir
school of St. Thomas in Leipzig.
Bach was deeply concerned about the meaning of the scriptural
and other texts which he used in his church music.
Re searched
'
for the meaning and thought about it and conveyed it in a variety
of ways, some of them taken straight from the art of verbal rhetoric,
some of them not available to that art;
but these latter, too,
were governed by the word.
Verbal and musical rhetoric were seen as connected arts at
his time and rhetoric was still taken very seriously and taught
in the schools and universitieso
The connection with music was
made in a whole body of teaching called the doctrine of affects or
of figures.
The feelings or affects were represented bl musical
figures, somewhat analogous to figures of speech.
Johann Sebastian Bach -- unlike his sons,, who in their day
became more famous -- was a keen and educated rhetorician.
This
must be clear to any careful listener to his vocal music.
It was
also attested by Johann Abraham Birnbaum, a teacher of rhetoric at
the university of Leipzig, who wrote of Bach that
He so perfectly knows the parts and advantages which the
elahoration of a piece of music has in common with the
art .of rhetoric, that it is not only a most satisfying
pleasure to hear his thorough discourses on the similarity
and greement between the two; but that also one can only
marvel at the skilful use he makes of them in his work.
�- 7 -
Birnbaum was defending Bach against an attack by a contemporary
musician and critic, Johann Adolph Scheibe, who had asked:
Bow can a man be faultless as a writer of music who
has not sufficiently studied natural philosophy, so
as to have investigated and become familiar with the
forces of nature and of reason?
How can he have all
the advantages which are indispensable to the cultivati on of good taste who has hardly troubled himself
at all with the critical study, the cultivation and
the rules which are as necessary to music as they ~re
to oratory and poetry, so that without their aid it
is hardly possible to write with feeling and expression?
What Scheibe called "the forces of nature and .of reason" v.ras now
being asserted against the theology and biblical exegesis of Bach;
and the new rhetoric of emotion and expressiveness began to prevaii
over Bach's homiletics, his preaching oratory.
Scheibe was not alone in his criticism.
the rise and antagonistic to revelationo
Rationalism was on
But quite apart from the
con tent of his vocal compositions, Bach was attacked-for their form,
too.
There is no time to go into the technicalities of the doctrine
of figures, though every example that follows could be discussed in
technical termso
Suffice it to say that a man like Johann Mattheson,
though on the one hand aware of -- indeed a writer on -- the system of
"figures," on the other ridiculed Bach for what he took to be faulty
or unnatural declamation.
He found a ready target in the opening
chorus of the cantata Ich hatte viel Bektimmernis (BWV 21) which, as
he put it, "for a long time does nothing but repeat"
I, I, I, I had much grief, I had much grief, in my heart,
in my hearto
I had much grief ••o
and so on, and so fortho
But the
The repetition is undeniable.
chances are that Bach knew what he was doing.
Re may have wanted
to present the troubled "I" imprisoned in its self-centered grief
and in its self-echoing heart -- then to contrast it with the
consolations of the Lord delighting the soulo
lation of the German translation of verse
19
The English transof Psalm
94
(and I
give you that, because tense and structure differ somewhat) would
be: "I had many cares in my heart;
but thy consolations cheered
my soul."
Ich hatte viel Bekfimmernis(se) in meinem Herzen;
aber deine Tr6stungen erg6tzten meine Seelec
�- 8 -
It was that ~' the "but", that Bach wanted to highlight, the
contrast he wanted to bring out, both directly and indirectly,
in the musical treatment of the word itself -- a
0
mere" conjunction
and in that of the two halves of the whole statemento
It is
conjunctions -- and I could give you a whole list of them --
that show more clearly, perhaps, than anything else how concerned
Bach was with sentence structure, grammar, and syntax -- and not
just with imagery.
Indeed the word ABER is put in a musical equivalent of capital
letters triply underlinedo
It could not be more arresting and
(Very unlike an "aber" in Brahms, I would say o)
emphatico
It
is preceded by an instrumental sinfonia or introduction, slow,
sad, with sinuous oboe and violin parts
int~rplaying
over a
shifting base of sustained and strangely modulating string and
organ ch(; :ds o
Then comes the chorus, with the triple exclamation
"Ich, ich, ich," followed by quasi-fugal or canonic entries,
maintaining the sadness with many suspensions, seconds, and
sevenths, and introducing some agitation with hu.mmering syllables.
Cantata 21, Ich hatte viel Belctf:mrnernis
Ich hatte vial Bektl.mmernis
in meinem Rerzen;
abe£_ deine Tr6stungen
ergBtzt~n mAine SP.,le•
v b b C2
@
~
=1
•
t{
lc.t.,
(
I had many cares
in my heart;
but Thy consolations
cheered my soul.
f"
"f
fc}\./
This goes on for thirty-six bars, and then comes that lapidary ABER:
�- 9 -
It is the pivotal point of this number and the pivot of the message
of the entire work.
In this chorus it prefaces a lively section
on the consolations of the Lordo
The rest of the work has the
same contrast, which is
in this number, of anxiety and
prefigure ~1
solace, even joy, culminating in a triumphal chorus of great splendor
at the enJ.o
The whole work -- it is .Bach's longest cantata -- is
about that ABER.
So let us listen to the beginning
o
(EXAMPLE 4)
You may have found the first choral portion somewhat repetitious
too;
but you probably saw the point in retrospect.
.Bach's
contempoTaries objected to it because it was "unnatural."
But can "naturalness" be the sole or even the chief criterion
in the musical delivery of a message?
Under that heading there is also the question of the natural
stress and length of syllables in speech and what happens to them
when speech is sung, or becomes song.
In one of his Motets -- that is, as its name might indicate,
a vocal composition with words all the time, no independent
in8trumental parts or interludes -- Bach set the text of verses
26 and 27 of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, chapter 9:
Der Geist hilft
The Spirit helpeth
unsrer Schwachheit auf,
our infirmities,
denn wir wissen nicht,
for we know not
wie wir beten sollen,
what we should pray for
wie sich's gebfihret;
as we
-
v
..__,
-
.__)
sondern der Geist selbst
v
-
u
-v
~
ought~
but the Spirit itself
vertritt uns auf's beste
maketh intercession for us
mit unaussprechlichem Seuizen.
with groanings which cannot be
uttered.
After a cheerful and vigorous first line, clearly indicative
of the hel:J givAn us in our weakness -- especially, and most
graphically, in a. long, low first syllable of Schwachheit, which
after more than four bars is swung up an octave, in the sopranos,
for the sylla"t:iles
11
-heit auf" (in the German the Spirit helps
our weakness u_;,.) , there is due stress on the need f01.· such help,
�- 10 -
in the repeated conjunction "denn" (for "for we know not~ •• '' J
separated from the rest of the clause by rests and echoini :from
one choir to the other.
After "we know not what we should pray
for as we ought" comes: "but the spirit makes intercession for us
with inexpressible groanings."
And what does Bach do?
At that
''but, 11 just before the word "sondern, 11 he switches from 3/8 to
common time (or
~common
4/4)
which, however, he treats in a way so
as to lift the listener out of his seat and shift the
singer from foot to foot, uncertain where the beat comes, as you
can see in the bit of notation I have given you of the clause of
liberation introduced by the "sondern:"
The declamation on that "sondern der Geist selbst vertritt ur.s auf's
beste" is, of course, what the experts of the day
would pronounce "faulty."
and our day -The musical accents, put in very
deliberately and consistently by Bach himself, do not fall on
the stressed words or syllableso
It is like a sudden off-beat
bit of danceo
But unfortunately it i10uld take too long to play
it now.
I put the squiggly line under the word "vertritt" because
I suspect a pun there:
the verb treten means "to step," vertreten.
to step in the plac6 of someone or something eI.peo
What better
·,
way to illustrate the mediation or intercession of the Spirit
than by a shift of beat or tread?
Strangely enough the ABER in the earlier example was off-beat
too.
The spoken aber is a trochee.
And it is interesting that
Bach, in the example from cantata No. 21 which I played before,
did not bring it in on the downbeat, but on the naturally weak
beat after it, and gave both syllables an unnatural, artificial
stress.
�- 11 -
Albert Schweitzer, though most keen on the imagery and pictorial
aspects of Bach's music and quite capable of casting occasional
aspersions on Bach's way with words, quite rightly referred to
the next example we shall hear as one that shows the immediacy
with which Bach's music arises from the natural declamation
of the text:
-
v
\)
Selig ist der Mann,
v-v
der die Anfechtung erduldet;
u
-- v u - v
\.)
denn nachde:m er bewlihret 1st,
u-uv
v
v
-1......>
v
-'-.,J
wird er die Krone des Lebens
\../ v
empfangen.
Blessed is the man
that endureth temptation:
for when he is tried,
he shall receive the crown
of lifeo
But now, if we do what Schweitzer tells us to do; simply
read that sentence with the values and accents given to the
syllables by the lengths and stresses of the notes, we discover
something rather more interesting than "natural 11 • or - correct
declamation.
(For notation see next page.)
After the threefold "Selig" (Blessed, blessed, blessed),
the sentence gets going:
blessed is the man ••o and straightaway
we have misplacements of stress or lengtho
clause that follows it gets "worse."
In the relative
And the most playful,
\J
v
dancing distortion of the spoken rhythm comes on "Wird er die
-\._jv-vv--
Krone des Lebens empfangen. 11
The hemiola and its variant on
the final "empfa.,'Ylgen" are not just what one might expect in
any dance of those dayso
It performs a rhetor1cal function
by its very linguistic "unnaturalness."
by grace.
Li st en.
It overcomes gravity
(EXAMPLE 5)
The music is mellifluous and the overall emphasis is on
grace, beatitude, and the crown of life.
�~£, -vi~ -d~r~ I~-· dyl
1
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�- 13 Compare this with a cantata that also deals with the overcoming of temptation but which does it very differently, both in
text and music.
It doe s not st art and end with the blessedness
ihat is the reward of virtue, but on the contrary starts with
the imperative: "Resist sinl": "Widerstehe doch der Stinde", and
supports it not with a promise but a. warning: "le3t its poison
take hold of you" : "son st ergreifet di ch ihr Gift. 11
It is all
struggle and conflict and even the music is "unnatural" or strained
with the singer, like th8 fiddles before her, coming in on the
leading tone, then going down to -~he dominant and up to the
A
subdominant,
I\.
...
7 --- 5, 4, outlining a dominant
~eventh
chord,
"
over an equally astonishing, inoistant 1, and an opening chord
of 7 D
4 Ab
2 F
1 Eb.
I
In the opening phrase the root STER of Widerstehe, or
"stand," as in "withstand," comes on the repeated subdominanto
Later that root syllable is sustained first on the 5,
th~n
on
tJ1e 1, standing its ground against the pressures of changing and
conflicting harmonieso
Let us hear the beginning:
~
\iji -
cJer-<k ~e., J~tt.... lti ~diA.~ ch...
(EXAMPLE 6)
�- 14 -
After this sombre battle song against sin, with its musical
insistence on the need for steadfastness, let me just mention
so~~
other words that Bach is apt to stress by long notes, some verbs,
-
v
-
v
notably, like beten, to pray, or halten, to hold.
And he gives
them ·1ong notes not only when they are in the grammatical imperative,
67, Halt im Gedl!chtnis Jesum Christ (Hold in
remembrance Jesus Christ), or No. 70, Wachet, betet (Watch, pray),
as in cantata No.
but in §:!£l. mood or tense, ever mindful of the need for sustained
effort and concentration, vigilance, prayer, and steadfastness.
Even the evangelist's reference to Jesus prayine in the Matthew
-vv
Passion is lengthened somewhat on betete, though in recitative
-- which is closer to the spoken language -- the length must be
less than in an aria or chorus. ·
From this hortatory kind of preaching let us go to something
q_11ite different, a rhetoric that works by a choreography of layout,
an art of positioning or deployment, almost what one might get in
a piece of typography.
It comes in the Christmas
Ich freue mich in dir (I rejoice in Thee, P,WV 133)0
cant~t~
The words
of the first part of the soprano aria say: "How sweetly it rings
in the ear, this word:
heart."
How it penetrates my
my Jesuf is born.
Even the repetition pattern of phrases and words may
give you an inkling of how Ba..Jh went about setting this text:
Wie lieblich klingt es in den
Ohren~
How sweetly it rings in
the ear
Wie lieblich
klingt es,
wie lieblich klingt es in den OhrE:n, ·
wie lieblich kling:t es in. den Ohren,
wie lieblich kling! es in den Ohren,
wie lieblich klingt en in den Ohr~m,
dies Wort
--
dies Wort
Mein Jesus ist geboren
dies Wort:
geboren.
Wie dringt es in das Herz hineini
this word:
my Jesus is born.
How it penetrates the heart!
You will hear the loveliness of the ringing before the
focussing starts in <:!arnest, on "the woi·d, thP word, the wordo"
&nd when,
afte~
all this very pointed preparQtion, the word comes,
�- 15 -
"Mein Jesus ist geboren," the first three words of it are delivered
on a monotone dominant -- the l!lost concentratPd '.Nay of communicating anything, I suppose, in the- midst of music -- after which
the word "geboren 11 (or "born") comes
dov.11
to the tonic and up
A
again, to remain susp•3ndeil on
a
A
vulnerable 6, then a 4, or
SQbdominant, which may indeed pierce the heart as much as any
verbal or pictorial account of incarnation and nativity.
Let us hear ito
(EXAMPLE 7)
In the example we
There is another use for the monotone.
have just heard it gave an almost hypnotic concentration on the
word8 "Mein Jesus ist .
II
Another Christmas cantata, No.
64,
Sehet 1 welch eine Liebe (See how great a love), has, in its
soprano aria, a monotone emphasis on the firmness, durability,
eternity of the things that Jesus gives, compared with the
vanities of this world, which on8 can hear going up in wisps
--
of smoke o
'l'he words for what endures are bleib2t fest und ewig
steh'n and they are deliver£-d on monotone quarter notes; with the
"stehen" lasting for over two bars.
The alto aria in the sam ( cantata supplies the opposite
e)._treme:
upward leaps of major sevenths, :intervals wbich are
hard to sing but have their clear rhetorical function.
the singer sings about gladly giving
~
When
everything for the sake
of heaven, she leaps from the lower tonic to the upper leading tone,
on the word
11
hin,
11
or "up. 11
The aria is about the insignifican<)e of tbe world w11en the
inheritance of heaven is assured.
Freedom from care and for an
unencumbered pi l grimage through life, a dancing pilgrimage, are
put to us in the ,iaun.ty and at the same time steadfe:.lt musi<' scored
onl;r for alto, oboe d'amore, and conti..'1UOo
Over the steady eighths
of the 6/8 time th8 reed instrument and human voice interplay in
wonderfully free and varied rhythm and the singer's words are placed,
both in time and l)i.tch, in ways that are much more telling than they
vu-u-u
1Nould be if spoken.
"Of the world I'm asking naught" -V
v
v v
11
Von der Welt verlang 1 i<'h nichts": spoken German ¥Jould have very
little stress on the
"~",
none on "der" and much on "Welt."
�- 16 -
But Bach comes down with a bounce, an unprP.pared downbeat, on ".YQ!!"
and keeps doing it with tireless resilience.
Von der Welt verlang 1 ich nichts,
From the world I 1 m asking naught
wenn ich nur den Himmel erbe.
if only I inherit heaveno
Alles,
All, all I give up,
All~s
geb 1 ich hin,
weil ich genug versichert bin,
bev.ause I am suffioiently assure d
dass ich cwig nicht verderbe.
that I shall not perish in all
eternity.
The way he dismisses natural gravity and ocatters the "nichts 11
sets the world at naught with an inspired and physical immediacy.
Bach does not only say it, he does it.
As we shall now
h~ar.
(EXAMPLE 8)
So much, then, for the delivery of texts with linguistically
usual or unusual
and interva:'.s:
acc .~n+,uation
and lengths and a variety of pitches
tbe rhetoric of declamation and gesture and dance.
It is an oratory of breat hing, tooo
In the motet Singet dem
Herrn ein neuas Lied (Sing unto the Lord a new sonf;) Bach not only
sings, rejoices, dances, and plays, as the text of the psalm enjoins,
but at the end, on the words "let everything that has breath praise
the Lord" -- in German "Alles was Odem hat lob:: den Her-rn, 11 he
enacts, brings home, thP. breathing, th e breath of life, in loud,
long, large-lunged "!"s and "Q"s, a clear allusion to Alpha and
Omega and at the sg,me time a i·eligiouD
breat h:~ng
must lister L to it for yourselves one day.
exercise o
You
Or better still, sing it.
·~
Thus there is preachment, and there is enactment of what is
preachedo
And, of cou.;.-se, the content of the preaching
the whole range of faith, hope, charity, R.l1d the rest..
to exemplify them all;
cov·~rs
Impossible
but they are all there, as one would expect,
in cantatas for every Sunday and Holiday of the church yearo
But there is one more objection to sung s9rmons as such that
I should deal with:
not so much that they are ineffectual -- and
I don't believe they are;
more effectual
tha~
on the contraryj I believe they are
spoken sermons 9 on the whole -- but that they
uan be u1intelligible o
I was going to say "inaudjble,"
�- 17 -
but actually what I mean is the kind of piece, mostly a choral
pieoe, where the proliferation of polyphonic parts makes it hard
to hear the wordso
My answer to that is that indeed the words ' may at t:imes b13
indistinct, but that at other times, sufficient times, they are
clea·cly audibleo
Take~
for instanc3, a very
the opening nu~ber of cantata Noo
th~..:e,
verse 8: "He hath shewed
45
compl~x
pi•1oe like
that has as its text Micah
oh man, what
~s
good;
6,
and what
does the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbJy with thy God?"
The German differs a little
and has some . . . hing like: "You have been told, man, what is good
and what the Lord demands of you:
God. and to
Godo
11
pra~tice
namely:
to keep the word of
loving-kindness o.nd to be humble before your
The German is:
"Es ist dir
ge~mgt,
Mensch, was gut ist
und was der B.err von dir fordert, nfunlich Gottes Wort halten
1md Liebe tib ·m und demtltig sein vor deinem Gotto" And this is
what happens:
(We won 1 t have time to play it and you w.i ll just
have to take my word for it):
An a:ngulo.r and fairly agitated
instrumental prelude prepares us for a grand choral fugue..
i:"1::1trwnent s keep on with their
intror~_notory
The
music, while the vocal
entries over this ritornello do not invariably have on-= set of music
for one
~et
of words and some of their declamation is rathnr
"instritmer.taJ.," i.e., not exactly tailored for voio3 or wcrdso
But we hear successive fugal entrios
''~~
a long "-sagt '' for "you have been toldo"
ist dir gesg.gt," with
Then the four voices
sing that first phrase all together, homophoni~ally.
This
happens three times, with polyphonic announcement followed by
homophonic repetition.
All these come through clearlyo
After the third homophonio repetition, the sopranos immediately
and audibly carry the sentence a bit further:
gesagt 1 _~a~§ch,
wa3
~_:Lis_:!'._un£_~as
11
Es i st dir
der Herr van dir forde-rto"
The way the other voices come in and combine on those words
makes them only moderately audible.
But Baeh has taken care
to get each part of the phrase across clearly somewhere or other.
The altos have a clear, slow descent with a half-note to each
syllable on "was der Herr
~
dir for-dert" when the agitation
�- 18 -
of the mu5ic seems otherwise too complex for comprehension of
the wordso
But the domination of the "instrumental" rather than
declamatory way of writing means that it is expedient for Ba.ch ·
to conclude the instalment on the first part of the sentence more
homophonically, with the words more clearly audible in the last
bar or two because the voices sing them all together.
The
orchestra then has a few bars of this angular music by itself
before the choir, all voices together, homophonically and with
great chordal resonance, crash in with an ultra-audible "N..!MLICH"
on two half-note chords, followed by a bar's rest and another
homophonous "n.!!mlich" to launch the rest of the sentence after
the "namely:"
"n.!!mlich Gottes Wort halten und Liebe ttben und
de m
iitig sein vor deinem Gotto"
There are long, emphatic notes
on "halten," for keeping, holding on to, the word of God, and
there is a slow and very distinct whole-note descent of the
sopranos in the phrase about walking humbly before Gode
The
whole sentence is then delivered again, in a similar though
somewhat abridged form and with only one "ntl.mlich, 11 the one that
runs into the phrase about what God wantso
The earlier more
dramatic "n1:!.mlich" -- with the first one quite alone, followed
by a pause before the repetition -- shows Bach's rhetorical method
clearly.
That is how an orator might stress ito
"!hat preceded
it in the cantata might have made the music run away with the words;
what follows it is what matters and he has to draw attention to ito
So we get the audible conjunction, the "namely," or "to wit. 11
The biblical context, what precedes the text of
Bible, calls for the arresting
11
n1:!.mlich"
·~he
cantata in the
it is a
even~:
stream of verbose questions about how the Lord may be propitiated:
'
"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the
high God?
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with
calves of a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased
of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
~~th
thousands
Shall I give
my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul?"
Uone of these things, comes the answer, and
refers the voluble enquirer to an earlier communication -- "you
were told" -- and then, patiently, sternly, spells it out once
�- 19 -
more:
NAMELY:
obedience to the word of God, love, and humility.
And in case the musical excitement of it all is too great for the
congregation - to take it in -- ioe., the prose of it -- as clearly
as it should, the tenor, before himse+f singing his electrifying
aria on the consequences of the knowledge of what is due to God,
recapitulates what the opening chorus has sung, in the clearly
audible (and very expressive) paraphrase of his recitative,
stressing the need · for fear of and obedience to the Lord, for
humility, and loveo
From this discussion of the audibility or intelligibility
of a text let me finally go on to a much more ·difficult matter:
wordless messages.
There are what is known as cantua firmi in
many of the cantataso
A cantus firmus is a hymn tune or ohant
sung in slow motion in the midst or on top of a polyp1tonic pieo e.
There is the advantage, here, of simultaneity:
several thin gs at once in musico
you can say
But that is not all.
The ripieno choir's entry with the slow soprano line
0 Lamm Gottes unschuldig in the opening number of the Matthew
Passion, on the cue, the word "lamb," provided by the com pl ex
double chorus below, is very powerful when it happenso
What
would be the effect of that passion hymn -- a German adaptation
of the Latin Agnus Dei -- if it were not su_ng, but played on a
wind instrument?
That, in fact, is Bach's more usual procedure,
and the wordlessness of such
ca~tus
firmi may increase their power
-- provided, of course, the listener re g isters them, as any
attentive listener willo
Bach wrote for a congregation , that
not only registered but recognized them.
Bach's familiarity with the hymnal was such that he drew on
whatever verse of whatever hymn was most apposite at any given
moment -- witness the reshuffling of the original order of
stanzas in the passion chorales, for instance, in the Passions
according to St. John and St. Matthew, and, of course, with
different, ap propriate harmonizations.
An instrumental cantus
firmus is just a melodic line and leaves it to the listener to
think of the intended words, perhaps even to choose between two
or more possible sets of words.
�- 20 -
It is in part this ~mbiguj_ty and appeal to the listener to
think, to articulate for himself, that gives a wordless cantus
firmus such force.
Its increasingly arcane nature, the growing
secrecy of the message with the waning of the tradition that :Bach
could still take for granted in . his day, may actually add to its
force -- provided the listener attends and engages himself.
is less a matter of "research," though that may
help~
It
than of
attention.
Once one knows that Bach is up to such tricks as cantus firmi,
registering them is the first step t6 identifying them, either by
instant recognition or by a little effort.
·rhe immediacy of a
lost tradition may be gone, but familiarity with a surviving bit
ef it may help, and so may familiarity with other works by Bach
or by other composers.
Let me give you an example.
The traditional tune of the Magnificat is not sung in Bach's
Latin Magnificat.
It is played by the oboes over the singers'
Suscepit Israel puerum suum,
He helped his servant Israel
recordatus misericordiae suae.
in remembrance' of his mercy.
TONUS PEREGRINUS in the Magnificat (Suscepit Israel)
f:lf ~-~ f . lf , l f' Tr Ir. 1f>' I fTP . f ~
~~~ )~r· -1r· \ F' \ r-c - r ·-\ -r· r · \ t-· 1- r :r -;:
r l
'1\t f _f~F · \ fT(Rtf ·Tf~r1171'r '. !I
\
�- 21 -
It is, on the other hand, sung as well as played in various
movements of Bach's so-called German Magnificat '· the cantata
Meine Seele erhebt den Herrn (My soul doth magnify the Lord, BWV 10);
and in the alto and tenor duet "Er denket der Barmherzigkeit und
hilft seinem Diener Israel auf" which corresponds to the Latin
"Suscepit Israel," the cantus firrnus is also given to the a'boes
while the s ingers and continua sigh away in a phrase dominated by
descending minor secondso
Let us first hear the Latin version
(EXAMPLE 9) ••• and now the German version (EXAMPLE 10)
Er denket der Barmherzigkeit
He remembers his mercy
und hilft seinem Diener Israel auf.
and helps his servant Israel up ,
TONUS PEREGRINUS in alto/ten>:Jr duet of cantat<::. No. 10
One strange thing about that tune is its age and long history.
(And tradition is another kind of simultaneity.)
: The tune is
known as the Tonus Peregrinu..s and was originally, from the 9th
century onward, associated with psalm 114, In exitu Israel, the
one the pilgrims sing in Dante's Purgatory: "When Israel ,went
out of Egypt ••• "
It now survives in the doxology of some
English-speaking churches.
I am glad to say
~hat
two of Bach's
settings of it are included in the il'iusic for Freshman Chorus.
And I would like to end with yet another, the setting that begins
Th e German words mean: "My soul doth magnify
For he hath
the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
cantata No. 10.
regarded
th~
lowliness of his handmaiden:
for behold from
henceforth all generations shall call me blessed."
The words
are spoken by the Virgin Mary after the annunciation, when she
visits her cousin Elisabeth (Luke 1, 'verse 46-48)0
But you
may prefer to think of the pilgrims in the Divine Comedy
or, for that matter, anywhere.
(EXA~IPLE 11)
�- 12 -
Maine Stell
e~hebt
den
He~ren
und main Ge!~t freuet sich
Got tee, meinea HeilaHdes; ·
~eine
soul magnifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices
in God, my · ea.Vi
I
denn er hat
My
elende Magd
our;
for he has his lowly handmaiden
angesehen,
regarded.
Siehea von nup. 8,ll
verden mich eeli~ preisen
~lle Ktndes Kind.
Behold, from now on
I
shall call
·(German word order)
m~
blessed
all children's children.
1
TONUS PEREGRH1US in soprano a.nd alto parts of cantata. No. 10,
op1ming chorus
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but t he Spir i t itself
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if only I inherit "heaven.
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lleca.n se I am suff ic ientl3r assured
da. ss icl:
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that I sh a ll not perJsb in all
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Title
A name given to the resource
St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
formallectureseriesannapolis
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
36 pages
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bach's rhetoric
Description
An account of the resource
Typescript of a lecture delivered on October 27, 1972 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ruhm von Oppen, Beate
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, MD
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1972-10-27
Rights
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St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.
Type
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text
Format
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pdf
Language
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English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
lec Ruhm von Oppen 1972-10-27
Relation
A related resource
<a title="Sound recording" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3605">Sound recording</a>
Friday night lecture
Tutors
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/2b66946e1eeb355fb495897daa404d7c.mp3
1dca57a9d8d03ce832e3c78a099070fa
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://anchor.fm/greenfieldlibrary" title="Anchor.fm">Anchor.fm</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84Yzk5MzdhYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw" title="Google Podcasts">Google Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Title
A name given to the resource
St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
formallectureseriesannapolis
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
audiotape (Tape 266)
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
01:08:45
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bach's rhetoric and the translation of his texts: with examples taken mainly from the <em>Passion According to St. John</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture delivered on May 02, 1975 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ruhm von Oppen, Beate
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, MD
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1975-05-02
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
mp3
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
lec Ruhm von Oppen 1975-05-02
Friday night lecture
Tutors
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