The Churches and the Third Reich

Book excerpt: This second volume of The Churches and the Third Reich, the last which the author lived to write, covers the year 1934. This year, which saw the birth of the Confessing Church and the great Synods of Barmen and Dahlem, was the year of disillusionment, in which all the hopes of 1933 were shattered one by one. The gripping narrative of the first volume is continued as in addition to the rise of a legitimate church opposition we see how the German Christians overreached themselves by seeking, without Hitler’s approval and against the law, to set up a Reich Church fully coordinated with the state. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church was running into increasing difficulties as it tried to cope with the problems left unresolved on the conclusion of the Concordat. Like the first, this volume has many illustrations.