Church Control

Nazification received a brief check last week when the elders of the Landes-kirchen, representing 29 Protestant church groups, meeting in Berlin, stubbornly refused to accept a hand-picked Nazi candidate as First Evangelical Bishop of the Reich. Picked by the Hitlerites to unify and co-ordinate Germany's Protestant sects was a Rev. Dr. Ludwig Mueller. army chaplain and leader of a Nazi organization known as the "German Christians." Despite arguments, pleas and threats, the sober, elderly delegates to the Landes-kirchen stubbornly refused to vote for him, chose as their leader patriarchal Rev. Dr. Friedrich von Bodelschwingh. known throughout Germany as "The Abbot of Bethel" for his management of Bethel Institute, famed charitable organization founded by his father.

German Christian Mueller took it hard. Summoning reporters, he stormed:

"The Landeskirchen have not understood the call of the hour nor heard the voice of God summoning us to valorous deeds. From National Socialism alone arose the demand for a new form of the church. We German Christians say NO to this election! We refuse to accept it!"

Chancellor Hitler at first insisted that he would take no part in a church squabble, but the election of a non-Nazi candidate seemed a dangerous precedent to allow. Church diplomats tried to patch a truce between the German Christians and Bodelschwingherians by suggesting that Bishop von Bodelschwingh might retire after a few months in office in favor of Dr. Mueller or a new neutral candidate, possibly Lutheran Bishop Schoeffel of Hamburg. Suddenly Chancellor Hitler stepped in. Word was sent to Dr. Mueller that the entire Nazi propaganda department, press and radio both, would be at his service to force a new election.

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