What is the Church to Say? Letter 1 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends

Irony is used in this post to provoke and invite critical thought; the historical research on the Mennonite experience is accuarte and carefully considered. ~ANF

American Mennonite leaders who supported Trump will be responding to the election results in the near future. Sometimes a template or sample conference address helps to formulate one’s own text. To that end I offer the following.

When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mennonites in Germany sent official greetings by telegram:
“The Conference of the East and West Prussian Mennonites meeting today at Tiegenhagen in the Free City of Danzig are deeply grateful for the tremendous uprising (Erhebung) that God has given our people (Volk) through the vigor and action of [unclear], and promise our cooperation in the construction of our Fatherland, true to the Gospel motto of [our founder Menno Simons], ‘For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.’” (Note 1)

Hitler responded in a letter received by Elder Franz Regehr, Rosenort:
“[From] The Reich Chancellor, Berlin, September 1933. I would like to express my sincere thanks for the loyal attitude that you expressed in your letter and your willingness to work on building the German Reich. Adolf Hitler.” (Note 2)

"Celebrating Good News."
The early enthusiasm for the new government is captured well in reports of the September 1933 special meeting of the Union (Vereinigung) of Mennonite Congregations in the German Reich and its member conference of Prussian Mennonite congregations. The following is a composite of the reports by Pastors Emil Händiges of Elbing and Erich Göttner of Danzig (note 3) and may be helpful for creating a narrative and conference text today.

"Economic Grievances: We will Make Germany Great Again."
Germans as a whole were humiliated, demoralized, and impoverished by the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles at the conclusion of the Great War, and are threatened by anti-Christian Bolshevism. The national “arising” (Erhebung) however is a new birth or “becoming” (Werden) of the Volk after a long period of testing. Hitler as Führer is “a divine gift of salvation to our people,” writes Göttner.

"God is at Work! Faith and Nation"
“God has called men to the head of the government who have placed themselves with a clear confession on the foundation of Christian faith.” Yet it will require a transformation of the heart—and not just of individuals but of the Volk, writes Händiges. For this to happen, Christianity and Germanness need to find each other, and the church must emerge out of ossified Christendom and traditionalism, including the Mennonite church, Göttner argues.

"The Election Result is Good for the Church"
The promise by the Führer and the Nazi Party of religious freedom and legal protection, as long as it does not “conflict with the manners and moral sentiments of the Germanic race,” was unprecedented good news and opportunity for Mennonites.

"Addressing Morality-Gone-Wild"
In these 1933 reports, there is a shared perception that Germany will benefit from a single and totalitarian ordering of life, including coordination of state and church for the up-building of the German Volk and to address perceived morality-gone-wild. “The challenge today is to become aware, in a new way, of what these goals mean for our congregations, and to wrestle for a ‘new becoming’ amongst ourselves as well,” writes Göttner.

As one elderly German Mennonite recalled years later, Nazism “came over us like a revival” (note 4).

--Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: “Bericht über die 4. allgem. westpr. Konferenz in Tiegenhagen am 10. September 1933,” Mennonitische Blätter 80, no. 10 [October 1933] 101, https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/newspapers/Mennonitische%20Blaetter/1933-1941/DSCF0880.JPG
Note 2: “Die Antwort der Reichsregierung auf die Begrüßungsgtelegramme der Konferenz zu Tiegenhagen, Freie Stadt Danzig,” Mennonitische Blätter 80, no. 11 [November 1933] 109, https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/newspapers/Mennonitische%20Blaetter/1933-1941/DSCF0884.JPG
Note 3: Erich Göttner and Emil Händiges, “Zur Kirchenfrage der Mennoniten. Bericht über die außerordentliche Zusammenkunft der Vorstände der Ost- und Westpreußischen und Freistaat-Danziger Mennonitengemeinden zu Kalthof am 25. August 1933,” Mennonitische Blätter 80, no. 9 (September 1933), 85–91; 89. https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/newspapers/Mennonitische%20Blaetter/1933-1941/DSCF0873.JPG I’ve taken this summary from my essay: “German Mennonite Theology in the Era of National Socialism,” in European Mennonites and the Holocaust, edited by Mark Jantzen and John D. Thiesen, 125–152 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020).
Note 4: As told by Dean Taylor, “Mennonite Nazis: A Lesson from History,” Ephrata Ministries Blog, Ephrata Christian Fellowship. http://www.ephrataministries.org/remnant-2012-11-mennonite-nazis.a5w.

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To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "What is the Church to Say? Letter 1 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), November 11, 2024. https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2024/11/what-is-church-to-say-letter-1-of-4-to.html

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History of the Russian Mennonites

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