The "micro-histories" of fear: Erfurt in 1920, Part II

Part I: January to May 1920
Part II: June to the Fall of 1920

The death of parliament

In “The stillborn parliament” (FP, Nr. 124, 10 June 1920) the Free Press (FP) reacted with dejection toward the results of the first national parliamentary elections (Note: the editors of the FP had surmised that the conservatives would take it on the chin for the Kapp-Putsch; so this was a significant disappointment). The editors wrote that the Central German Newspaper (Die Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (MZ)) was silently enjoying the “personal defeat” of the government (Note: the MZ was as a paper was only in its second year and carried the perspective of the middle class right, especially the conservative German National People’s Party (DNVP)). The editors parted with a shot: We can only tell them and their whole pack of capitalist, pious and obstinate servants (Trotzknechten) that they should not be happy about this ‘victory’ and this ‘defeat’. It will not last long. Then they will not have anything to say publicly, but at home they will sit and moan in their little rooms. Woe to us, we have won.

The results of the National Parliamentary Elections on 6 June 1920:

The German Democratic Party (DDP): 10% of those who voted (about 6400 people)

The German Volks Party (DVP): 18,9%

The German National Volk Party (DNVP): 20,5%

The Centre Party: 5,1%

The old Social Democratic Party (SPD): 6,8%

The Independent Socialist Democratic Party (USPD): 36,3%

The Communist Party (KPD): 2,6%

Guns

In “The handover of weapons” (MZ, Nr. 213, 14 August 1920), The DNVP wrote in to the editors of the MZ and addressed Erfurt’s president in regards to the National Law for the Disarmament of the People (Das Reichsgesetz ueber die Entwaffnung der Bevoelkerung from 7 August 1920). First, they argued, a general disarmament will not help the inner peace. The precondition must be an equal disarmament – to no one’s advantage or disadvantage. The political parties will accept the invitation to meet. As for the workers, it does not matter how many freely give up their weapons, but rather how many are subjected to terror. We know that the workers of Erfurt generally acted in a calm and composed way during the last unruly days (the March Days of 1920), but we have to add that from our perspective it was the military and political security measures that proved effective. May it remain as such. We want to hope so. One should not take it the wrong way, when we make use of the “democratic duty to mistrust” in this matter. Mr. President, investigate the conditions of the working classes to see how their leaders agitate them and lead them down the wrong path. Then we will be on your side.

[…] We want a strong government, and we will welcome it when the government makes its strength known, as currently in the words of the president. A demonstration on the street does not bring us great joy. However, we are determined to use this means as well, when we have no other and when the parades of the Proletariat are not in a kindly fashion stopped.

In that same day’s paper on page five, the MZ reported on “The weapons find in Erfurt”. There were five wagons full of countless weapons, machine guns, 98s and manufactured guns. There was one further wagon was loaded by the Moving Company Liefegang (Erfurt) and has a value estimated at 35,000 Reichsmark.

The August Days

“General Strike in Upper Silesia” (MZ, Nr. 218, 19 August 1920; Note: Upper Silesia was an ethnically mixed Polish and German region under Allied Occupation).

Second page: “New Battles in Kattowitz” (Note: a town in Upper Silesia); “Persecution of Jews in Warsaw”; “The Cholera in Petersburg”.

The Poles

In “The Poles are the Instigators!” (MZ, Nr. 219, 20 August 1920), the MZ carried a report on the causes of the unrest in Upper Silesia and the deployment of Italian troops there. According to the author, just as well as the Poles ordered a strike force into Rybnick in order to disperse the German public gatherings there, they could have followed another tactic in Kattowitz in order to force the confrontation between the Germans and the French military. The Poles are working with the assumption that these sorts of frictions have to worsen the relationship between the occupiers and the German population so much so that under the circumstances the results of the ballot (on the national question of Upper Silesia) will most likely be influenced too. Most certainly, it is without question the Poles who have an interest in the military support of the Western Allies. All of Upper Silesia is swarming with Warsaw’s agents, who are working day and night to ignite the politically tense atmosphere.

Another Workers’ Uprising

(TAZ, Nr. 220, 21 August 1920), In Duesseldorf, the Workers’ Council Republic was declared. One hundred men occupied the Rathaus and were requisitioning automobiles and bicycles in the city. From those who were doing well, money was being taken.

Black Murderers

In “Colored murderers in Germany” (TAZ, Nr. 220, 22 August 1920) the TAZ editors reported on a former milk handler and current court civil servant who were shot and robbed on the way home from the Ruhr region to Erfurt by two colored soldiers.

The Day of Sedan
In an article entitled, “Sedan”, Dr. W. A. Krannhals commemorated the decisive battle in the German wars of unification against the French on 2 September 1870, whereby Napoleon III became a prisoner of war to the Prussian army. (MZ, Nr. 232, 2 September 1920). For many nationalist Germans this was the most important, albeit unofficial, national holiday. Kaiser Wilhelm I refused to declare it an official holiday and saw Sedan more as an honor to the Prussian military. In the 1890s more and more Germans began to associate Sedan with the theme of unity. On 27 August 1919, the Weimar Republic declared that there would no longer be celebrations to commemorate the day of Sedan since it was not considered appropriate for the times (hence the Erfurters' scheduling of a celebration over a week later). Dr. Krannhals wrote: Today, 50 years ago, is the proudest day among the great years that the Reich gave us and Germany unity. Not with celebratory actions nor in great joy do we celebrate this day, but with worry, full of a thousand doubts. We celebrate this day because we cannot do anything else except in calm reflection and in the struggle to draw new strength from the meaning of this day for the most difficult and largest challenge that this Volk and Reich have faced.

[...] “Then the devil should be afraid, we do not want to fear,” so proclaimed Luther in faithful trust: “The hour will come, in which the wisdom and violence that pulses will go away. We will say, where are they now?” This trust, this belief in Sedan, this unshakable confidence in victory should flourish in us from this day marking Sedan, which we observe from the depth of our need. It should steel us to new strength and commemorate the great inheritance that we have to protect. It should let us become healthy and commemorate the holy strength that have grown in us out of our greatness, from Luther, from Bismarck and from Hindenburg. So do these three lead us in the depths of our hearts and everywhere where we stand, whether on the field of deeds; one day it will also mean for our enemies, who lure us with their wisdom: “Where are they now?” We, however, will then be able to celebrate a new Sedan, greater and more powerful, as the source from which new strength will flow to us, when we are unified and true. Unified, like our fathers were, who created the Reich for us, such that we are concerned that we must fight today in word and deed with our blood, with our spirit and with our strength! For that help us Sedan!

“Citizens’ Courage”

The Central German Newspaper (MZ, Nr. 243, 13 September 1920) published a letter from a woman in Erfurt about the commemoration of the Fatherland in early September on the steps and broad plaza of the cathedral:

What moves me to write is not the attempt by the demonstrators to disturb the Commemoration of the Fatherland on Sunday, 12 September, but rather the once again proven courage and pride of citizens. Dear German citizens, do things really have to get worse for you first, does the water first have to climb up around your throats, before you have the courage to commit yourself to resistance? How many participants did I see from my vantage point on the steps of the cathedral run away to save themselves? Secretly, quietly they disappeared and left the showplace to the youth, who bravely fought and defended their beautiful, new black, red and white flag. Women also showed their courage, their temperament not daunted by coercion. I witnessed many fists dancing on the backs of the demonstrators. Bad examples spoil good morals and it is always still better to show one’s feelings for the Fatherland this way than to stand cautiously to the side as, unfortunately, I saw among many of my fellow citizens do. They screamed at the officials with complaining looks, ‘this did not function either. The whole event is poorly organized.’ Think about it, dear citizens, the best organization does nothing when it is not supported with powerful deeds, if not one for all and all for one, if not driven by the determined will that we want to do something, we want to have our commemoration undisturbed. That could happen without division! […] If only you knew how strong you are, dear citizen (Buergersmann). Carry through with the task at hand. Don’t always stand there by the side with a wait and see attitude, distinguished appearance and misunderstood decency. It is the only way to impress upon the riff raff and rabble, which, naturally incited by a Jew, sang, whistled and screamed on the Wilhelm Plaza, let the International live and otherwise revealed themselves in other ways as uneducated children in need of punishment. One can only call it riff raff and rabble, then one could not imagine that a reasonable, thoughtful and decent worker would have something against it when our great past, our heroes' deeds and our dead whom we have to lament, are to be commemorated.

The Defenseless Old Ones

In the same edition, the MZ carried an article about the fictional conversation between the cathedral dome and the old veteran (of the late 19^th century wars of unification, “Der Dom und der alte Veteran”. It described the thousands who had just gathered there on the wide space of the plaza, standing densely packed to the corners, and just having dispersed through the side streets. The sun of a September Sunday streamed playfully over the obelisk that stood in the middle and the children played ball in their bright Sunday best. There was still a group of people talking, but otherwise the place was quiet.

[…] “I saw everything and heard everything,” said the Dome. “Everything. I understand exactly what is going on with you old warriors and truly, so deeply the German has not yet tread into the muck. Not yet so deeply. He cannot surpass himself anymore, such as he can be outdone by the worthlessness and shamefulness of his own people. […] we must have patience. The insanity must and will cease raging. To be sure, you will barely live to experience it. Well, I have gone on talking long enough; soon you will see the gloriosa (!?). There is only one thing I want to ask you: why did all of you thousands gathered here today with honorable intentions, why did you thousands from this society stand here on this plaza and let the scandal of a few stupid young men take place? Huh? It is not meant as an accusation against you. No. You old ones have become defenseless and powerless, But the others, where are they? […] Wake them up. And now, live well, old man, for better times.”

Two Different Socialist Voices

In an article in that same issue entitled, “Two Socialist Voices” (MZ, Nr. 244, 14 September 1920), the editors of the MZ found it remarkable what Erfurt’s Free Press, the moderate Socialist paper in town, had to say about the scandalous events on Sunday: It was a sad picture. So the ‘celebration’ degraded into a tumult. Given everything that happened, it has to be seen as fortunate that it ended mildly. Certainly, there were at time moments where the situation was dangerous and the serious encounters seemed unavoidable. A unit of the security police was alarmed, but did not engage itself. Reason still proved victorious - luckily. If it were to come to something extremely and unforeseeably unfortunate, then the wire pullers of the communist counter demonstration would have to carry the primary responsibility [...]. Finally, the FP asked, What had the communists achieved with their senseless actions? We want to say it without making it sound nice: they have only damaged the thing that they say they wish to represent. Their appearance was a very visibly instructive lesson against the Moscow system. Moreover, the whole socialist minded working class of Erfurt will most certainly suffer the consequences because the bourgeois masses will weld themselves more strongly together to a unified block, which will allow itself to be all the more easily misused for reactionary purposes. The Reaction itself will not be affected by this […]. It demonstrates a lack of political education and the most elementary democratic principles to disturb disagreeable events in this violent and provocative manner.

The editors of the MZ noted how the other Socialist paper, the Tribuene, put it differently and added that the Tribune's editors had voted for working with Moscow. They defended their communist brothers and talk in well known ways about "German National Agitators Convention" and "Punches for the 'Victims of the War'".

The Enemies of the Republic and Democracy

In “The Interrupted Memorial in Erfurt” (FP, Nr. 205, 13 September 1920), the editors of the Free Press called it a victory for the enemies of democracy. As they saw it, last Sunday was a day for the victory of the enemies of democracy in Erfurt. The reactionary parties, namely the national rightwing Bolsheviks, have “won”; the Communists have given them water for the millwheel for new attacks on the democratic republic. We have held the Communists responsible from our side for all kinds of follies both non political and political, in order to discredit them and lead us past the old “gentlemanly” times of the monarchical-military “order”. And the leftwing Bolsheviks, the communists, have “won”, because they have marred the democracy. Both are enemies of the Republic, enemies of the Democracy, and enemies of the Social Democracy! When will the day come in Erfurt, on which the cool, thinking working classes make an end of the irresponsible communist heroes of riot, the greatest enemy of the calm upward development of the German working class? Workers, comrades! Prevent the uprisings from left and right! Long live the free democracy!

A Dangerous Pell-mell

In its coverage of “The Commemoration of the Fatherland” (TAZ, Nr. 243, 13 September 1920), the editors of the more moderate middle class TAZ emphasized how the memorial on Sunday at noon on the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Plaza was open for every member of the German Volk, without injury to any feeling or political view. Unfortunately, a few hundred people with red flags and the usual placards assembled, in order, as they had already threatened, to disturb the festivity. In the pile tumbled a large number of young men well known from similar opportunities. The whole pile of protesters disappeared at any rate in the excited mass, which wanted to celebrate despite all attempts at disturbance. The usual cheers for the International were answered with hand clapping and patriotic songs. […] there was a dangerous pell-mell on the steps of the Dome and a storm of demonstrators toward a black-white-red flag of a Veterans’ Association. In spite of all that, the memorial’s program was fully carried out. There were male choirs. Pastor Mueller greeted the veterans of 1870/71. The writer Gustav Schroer spoke on the spirit of love in which the entire people must unify themselves. To which those of another mind howled […] the sign of leftwing radical agitation.

The Police Report on the Disturbances

In “The Folks Festival” (MZ, Nr. 244, 14 September 1920), the MZ carried a report from the police of Erfurt on their security measures. The Organization of Revolutionary Railroad Workers and the International Federation of War Wounded, known by their placards and red flag, attached themselves at the end of the line of the associations. The police tried through negotiations with the leaders to make sure that they wished to peacefully participate in the festivities or intended to cause a disturbance. In that moment, the security chains fell and the whole mass poured onto and up the dome steps. […] The police tried to maintain order and calm those yelling. […] In order to counter any rumors from hence forward, it is also noted that the police did not observe or receive any reports about any injuries of a serious nature.

The Life Line & Personality

In an article entitled, “About the Reformation Celebration” (TAZ, Nr. 291, 31 October 1920), Pastor Huettenrauch from Klosterlausnitz wrote: for the second time since the collapse (of Germany), October 31^st had come to our Volk, which could still not raise itself up from its deep fall. Do you know why you have not found the strength to rise up? […] You wanted to bring about the new ordering of your life through laws and decrees. That is the wrong way. Then the rebirth of a Volk depends not on measures, but rather on people, from the quality of the personalities that are bound by success and ruin to the whole Volk. The quality of the personalities depends on the spiritual strength which they possess. […] Whoever takes religion away from the people rips the life line out of them.

Anti-Semitism

In “The Order to Murder Jews” (FP, Nr. 253, 8 November 1920), the editors of the FP commented on German National (DNVP) educators. In Munich there was an assassination attempt against Dr. Hirschfeld by German National younglings; the youth are trying to infect political opponents with the motivation to murder. The Dresdner DNVP supports the assassination attempt.

The "micro-histories" of fear

Among its file on „Social Democracy“ in the Archive for the Church Province of Saxony is a 1907 article from the Social Democratic newspaper, the Volksblatt, in Halle entitled, “Who terrorizes?” According to their report, Dr. Vogl, had suddenly been removed from his position as pastor in the town of Leislau by Kamburg with one third of his earnings withheld. Directly after the parliamentary elections in February of 1907, Dr. Vogl had held a “family night” at the church on the topic of “The political parties of the Reichstag”. Dr. Vogl claimed that he only wanted to introduce people to the topic in a matter of fact sort of way and not step on anyone’s toes. He also wanted his presentation to help the political parties learn to understand each other so that they could fight with “only the honorable weapons of truth and justice”. At some point in the evening, a local aristocrat (“Rittergutsbesitzer”) named Schlueter stood up and announced that the pastor had to fight Social Democracy above all else. The pastor, according to Schlueter, should also explain how social democracy wanted to do away with Christianity and destroy marriage and the family. Dr. Vogl countered with the remark that there was nothing in the Social Democratic platform about destroying marriage or family. Furthermore, people misunderstood the party platform plank: “religion is a private issue”. Thereafter, Schlueter told Dr. Vogl that he should be ashamed of himself and then left the “family night” with his wife. The reporter noted that Dr. Vogl was widely loved and respected in his community and there was a strong feeling of bitterness among his congregation and beyond. Such an occurrence reminded the reporter of one of the darkest times in the middle ages where people burned those of different faiths. Dr Vogl, accordingly, would realize that contemporary society was the greatest enemy of truth and justice. What, the reporter asked, would the bands of liars have to say about this?

Notes: Source: AKPS, Rep.A, Generalia, Nr. 1529, "Die Sozialdemokratie"; image above is entitled, "The Red Terror" from an 1881 edition of the Viennese satirical paper, the Gluehlichter.

I plan to introduce more of my archival findings in later postings and I want to explore their interpretation and significance for my work. I think this finding from today's archival research is interesting for several reasons. It is an article appearing in a pro-Social Democratic newspaper in Halle. So one has to take its reportage with a grain of salt, but it does articulate a notion of "terror" even as it raises "terror" as a question. From its emergence as a political force in the late 1870s, the working class political movement had articulated a capitalist form of "terror" as part of its way of organizing workers in the face of work-related fears. Opponents often resorted to labeling nascent Social Democracy as a "red" form of terror. In this case, the aristocrat's remarks reflect that trend among conservative circles to paint the emergence of Social Democracy as a form of "terror" that threatened Christianity, the family and marriage. The reporter uses collective memories of persecution to frame the description of the aristocrat's words and actions as an example of the capitalist system's terror. By the turn of the century, parliamentary politics had developed a high level of rhetorical exaggeration in Germany around supposed threats and terrors from both the left and right. I wonder how much objective positions in those platforms played a role in comparison to those calls of "terror" and how the invocation of collective fears affected those communities. In that context, it is interesting to see a pastor try to develop a presentation within the confines of a "family evening" to better inform people as voters. The aristocrat's attempt to publicly shame the pastor, appears to have backfired, but it also reveals one way in which people publicly threatened each other for political purposes at the turn of the century, namely through use of hierarchical forms of status and shaming as a way of then removing that pastor from his congregation. The local Social Democratic paper used this occasion of an apparently non-biased pastor to more effectively make the case. Most Protestant pastors, I would have assumed, would not have veered from their support of the monarchy and attacks on related opposition. Social Democracy was supposed to be the most immediate internal enemy to the Reich. It then strikes me how someone like this aristocrat can "archetype" space (see Teresa Hubbard's presentation of her work on the "home and fear" from the Akademie Schloss Solitude Conference post for this idea) or at least attempt to shape the "family night" to articulate the "terror" of Social Democracy and threaten the pastor and anyone else open to opposing ideas. I think the description of the pastor's actions and the actions of the Social Democratic newspaper also reflect William Reddy's concept of individuals "navigating" social and cultural space that others are attempting to shape for the purpose of control. In the bigger picture, I think these kinds of sources reveal how national politics was already working through the local level before the First World War. More importantly, these local political practices and notions of "terror" would continue to influence German politics in the wake of the First World War, beyond the Kaiser's call for national cooperation (the "Burgfrieden") during the war and the revolution that followed in the wake of Germany's defeat and the end of the monarchy.

Primary source 3: through the clippings of the Imperial Rural Union

For the past two days I have been looking through the press clippings of the Reichslandbund at the Federal Archives in Berlin-Lichterfeld (the history of the building complex is posted above in German).

The Reichslandbund (Rlb) is translated as the Natural Rural League on the Wikipedia.org site, but that does not make much sense. I would translate it as the Imperial Rural Union, which still does not say much. In 1921, two German agricultural associations united to form the Rlb. Large landowners dominated its politics and it formed a large network of local associations and newspapers to advance the interests of "big" German agriculture alongside those of industry and labor in the Weimar Republic. Benjamin Ziemann suggested I take a look in their press archive, which goes back into the 1890s and reads like a gigantic collection of newspaper articles from newspapers all over Germany that the Rlb organized into a wide range of topics.

Since the collection is so large, I chose to first look at the press collection on Thuringia (Thueringen), the central German region in my study (depicted at left in pink on the map of Germany during the Weimar Republic (1919-1933)). There is so much material that I chose the collection bound in a book for the years 1921-1924. I was interested in these years in particular because of the rise of the Nazi Party in Bavaria to the south and what I knew from earlier research about the rise in political violence and anti-Semitism all around Germany during that time. I wanted to see what fear looked like through this collection and how Germans responded.

Since the collection is primarily newspapers, although other materials occasionally pop up, many of the "voices" among these article clippings are middle class and Protestant, although they collections also include the newspapers of the local agricultural union, the communists and the social democrats. Among the middle class papers, there are conservative, nationalist, racist and democratic voices. It is hard to approach fear this way because I am really looking for descriptions of individual expressions of fear, but I am struck by how much fear does come up in this sampling of German newspapers and the way that Germans were transforming their politics.

In September 1921, Thuringia held its state parliamentary elections and the "Red Block" of Social Democrats (SPD), Independent Social Democrats (USPD) and Communists (KPD) were able to form a ruling coalition with a combined vote of more than 51%. The middle class Democrats were already well on the way to decline from their early successes in the first Weimar elections, but the other, more conservative middle class parties did very well. Much of the press clippings reflects their positions. Their authors very closely followed the decisions of the ruling "Red Block" coalition and the actions of everyday people who supported Social Democracy or Communism in Thuringian communities and they tended to play on the fears that middle class, Protestant Germans associated with the "Reds". Historians such as Helge Matthiesen have pointed out these trends before, but my research brings out some of the dimensions of these political battles even more. For example, conservative middle class authors tended to play the religion card more so than I think we know. So when the "Red Block" announced a new law in October 1921 that eliminated official state status in Thuringia for the holidays celebrating the Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther's birthday (on October 31 and November 9 respectively), many papers carried headlines that stylized the decision as the beginning salvo in a new "Cultural War" (Kulturkampf) . The law also made the founding of the Weimar Republic (also on November 9) the new state holiday. Dissenting papers noted how the new law would eliminate religious education and choirs in the schools and reported cases of local ministers and teachers protesting the new law. The Rlb's local papers used the law's promulgation to condemn the entire Weimar Republic. In many cases, the dissenting papers exaggerated the very nature of the law, claiming that the socialists and communists wanted to destroy freedom and moral values and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat and the masses. They portrayed political appointments and hiring practices of the ruling state government as infiltrations, allowing socialists and communists to work in the local police forces, and claiming that the government unfairly granted amnesty to people accused of "political crimes" (in their view, to mostly socialists and marxists), while more aggressively prosecuting rightwing associations and censoring their media like the film Fredericus rex after the rightwing assassination of the German-Jewish industrial and political leader, Walther Rathenau in June 1922. In this context, as Matthiesen has noted, conservative middle class authors railed against the powerlessness of the middle classes and called for a unified middle class voting block of their own made up of Protestants, craftsmen and farmers.

What also struck me about these records was how central Thuringia was to German politics in the early 1920s. My project assumes this approach and the archival materials I saw today focus on the region. So these approaches slants my view a bit, but it was remarkable how many papers from other regions picked up on the developments in Thuringia and even claimed that this region was the cultural battleground and political laboratory of Germany. Thuringia was a newly organized political state that contemporary authors often referred to as "Greater Thuringia". Locals writers initially talked excitedly of the possibilities for the idea of a Middle Germany (Mitteldeutschland), but the fear of a "red" central Germany made national headlines in 1921 and 1922 as something Germans should fear. Papers closely followed the region's events, picking up on the terrorist tactics of local communists who organized paramilitary organizations, conducted house searches, stopped local commercial traffic and attacked right-wing demonstrations. When the socialist and communist leaders of the central German states of Braunschweig, Saxony and Greater Thuringia gathered in Dresden to discuss their regional cooperation, papers across Germany painted the picture of socialist Middle Germany as a grave danger to the nation (the Reich).
I have not yet found much public reaction to the rise in anti-Semitism in this region in 1922 and 1923, but I have found files in this collection that thematized this issue too. I will come back in another week to see those. Meanwhile, I am also struck by the region's connections to events in Bavaria and Berlin. With the possibility of a "red" Central Germany, conservative leaders in southern Thuringia were seriously considering joining their districts to the Federal state of Bavaria. In the fall of 1923, hyperinflation, rising unemployment and the French occupation of the Ruhr industrial valley in western Germany dominated the national headlines. Meanwhile, the national government ordered the military in Thuringia and Saxony to keep order, especially against the threat of communist violence and pending revolution. However, a new group calling themselves the National Socialists were literally reported to be massing paramilitary units on the southern borders of Thuringia and the rumor was they were going to seize power in Munich and march on Berlin.

Research in the Evangelical Central Archives in Berlin-Kreuzberg

I have spent the last two days looking through the records of the central archive in Berlin for the collections of the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD) and the Evangelical Church of the Union, the former Prussian state church (EKU) (See the reading room on the left). I am searching for records from local churches in hopes of finding sermons, petitions or letters from people in the communities in my study, Erfurt, Magdeburg and Nuremberg. I am particularly interested in any materials that can give me a sense of how German Protestants reacted to the growing anti-Semitism and political violence after the First World War. Protestant Christians made up a majority in my areas of study. So I want to see what fear looks like from a Christian’s point of view and how they dealt with the presence of fear resulting from the rise in more violent forms of politics from more radical leftwing working class groups and racist rightwing associations.

I found interesting sources dating back into the 1870s that I think are worth presenting here at some point. For example, I found a sermon from 1875 in which the minister shapes the Christian vision of a community in the form of a fortress. Notably, the minister draws that vision from the Book of Nehemiah 4, 1-9 in which the Jews must raise a wall to defend Jerusalem from their enemies. I also found a judicial case from 1911-1915, which offers a window into how marital relations and gender shaped a legal investigation and the very physical feeling of fear that influenced the accuser's willingness to tell the truth. The case involves the expert opinions of the local minister, the district doctor and police chief. So there is quite a wealth of material, but one should also be prepared to sift through stacks of documents and read really bad handwriting. It makes getting outside on a beautiful fall afternoon essential and makes me miss my yoga teacher and regular classes back home.

The majority of the correspondence that I have found in these administrative records, however, involves the requests of specific congregations and their ministers for things like pensions, health care support and additional ministers. The early and late periods of the 1920s witnessed massive inflation, unemployment and housing shortages. These findings in themselves tell me that these congregations were more focused on different concerns about old age, health, housing and adequate ministers for spiritual and educational need than the kinds of issues in my work.

It struck me that Erfurt was still growing with industrialization after the First World War. Many people left the churches right after the First World War because of their disappointment in the way the churches had so whole heartedly supported the Kaiser and Imperial Germany’s war aims (Dr. Roeber notes that this was also an international trend after the war). The churches noted larger and larger populations in their districts because of Erfurt’s growing economy, but also added that large numbers of these residents were socialists, communists, freethinkers, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Adventists and Baptists and expressed a militant attitude toward them. On most Sundays there were perhaps only 300 to 400 people at a service. On religious holidays like Easter the numbers more than doubled. So thousands of Germans did not attend for one reason or another, but, interestingly, they were sending more and more of their children to the church schools in their districts (why?). Therefore, the church councils requested the need for more ministers to teach the growing numbers of children in their religion classes. Several churches either built whole new worship houses or requested an additional minister and spent much of the 1920s dealing with the issues of finance in their correspondence with the upper levels of the national church administration.

So far at least, I have not found many records of how Christians responded to the earlier period of violence that is the focus of my study, i.e., the political assassinations from 1921-1922 or the wave of Anti-Semitism in 1923. Why that is the case, is not clear. In part it involves the type of records I am examining, but there might be more (I have found other records elsewhere that I will present in due time). From the little I did find, some Christians viewed the world in terms of believers and non-believers, i.e., Socialists, Communists and even other Christian sects that had erred in their view. The authors of these sources make an effort to remind their audience about how scared Christians were of the anti-religious and anti-private property actions of Communists during the revolutionary period and the wave of people leaving the churches in 1918/19. Where Jews fit into this picture is an interesting question. The sermon that I found from 1875 raises some of these questions for consideration, especially how Jews and others fit into a Christian world view of community through a reading of the Book of Nehemiah. The discussion of actual Jewish neighbors, interestingly, does not appear as a topic. I think that is an important question for the possibility of more diverse and tolerant communities, especially in times of economic crisis. So I wonder why this is the case. That said, it appears that more everyday issues of money, housing and health shaped the concerns of these individuals rather than larger political or moral issues resulting from the spate of political assassinations or reports of violence directed against Jews or defenders of civil society.

Writing letters to church officials noticeably increased with the rise of the Nazi movement and their seizure of power in 1933. Erfurt became a bastion of the German Christians in the State of Thuringia in the years leading up to the seizure of power. These Christians sought to aryanize Protestantism and very closely align it with Hitler and Nazi racial doctrine. The letters in support of aryanization, however, reveal different ideas about how Protestantism should be Nazified, e.g., removing the Old Testament because it was Jewish or even getting rid of Christianity all together because it was scientifically outdated.

The records from Magdeburg reveal a high level of struggle within the local churches and their governing bodies between 1933 and 1938 over Christianity, i.e., the struggle between the “German Christians” and the “Bekennende Kirche”. "Bekennen" means confessing or professing the ideals of Christianity in this case, but "bekennen" can also convey the sense of coming out and admitting one's responsibility. Many of these letter are from people who were interested in bringing the churches and their evangelical mission in line with Hitler and the Nazi State, but there are also letters (so far fewer) from people invoking a kinder and more tolerant Christianity. They made no bones about how Nazism contradicted Christian teachings and bluntly expressed their mistrust of the Nazi State. There are even cases of Germans questioning the Nazi sterilization programs as early as 1933.

In one case, there was a letter justifying the Nazis' eradication of the communists because of their “enemy” status. From this first culling of the materials, not too many Germans invoked Christianity in response to the violence in the earlier period that is my focus. They did invoke Christianity in the early Nazi period, but that in turn led to a rift within the churches. Interestingly, few seemed to question German or Nazi treatment of Jews or the persecution of political opponents. Why not remains an interesting question. What is just the more pressing material needs of everyday life? Was it the Christian individual's focus on one's own Christian community? the understanding that the others did not belong? the appeal of Nazism? ignorance? apathy? What had happened to Christian notions of compassion for others among Christians in general? Why did fear of one's standing before God in final judgment not urge more to worry about their actions or inaction on earth and in the world around them? These are questions worth pondering for our own understanding of the contemporary world and the visions of our own communities as well.