Niemöller, Martin

(1892–1984)

   Rebel.

   Niemöller was born in Lynstadt, Germany, and he was educated at the University of Münster. He served in the German navy in the First World War and he was ordained to the Lutheran ministry in 1924. A successful pastor, he joined bonhoeffer and others in their protests against Nazi policies. He became President of the Pastors’ Emergency League in 1933 and he was an active member of the Confessing Church. He opposed Bishop Marahren’s decision to co-operate with the Ministry of Church Affairs and in 1937 he was arrested. He refused to compromise his principles and spent the years from 1937 until 1945 in Sachsenhausen and then in Dachau concentration camps. He thus became a symbol of Christian opposition to the barbarities of the Nazi regime. After the war, he held various positions within the Evangelical Church and between 1961 and 1968, he was a President of the World Council of Churches.

   J. Bentley, Martin Niemöller (1984);

   K. Robbins, ‘Martin Niemöller, the German Church struggle and English opinion’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, xxxi (1970);

   D. Schmidt, Martin Niemöller (1959).