Let us not forget Bishop Theophil Wurm, a German Resistance Member. Let
us learn about him to educate ourselves on what is good overcoming evil. We
will post information about him from Wikipedia.
Theophil Wurm
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Theophil Wurm (7 December 1868, Basel –
28 January 1953, Stuttgart) was the son of a pastor and was a leader in the
German Protestant Church in the early twentieth century.
Wurm was active in politics. He was a
member of the Christian Social Party before World War I, and thereafter of the
Citizens’ Party. He held a seat in the Württemberg State Parliament (German: Landtag) until 1920.
As a young man Wurm was a prison
chaplain, and became a parish pastor when he was 45. He progressed in the
hierarchy of the Lutheran Evangelical State Church in
Württemberg and became church president in 1929, with this office being
retitled into Landesbischof (bishop of the regional
Protestant church) in 1933. Like many churchmen, he initially favored the
Nazi regime, but its church policy soon moved him into opposition.
In September 1934 Wurm was deposed
from his bishopric by Reich's bishop Ludwig Müller because of his views on
church policy (including) the Barmen Declaration,
and was placed under house arrest twice. These extreme measures were eventually
rescinded by Hitler in the wake of protests and the stripping of power from
Müller. Wurm then held the office of bishop until 1948.
Wurm withdrew from the German
Christians and aligned himself with the schismatic Confessing
Church and attended its synods, but he did not advocate the more extreme
policies of the church's more militant wing. Nevertheless, he was not
politically apathetic and made numerous complaints to the Nazi party and the
Nazi state. After the start of the war, he protested the murders of psychiatric
patients under the Nazi euthanasia program.
Wurm and the Catholic Bishop of Munster, August von Galen were able to lead widespread public opposition to the murder of
invalids. This earned him a 1944 ban against public speaking and writing.
He associated with the resistance movements that centered on Carl
Goerdeler and Ludwig Beck.
He was admired by his fellow churchmen
and in 1945 (in connection with the Allies' de-nazification
efforts) he was elected chairman of the Council of the newly created Protestant
umbrella Evangelical Church in Germany.
He was a signatory of the October 1945
Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt.
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