On
this date, 31 July 1945, one of Adolf Hitler’s Reich Bishop, Ludwig Müller, committed suicide. I will post information about this False
Prophet from Wikipedia.
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Reichsbischof Ludwig
Müller [PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.todocoleccion.net/cristianos-hitler-que-es-cristianismo-positivo-ludwig-muller-gastos-envio-gratis~x36981127]
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Ludwig Müller
(23 June 1883 – 31 July 1945) was a German theologian and leading member of the
"German Christians" (German: Deutsche Christen) faith movement. In 1933 he was
imposed by the Nazi government as Reichsbischof (Reich Bishop) of the
German Evangelical Church (German: Deutsche Evangelische Kirche).
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Reichsbischof Ludwig
Müller
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Life
Müller
was born in Gütersloh, in the Prussian
province of Westphalia, where he attended the Pietist Evangelical Gymnasium.
He went on to study Protestant theology at the universities of Halle
and Bonn.
Having finished his studies, he worked as a school inspector in his hometown,
from 1905 also as a vicar and assistant preacher in Herford and Wanne. In 1908 he became parish priest in Rödinghausen. At the outbreak of World War
I, he served as a Navy
chaplain in Wilhelmshaven.
After
the war, Müller joined the Stahlhelm
paramilitary organization and continued his career as a military chaplain, from
1926 at the Königsberg garrison.
He had been associated with Nazism since the 1920s, supporting a revisionist
view of "Christ the Aryan" (or a "heroic Jesus") as well as
a plan of purifying Christianity of what he deemed "Jewish corruption,"
including purging large parts of the Old Testament.
Müller
had little real political experience and, as his actions would demonstrate to Adolf Hitler, little if any political
aptitude. In the 1920s and early 1930s, before Hitler's assumption of the
German chancellorship on 30 January 1933, he was a little-known pastor and a regional leader of the German Christians in
East Prussia.
However, he was an "old fighter" with Hitler (German: Alter Kämpfer) since 1931, when he joined the Nazi Party, and had a burning desire to
assume more power. In 1932, Müller introduced Hitler to Reichswehr General Werner von Blomberg
when Müller was chaplain of the East Prussian Military District and Blomberg
was the district's commander.
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Reichsbischof Ludwig
Müller on 27 September 1933
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Reichsbischof Ludwig
Müller giving a speech (23 September 1934)
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As
part of the Gleichschaltung
process, the Nazi regime's plan was to "coordinate" all 28 separate Protestant regional church bodies into a single and unitary
Reich Church (Reichskirche). Müller wanted to serve as leading Reich
Bishop of this newly formed entity. His first attempt to achieve his post ended
in a miserable and embarrassing failure, when the German
Evangelical Church Confederation and the Prussian
Union of churches designated Friedrich
von Bodelschwingh on 27 May 1933. Eventually, however, after the
Nazis had enforced Bodelschwingh's resignation, Müller was appointed regional
bishop (Landesbischof) of the Prussian Union on 4 August, and on 27
September finally was elected Reich Bishop by a national synod through
political machinations.
Müller's
advancement angered many Protestant pastors and congregations, who deemed his
selection to be politically motivated and intrinsically anti-Christian. Still regional bishop, he
handed over more powers to the Reich Bishop—himself—as an example of imitation,
to the discontent of other regional bishops like Theophil Wurm (Württemberg).
On the other hand, Müller's support by the "German Christians" within
the Protestant Church decreased, as he was not able to wield explicit
authority. The radical Nazi faction wanted to get rid of the Old Testament and create a German National
Religion divorced from Jewish influenced ideas. They supported the introduction
of the Aryan Paragraph
into the Church. This controversy led to schism and
the foundation of the competing Confessing Church, a situation that
frustrated Hitler and led to the end of Müller's power.
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Reichsbischof Ludwig
Müller shook hands with Adolf Hitler [PHOTO SOURCE: http://randalrauser.com/2014/06/christianity-on-trial-a-review/]
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Many
of the German Protestant clergy supported the Confessing Church movement, which
resisted the imposition of the state into Church affairs. Hitler's interest in
the group had waned by 1937, when the party took up a more aggressive attitude
toward the resistant Christian clergy, so Müller tried to revive his support by
allowing the Gestapo to monitor churches and the Christian youth groups to consolidate
with the Hitler Youth.
He
remained committed to Nazism to the end. He committed suicide in Berlin in
1945, soon after the Nazi defeat.