"The Reverend Martin Niemoeller had personally welcomed the coming to power of the Nazis in 1933. In that year his autobiography, From U-boat to Pulpit, had been published. The story of how this submarine commander in the First World War had become a prominent Protestant pastor was singled out for special praise in the Nazi press and became a best seller. To Pastor Niemoeller, as to many a Protestant clergyman, the fourteen years of the Republic had been, as he said, "years of darkness" and at the close of his autobiography he added a note of satisfaction that the Nazi revolution had finally triumphed and that it had brought about the "national revival" for which he himself had fought so long — for a time in the free corps, from which so many Nazi leaders had come. He was soon to experience a terrible disillusionment. … By the beginning of 1934, the disillusioned Pastor Niemoeller had become the guiding spirit of the minority resistance in both the "Confessional Church" and the Pastor's Emergency League."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of he Third Reich (1964), p. 233
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Niem%C3%B6ller
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Martin Niemöller
21 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Martin Niemöller →
Related Quotes
"Niemöller had once again delivered a rebellious sermon in Dahlem; at the same time transcripts of his tapped telephon…"
"You suppose that Christianity is oppressed in Germany and that there is a rule by force and secret trial. Though this…"
"The Confessional Church as a whole did not offer resistance in the political sense, with the intent of bringing down …"
"He called on the people to show a sense of responsibility towards their fellow-men, he abjured them not to forget the…"
"Our people are trying to break the bond set by God. That is human conceit rising against God. In this connection we m…"
"The oppression is growing, and anyone who has had to submit to the Tempter's machine-gun fire during this last week t…"
"We have no more thought of using our own powers to escape the arm of authorities than had the Apostles of old. No mor…"
"No honest man or woman in Germany feels responsible for these things. Good Germans took Nazism as a new religion. The…"
"Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Kommunist. Als sie die Sozialdemokraten e…"
"In Erlangen, for instance, in January 1946 he spoke of meeting a German Jew who had lost everything — parents, brothe…"