Martin Albertz

Born in Halle/Saale in 1883, Martin Albertz studied theology and became a pastor in Stampen near Breslau in 1910. In 1931 he became superintendent in the Berlin district of Spandau. In the struggle within the Church he fiercely opposed the National Socialist "German Christians", and was a member of the circle that established the Pastors Emergency Council in 1933. (The Nazis established the National Socialist German Christians group, which in reality was not Christian, but actually was a pro-Hitler group; they wanted to infiltrate the Christian churches in Germany and convert them into anti-Christian groups. The Pastors Emergency Council was started to prevent this.) In 1934 Albertz assumed responsibility for establishing and directing the Theological Examination Office of the Confessional Church of Berlin-Brandenburg. He also taught at the Protestant University, which was regarded as illegal from 1937 on. Any college or university which taught Christianity was made illegal by the Nazi government. In 1936, as a member of the Second Provisional Church Directorate, he was co-author of a memorandum to Hitler that included condemnation of state intervention in Church life and the persecution of Jews and political opponents. In 1938 Albertz was co-publisher of a prayer liturgy that confronted the German people with their shared responsibility for the impending war, and called for atonement. As a result of a disciplinary procedure initiated in 1938, Albertz was removed from his post in 1940. Since he continued teaching, holding examinations for the Confessional Church and helping persecuted people, the Gestapo arrested him in May 1941. The Berlin Special Court sentenced him to 18 months in prison in December 1941. Martin Albertz was imprisoned again in June 1944 for working as a pastor and for "demoralizing the troops". However, he survived the war. He died in 1956, and is remembered as someone who pointed out that the Nazis were, in some cases, forming groups which claimed to be Christian, but were in fact trying to insinuate themselves into truly Christian groups and stop the Christian resistance activities.