Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Nimeller was born on January 14, 1892 in the German city of Lipstadt. He was a well-known German pastor who held the religious views of Protestantism. In addition, he actively promoted anti-fascist ideas during the Second World War and advocated peace during the Cold War.
The beginning of religious activity
Martin Nimeller was educated as a naval officer and commanded a submarine during World War I. After the war, he commanded a battalion in the Ruhr area. Martin began to study theology between 1919 and 1923.
At the beginning of his religious activities, he supported the anti-Semitic and anti-communist policies of the nationalists. However, already in 1933, Pastor Martin Nimeller opposed the ideas of nationalists, which was due to Hitler coming to power and his totalitarian policy of homogenization, according to which it was necessary to exclude from all Protestant churches servants with Jewish roots. Due to the imposition of this “Aryan paragraph”, Martin, together with his friend Dietrich Bonhoeffer, creates a religious movement that sharply opposed the nationalization of German churches.
Arrest and concentration camp
For his opposition to Nazi control of religious institutions in Germany, Martin Nimeller was arrested on July 1, 1937. On March 2, 1938, the tribunal convicted him of anti-state actions and sentenced him to 7 months in prison and a fine of 2000 German marks.
Since Martin was detained for 8 months, which exceeded the period of his conviction, he was released immediately after the trial. Nevertheless, as soon as the pastor left the courtroom, he was immediately arrested again by the Gestapo organization, subordinate to Heinrich Himmler. This new arrest was most likely connected with the fact that Rudolf Hess found the punishment for Martin too supportive. As a result, Martin Nimeller was imprisoned in concentration camps Sachsenhausen and Dachau from 1938 to 1945.
Leo Stein's article
Leo Stein, Martin Nimeller’s companion in prison who was released from Sachsenhausen camp and immigrated to America, wrote an article about his cellmate in 1942. In the article, the author outlines Martin's quotes that followed his question about why he initially supported the Nazi party. What did Martin Nimeler say to this question? He replied that he himself often asked him himself and every time that he did, he regretted his deed.
He also talks about Hitler's betrayal. The fact is that Martin had an audience with Hitler in 1932, where the pastor acted as an official representative of the Protestant Church. Hitler swore to him to defend the rights of the church and not to issue anti-church laws. In addition, the people's leader promised not to allow pogroms against Jews in Germany, but only to introduce restrictions on the rights of this people, for example, to take away seats in the German government and so on.
The article also says that Martin Nimeller was dissatisfied with the popularization of atheist pre-war views, which were supported by the parties of the Social Democrats and Communists. That is why Nimeller had high hopes for the promises that Hitler gave him.
Activities after World War II and merit
After his release in 1945, Martin Nimeller joined the ranks of the peace movement, among whose members remained until the end of his days. In 1961, he was appointed president of the World Council of Churches. During the Vietnam War, Martin played an important role in advocating for its cessation.
Martin contributed to the Stuttgart declaration of guilt, which was signed by German Protestant leaders. This declaration recognizes that the church did not do everything possible to eliminate the threat of Nazism in the initial stages of its formation.
The Cold War between the USSR and the USA in the second half of the 20th century kept the whole world in tension and fear. At this time, Martin Nimeller was distinguished by his activity for maintaining peace in Europe.
After the Japanese nuclear attack in 1945, Martin called US President Harry Truman "the world's worst killer after Hitler." The meeting of Martin with the President of North Vietnam Ho Chi Minh in the city of Hanoi at the very height of the war in this country also caused great indignation in the USA.
In 1982, when a religious leader turned 90, he said that he began his career as a tough conservative politician and now he is an active revolutionary, and then added that if he lives to be 100 years old, then he may become an anarchist.
Disputes about the famous poem
Since the 1980s, Martin Nimeller has become well known as the author of the poem "When the Nazis Came for the Communists." The poem tells about the consequences of tyranny, which no one opposed at the time of its formation. A feature of this poem is the contestation of many of its exact words and phrases, since for the most part it was recorded from Martin's speech. Its author himself says that there is no question of any poem, this is just a sermon that was delivered during Holy Week in 1946 in the city of Kaiserslautern.
It is believed that the idea of writing his poem came to Martin after he visited the Dachau concentration camp after the war. The poem was first published in print in 1955. Note that the author of this poem is often mistakenly called the German poet Bertolt Brecht, and not Martin Nimeller.
