This fascinating book, based on archival sources from all levels of the Protestant Church, examines parish life during the Nazi era in three distinct Lutheran regions of Germany: Brandenburg, Saxony, and Wurttemberg. Rather than focusing on high-church politics, famous characters, or national events, it asks what the “German Church Struggle” looked like in the eyes of parish pastors—from radicals in the Confessing Church to ardent Nazis in the German Christian Movement—and their parishioners.
An informative glimpse into the world of German Protestants in the difficult Hitler era, Faith and Fatherland approaches the history of the Church Struggle from the “bottom up,” using sources like pastors’ correspondence, parish newsletters, local newspaper accounts, district superintendents’ reports, and local church statistics. While Jantzen confirms the general understanding that German Protestants (hampered by their cultural and theological traditions) failed to resist or even critique the Nazi regime, it reveals a surprising diversity of opinion and variety of action, from the deep commitment to Nazism of many church leaders to the successful efforts of some Lutheran pastors and parishioners to resist the nazification of their churches.