Twisted cross the German Christian movement in the Third Reich Bergen, Doris L. 1960- creator text xx# monographic eng XIII, 341 S. : Ill. How did Germany's Christians respond to Nazism? In Twisted Cross, Doris Bergen addresses one important element of this response by focusing on the 600,000 self-described "German Christians," who sought to expunge all Jewish elements from the Christian church. In a process that became more daring as Nazi plans for genocide unfolded, this group of Protestant lay people and clergy rejected the Old Testament, ousted people defined as non-Aryans from their congregations, denied the Jewish ancestry of Jesus, and removed Hebrew words like "Hallelujah" from hymns Bergen refutes the notion that the German Christians were a marginal group and demonstrates that members occupied key positions within the Protestant church even after their agenda was rejected by the Nazi leadership. Extending her analysis into the postwar period, Bergen shows how the German Christians were relatively easily reincorporated into mainstream church life after 1945. Throughout Twisted Cross, Bergen reveals the important role played by women and by the ideology of spiritual motherhood amid the German Christians' glorification of a "manly" church Doris L. Bergen. Derde Rijk Deutsche Christen Kirche und Staat Kirchenpolitik Nationalsozialismus Protestantismus Geschichte Kirchengeschichte German-Christian movement History Deutsche Christen Antisemitismus Deutschland Germany Church history 1933-1945 Geschichte 1933-1945 gnd rswk-swf Geschichte gnd rswk-swf BR856 261.7/0943/09043 D 17.212 m 244 o 44.1.1 o 56.1 BO 6150 NQ 2330 0-8078-4560-4 0-8078-2253-1 ANTI FREIZ 19------ 960813 20050419 990003253760302884