Overview

This is the first fully researched biography of Martin Niemöller (1892-1984). It charts his life from his service in the Imperial German Navy, his work for the Inner Mission and as a Protestant pastor in the Berlin suburb of Dahlem from 1931. Niemöller's work as a leading figure of the Confessing Church and his contribution to the conflicts over church policy during the Third Reich are analysed and contextualised. Chapters on the post-war period chart Niemöller's contribution to ecumenism, anti-nuclear pacifism, and his role in rebuilding the West German Protestant Churches.From 1938 to 1945, Martin Niemöller was detained as 'Hitler's Personal Prisoner' in Nazi concentration camps. Liberated in April 1945, Niemöller was widely hailed as an icon of Christian resistance against the Nazi dictatorship. For many years, the Niemöller legend masked the problematic aspects of his life: his persistent antisemitism, on display even in the post-war period; his nationalism and support of the German war effort even whilst in concentration camp detention; and his disdain for parliamentary democracy. In his biography of the most important twentieth-century German Protestant, Benjamin Ziemann uncovers the 'historical' Niemöller behind the legend of the resistance hero. Carefully situating Niemöller's personal trajectory in his wider social milieu -- from the Imperial Navy to the West German peace movement -- Ziemann probes into core themes of twentieth century German history: militarism, National Socialism, German guilt, and moral reconstruction post-1945.

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9780192862587

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Reviews

Ziemann has written the definitive biography of Martin Niem¨oller. He replaces the post-war image of an iconic figure of resistance to Nazism with a compelling, far less flattering, interpretation. This emphasises the fervently held form of nationalist Protestantism, cultural antisemitism and rejection of liberal democracy that provided consistency to the seeming contradictions in Niem¨oller's thought and actions until well after 1945. * Ian Kershaw, Author of Personality and Power: Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe * This book is a brilliant reexamination of one of the most obdurate of sacred cows, the myth of Martin Niem¨oller. Ziemann has done prodigious work in pushing past the postwar narrative so carefully curated by Niem¨oller's circle of confidants, to do what historians are supposed to do: get to the truth. By deploying a fact-driven methodology concerned with scrutinizing old truth-claims, Ziemann delivers the kind of probing reevaluation of Niem¨oller that we have waited literally decades to read. * Richard Steigmann-Gall, Author of The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945 *

"Ziemann has written the definitive biography of Martin Niem""oller. He replaces the post-war image of an iconic figure of resistance to Nazism with a compelling, far less flattering, interpretation. This emphasises the fervently held form of nationalist Protestantism, cultural antisemitism and rejection of liberal democracy that provided consistency to the seeming contradictions in Niem""oller's thought and actions until well after 1945. * Ian Kershaw, Author of Personality and Power: Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe * This book is a brilliant reexamination of one of the most obdurate of sacred cows, the myth of Martin Niem""oller. Ziemann has done prodigious work in pushing past the postwar narrative so carefully curated by Niem""oller's circle of confidants, to do what historians are supposed to do: get to the truth. By deploying a fact-driven methodology concerned with scrutinizing old truth-claims, Ziemann delivers the kind of probing reevaluation of Niem""oller that we have waited literally decades to read. * Richard Steigmann-Gall, Author of The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945 *"

Author Information

Benjamin Ziemann is Professor of Modern Germany at the University of Sheffield. He has gained his PhD from the University of Bielefeld, and has held visiting fellowships at Humboldt University Berlin, the University of York, the University of Jena, Oslo University and Kyoritsu Women's University in Tokyo.

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