Friedrich Karl Otto Dibelius (Dibelius)

Dibelius, Friedrich Karl Otto (Dibelius), (1880-1967), German theologian-evangelist, the enemy of the Nazi policy glyayhshaltung. Born May 15, 1880 in Berlin. Since 1915 - a pastor in Berlin. In 1921 became a member of the Coordinating Council of Protestant Churches, in 1925 led the Lutheran Church of Prussia. For resistance to Nazism was dismissed from his post after Hitler came to power in 1933. Dibelius made it clear that he would not tolerate state control over the spiritual and apostolic activity. In an open letter to Dr. Hans Kerrlyu, Nazi Commissioner for Religious Affairs, published in March 1937, Dibelius wrote:

"Let me ask you one question, Mr Reich Minister. If during the morning religious instruction, children will say, . that the Bible is the word of God, . with whom he speaks to us in the Old and New Testaments, . and when after dinner the young people should memorize "What is our Bible? Our Bible - is" Mein Kampf "Hitler", . - Who will change his teaching? This is crucial,
. When you demand that the Evangelical Church was not the State of the State, any Christian will agree. The church should be a church, not state within a state. But the doctrine that you are advancing, gives reason to believe that the state intervenes in the affairs of the church so far as this contribute to the repressive bodies that support this state ... In this lie the roots of the struggle between the State and the Evangelical Church ... As soon as the state tries to replace the church and seize power over the souls of people ... then we, as a related word of Luther, the resistance will render the name of God. I assure you that we will do it. "

Dibelius was brought before Zondergeriht - a special military tribunal on charges of treacherous attacks on the government. Imposed by the court verdict of acquittal in respect Dibelius has caused great concern among the Nazi officials. Hitler had personally requested the tribunal a copy of the protocol with the reasoning of the court, but to intervene yet did not. After the fall of the Third Reich Dibelius was appointed Bishop of Berlin, a post he held until 1956. From 1949 to 1961 he was chairman of the Evangelical Church in Germany, and from 1954 to 1961, one of the five presidents of the World Council of Churches, the first among the Germans, who occupied this post. His criticism of whatever the absolute outside influence on the Protestant church was also directed against the communist regime of East Germany: in 1960 he was not allowed in the GDR to perform duties by the bishop of Brandenburg,
. Dibelius died in Berlin on January 31, 1967.