ABSTRACT
The German churches had for centuries seen themselves as the moral guardians of the state and the defenders of Germany’s national and Christian identity. The already over-developed German habit of social control could readily enough be applied to any church member believed to be in any way lacking in loyalty to the regime or its policies. Both historically and theologically the German churches were conditioned to regard themselves as upholders of the established order. The German churches did not possess the kinds of theology adequate to sustain any critical attack on the actions of their political rulers. The church leaders’ triumphalist proclamation of God’s support for Germany’s imperialist aggression in 1914, their enthusiastic promises of imminent and divinely-blest victory, and their subsequent legitimation of the ruthless slaughter of the trenches were now proved to be words of hollow hypocrisy. The dominant school of German Protestant liberal theologians collapsed in the shock of war and unparalleled destruction.
