Theologie en kerk te Groningen gedurende de periode van het Nationaal-Socialisme (1933-1945), bepaaldelijk met betrekking tot de Duitse kerkstrijd

Abstract

This article deals with the theological faculty of the State University at Groningen during the Nazi period, both before the Second World War and during the occupation time. It focusses particularly on reactions of students and professors to the struggle of the Confessing Church in Germany. During the occupation period two serious problems confronted the students: the German demands to dismiss Jewish members from their organisations (1941) and to sign a declaration of loyalty to the occupying authorities (1943). Only three students complied with this order.

Because of the brutal regime of the Reichskommissar’s representative in the Province of Groningen, Hermann Coming, a fanatic Nazi anti-Semite, who was strivung for a nazification of the university, ordinary teaching and objective research were made difficult. Any Nazi sympathy did not exist in the theological faculty. Special attention is paid to the famous phenomenologist G. van der Leeuw and the dogmatic theologian Th. L. Haitjema. Finally some information is given about the local Netherlands Reformed Church during the period.