The Confessing Church

The Confessing Church was a German protestant church that came about in an attempt to halt the Nazi ideals of intervening in the running of the German church. The protestants of Germany were largely in support of the Nazi regime at first, as the Nazis presented ideals similar to those of the days of the empire with a strong leader, like the Kaiser, which the church was in favour of. However, as the Nazis grew stronger, so did the resistance. Key figures like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller opposed the Nazi takeover of the church, they favoured the separation of the throne and the alter , and as the German Christians (the Nazi church) gained control of much of the religion in Germany resistance needed to be formed. The resistance formed the Confessing Church, a church that opposed both the intervention of the Nazis and the ideological views of the Nazis. The Confessing Church issued a memorandum to the Nazi party, stating that the Confessing Church:
  

protested the regime's anti-Christian tendencies denounced the regime's anti-Semitism demanded that the regime terminate its interference with the internal affairs of the Protestant church

The Nazis responded by:

 

arresting several hundred dissenting pastors murdering Dr. Friedrich Weiler, office manager and legal advisor of the second preliminary church executive of the Confessing Church, in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp

  

confiscating the funds of the Confessing Church forbidding the Confessing Church from taking up collections of offertories Niemoller and Bonhoeffer were both executed

July 20 bomb plot

Several key high ranking army officials in Germany are involved in the plot, but the most famous conspirator is Claus von Stauffenberg. Since 1938 there had been several meetings of resistance and failed assassination attempts, but Stauffenberg joined in the hope of leading the rebellion and enacting the assassination himself. The army officials believed that Hitler was leading the country to disaster. A lot of them, being in their elite positions, agreed with the Nationalistic policies that the Nazis presented, but a lot of the ideological views such as anti-Semitism repulsed them. Stauffenberg in particular was Catholic, and so he was massively opposed to the Nazis. On the 1st of July 1944 Stauffenberg was appointed Chief of Staff of the Reserve Army, allowing him into Hitler s military conferences. On the 20th of July at one of these conferences, Stauffenberg brought a bomb inside a briefcase which he set on a timer then left for a planned phone call. The bomb exploded, killing 3 Generals and splintering Hitler s legs, but not fatally wounding him. Much confusion reigned in Germany s armed forces, as Operation Valkyrie was in full swing because some officials believed Hitler to be dead. Fighting broke out in many areas, and it was once Hitler had confirmed himself that he was alive to Goebbels that order began to be restored. The key conspirators including Stauffenberg were arrested and executed.