Background
Clemens von Galen was born in Dinklage on 16 March 1878.
Clemens von Galen was born in Dinklage on 16 March 1878.
He began his career as a bishop's chaplain in Münster in 1904. After a period as a priest in Berlin, von Galen became Pastor of St Lambert Church in Münster in 1929 and in 1933 he was appointed Archbishop. When the Nazis came to power, Cardinal von Galen took the oath of allegiance to the régime and opposed church interference in politics. Resentful of the Versailles Treaty, he thanked and blessed the Führer when German troops re-entered the demilitarized Rhineland in 1936.
In 1941 in a series of sermons he preached against the police State and the unlawful ‘destruction of worthless life', earning the nickname of the ‘Lion of Münster' for his courageous defiance. In a blistering sermon on 3 August 1941 in Münster Cathedral, Cardinal von Galen called the euthanasia programme ‘plain murder', telling his congregation that he was suing those responsible for this criminal act under Paragraph 211 of the Penal Code.
The most effective, single episcopal protest against the régime, von Galen’s sermons shook the Nazi leadership sufficiently to persuade Hitler to suspend and give up the euthanasia measures. Though Himmler demanded his arrest and Martin Bormann called for his execution, Goebbels urged moderation, warning that the Archbishop’s arrest would mean ‘writing off Miinster and the whole of Westphalia for the duration of the war’. Hitler himself, who wanted to avoid a confrontation with the Catholic church, swore to exact retribution from von Galen but only after the end of the war. The result was that the Cardinal continued to exercise his functions, though he was confined to Munster and the Gestapo kept track of his activities. Finally arrested after the assassination attempt of 20 July 1944, the Cardinal survived the end of the war in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
He died in Münster on 22 March 1946.
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1934At the beginning of World War II, the Cardinal also adopted a patriotic stance, exhorting his congregation to defend the Fatherland, while at the same time warning against feelings of vindictiveness, the killing of hostages and unarmed prisoners of war.
Von Galen's opposition to the régime had nonetheless been growing steadily since 1933 and he did not disguise his contempt for Nazi propaganda against the Catholic church. He was firmly opposed to National Socialist race doctrines and openly criticized government practices which he regarded as contrary to Christian teaching.