Confessing Church

The Confessing Church was a movement within German Protestantism during Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German Evangelical Church. Demographics The following statistics (as of January 1933 unless otherwise stated) are an aid in understanding the context of the political and theological developments discussed in this article. Number of Protestants in Germany: 45 million Number of free church Protestants: 150,000 Largest regional Protestant church: Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union, with 18 million members, the church strongest in members in the country at the time. Number of Protestant pastors: 18,000 Number of these strongly adhering to the "German Christian" church faction as of 1935: 3000 Number of these strongly adhering to the "Confessing Church" church faction as of 1935: 3000 Number of these arrested during 1935: 700 Number of these not closely affiliated with or adhering to either faction: 12,000 Total population of Germany: 65 million Number of Jews in Germany: 525,000 Historical background