Theophil Heinrich Wurm (7 December 1868,

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

– 28 January 1953,

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

) was the son of a pastor and was a leader in the German Protestant Church in the early twentieth century. Wurm was active in politics. He was a member of the Christian Social Party before World War I, and thereafter of the Citizens’ Party. He held a seat in the Württemberg State Parliament () until 1920. As a young man Wurm was a prison chaplain, and became a parish pastor when he was 45. He progressed in the hierarchy of the Lutheran

Evangelical State Church in Württemberg Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of the Christian go ...

and became church president in 1929, with this office being retitled into ''

Landesbischof A Landesbischof () is the head of some Protestant regional churches in Germany. Based on the principle of '' summus episcopus'' (), after the Reformation each Lutheran prince assumed the position of supreme governor of the state church in his ter ...

'' (bishop of the regional Protestant church) in 1933. Like many churchmen, he initially favored the Nazi regime, but its church policy soon moved him into opposition. In September 1934 Wurm was deposed from his bishopric by Reich's bishop

Ludwig Müller Johan Heinrich Ludwig Müller (23 June 1883 – 31 July 1945) was a German theologian, a Lutheran pastor, and leading member of the pro-Nazi " German Christians" () faith movement. In 1933 he was appointed by the Nazi Party as ''Reichsbischof'' ...

because of his views on church policy (including the

Barmen Declaration __NOTOC__ The Barmen Declaration or the Theological Declaration of Barmen 1934 (German: ''Die Barmer Theologische Erklärung'') was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the German Christian movement. In the view of the de ...

), and was placed under house arrest. These extreme measures were eventually rescinded by Hitler in the wake of protests and the stripping of power from Müller. Wurm then held the office of bishop until 1948. Wurm withdrew from the

German Christians Christianity is the largest religion in Germany. It was introduced to the area of modern Germany by 300 AD, while parts of that area belonged to the Roman Empire, and later, when Franks and other Germanic tribes converted to Christianity from ...

and aligned himself with the

Confessing Church The Confessing Church (, ) was a movement within German Protestantism in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all of the Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German Evangelical Church. See dro ...

, attending its synods, but he did not advocate the more extreme policies of the church's more militant wing. Nevertheless, he was not politically apathetic and made numerous complaints to the Nazi party and the Nazi state. After the start of the war, he protested the murders of psychiatric patients under the Nazi euthanasia program. Wurm and the Catholic Bishop of Münster,

Clemens August Graf von Galen Clemens Augustinus Emmanuel Joseph Pius Anthonius Hubertus Marie Graf von Galen (16 March 1878 – 22 March 1946), better known as ''Clemens August Graf von Galen'', was a German count, Bishop of Münster, and cardinal of the Catholic Churc ...

, were able to lead widespread public opposition to the murder of invalids. This earned him a 1944 ban against public speaking and writing. He associated with the

resistance movements A resistance movement is an organized group of people that tries to resist or try to overthrow a government or an occupying power, causing disruption and unrest in civil order and stability. Such a movement may seek to achieve its goals through e ...

that centered on Carl Goerdeler and

Ludwig Beck Ludwig August Theodor Beck (; 29 June 1880 – 20 July 1944) was a German general who served as Chief of the German General Staff from 1933 to 1938. Beck was one of the main conspirators of the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. ...

. He was admired by his fellow churchmen and in 1945 (in connection with the Allies' de-nazification efforts) he was elected chairman of the Council of the newly created Protestant umbrella

Evangelical Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (, EKD), also known as the Protestant Church in Germany, is a federation of twenty Lutheranism, Lutheran, Continental Reformed Protestantism, Reformed, and united and uniting churches, United Protestantism in Ger ...

. However, Wurm was also a staunch opponent of war crimes trials. In 1951, he was on the founding board of Stille Hilfe, a secret organization which aided relief organization for arrested, condemned, and fugitive Nazis. He was a signatory of the October 1945

Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt The Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt () was a declaration issued on October 19, 1945, by the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany (', EKD), in which it confessed guilt for its inadequacies in opposition to the Nazis and the Third Reich. Tex ...

References

External links

Online Biography of Wurm
at German Resistance Memorial Center * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wurm, Theophil 1868 births 1953 deaths People from Basel-Stadt Protestants in the German Resistance Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg Presidents of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Prison chaplains 20th-century German Lutheran bishops German anti-communists

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