Gertrud Herrmann

The Protestant theologian Gertrud Herrmann (1905–1983) turned toward the religious socialists early on. In the anthology “Die Kirche und das dritte Reich” (The Church and the Third Reich) of 1932, she warned the church about National Socialism, which she called religious paganism. She also revealed how little of the Nazi’s Jew-baiting and conduct toward anyone of another race and their entire ethics of heroism and warfare was consistent with the Christian commandment of charity.

Herrmann joined the Confessing Church in 1934. She also maintained contact to Jews, including her future husband, the jurist and Protestant theologian Kurt Emmerich. Both circumstances precipitated her surveillance by members of the German Christians who denounced her to the Gestapo. Afterward, the Protestant church council in Karlsruhe summarily suspended her from her job as a congregational assistant.

As a result, Gertrud Herrmann fled to Switzerland and later to England together with her husband. In 1947, she returned to Germany and taught at the Odenwaldschule in Oberhambach.