Public Speaking Ban and Forced Transfer

The high consistory pursued a course of forced transfer more and more clearly toward the end of Gerhard Dedeke’s detention. The state authorities agreed to release the pastor only under these conditions. This bred extreme tensions between the high consistory and Dedeke himself.

The high consistory ultimately imposed a preaching ban on Dedeke in Minden and opened transfer proceedings. Dedeke clung to his pulpit in Minden, however, with very emotional arguments. According to statements from the jail staff, Dedeke had behaved abusively during a fierce argument in a conversation with Friedrich Hagemann, a member of the high consistory, during his detention. Hagemann therefore recommended not authorizing the transfer demanded by the state until Dedeke had been released from detention and spent time at a sanatorium.

Dedeke was transferred against his will to Linden-Dahlhausen on July 1, 1941. He described himself as a failed churchman in 1943. Dedeke probably did not personally reconcile himself with the church government until he was appointed to the consistory after the war’s end.