Expulsion

In September of 1940, Gollwitzer was banned from speaking in public in Germany because of activity defamatory to the state and expelled from Berlin. He left Berlin and, in the following three months, stayed first at his mother’s in Munich, then briefly at Ernst Wolf’s in Halle an der Saale and from time to time also in Klein-Machnow near Potsdam where he still maintained contacts to his congregational members. In his farewell letter of September 17, 1940 to his congregation, Gollwitzer admonished them to persist in intercessory prayer by name.

After his expulsion, the Provisional German Evangelical Church Government gave him the task of writing a study on the relationship between the Protestant and Catholic churches in order to deter Martin Niemöller from his intention to switch denominations. Gollwitzer worked on this until December of 1940.