In July 1932, Communists, Nazis, and police clashed in Altona near Hamburg, leaving eighteen dead. At a funeral service, local pastor Hans Asmussen urged peace and rejected vengeance. Hitler instead proclaimed the dead Nazis “Christian martyrs” and used the violence to fuel further unrest. Asmussen confronted Hitler directly and later publicly denounced him.

A World War I veteran and trained theologian, Asmussen was committed to traditional Lutheran doctrine and wary of merging church and politics. That conviction shaped the Altona Confession, which he helped write and which was published on 11 January 1933. The statement warned against political control of the church, insisting that the church must proclaim the gospel to all people and refuse allegiance to any party. Hitler saw the confession as a direct challenge to Nazi claims of total authority.

As the Nazis brought the Lutheran Church under state control, Asmussen helped draft the Barmen Declaration, rejecting Nazi theology. Forced into early retirement in 1934, he continued to resist through teaching and writing. The Nazis eventually silenced him and imprisoned him in 1941.

After the war, Asmussen joined others in confessing the church’s failure under Hitler and became active in the ecumenical movement. He died in 1968.

Also On This Day

1817 – Death in New Haven, Connecticut, of Timothy Dwight, president of Yale, a powerful advocate of sound doctrine. As hymnwriter, he had penned “I love thy kingdom Lord.”

1942 – Soviets execute Natalya Ivanovna Sundukova by firing squad because she had “propagandized” her Orthodox faith among other prisoners and refused to work for the atheistic communists in the prison camp.