Hitler's Personal Prisoner

This is the first fully researched biography of Martin Niem¦(ller (1892-1984). It charts his life from his service in the Imperial German Navy, his work for the Inner Mission and as a Protestant pastor in the Berlin suburb of Dahlem from 1931. Niem¦(ller's work as a leading figure of the Confessing Church and his contribution to the conflicts over church policy during the Third Reich are analysed and contextualised. Chapters on the post-war period chart Niem¦(ller's contribution to ecumenism, anti-nuclear pacifism, and his role in rebuilding the West German Protestant Churches. From 1938 to 1945, Martin Niem¦(ller was detained as 'Hitler's Personal Prisoner' in Nazi concentration camps. Liberated in April 1945, Niem¦(ller was widely hailed as an icon of Christian resistance against the Nazi dictatorship. For many years, the Niem¦(ller legend masked the problematic aspects of his life: his persistent antisemitism, on display even in the post-war period; his nationalism and support of the German war effort even whilst in concentration camp detention; and his disdain for parliamentary democracy. In his biography of the most important twentieth-century German Protestant, Benjamin Ziemann uncovers the 'historical' Niem¦(ller behind the legend of the resistance hero. Carefully situating Niem¦(ller's personal trajectory in his wider social milieu -- from the Imperial Navy to the West German peace movement -- Ziemann probes into core themes of twentieth century German history: militarism, National Socialism, German guilt, and moral reconstruction post-1945.