Evening star., 1937-07-01
GERMAN CHURCH
LEADER ARRESTED
Secret Trials Will Start
Tomorrow to Combat
Reading of Names.
Dy the Associated Press.

bGNbANy July RHj-ltcF. Mdi VII
Niemoeller, militant Confessional
Synod preacher opposed to Nazi dom
ination of the Protestant church in
Germany, was arrested today and
taken to the regular police Jail.
Presumably the accusation against
him was the same as those brought
against other Confessional leaders,
whose secret trial will be started to-
morrow on charges of violating a gov
ernment decree prohibiting the reading
from pulpits of the names of persons
who have left the church.
Both the press and public will be
barred from the trials of Rev. Ger
hard jacob, pastor of the fashion,
able Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
In Berlin; two other pastors and q
legal adviser.
The justice department said press
communique would be issued after
the hearings for Rev. Mr.. Jacobi Rev.
Mr. Niesel, the Rev. Won Arnimluetz-
low and a church attorney named
Ehlers.
The four have been held in Jail for
two weeks. If convicted, they may
be sentenced to two years imprison-
ment
Confessional Synod fundamental
ht) leaders let the government know
on the eve Of the trials that if
martyrs are made of the four men
that hundreds and perhaps thousands
Of pastors on next Sunday will read
lists of church designations in de-
fiance of the government, thereby
compelling authorities to AL jails with
clergymen.
Finance Decree Blow.
Some churchmen feared, meanwhile,
that Nazi DEGREES placing Protestant
church finances definitely under con-
troll of the church ministry might
prove to be the most disastrous blow
thus far dealt to Confessional oppo-
nents Of Nazi church policy.
The decree, putting church purse
strings in the hands of Hans Kerrl,
minister for church affairs, estab-
Ished the principle that salaries of
clergymen, the administration of
NilOINIA plopCIly anu tilC
Of all church expenditures be con-
trolled by agents of the same author
ity that collects church taxes
namely the Nazi state.
The synod holds that the Nahs
wish to establish a religion without
Old Testament teachings-inasmuc
as those came down from the Jews
and to present Adolf Hitler as God S
prophet.
Only Monday Rev. Martin Niemoel-
Ter, leader of the confessional synod,
asserted new wave of anti-Protestant
action had brought the arrest of 102
Protestant pastors within eight days.
Between 80 and 40 had been released,
he said.
Responsible to Government.
The budgetary authorities whose
creation was announced by Kerrl will
be directly responsible to the gov
ernment-r5t to the church-for the
economical administration of funds
contributed by the government to the
church or collected from the taxpayers
for the church.
Heretofore the State merely has con-
tributed money to the church and col
lected church taxes from church men,
bers, leaving it to the church to spend
the money as it saw fit.
Each district budgetary authority
will draw up the annual church budget
for district. Kerrl specified that it
will be up to the budgetary authorities
to see that "the greatest economy is
observed"
Not only the pastors, but all the
church employees will have their pay
regulated by the government appointed
bodies.
Presumably even payments for
foreign missions and welfare projects
will require approval of the budgetary
authorities.
They also will be responsible for
carrying out whatever instructions
Kerrl may issue regulating expendi-
ture of State contributions or church
tax money
With the date for the government
ordered election of Protestant
church administration not yet set,
kerrl forbade use of the Protestant
churches for election purposes and
prohibited campaign meetings until
the date is fixed.