The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-07-08
Religious Freedom
BY GEORGE TUCKER

DA 0GOhOE 1OChGh
FRANKFURT ON MAIN, GERMANY, July
7-LRHThe U. S. Group Control Council has
outlined three-part plan intended to provide
financial and political independence for reli-
gious groups in the American zone of occupa-
ton.
The plan is identical with that for the British
zone and is believed to approximate programs
being readied by the Russians and French.
A U. S. group spokesman said this belief was
based on the liberal policy of the Russians
toward churches in territories liberated by the
Red Army and on the need for coordination
between sectarlan groups which overlap zone
boundaries Any revision that becomes neces-
sary will be handled by the general occupation
council when it meets in Berlin probably late
this month
s'Our job is not to promote new religions
or reshapc old ones, but to assume responsi
bilities formerly held by. pre-Hitler govern
ments in Germany that will enable the clergy
to finance itself, prevent the pulpit from being
used as screen for subversive activities and
reestablish church controlled schools if the peo-
pie so desire'' the spokesman said
The financial rehabilitation will be brought
about by a church tax and state subsidy
derived from church lands confiscated by the
state more than a hundred years ago.
The tax is levied only against church men,
bers and is returned to the churches to be
used as they wish.
The subsidy is an annual payment of "ren-
tals'' by the state for the of the lands.
This payment was continued even under Hitler.
The second part of the plan permits resump-
ton Of church control over elementary schools
This system, long "a German practice, was
abolished by the Nazis in 1941
In 1881 80 per cent of German schools were
church-controlled. Nineteen per cent were
known as Simultaneous attended by children
of all denominations. In these schools each
child was offered religious instruction of his
own choice. One per cent were secular, or
worldly, in which no religious instruction was
available.
The clergy strongly advocated church con-
troll, but many Catholic as well as Protestant
laymen preferred simultaneous schools
where religious instruction was optional.
Since the policy in the American zone is to
refrain from intervening in matters concerning
religious instruction, the people will be given
a free choice wherever possible.
The third part of the plan is coordinated
with the general Allied policy of de-Nazifying
the country.
The state, even before Hitler, always retained
the right to pass on the political reliability of
religious leaders, and this will be continued.
The spokesman said churches of all denon-
nations were cooperating fully in purging the
pulpits and congregations of Nazis. Ministers
who went over to the German Christian move
ment under Hitler thus benefiting from the
Nazi regime, have been barred from pulpits.
In the American zone Catholics number APP
proximatey 80 per cent Protestants about
60 per cent, and of this Protestant majority
about IS per cent are Lutherans. Five per cent
claim no religion at all, but call themselves
"Gottglaubigs' meaning God believers
name adopted to keep from being identified
as Atheists by the Nazis, who considered Athe-
ism synonymous with Communism
Four per cent compose other denominational
creeds and one per cent are Jewish.
In 1888 there were 81, 900 Jews in Frankfurt,
a city with a population of more than soc, 900.
BY 1889 there were only 10000. When the
American forces occupied Frankfurt last
March only As remained.
Later We learned 400 were confined in a
concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, the
spokesman said. "These are being repatriated.
But even when all the returns are in We expect
a total of no more than 900 of the original
1000. The others have been bounded out of
existence and are probably dead.''