n January 30, 1933, German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany. But less than two months later, Hitler was the nation’s dictator.
Many German Christians at first openly welcomed Hitler’s Nazi party to power as a historic moment of Christ’s work on earth through and for the Aryan “Volk.” A leading Lutheran theologian wrote in 1934, “Our Protestant churches have welcomed the turning point of 1933 as a gift and miracle of God.”