# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1933 ff. masthead not in scan _S376
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

376

[word fragment] "kenntnis" and about the purity of the Christian faith, nothing is yet to be noticed.

"And now here we see the exact opposite in the state. The state knows no compromises and makes no concessions. It is and wants to be National Socialist and tolerates no one beside it in the question of power. The Church, however, has never before come together in such monstrous compromises at the expense of truth and of the confession. And that seems to be the monstrous danger and the fate hanging over the future. To be sure, we know nothing. God holds his kingdom in his hand. Even out of this time he can give a new breath of his Spirit, a resolute stand for the truth and for Christianity, for a blessing to our people and the world. May such a hope, if only a faint one, nevertheless accompany us!

"We are very grateful to your dear Synod for all the support that we receive. Otherwise we could not make any start at all. The state is seeking to attack physical need with all the means of power at its disposal. And one must say without hesitation that the authority and power of the state accomplish incomparable things here. The people are learning, under compulsion, to make sacrifices for their needy fellow countrymen. It is taken for granted here that everyone does something for the people. So, with God's help, we shall probably get through the winter. May God bless our people and not let the efforts of the statesmen go unrewarded!"

And now we shall add yet another excerpt, from an entirely different letter, to show what thoughts, expectations, and hopes are moving wide circles in Germany, and how they mix the spiritual and the worldly together. The writer, who belongs to the Landeskirche, is an educated woman, the wife of a respected man. She writes:

"As for having time, things look somewhat different with us in Germany now than a few years ago. Everything that has hands and a head works in its free time on the building up of the Reich. The men are constantly kept busy, and we women help in our own way, partly with the men, partly without them. It is an incredibly beautiful time. Our children will, we hope, reap the fruits of our work. They have suddenly come into a stream of love of the fatherland and of the inwardly appropriated great spiritual values of Germany, so that they have taken a great leap forward in their development. We are all firmly convinced that the Fascist movement, called into life by Mussolini, consolidated and anchored by Hitler on

(By courtesy of the Detroit Times.)

The Luther Celebration in Detroit on October 8.

Many pictures were taken. This picture, if not the full extent, nevertheless brings before the eyes the outward impression of the celebration. The large cross, formed by 3,000 children, is clearly recognizable: a red cross in a white field with a blue border. Only a small part of the first balcony is visible. Above it rose a second balcony, on which many large pictures of Luther were displayed at the front.