- 1936-00-00 — Because the Bahá'í teachings were considered "international and pacifist" the Nazi close the Bahá'í summer school in Esslingen. [SYH208]
- 1937-05-21 —
All Bahá'í activities and institutions were banned in Germany by a special order of the Reichsführer SS and the Gestapo Chief of Staff Heinrich Himmler when he banned the Bahá'í Faith in Germany. He blamed it on the religion's "international and pacifist tendencies." The Nazi government increasingly targeted the Bahá'ís after Himmler's edict, first by tearing down the public memorial to 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Bad Mergntheim and then, in 1939, making mass arrests of the former members of the National Spiritual Assembly. Bahá'ís went to jail, some for very long periods, without charges. In 1942, more mass arrests occurred. Many of the Bahá'ís from Germany and the surrounding countries disappeared in the Nazi concentration camp system.
[BBRSM185; Bahá'í Teachings; German Bahá'í website archives; The German Baha'i Community under National Socialism p19]]
- See talk by David Langness entitled Nazi Germany: The Untold Story of the Bahá'ís.
- See Shoghi Effendi's letter of 11 February 1934 where he says in part:
The wave of nationalism, so aggressive and so contagious in its effects, which has swept not only over Europe but over a large part of mankind is, indeed, the very negation of the gospel of peace and of brotherhood proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh. The actual trend in the political world is, indeed, far from being in the direction of the Bahá'í teachings. The world is drawing nearer and nearer to a universal catastrophe which will mark the end of a bankrupt and of a fundamentally defective civilization. [LDG1p55]
- See letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi 10 November 1938 regarding the German community's efforts to have the government rescind the ban. [Messages from Shoghi Effendi to the Benelux countries pp38-40]
- 1944-05-02 — The German government held a public trial of some of the jailed Bahá'í leaders in Darmstadt. Dr. Hermann Grossmann was allowed to testify as a witness for the defense about the non-political nature of the Bahá'í Faith and the attitude of the trial had been pre-ordained. The government found the Bahá'ís guilty, levied large fines and banned all Bahá'í institutions ordering that they be immediately disbanded.
[Bahá'í Teachings; German Bahá'í website archives]
- 1945-08-14 —
The German Bahá'ís, 80 per cent of whom lived in the American sector of occupied Germany, obtained permission to re-organize. [BBRSM185]
- A US soldier stationed in occupied post-war Germany, John Eichenauer, helped during the first days of the reconvening of the community. The American Bahá'ís sent money, food and literature, and aided them in rebuilding the administrative structures. [BWNS390]
- Brief mention of this event is made in this film on Vimeo.
- 1948-00-00 — In the German Democratic Republic all Bahá'í activities were banned. In 1991, for the first time in 53 years, the Bahá'ís in eastern Germany elected delegates to the National Assembly. After 55 years, the Spiritual Assembly was re-formed in Leipzig. [German Bahá'í website]
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