Declaration of Facts - Background

Background

From 1922, German Bible Students (Ernste Bibelforscher) were arrested on charges of illegal peddling as they publicly distributed Watch Tower Society literature. Between 1927 and 1930, almost 5000 charges were laid against members of the religion, and although most ended in acquittals some "severe sentences" were also handed down. In November 1931 Bavarian authorities used new emergency ordinances relating to political disturbances to confiscate and ban Watch Tower Society literature. By the end of 1932 more than 2300 charges against Bible Students were pending.

Restrictions tightened with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Germany's new Chancellor on January 30, 1933. On February 4 he issued a decree permitting the police to confiscate literature "endangering public order and security" and also restrict freedoms of assembly. By mid-1933 the work of the religion–by then known as Jehovah's witnesses–had been banned in most German states, with members accused of being Communists and associating with the Jews in subversive political movements. Members' homes were frequently searched by police for incriminating literature and on April 24 the International Bible Students Association (IBSA) headquarters in Magdeburg was briefly occupied by police.

Authorities objected to the influence of religious minorities such as Jehovah's Witnesses because they "contributed to the ideological fragmentation of the German people", but they also viewed the religion as a threat to the mainstream Christian denominations. A Ministry of the Interior decree stated:

Particularly on Sundays and Christian holidays, people sent by the "Earnest Bible Students" go from house to house and bother people by imposing upon them the journals of the Magdeburg Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, which contain malicious attcks on the major Christian churches and their institutions ... This demoralizing activity, which represents a misuse of the right to freedom of expression, causes dissension not only in individual families but also in entire communities. It is incompatible with the idea of a Christian people's community in Germany and can therefore no longer be permitted.

In June Watch Tower Society president Joseph Rutherford and Nathan Knorr traveled to Berlin to attempt to negotiate the possibilities of continuing preaching activity in Germany. While there, they organized a public convention to be held in Berlin on June 25, 1933 to release a Declaration of Facts, which had been written by Rutherford. They hoped the document would convince Hitler, government officials and the public that Jehovah's Witnesses posed no threat to the German people and the state. The Declaration would assert the religion's political neutrality and protest against the "meddling" of the Hitler government into the Witnesses' preaching work. It was to be translated into German by branch overseer Paul Balzereit and presented to the conventioners for adoption.

Both Rutherford and Knorr left Germany before the convention, held at the Wilmersdorfer Tennishallen, began. Though organizers expected an attendance of 5000, a crowd of 7000 arrived. The exterior of the hall was decked with swastikas, possibly placed by members of Nazi SS units who had celebrated nearby the previous day. To the surprise of those attending, the convention opened with a song, Zion's Glorious Hope, which was by then rarely sung at Witness meetings. Set to music composed by Joseph Haydn in 1797, it had been in the Bible Students' songbook since 1905, but avoided since 1922, when the same music was used with new lyrics for the German national anthem. During the convention, the 3800-word Declaration of Facts was presented to the crowd and accepted by many in attendance. A "large number" of those attending, however, refused to adopt it and left the convention disappointed, viewing it as weaker than they expected. A 1974 Watch Tower Society publication claimed Balzereit had weakened the German translation of the Declaration, softening criticism of the Nazis, but in 1998 the Society repudiated that statement.

Some 2.5 million copies of The Declaration, reproduced as a four-page pamphlet, were distributed publicly and a day after the convention, the Declaration was sent to Hitler with a seven-page cover letter written by Balzereit in which he assured the Chancellor that the IBSA "was not in opposition to the national government of the German Reich". The letter added that, to the contrary, "the entirely religious, nonpolitical objectives and efforts of the Bible Students" were "completely in agreement with the corresponding goals of the national government". Historian Detlef Garbe concluded that by using subtle wording, Balzereit intended that the letter, while representing the Bible Students' teachings, could also be misinterpreted by the group's opponents.