Clergy aboard the Bismarck

Anything about the crew, families, origins, etc.
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rclark
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Clergy aboard the Bismarck

Post by rclark »

Where there any Clergy aboard the Bismarck at the time of sinking and do you know the names?
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Ulrich Rudofsky
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Post by Ulrich Rudofsky »

I have never heared of a clergyman being aboard any Kriegsmarine warship during wartime. As far as I know they were primarily land-based in WWII. The Kriegsmarine had "Marinepfarrer", protestant and catholic ministers/priests. They had officer status and navy ranks. Marinepfarrer = minister, Marineoberpfarrer = chief minister, and Marinedekan = dean. They wore crosses with oak leaf wreaths on the lapel and a cross in the hat cockade below the eagle and swastika. Here is an example of a naval dean (rear admiral) of the Kriegsmarine http://www.geocities.com/~orion47/WEHRM ... DRICH.html
Ulrich
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rclark
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crewmwmbers

Post by rclark »

Even though the Nazi party, in essence, opposed any kind of religion, killing many in death camps, they still had clergy holding high ranks in each of their armed services. What was their ratonale other than being hippocrips? Rev. Ron Clark
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RF
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Post by RF »

In response to rclark, many religions have (and some adherents still do) sought to justify murder and killing on ideological and fundamentalist grounds. This includes the Christian religions, and has happened in England in Tudor times.

Many early Christian texts have perpetuated the view of Jews as the ''killers of Christ'' and this sort of fundamentalism easily expresses itself in terms of destroying an enemy.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
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