Here is additional text from Dr. Hamm, including a few quotes from a sermon Elert delivered on June 29, 1941. According to Hamm’s footnote, the sermon is in Elert’s own handwriting:
We now make a leap into the following year, 1941, and come to a sermon on 1 Peter 5:6-11, which Elert preached on June 29, a week after the beginning of the Russian campaign. Thereby, he interprets the well-known verse 8. “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
For Elert it is clear that this passage relates to the epic battle between the German army and the army of the atheist-Bolshevist Soviet Union—a world-historical struggle in which he recognizes “the mighty hand of God” (v. 6) as a “clenched fist” of the Lord against His mortal enemy. The war is certainly not a crusade, because rightly it is not being waged in the name of Christ and the Kingdom of God; it is not an eternal but a temporal war. However, as Elert emphasizes, Hitler still fights a holy war on God’s behalf against the satanic power in the East:
“[When] we look with a large dose of sobriety at this major war that is now raging in the East, we know that it is being waged for earthly things; on our side it is being waged for peace, order, rest and to support the life of the European people. The leader of our people (der Führer unseres Volkes; Adolf Hitler) has clearly stated as much, and we thank him for it. He holds a sacred office; God has placed into his hand a sacred sword.” It is “not a crusade, but self-defense against the intrusion of a satanic overpowering will of God’s enemies. And the sword that is drawn against it is a holy sword.”
Berndt Hamm. “Werner Elert als Kriegstheologe.” Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte. 11(1998):214-215.
