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Kurtz (Adolf) papers
2011C33  
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Collection Details
 
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  • Access
  • Use
  • Acquisition Information
  • Preferred Citation
  • Biographical Note
  • Scope and Content of Collection

  • Title: Adolf Kurtz papers
    Date (inclusive): 1927-1971
    Collection Number: 2011C33
    Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
    Language of Material: German
    Physical Description: 2 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box (2.0 Linear Feet)
    Abstract: Letters, certificates, registers of German evangelical church records, and photographs, relating to German evangelical opposition to Nazism, and to refugee relief work.
    Creator: Kurtz, Adolf, 1891-1975
    Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives

    Access

    The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

    Use

    For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

    Acquisition Information

    Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2011.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Adolf Kurtz papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

    Biographical Note

    Adolf Kurtz, a Protestant evangelical pastor in Germany, following Hitler's ascent to power in 1933, resisted the government's efforts to control religious life in Germany. In that his wife was born a Jew, he organized a relief agency to help Christians of Jewish heritage. Along with other Protestant churchmen, including Martin Niemoeller, Karl Barth, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he founded the Confessional Church, an evangelical group that resisted the Nazification of the German churches. Most leaders of this movement were arrested; some died in concentration camps. Kurtz was interrogated several times, had his school for Jewish Christian children closed, and was nearly deported to Dachau; but he and his wife managed to survive the war in Berlin.
    After the war, in 1948, Pastor Kurtz was invited by the British military authorities in Berlin to come to England to visit German prisoner-of-war camps. He soon discovered and took over a refugee congregation of German worshippers in Oxford where he remained until his death in 1975. Besides ministering to his parishioners' spiritual needs, Adolf Kurtz helped collect funds in Germany to rebuild Coventry, especially its cathedral, which was destroyed during a November 1940 Luftwaffe raid. Kurtz was present, along with many other German representatives, on March 23, 1955, when the queen presided over the laying of the new foundation for the new cathedral.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The original accession consists of letters, certificates, registers of German evangelical church records, and photographs, relating to German evangelical opposition to Nazism, and to refugee relief work. This group of materials is mostly associated with Pastor Kurtz's later life in Oxford.
    An increment received in 2011 consists of many original personal documents, mostly from the pastor's earlier years in Berlin. Among these are Kurtz's theological degrees, ordination diploma, marriage certificate, notifications from the Gestapo, Zonal Travel Permit for Occupied Germany, and so forth. The materials include the pastor's vita and other biographical information, as well as the papers of Eva Borchardt Kurtz, his wife.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Anti-Nazi movement
    Refugees
    International relief
    Germany -- Religion