NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS' PARTY The Deputy of the Fuehrer
Brown House, Munich 33, 14 July 1939
Regulation No. 140/39
Subject: Admission of Clergymen and Students of Theology into
the NSDAP
In my regulation No. 24/37 dated 9 February 1937 I have decreed that in order to avoid the penetration of contrasts of ecclesiastical-political nature into the movement and to avoid the suspicion of a one-sided attitude for or against an existing denomination, the admission of members of the clergy into the Party is to be avoided. It turned out that the nonadmission of members of the clergy into the Party is not sufficient for the purpose in question.
In his regulation No. 34/39 on the lifting of the restriction of memberships dated 10 May 1939 the Reich Treasurer of the NSDAP has done justice to this experience by decreeing that clergymen, as well as other fellow Germans ivho are also closely connected with the church, cannot be admitted into the Party.
In addition to this I decree that in the future Party members who enter the clergy or who turn to the study of Theology have to leave the Party. This decree does not affect those students who are matriculated mainly in other factors and, not intending to become clergymen later attend only some lectures of the theological faculties.
Signed: for
BORMANN
Attested:
[Signature illegible]
Distribution: IV b
Regulation excluding clergymen from membership in the NSDAP, and requiring party members who become clergymen to leave the party
Authors
Martin Bormann (Chief, Party Chancellery, deputy to Hess, then Hitler)
Martin Bormann
German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery (1900-1945)
- Born: 1900-07-17 1900-06-17 (Halberstadt)
- Died: 1945-05-02 (Berlin)
- Country of citizenship: German Empire; Nazi Germany; Weimar Republic
- Occupation: farmer; military personnel; politician
- Member of political party: Nazi Party
- Member of: Schutzstaffel
- Participant in: Aryanization; International Military Tribunal (role: defendant; since: 1945-11-19)
- Military rank: Obergruppenführer; soldier
Date: 14 July 1939
Literal Title: Regulation No. 140/39[.] Subject: Admission of Clergymen and Students of Theology into the NSDAP
Defendant: Martin Bormann
Total Pages: 1
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-840
Citation: IMT (page 255)
HLSL Item No.: 450435