German Bekennende Kirche
Movement for revival within the German Protestant churches that developed in the 1930s in resistance to Adolf Hitler 's attempt to make the churches an instrument of Nazi propaganda and politics.
The Confessing Church, whose leaders included Martin Niemöller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer , opposed Hitler's "German Christians" and was forced underground as Nazi pressure intensified. The movement continued in World War II, though it was hampered by the conscription of clergy and laity. In 1948 the church ceased to exist when the reorganized Evangelical Church was formed.