Ludwig Müller

German clergyman

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June 17, 2026

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Ludwig Müller was a German Protestant clergyman who became a leader within the German Christian movement. This movement sought to align church policies with the goals of the Nazi Party. Extremists within the movement were so nationalistic and anti-Semitic that they proposed rejecting the Old Testament and Pauline Letters due to their Jewish origins.

In 1933, Müller assumed leadership of the German Evangelical Church as Reichsbischof (Reich bishop). The German Christians adopted Nazi racial principles, including the Nuremberg Laws, which led to the exclusion of many Christians of Jewish ancestry from the church. Müller's attempts to make the church an instrument of Nazi policy faced resistance from groups like the Confessing Church.1

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German Christian
…September the German Christian candidate, Ludwig Müller, assumed leadership of the church as Reichsbischof (“Reich bishop”). The movement acceded to the Nazi definition of a Jew based on the religion of his or her grandparents and to the racist principles embodied in the Nürnberg Laws of 1935. Thus, many practicing…
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…September the German Christian candidate, Ludwig Müller, assumed leadership of the church as Reichsbischof (“Reich bishop”). The movement acceded to the Nazi definition of a Jew based on the religion of his or her grandparents and to the racist principles embodied in the Nürnberg Laws of 1935. Thus, many practicing…
Read More