Subject: "Church Services

Enclosed please find a copy of the letter of the High command of the Navy as well as a copy of my reply of this date, for your personal information.

Subject: "Church Services" Your letter of 9 Feb 1940-AMA/M Wehr IIb B. Nr 896

In the opinion of the party the term "Church Service" cannot be objected to. I consider it fitting since it properly implies meetings arranged and organized by the churches.

Those Germans who are not members of a Christian Church may be offended by an announcement in a daily newspaper that only the members of the Christian confession are holding a "divine service". After the National Socialist State has created the conception "God-believing" [Gottglaubig] especially for those Germans who confess the belief in God and who have placed their lives in the "Service of God"-without being members of a Christian confession-it can no longer be justified to refer exclusively to the Services arranged by the Christian confessions as "Divine Services", even in the National Socialist dailies.

To the office of the Deputy of the Fuehrer.

With reference to the letter of the Supreme Commander of the Navy dated Oct 24, 1939 and the reply of the Deputy of the Fuehrer dated Nov 3, 1939 I inform you that in the Wilhelmshaven newspapers the expression "Church Services" is still being changed to "Divine Services".

The High Command requests that this regulation, apparently issued erroneously to all principal newspapers by the Chief Press Agency in Bremen, be revoked.