Martin Niemöller als völkisch-nationaler Studentenpolitiker in Münster 1919 bis 1923

Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), one of the central protagonists of the Confessing Church during the Nazi Regime, studied Protestant theology at Münster University between 1919 and 1923. During this time, he was active in eight extreme right-wing and racially antisemitic political parties and organisations, most importantly the student group of the Deutschnationale Volkspartei (German National People’s Party) - acting as chairman from spring 1920 until the end of the winter semester of 1920/21 - and of the Deutsch-Völkische Schutz- und Trutzbund (German Völkisch Protection and Defiance Federation). The article traces Niemöller’s restless activities in these groups, which included paramilitary activities in Organisation Escherich, and analyses militant anti-Bolshevism and völkisch-nationalist antisemitism as the common bond for Niemöller’s engagement in the extreme right-wing student milieu.