These can be attributed to the fact that Niemöller spoke extemporaneously and in a number of settings. Different versions of the quotation exist. The quotation stems from Niemöller's lectures during the early postwar period. Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out- because I was not a trade unionist. Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation 1:įirst they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out-because I was not a socialist. Following the meeting, Niemöller would come to see the Nazi state as a dictatorship, one which he would oppose. It was also clear that the Pastors Emergency League (PEL), which Niemöller had helped found, was under close state surveillance. At the meeting it became clear that Niemöller's phone had been tapped by the Gestapo (German Secret State Police). But a turning point in Niemöller's political sympathies came with a January 1934 meeting of Adolf Hitler, Niemöller, and two prominent Protestant bishops to discuss state pressures on churches. Niemöller enthusiastically welcomed the Third Reich. In 1920, he decided to follow the path of his father and began seminary training at the University of Münster. Along with many others, Niemöller refused to obey this order, and was, as a consequence, discharged from the Navy. Under the stipulations of the armistice of November 11, 1918, that ended hostilities in World War I, Niemöller and other commanders were ordered to turn over their U-Boats to England. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Niemöller was assigned to a U-Boat, of which he was eventually appointed the commander. In 1910 he became a cadet in the Imperial German Navy. Martin Niemöller was born in the Westphalian town of Lippstadt, Germany, on January 14, 1892.
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