Wilhelm Busch

Wilhelm Busch (27 March 1897 – 20 June 1966) was a German pastor, youth evangelist, writer and activist in the Confessing Church during the Nazi period in Germany. Life Wilhelm Busch was born in Elberfeld on 27 March 1897, a son of pastor Dr. Wilhelm Busch. His mother, Johanna Busch, (née Kullen), came from the House of Kullen, Hülben (near Urach) which was rooted in Swabian Pietism. Although Wilhelm Busch came from a famous family of pastors, in his early years he was anything but religious. He spent his early life in Frankfurt where he pursued and finished his secondary school studies. After graduating he served with the German army as a young officer-lieutenant in World War I, where on the battlefield at Verdun he came to a personal faith in Christ when a comrade was hit by a grenade. When the war was over he decided to study protestant theology in Tübingen. After completing his studies he served six months as a vicar in the Lutheran Church at Gellershagen near Bielefeld where he met his future wife Emilie ("Emmi") Müller. In 1924 he became a pastor in Essen, where he started with an evangelistic Christian ministry especially to local miners. In 1929 he became a youth pastor in the Christian youth centre in Essen, later called Weigle-Haus (member of the western German CVJM/YMCA), established by his predecessor, Pastor Wilhelm Weigle. At the same time he was preaching evangelising sermons all over the country and abroad. During the time of national socialism he adopted the uncompromising position of the German Confessing Church against the influence of the Third Reich on the life of the Church. As an active member of this opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church, he proclaimed his faith openly and ignored orders to refrain from teaching the Bible—which earned him several arrests and lengthy jail confinements. Even under the Nazis, Pastor Busch managed to attract attendances of two to three hundred boys at his scripture lessons. He was holding Bible study meetings in private houses, in basements, and in the open air. His son never attended the meetings of the Hitler Youth though this was required by law. On one occasion in 1937 he was arrested right after evangelising in the church of St.