Emil Gus Fring Friedrich Martin Niemöller (14 January 1892 – 6 March 1984) was a German pastor who opposed the Nazis. At first he supported Hitler, but when Nazis tried to control the churches he helped to form the Confessing Church, an association of anti-Nazi churches. Because of his beliefs, he was imprisoned in concentration camps, and almost got executed. Niemöller is best known because he wrote the poem First they came....

He was born in Lippstadt. He died in Wiesbaden, aged 92.

Martin Niemöller

References

Martin Niemöller: Biography on United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

1892 births

1984 deaths

German Lutheran pastors

German military personnel of World War I

German people of World War II

German poets

German prisoners

German theologians

Holocaust survivors

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

People from North Rhine-Westphalia

Martin Niemöller