In Nazi Germany, there existed approximately 150 Catholic priests whose sustained allegiance to and membership in the Nazi party became a scandal for the German Catholic church. In 2008, Northern Illinois University Press published my overarching study on brown priests, which used case studies to examine this phenomenon. While the book discussed the lives and choices of select priests, covering each cleric's story was impossible. Likewise, I only accessed a small portion of the archival material I found. Instead, I included an appendix offering a Lebenslauf for every brown priest I located, along with individual corresponding bibliographies. I am now studying select brown priests not covered in my book's narrative, whose lives and choices offer new insights into the Church's actions under National Socialism.
For this paper, I will offer the case study of Father Werner Kreth (1890-1942), a priest of the Ermland diocese, a Domvikar, an NSDAP member, and a V-Mann. Unfortunately, the diocesan files from this period no longer exist. I have reconstructed Kreth's story from numerous state and church archives. His case reveals how the Catholic Church's hierarchy and NSDAP local leadership could conspire when an individual belonging to both institutions broke societal moral norms. The case study will detail Kreth's improprieties and crimes that led to his expulsion from the NSDAP and suspension from the priesthood.