In the St. Lorenz South district, supporters of the SPD/KPD and the NSDAP roughly balance each other out in the last free Reichstag elections in November 1932. The pastors and the parish council
of the Luther congregation, on the other hand, are clearly National Socialists at the time.
Two-thirds of the church leaders are members of the NSDAP, SA or the anti-Semitic and racist German Christians or would join them later. Particularly active for the Nazi movement is the long-time
chairman, businessman Johannes Sievers.
Johannes Sievers is appointed chairman of the Lübeck Church Congress in 1933. In 1935, he is designated to be a member of the High Consistory of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church in Lübeck. When
Bishop Balzer is drafted for military service in the fall of 1939, Sievers de facto takes over the leadership of the regional church.
During his administration, the anti-Semitic course of the Lübeck regional church, which in 1939 excludes Christians of Jewish origin from membership, intensifies.