Hermann Lange (1912–1943) was a German Roman Catholic priest who became a prominent figure of Christian resistance during the Nazi regime. Serving in Lübeck, Lange, alongside fellow Catholic priests Johannes Prassek and Eduard Müller, and Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, actively opposed the National Socialist government. The group, later collectively known as the Lübeck martyrs, sought to counter Nazi propaganda by speaking out against the regime's actions and fostering ecumenical cooperation.
Lange's resistance efforts primarily involved the dissemination of forbidden information. He and his colleagues copied and distributed the anti-Nazi sermons of Bishop Clemens August von Galen of Münster, sharing them discreetly with friends and members of their congregations. Following a devastating Royal Air Force raid on Lübeck in March 1942, Pastor Stellbrink delivered a sermon interpreting the bombing as divine judgment, which prompted his arrest. Shortly thereafter, Lange and the other two Catholic priests were also arrested by the Gestapo.
In the summer of 1943, the four clergymen were tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Lange was executed by guillotine in a Hamburg prison on November 10, 1943. The shared sacrifice of the three Catholic priests and the Lutheran pastor became a powerful symbol of German ecumenism, representing unity across denominational lines in the face of totalitarian oppression. Recognizing his martyrdom, Pope Benedict XVI beatified Lange in 2011.
