Despite his signature to the Law for the Reconstruction of the Professional Civil Service von Campenhausen stood distantly opposed to National Socialism, and later joined the Confessing Church. From 1935, he was responsible for lectures and classes at the universities of Gießen, Greifswald, Göttingen, Kiel, Heidelberg and Vienna. Two appointments failed for political reasons: in 1935 he succeeded Heinrich Bornkamm's successor in Giessen and in 1937 succeeded Walther Köhler as professor of church history at the University of Heidelberg.
