- For the sake of occultism and paganism in Nazism see the article of Nazism.
In 1933, before Austria's annexation to Germany, Germany's population was about 67% Protestant and 33% Catholic; while the Jewish population is less than 1%. A census in May 1939, six years into the Nazi era and after the annexation of most Austrian Catholics and most of Czechoslovakia into Germany, showed that 54% considered themselves Protestants, 40% Catholics, 3.5% identified themselves as "gottglà i ¤ubig "(lit." believer in God ", often described as the most creationist and deistic), and 1.5% as" atheist ".
There is some diversity of personal views among Nazi leaders about the future of religion in Germany. Anti-Church anti-Church figures include Hitler's Personal Secretary Martin Bormann, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, pagan Nazi philosopher Alfred Rosenberg, and the occult paganist ReichsfÃÆ'¼hrer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Some Nazis, such as Hans Kerrl, who served as Hitler's Minister for Church Affairs encouraged for "Positive Christianity", which is a unique Nazi form that rejects the origin of Jews and the Old Testament, and portrays "true" Christianity as a struggle against the Jews..
Nazism wants to change the subjective consciousness of the German people - their attitudes, values, and mentality - into a single, minded, national "community community." The Nazis believed they should therefore replace class, religious, and regional loyalty. Under the process of Gleichschaltung , Hitler tried to create a united Reich Protestant Church from 28 Protestant churches in Germany. The plan failed, and was rejected by the Confessing Church. The persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany followed the Nazi takeover. Hitler moved quickly to eliminate the Catholic Politics. In the midst of Church abuse, Reich's concordate agreement with the Vatican was signed in 1933, and promised to honor the autonomy of the Church. Hitler routinely ignored Concordat, closing down all Catholic institutions whose functions were less religious. Pastors, nuns and lay leaders are targeted, with thousands of arrests over the following years. The Church accused the regime of "fundamental hostility for Christ and His Church". Historians reject however the simple equations of the Nazi opposition to Judaism and Christianity. Nazism certainly wanted to use the support of Christians who accepted its ideology and the Nazi opposition to Judaism and Christianity was not entirely in line with the Nazi mind.
Smaller religious minorities such as Jehovah's Witnesses and BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ' Faith were banned in Germany, while the eradication of Judaism by the genocide of his followers was attempted. The Salvation Army, Christian Saints, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church disappear from Germany, while astrologers, healers and forecasters are forbidden. The small "Gentile Faith of Germany", who worshiped the sun and the seasons, supported the Nazis. Many historians believe that Hitler and the Nazis intended to eradicate Christianity in Germany after winning victory in the war.
Video Religion in Nazi Germany
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Christianity has ancient roots among the Germans dating the missionary work of Columbanus and St.. Boniface in the 6-8th century. The Reformation, initiated by Martin Luther in 1517, divided the population of Germany between two-thirds of Protestant majority and a third of Roman Catholic minority. The southern and western regions are predominantly Catholic, while in the north and east they are Protestant. The Catholic Church enjoys a privileged degree in Bavaria, Rhineland and Westphalia and parts of southwestern Germany, while in North Protestant, Catholics experience some discrimination.
Bismarck's Kulturkampf ("The Battle of Cultures") from 1871-78 has seen an attempt to assert the Protestant vision of German nationalism over Germany, and unite the antichlericalism and suspicion of the Catholic population, whose allegiance is considered to lie with Austria and France, New German Empire. The Central Party was formed in 1870, initially to represent the interests of Catholicism and Protestantism, but was changed by Kulturkampf to "Catholic political voice". Bismarck's Culture Struggle failed in its attempt to eliminate Catholic institutions in Germany, or their strong connections outside Germany, especially international missions and Rome.
In the course of the 19th century, both the rise of historical critical knowledge of the Bible and Jesus by David Strauss, Ernest Renan and others, advances in the natural sciences, especially the field of evolutionary biology by Charles Darwin, Ernst Haeckel, and others. , and the opposition to oppressive socio-economic circumstances by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and others, led to increased criticism of the dogmas of traditional churches, and the transfer of many Germans (especially the educated) into the freethought. They reject the fundamental theological concepts and either develop their own liberal forms of religion or dispose of them altogether. In 1859, they had founded the Bund FreireligiÃÆ'¶ser Gemeinden Deutschlands (literally "German Free Religious Religion Society"), an association of people who considered themselves religious without sticking to established and institutionalized. church or sacerdotal cult. In 1881 in Frankfurt am Main, Ludwig BÃÆ'¼chner founded the German Freethinkers Thinking League ( Deutscher Freidenkerbund ) as the first German organization for atheists and agnostics. In 1892 the Freidenker-Gesellschaft and in 1906 the Deutscher Monistenbund was formed.
Maps Religion in Nazi Germany
Religion set in Germany 1933-1945
The denominational trend during the Nazi period
Christianity in Germany has, since the Protestant Reformation in 1517, been divided into Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. As a specific result of the Reformation in Germany, large Protestant denominations are organized into Landeskirchen (approximately: Country Churches ). The German word for denomination is Konfession . For the great churches in Germany (Catholic and Evangelical , the Protestant) the German government collects the church's taxes, which are then given to these churches. For this reason, membership in the Catholic or Evangelical Church is officially registered. Obviously they are politically motivated. For this reason, historian Richard Steigmann-Gall argues that "nominal church membership is a true measure of true piety unreliable in this context" and determines one's true religious beliefs to be based on other criteria. It is important to remember this 'official aspect' when turning to questions like the religious beliefs of Adolf Hitler or Joseph Goebbels. The two men no longer attend Catholic mass or go to confession long before 1933, but did not formally leave the Church and neither of them refused to pay church taxes.
Historians have seen the number of people who left their churches in Germany during the period 1933-45. There was "no substantial reduction in religious practice and church membership between 1933 and 1939". The choice to be taken from the church scroll ( Kirchenaustritt ) has been in Germany since 1873, when Otto von Bismarck has introduced him as part of the Kulturkampf aimed at opposing Catholicism. For this parity is also possible for Protestants, and for the next 40 years most of those who take advantage of it. Statistics existed since 1884 for Protestant churches and since 1917 for the Catholic Church.
The analysis of this data for the era of the Nazi rule is available in a paper by Sven Granzow et al., Published in a collection edited by GÃÆ'¶tz Aly. Overall, more Protestants than Catholics left their church, but, as a whole Protestants and Catholics decided the same thing. We must remember that German Protestants are twice the number of Catholics. The spike in numbers from 1937-1938 was the result of the annexation of Austria in 1938 and other territories. The number of Kirchenaustritte reached "high history" in 1939 when it reached 480,000. Granzow et al. see the numbers not only in relation to the Nazi policy towards churches, (which changed dramatically since 1935 onwards) but also as an indicator of trust in the FÃÆ'¼hrer and the Nazi leadership. The decline in the number of people who left the church after 1942 is explained as a result of the loss of faith in the future Nazi Germany. People tend to keep their relationship with the church, because they are afraid of an uncertain future.
Historian Richard J Evans wrote that, in 1939, 95% of Germans still call themselves Protestants or Catholics, while 3.5% were identified as "
Sicherheitsdienst des ReichsfÃÆ'¼hrers-SS or elementary school members withdrew from their Christian denomination, converting their religious affiliation to gottglÃÆ'¤ubig, while nearly 70% of SS Schutzstaffel officers did the same.
National Socialist Attitudes toward Christianity
Nazi ideology can not accept the formation of autonomy whose legitimacy does not emerge from the government. It desirable subordination of church to state. Although the wider membership of the Nazi Party after 1933 came to include many Catholics and Protestants, aggressive anti-Church radicals such as Joseph Goebbels, Martin Bormann, and Heinrich Himmler saw the kirchenkampf campaign against the Church as a priority concern , and strong anti-church and anticler sentiment among grassroots activists.
Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, saw the "unsolved opposition" between the Christian and Nazi worldviews. Fuehrer angered the churches by appointing Alfred Rosenberg, a vocal pagan, as an official Nazi ideology in 1934. Heinrich Himmler saw the main task of his Schutzstaffel (SS) organization to act as a pioneer in overcoming Christianity and restoring the "Germanic" way of life. Hitler's representative, Martin Bormann, advised Nazi officials in 1941 that "National Socialism and Christianity can not be reconciled."
Hitler himself had a radical instinct in relation to the conflict with the churches in Germany. Although sometimes he speaks of the desire to delay the struggle of the Church and is prepared to withhold his anti-clerical out of political considerations, "his own flooding comments gave his direct subordinates all the licenses they needed to generate heat in the Church struggle, confident that they 'work towards the Fuhrer,' "according to Kershaw. In a public speech, he described himself and the Nazi movement as a faithful Christian. In 1928, Hitler said in a speech: "We do not tolerate anyone in our ranks who attacked the ideas of Christianity... in fact our movement is Christian."
As a step in the struggle for power against the influence of churches (Kirchenkampf), the Nazis tried to form a "third denomination" called a positive Christian, which aims to replace established churches to reduce their influence. Historians have suspected this is an attempt to start a cult that worships Hitler as the new Messiah. However, in the diary of 28 December 1939, Joseph Goebbels wrote that "The Fuhrer eagerly rejects any thought to establish a religion, he has no intention of becoming a priest, his exclusive role is only a politician." In Hitler's political relations with religion, he is ready to adopt a strategy "that fits his political objectives."
Christianity remained the dominant religion in Germany during the Nazi period, and its influence over Germany underestimated the Nazi hierarchy. Evans wrote that Hitler believed that in the long term National Socialism and religion would not be able to coexist, and repeatedly emphasized that Nazism is a secular ideology, founded on modern science. According to Evans: "Science, he states, will easily destroy the last remnants of superstition." Germany can not tolerate the intervention of foreign influences like the Pope, and "the Imam, he says, is a 'black bug,' an abortion in a black cloak."
During Hitler's dictatorship, more than 6,000 priests, for alleged treason activities, were imprisoned or executed. The same measures were taken in the occupied territories; in French Lorraine, the Nazis prohibited the movement of religious youth, parish meetings, and scout meetings. Church assets were taken away, Church schools were closed, and teachers at religious institutions were dismissed. The Episcopal Seminary is closed, and SA and SS tarnish churches and religious statues and images. Three hundred priests were expelled from the region of Lorraine; monks and nuns are deported or forced to abandon their oath.
The Nazi leadership utilized the original image of German pagan and ancient Roman symbolism in their propaganda. However, the use of pagan symbolism worries some Protestants. Many Nazi leaders, including Adolf Hitler, used one mix of pseudoscientific theories, as well as Social Darwinism as well as mysticism and occultism, particularly strong in the SS. The center for both groups is the belief in the superiority of the Germanic race (whites). The existence of the Ministry of Church Affairs, founded in 1935 and headed by Hanns Kerrl, is hardly recognized by ideologues like Alfred Rosenberg or by other political decision-makers. Relatively moderate, Kerrl accused disaffected churchmen of failing to appreciate the Nazi doctrine of "Race, blood, and land" and gave the following explanation of the Nazi concept of "Positive Christianity," which describes a group of dutiful clergymen in 1937:
Dr. Zoellner and [Munster Catholic Bishops] Calculate Galen has tried to explain to me that Christianity is based on faith in Christ as the son of God. It makes me laugh... No, Christianity is not dependent on the Apostles' Creed... True Christianity is represented by the party, and the Germans are now called by the party and especially the Fuehrer to true Christianity... Fuehrer is the proclamation of a new revelation. "
During the war, Alfred Rosenberg formulated a thirty-point program for the National Reich Church, which included:
- The National Reich Church claims exclusive rights and control over all Churches.
- The National Church is determined to annihilate foreign Christianity imported into Germany in a sad 800 year.
- The National Church demanded an immediate halt to the publication and dissemination of the Bible.
- The National Church will cleanse from its altars all the Cross, the Bible, and photographs of the Saints.
- Above the altar there will be nothing but "Mein Kampf" and to the left of the altar of a sword.
While exploring Nazi party public speeches and writings, Steigmann-Gall notes that they can provide insight into their "untested" ideas.
We are not theologians, there is no representation of the teaching profession in this sense, not proposing theology. But we claim one thing for ourselves: that we place the great fundamental idea of ​​Christianity at the center of our ideology [Ideenwelt] - the hero and the sufferer of Christ himself standing in the middle. "
Prior to the Reichstag vote for the Enactment Act in which Hitler acquired temporary "dictatorship" power by which he proceeded to permanently dismantle the Weimar Republic, Hitler promised the Reichstag on March 23, 1933, that he would not interfere with the rights of the churches. However, with the power guaranteed in Germany, Hitler quickly broke this promise. Historians have written that the purpose of the Nazi Kirchenkampf (The Church struggle) involves not only ideological struggles, but ultimately the eradication of the Churches. However, prominent Nazis vary in their importance attached to the Church Struggle.
William Shirer writes that "under the leadership of Rosenberg, Bormann and Himmler, supported by Hitler, the Nazi regime intended to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and replace the old paganism of the early German tribal gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists. "In a speech on October 27, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt revealed evidence of Hitler's plan to abolish all religions in Germany. FDR states:
Your government has other documents, made in Germany by the Hitler Government... This is a plan to remove all existing religions - Catholicism, Protestantism, Mohammedan, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. The possessions of all the churches will be confiscated by the Reich and his dolls. The cross and all other religious symbols should be banned. Clergy will forever be liquidated, silenced under the punishment of concentration camps, where even now so many men are fearlessly tortured because they have placed God upon Hitler.
But according to Steigman-Gall, some Nazis, such as Dietrich Eckart (d.1923) and Walter Buch, see Nazism and Christianity as part of the same movement. Aggressive anti-Church radicals such as Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann see conflict with the Church as a major concern, and strong anti-church and anti-clerical sentiment among grassroots activists.
Hitler himself had a radical instinct in relation to the ongoing conflict with the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Germany. Although he sometimes speaks of wanting to postpone the struggle of the Church and is prepared to withhold his anti-clericalism because of political considerations, "his own disgusting comments give his direct subordinates all the licenses they need to generate heat in" The Church struggle, that they are 'working towards the Fuhrer' ". According to Goebbels Diaries, Hitler hated Christianity. In the April 8, 1941 entry, Goebbels wrote, "He hates Christianity, for crippling all that is noble in humanity."
In Bullock's judgment, although raised by a Catholic, Hitler "did not believe in God or in conscience", retained some things for the strength of the Catholic organization, but had an insult to the main doctrine, which he said, if brought to their conclusion, "would mean systematic planting human failure ". Bullock wrote:
In Hitler's eyes, Christianity was a religion suitable only for slaves; he hates his particular ethics. His teaching, he declared, was a rebellion against the law of natural selection by the strongest struggle and survival.
Writing for Yad Vashem, historian Michael Phayer writes that in the 1930s, church officials knew that Hitler's long-term goal was "the total abolition of Catholicism and Christianity," but that remembers the superiority of Christianity in Germany. , this is of course a long-term goal. According to Bullock, Hitler intended to destroy the influence of Christian churches in Germany after the war. In his memoirs, Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer recalled that when he devised his plans for "new Berlin", he consulted Protestants and Catholics but was "informed" by Hitler's personal secretary Martin Bormann that the churches did not accept the building site. Kershaw writes that, in Hitler's scheme for the Germanization of Eastern Europe, he made it clear that there would be no "place in this utopia for the Christian Churches".
Geoffrey Blainey writes that Hitler and his Fascist Mussolini allies were atheists, but that Hitler was interested and benefited from the fear among German Christians about the militant Communist atheism. (Other historians have characterized Hitler's adult religious position as a form of deism.) "The aggressive spread of atheism in the Soviet Union worries many German Christians," Blainey wrote, and with the Socialist National became the main opposite of Communism in Germany: "[Hitler] see Christianity as a temporary ally, because he thinks 'Christians or Germans'. Nazism itself is a religion, a pagan religion, and Hitler is the minister, the high altar of Germany and the Germans, the land and the forest and their language and traditions. Nevertheless, some of Hitler's early believers detailed the lack of Farner's religious convictions. One close believer, Otto Strasser, is expressed in his 1940 book, Hitler and I, that Hitler was a true infidel, briefly stating: Hitler was an atheist.
According to Kershaw, following the Nazi takeover, the policy of the Race and the 'Church Struggle' is one of the most important areas of ideology: "In both regions, the party has no difficulty in mobilizing its activists, which radicalism in turn forces the government into legislative action. In fact, party leaders often feel compelled to respond to pressure from below, driven by Gauleiters who play their own game, or sometimes radiate from radical activists at the local level. Over time, anti-clericalism and anti-church sentiment among grassroots activists "can not be eradicated," Kershaw writes and they can "draw the verbal violence of party leaders against the churches for their encouragement." Unlike some Movements Other fascists of the time, Nazi ideologies were essentially hostile to Christianity and contrary to Christian beliefs in many ways. National Socialists seized hundreds of monasteries in Germany and Austria and removed priests and laypeople, in cases etc. The Nazi regime sought to close down the Catholic press, which rejected "from 435 magazines in 1934 to only seven in 1943." From the beginning of 1935, the Gestapo arrested and imprisoned more than 2720 scholars who was interned in the German Dachau, concentration camp, caused more than 1,000 deaths Nazism sees the Christian ideal of the multitude n and conscience as a barrier to the violent instincts required for other races efeat. Of the anti-Christian elements of the mid-1930s in the Nazi party became more prominent; however, they were detained by Hitler because of the negative pressure their actions received, and in 1934 the Nazi party pretended to be neutral in terms of the Protestant Churches.
Alfred Rosenberg, an "overtly pagan", holds positions among the offices of the "Fuehrer Delegation for Intellectual and Philosophical Instruction and Intrigue for the National Socialist Party". In his book "Myth of the Twentieth Century" (1930), Rosenberg writes that the main enemies of the Germans are "Russian Tartars" and "Semites" - with "Semites" including Christians, especially the Catholic Church: Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister, one of the most aggressive anti-Church radical Nazis. Goebbels led the Nazi persecution of the German priest and, during the war, on "Church Questions", he wrote "after the war must be resolved in general... There is, that is, unsolved opposition between Christians and the German-heroic worldview". Martin Bormann became Hitler's personal secretary and de facto "deputy" fuhrer of 1941. He was a prominent supporter of Kirchenkampf, a project most of Hitler wanted to defend until after the war. Bormann was the stiff guardian of the National Socialist orthodoxy and saw Christianity and Nazism as "incompatible". He said publicly in 1941 that "National Socialism and Christianity can not be reconciled". In a secret message to Gauleiter on June 9, 1941, Martin Bormann, has stated that "National Socialism and Christianity can not be reconciled." He also stated that the influence of the Church in the leadership of the people "must be truly and ultimately violated." Bormann believed Nazism was based on a "scientific" world view, and completely incompatible with Christianity. Bormann states:
When our National Socialists spoke of belief in God, we did not mean, as naive Christians and their spiritual exploiters, a man who is like sitting somewhere in the universe. The forces governed by the laws of nature in which all these countless planets move in the universe, we call omnipotence or God. The claim that this universal power can trouble itself about the fate of every individual, every smallest world bacillus, can be influenced by so-called prayers or other surprising things, depending on the dose of naivete required or the other for the shameless professional interest..
Church Struggle Kirchenkampf
When the Nazi Party began to take power in Germany in 1933, they fought, but still functioned as the Weimar government, led by his President, Paul von Hindenburg, and represented by his Vice-Chancellor, Franz von Papen, initiating talks with the Holy One. See about the formation of a concordat. The talks lasted for three and a half months while Hitler consolidated his hold on power. This effort reached the signing of Reichskonkordat on July 20, 1933, which protected the freedom of the Catholic Church and limited priests and bishops from political activity.
Like the idea of ​​ Reichskonkordat , the idea of ​​the Reich Protestant Church, which will unite the Protestant Church, has also been considered beforehand. Hitler had addressed this issue as early as 1927 with Ludwig MÃÆ'¼ller, who was then the military pastor of KÃÆ'¶nigsberg.
The Catholic Church was specifically pressed in Poland: between 1939 and 1945, some 3,000 members (18%) of Polish priests, were murdered; of this number, 1,992 people died in concentration camps. In the annexed territory of Reichsgau Wartheland it is even more cruel: churches are systematically closed and most priests are killed, imprisoned, or deported to the General Government. Eighty percent of Catholic priests and five bishops of Warthegau were sent to concentration camps in 1939; 108 of them are considered blessed martyrs. Religious persecution is not limited to Poland: in the Dachau concentration camp alone, 2,600 Catholic priests from 24 different countries are killed.
Some historians argue that the Nazis had a general secret plan, which some argued existed before the Nazis rose to power, destroying Christianity within the Reich. The extent to which a plan to subordinate the churches and restrict their role in the life of the state existed before the Nazis came to power, and exactly who among the Nazi leaders who supported such a move was contested. "However, some historians maintain, against the consensus, that there is no such plan." Summarizing the report of the 1945 Strategic Office, New York Times columnist Joe Sharkey, stated that the Nazis had a plan to "subvert and destroy Christianity of Germany, "which will be achieved through the control and subversion of the churches and will be completed after the war, but the report says this goal is limited to the" National Socialist Party sector, "namely Alfred Rosenberg and Baldur von Schirach.Historian Roger Griffin argues: "There is no doubt that in the long run Nazi leaders like Hitler and Himmler intend to eradicate Christianity just as cruelly with other rival ideologies, even if in the short term they have to be content to make an appointment with it. "In his study of The Holy Reich, historian Richard Steigmann-Gall came to the opposite conclusion:" Absolutely nothing, apart from Hitler's vague persuasion, is strong evidence that Hitler or the Nazis were going for ' destroy 'or' eliminate 'the churches once the war is over. "Regarding his broader thesis," Nazi leaders in fact consider themselves Christians "or at least understand their movements" within the framework of Christian references ", Steigmann-Gall admits that he" opposes the consensus that Nazism as a whole is unrelated to Christianity or actively opposed it. "
Despite the high profile cases of Lutherans and Catholics who died in prisons or in concentration camps, the greatest number of Christians who died were Jewish Christians or mischlinge sent to the death camp because they are racial rather than their religion. Kahane (1999) cites the estimate that there are about 200,000 Jewish Christians in Nazi Germany. Among non-Jewish Christians, 11,300 Jehovah's Witnesses were stationed in camps, and about 1,490 people died, 270 of which were executed as repellents of conscience. Dachau has a special "priest block". Of the 2,720 priests (among them 2,579 Catholics) held in Dachau, 1,034 did not survive in the camps. The majority of these priests were Polish (1,780), of which 868 died in Dachau.
Protestantism
Martin Luther
During the First and Second World Wars, German Protestant leaders used Luther's writings to support the cause of German nationalism. On the anniversary of the 450th birth of Luther, who fell just a few months after the Nazi Party began its seizure of power in 1933, the celebrations were done on a large scale by both the Protestant Church and the Nazi Party. At the celebration at KÃÆ'¶nigsberg, Erich Koch, at that time Gauleiter of East Prussia, made a speech in which he, among others, compared Adolf Hitler with Martin Luther and claimed that the Nazis fought with Luther's spirit. Such speeches can be regarded as mere propaganda, but, as Steigmann-Gall points out: "Contemporaries regard Koch as a bona fide Christian who has achieved his position [as the elected president of the provincial Church synod] through a sincere commitment to Protestantism. and its institutions. "Even so, Steigmann-Gall stated that the Nazis were not a Christian movement.
The prominent Protestant theologian Karl Barth, of the Swiss Reformed Church, opposed the allocation of Luther in both the German Empire and Nazi Germany, when he declared in 1939 that Martin Luther's writings were used by the Nazis to glorify both the State and the state of absolutism: The German people suffered under his mistake on the relationship between law and the Bible, between the secular and spiritual forces ", where Luther divides the temporal state from the inner state, focuses on the spiritual essentials, thus limiting the ability of the individual or church to question the actions of the State, which is seen as an instrument ordained by God.
In February 1940, Barth specifically accused the German Lutherans of separating Biblical teachings from the teachings of the State and thus legitimating the ideology of the Nazi state. He is not alone with his views. Several years earlier on October 5, 1933, Father Wilhelm Rehm of Reutlingen stated publicly that "Hitler would not have been possible without Martin Luther", although many made similar statements about another influence on the rise of Hitler's power. The anti-Communist historian Paul Johnson said that "without Lenin, Hitler would not be possible".
Protestant group
Different German states have regional social variations such as class density and religious denominations. Richard Steigmann-Gall accused the link between some Protestant churches and Nazism. "German Christians" (Deutsche Christen) is a movement within the German Protestant Church with the aim of transforming traditional Christianity to align with the ideology of National Socialism and anti-Jewish policy. Deutsche Christen factions united in the goal of building national socialist Protestantism and abolished what they regarded as Jewish tradition in Christianity, and some but not all of them reject the Old Testament and the apostle Paul's teaching. In November 1933, the Protestant mass demonstration of Deutsche Christen, which garnered 20,000 people, passed three resolutions:
- Adolf Hitler is the completion of the Reform ,
- Baptized Jews must be dismissed from the Church
- The Old Testament must be excluded from Scripture.
Ludwig MÃÆ'¼ller
"German Christians" chose Ludwig Müller (1883-1945) as their candidate for the bishop of the Reich in 1933. In response to Hitler's campaign, two-thirds of Protestants chose the chosen Ludwig MÃÆ'¼ller, a neo-pagan candidate, to rule the Protestant Church -church. MÃÆ'¼ller believes that he has a divine responsibility to promote Hitler and his ideals, and together with Hitler, he likes the integrated Protestant and Catholic Reichskirche. The Reichskirche will be a loose federation in board form, but will be subject to the National Socialist State.
The level of bond between Nazism and the Protestant churches has been a controversial issue for decades. One of the difficulties is that Protestantism includes a number of religious bodies and many of them have few relationships with each other. In addition, Protestantism tends to allow for more variation among individual congregations than Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Christians, which makes a statement about the "official position" of the denominations in question. "German Christians" are a minority in the Protestant population, which accounts for a quarter to one third of the 40 million Protestants in Germany. With the efforts of the Bishop of Müller and Hitler's support, the "German Evangelical Church" was established and recognized by the state as a legal entity on July 14, 1933, with the aim of merging the State, people and the Church into one body. People who disagree are silenced by expulsion or violence.
The support of the "German Christian" movement in the churches was opposed by many traditional Christians. Other groups within the Protestant church include members of the Confessing Bekennende Kirche Church, which includes prominent members such as Martin NiemÃÆ'¶ller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer; both reject the Nazi attempt to incorporate the principle volkisch with traditional Lutheran doctrine. Martin NiemÃÆ'¶ller organized the Reverend Emergency League supported by nearly 40 percent of evangelical pastors. However, they (in 1932) were a minority within the Protestant church body in Germany. But in 1933, a number of Deutsche Christens left the movement after a November speech by Reinhold Krause urging, inter alia, the rejection of the Old Testament as Jewish superstition. So when Ludwig Müller could not meet all Christians as National Socialism, and after some "German Christians" and more radical ideas produced a reaction, Hitler's condescension against Protestantism increased and he lost all interest in Protestant church affairs.
The church's resistance to the Nazi ideology was the longest and bitter of any German institution. The Nazis weakened the resistance of the churches from within but the Nazis had not managed to take full control over the churches, as evidenced by thousands of scholars sent to concentration camps. Pdt. Martin NiemÃÆ'¶ller was imprisoned in 1937, accused of "misusing the pulpit to slander the State and Party and attacking the Government authorities." After the failed assassination of Hitler's life in 1943 by members of the military and members of the German Resistance movement, which Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others in the Confessing Church movement belonged, Hitler ordered the capture of Protestants, especially Lutheran priests. Yet even the "Confessing Church often makes a declaration of allegiance to Hitler". But then many Protestants strongly opposed Nazism after the nature of the movement was better understood but a number were also maintained until the end of the war the view that Nazism was compatible with the teachings of the church.
Methodist small populations are considered alien at times; this stems from the fact that Methodism began in England, and did not develop in Germany until the nineteenth century under the leadership of Christoph Gottlob MÃÆ'¼ller and Louis Jacoby. Because of this history, they feel the urge to become "more German than German" to avoid suspicion. Methodist Bishop John L. Nelsen visited the United States on behalf of Hitler to protect his church, but in private letters he declared that he feared and hated Nazism, and he eventually retired and fled to Switzerland. Methodist Bishop F. H. Otto Melle takes a much more collaborative position that includes his seemingly sincere support for Nazism. He also committed to asylum near the end of the war. To show his gratitude to the last bishop, Hitler rewarded 10,000 marks in 1939 to the Methodist congregation in order to pay for organ purchases. The money was never used. Outside Germany, Melle's views were rejected by most Methodists. The leader of the pro-Nazi Baptist segment is Paul Schmidt. The notion of a "national church" is possible in the history of mainline German Protestantism, but is generally prohibited among Anabaptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Catholic Church. The forms or branches of Protestantism that advocate pacifism, anti-nationalism, or racial equality tend to oppose the Nazi state in its most powerful possibility. Other Christian groups known for their efforts against Nazism include Jehovah's Witnesses.
Jehovah's Witnesses
In 1934, the Watchtower Bible Institution and Tractate published a letter entitled "The Declaration of Facts". In this personal letter to the then Reich Chancellor Hitler, JF Rutherford stated that "German Bible researchers are fighting for the same high ethical goals and ideals that also the German national government of Reich expressed respect for human relationships with God, namely: the creation's honesty towards its creator". However, while Jehovah's Witnesses tried to convince the Nazi government that their goal was purely religious and non-political and they expressed hope that the government would allow them to continue their sermons, Hitler was still limiting their work in Nazi Germany. After this, Rutherford began to denounce Hitler in articles through his publications, potentially making the sufferings of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany worse.
Jehovah's Witnesses or "Bible Researchers" (Bibelforschers) as they are known in Germany, comprise 25,000 members and they are among those persecuted by the Nazi government. All imprisoned members are identified by a unique purple triangle. Some members of religious groups refused to serve in the German military or loyalty to the Nazi government, which 250 were executed. An estimated 10,000 were arrested for various crimes, and 2,000 were sent to a Nazi concentration camp, where about 1,200 were killed. Jehovah's Witnesses are among the few who can leave the concentration camp by simply signing documents that release their religious beliefs.
Catholicism
The Nazi party's attitude toward the Catholic Church ranges from tolerance to total rejection and direct aggression. Bullock writes that Hitler had some things for the strength of the Catholic organization, but he had insulted for his principal teachings, which he said, if taken to their conclusion, "would mean the systematic cultivation of human failure". Many Nazis are anti-administrative in both private and public life. The Nazi Party clearly has a pagan element. One position is that the Church and fascism can not have lasting relationships because both are "holy Weltanschauung" who claim the whole person. Adolf Hitler himself is described as "spiritualist" by Laqueur; but he has been portrayed by Bullock as a "rationalist" and "materialist" without appreciation for the spiritual side of humanity; and a simple "atheist" by Blainey. Her Fascist Benito Mussolini was an atheist. Both were anticellers, but they understood that it would be rash to start their Kulturkampf against the Catholic religion prematurely. Such clashes, perhaps inevitable in the future, are suspended while they deal with other enemies.
Hierarchy hierarchy
The nature of the Nazi Party's relationship with the Catholic Church is also complicated. When Hitler rose to power, many Catholic bishops, priests, religious leaders and lay leaders persistently opposed Nazism on the grounds of their incompatibility with Christian morals. In early 1931, the German bishops issued a decree ostracizing all the leaders of the Nazi Party and banning all Catholics from membership. The prohibition was conditionally modified in 1933 when state law mandated that all Workers Union and Civil Service workers should be members of the Nazi Party. In July 1933, the Reichskonkordat Concord was signed with the Vatican preventing the Church in Germany from engaging in political activity; however, the Vatican continues to talk about issues of faith and morals and against the Nazi philosophy. In 1937 Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge that condemned the Nazi ideology, especially Gleichschaltung's policy aimed at the influence of religion on education, as well as Nazi racism and antisemitism. His death prevented the publication of the planned encyclical Humanity generis unity, but similar Summi Pontificatus was the first encyclical released by his successor (Pius XII), in October 1939. This encyclical strongly condemns racism and totalitarianism, without the presence of anti-Judaism in the design presented to Pope Pius XI for the humanity generis unity. The massive Catholic opposition to the Nazi euthanasia program made them calm on August 28, 1941, (according to Spielvogel pp.Ã, 257-258). Catholics, at times, are actively and openly protesting against Nazi antisemitism through several bishops and priests such as Bishop Clemens von Galen of MÃÆ'¼nster. In Nazi Germany, political dissidents were imprisoned, and several German priests were sent to concentration camps for their opposition, including Berlin Catholic priest Bernhard Lichtenberg and Karl Leisner's seminarian.
Critics arose on the charge that the Vatican led by Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII remained cautious about national-scale racial hatred before 1937 (Mit brennender Sorge). In 1937, just before the publication of the anti-Nazi encyclical, Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli in Lourdes, France condemned discrimination against Jews and Nazi neopaganism rà © gence. A statement by Pius XI on September 8, 1938 spoke of "unacceptable" antisemitism, but Pius XII was criticized by people like John Cornwell for being non-specific.
In 1941, the Nazi authorities decided the dissolution of all monasteries and monasteries in the German Reich, many of whom were effectively occupied and secularized by SS Allgemeine under Himmler. However, on July 30, 1941 the Aktion Klostersturm (Operation Monastery) concluded with a decree from Hitler, who feared that the growing protests by the Catholic segment of the German population could lead to passivity. insurrection and thus harming the Nazi war effort on the east front.
Plans for the Roman Catholic Church
Historian Heinz HÃÆ'¼rten (professor emeritus at Catholic University Eichstaett) notes that the Nazi party has plans for the Roman Catholic Church, which according to the Church should "eat from the hands of the government." HÃÆ'¼rten states the order of this plan: the abolishment of priestly celibacy and the nationalization of all church property, the dissolution of monastic religious institutions, and an end to the Catholic Church's influence on education. Hutzen states that Hitler proposed to reduce the vocation to the priesthood by banning the seminary from accepting applicants before their 25th birthday, and thus he hoped that this man would marry before, during the time (18-25 years) in which they were required to work in military service or labor. Also, along with this process, the sacrament of the Church will be revised and transformed into what is called "Lebensfeiern", a non-Christian celebration of different life periods.
There are some major differences among the officials within the Nazi Party on the issue of Christianity. Goebbels is said to have feared the formation of a Catholic third front against their regime in Germany itself. In his diary, Goebbels writes of "Black International traitors who pierce our cruel government behind by their criticism", which Hutzen implies means indirectly or actively against the Catholic priest (wearing a black cloak).
Church and war effort
Hitler called for a ceasefire to the Church conflict with the outbreak of war, wanting to retreat from a policy that tends to cause internal friction in Germany. He decides at the beginning of the war that "no further action should be taken against the Evangelical and Catholic Churches during the war". According to John Conway, "The Nazis must take into account the fact that, despite all Rosenberg's efforts, only 5 percent of the population enrolled in the 1930 census because it is no longer connected to the Christian Churches." The support of millions of German Christians is necessary for Hitler's plan to achieve results. It was Hitler's conviction that if religion was an aid, "it could only be an advantage". Most of the 3 million members of the Nazi Party "still pay the Church tax" and consider themselves Christians. Regardless, a number of Nazi radicals in the party hierarchy determined that the Church's struggle should continue. Following the Nazi victory in Poland, the suppression of the Church was expanded, despite their initial protest against loyalty to the cause.
Goebbels propaganda ministry issued threats and applied strong pressure on the Church to voice support for the war, and the Gestapo banned Church meetings for several weeks. In the first few months of the war, the German Churches obeyed it. No cancellation of the Polish invasion, or Blitzkrieg issued. Instead, Bishop Marahrens thanked God that the Polish conflict was over, and "that He has given us a quick victory." The Ministry of Church Affairs suggested that Church bells across Germany ring for a week in celebration, and that pastors and priests "flock to volunteer as priests" for the German army. Catholic bishops called on their followers to support the war effort: "We call on the faithful to join in eager prayers that God's providence can lead this war to blessed success for the Fatherland and the people." Likewise, Evangelicals proclaim: "We are united in this hour with our people in intercession for our Fuhrer and Reich, for all armed forces, and for all who do their duty to the homeland."
Even in the face of evidence of Nazi atrocities against Catholic priests and laypeople in Poland, broadcast on Vatican Radio, German Catholic religious leaders continue to express their support for the Nazi war effort. They urged their Catholic followers to "fulfill their obligations to the Fuhrer". The Nazi war actions of 1940 and 1941 also encouraged the Church to voice its support. The bishops declared that the Church "approved a just war, especially designed to safeguard the state and the people" and wanted a "beneficial peace for Germany and Europe" and called on the faithful to "fulfill their civil and military virtues." But the Nazis strongly disagreed with sentiments against the war expressed by the Pope through his first encyclical Summi Pontificatus and the Christmas message of 1939, and they were angered by his support for Poland and the "provocative" use of Vatican Radio by Cardinal Hlond of Poland. The encyclical distribution is prohibited.
Conway wrote that anti-church radical Reinhard Heydrich predicted in a report to Hitler dated October 1939 that the majority of Church people support the war effort - though some "well-known agitators among priests need to be addressed". Heydrich decided that the support of church leaders could not be expected because of the nature of their doctrine and their internationalism, so he devised measures to limit the operation of the Church under the protection of wartime, such as reducing the resources available to pressure the Church on the basis of allotment, and prohibit pilgrimages and large church meetings on the basis of transportation difficulties. Churches were closed because "too far from the bomb shelter". The bells are melted. Pressing closed.
With the widespread war in the East from 1941, there was also an expansion of regime attacks on churches. Monasteries and monasteries were targeted and the takeover of Church property increased. Nazi authorities claim that property is needed for wartime needs such as hospitals, or accommodation for refugees or children, but instead they use it for their own purposes. "Hate to the state" is another common cause given for foreclosure, and the act of a single member of a monastery may result in total seizure. The Jesuits are primarily targeted. Cardinal Nuncio Cesare Orsenigo and Cardinal Bertram constantly complain to the authorities but they are told to expect more requests back because of the need for time of war.
National Socialist Semitism
Instead of focusing on religious differentiation, Hitler states that it is important to promote "common sense antisemitism", which recognizes the basis of the Jewish race. Interviews with the Nazis by other historians suggest that the Nazis thought that their views were rooted in biology, not in historical prejudice. For example, "S. became a missionary to this biomedical vision... As for anti-Semitic attitudes and actions, he insisted that" the racial question... [and] the hatred of the Jewish race... has nothing to do with medieval anti-Semitism... "That is, it's all a matter of scientific biology and community."
In his history of Christianity, Geoffrey Blainey writes that "Christianity can not escape some of the indirect errors of the terrible Holocaust Jews and Christians have become rivals and sometimes become enemies for a long period of history. it is traditionally for Christians to blame Jewish leaders for the crucifixion of Christ... ", but Blainey said," At the same time, Christians show devotion and respect They are aware of their debt to the Jews. the Gospel writer is a Jewish race. Christians see the Old Testament, the synagogue of the scriptures as a sacred book for them... ".
Laurence Rees notes that the "emphasis on Christianity" does not exist in the vision expressed by Hitler in Mein Kampf and "gloomy and violent visions" and the deep hatred of Jews has been influenced by different sources: The idea of ​​life as a struggle he draws from Social Darwinism, the notion of excellence of the "Aryan race" he draws from Arthur de Gobineau The Inequality of the Human Race ; and from Alfred Rosenberg he took the idea of ​​the relationship between Judaism and Bolshevism. Hitler embraced the cruel policy of "negative eugenic selection", believing that the history of the world consisted of a struggle for survival among races, where the Jews were planning to weaken Germany, and inferior groups like Slavs and flawed individuals in German gene pools, threatened. "main race" Aryan. Richard J. Evans writes that his views on these subjects are often called "Socialist Darwinists", but there is little agreement among historians about what this term means. According to Evans, Hitler "used his own version of social Darwinism as a central element in discursive practice of extermination...", and Social Darwinism, in its Nazi variant, helped remove all the restraints of the regime's "terrorist and annihilation" persuading them that what they do is justified by history, science, and nature ".
Other confidence
In the Attachment of Nazi Persecution in the Church, Conway has included a document: "The sect list banned by the Gestapo until December 1938." It mentions "Jehovah's Witness International" under No.1, but also includes "Study Group for Psychic Research" and even "Bahai Sect."
Astrologers, healers and forecasters were forbidden under the Nazis, while the small "Gentile" Faith, who worshiped the sun and the seasons, supported the Nazis.
Ateis
On October 13, 1933, Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess issued a decree stating: "No National Socialist may suffer any harm on the ground that he does not recognize a certain creed or recognition or on the grounds that he does not make any religious profession at all." However, the regime strongly opposed "Communism Without God" and all German free thinking ( freigeist ), atheist organizations, and most of the left wing were banned in the same year.
In a speech made during negotiations for the 1933 Nazi-Vatican Conference, Hitler opposed secular schools, stating: "Secular schools can never be tolerated because these schools have no religious teaching, and general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air, consequently, all the training of character and religion must come from faith. "One of the groups closed down by the Nazi regime was the German League of Freedom Thinkers. Christians appealed to Hitler to end the anti-religious and anti-Church propaganda announced by Free Thinkers, and in Hitler's Nazi Party some atheists were quite vocal in their anti-Christian views, notably Martin Bormann. Heinrich Himmler, himself enchanted by German paganism, is a strong promoter of the gottglÃÆ'¤ubig movement and he does not allow atheists into the SS, arguing that "their refusal to recognize a higher power" would be "a potential source indiscipline". In the SS, Himmler declared: "We believe in God Almighty who stands above us, He has created earth, Homeland and Volk, and he has sent us FÃÆ'¼hrer.Every man who does not believe in God should be considered arrogant, megalomaniac , and stupid and thus unsuitable for the SS. "He also stated:" As National Socialists, we believe in a godly worldview. "
esoteric group
By the 1930s there were already esoteric scenes in Germany and Austria. Organizations in this spectrum are suppressed, but, unlike Freemasonry in Nazi Germany, they are not persecuted. The only known case in which an occultist might be sent to a concentration camp is because his belief is that Friedrich Bernhard Marby.
Also, some Nazi leaders have an interest in esoterism. Rudolf Hess is interested in Anthroposophy. Heinrich Himmler shows a strong interest in esoteric matters.
The esoteric Thule community gave support to the German Labor Party, which eventually turned into the Nazi Party in 1920. Dietrich Eckart, a colleague of the Thule society, actually coached Hitler in public speaking skills, and while Hitler has not been proven to be a member Thule, he received support from the group. Hitler then dedicates the second volume of Mein Kampf to Eckart. The racist-occult doctrines of Ariosophy contribute to the atmosphere of the vÃÆ'¶lkisch movement in the Weimar Republic that eventually led to the rise of Nazism.
Aspects of the religion of Nazism
Some elements of Nazism are quasi-religious. The cult around Hitler as the FÃÆ'¼hrer, the great congregation, the banner, the sacred fire, the procession, the popular and radical preaching style, the prayer-and-response, the memorial and the funeral march "has been described by historians of Esoterism as Nicholas Goodrick -Clarke as "an important props for racial cult and nation, the Aryan mission of Germany and its victory over its enemies." The different religious aspects of Nazism have caused some scholars to regard Nazism, like communism, to become a kind of political religion.
Hitler's plan, for example, to establish a magnificent new capital in Berlin (Welthauptstadt Germania), has been described as an attempt to build a version of the New Jerusalem. Since the classic study of Fritz Stern
Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer wrote in his memoirs that Hitler himself had a negative view of the mystical ideas encouraged by Himmler and Alfred Rosenberg. Speer quotes that Hitler once said about Himmler's attempt to make SS mythology:
What nonsense is that! Here we finally reach the age that has abandoned all mysticism behind it, and now [Himmler] wants to start it again. We may also live with the church. At least that's tradition. To think that I might one day become a saint SS! Can you imagine that? I will surrender my grave...
Religious relationship with fascism
The fascist scholar Stanley Payne notes that the fundamentals of fascism are the foundation of a purely materialistic "civil religion" that will "replace the preceding structures of faith and throw supernatural religions into secondary roles, or not at all," and that "in spite of specific examples of Christian fascists are religious or expected, fascism requires a post-Christian, post-religious, secular, and immanent frame of reference. "One theory is that religion and fascism can not have lasting relationships because both are" holy weltanschauung "who claim the whole person. Along these lines, Yale political scientist Juan Linz and others have noted that secularization has created a vacuum that can be filled by other total ideologies, making secular totalitarianism possible, and Roger Griffin has characterized fascism as a kind of anti- religion.
However, Robert Paxton found that "Fascists often condemn the materialist secularism" and he adds that the state of fascism of the past does not mean that future fascism can not "build a religion in a nation's place, nor as a national expression. Even in Europe, fascism is based on religion unknown: Falang Espaà ± a, Belgian Belgianism, Finland Lapua Movement, and Roman Legion of Archangel Michael are good examples ". Separately, Richard L. Rubenstein states that the religious dimensions of the Holocaust and Nazi fascism are clearly unique.
Messianic aspects of Nazism
There is much literature on aspects of potential religion from Nazism. Wilfried Daim suggests that Hitler and the Nazi leadership planned to replace Christianity in Germany with a new religion in which Hitler would be considered a messiah. In his book on the relationship between Lanz von Liebenfels and Hitler, Daim publishes a reprint of the alleged document of the session on "the unconditional removal of all religious commitments (Religionsbekenntnisse) after the final victory (Endsieg)... with the same proclamation Adolf Hitler as the new messiah." Reports of this session are from private collections.
German Thuringian Christian Teachings for Hitler
- SchÃÆ'¼tze, Herr, mit Starker Hands
- unser Volk und Vaterland!
- LaÃÆ'Ÿ 'auf unsres FÃÆ'¼hrers Pfade
- leuchten Deine Huld und Gnade!
- Weck 'in unserem Herz aufs neue
- deutscher Ahnen Kraft und Treue!
- Und so laÃÆ' uns' unobtrusive and unbound
- Deine deutschen Kinder sein!
It's roughly translated as:
- Protect, oh God, with the strength of your hands,
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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