My academic research and teaching, for many years, has focused on the historic interplay of religion and values in society, because we need to remember the past as we live in the present.
This week I offer a reflection about religion in Nazi Germany. The role of religion in Nazi Germany was complicated. Many leading Nazis were raised in the Christian faith, particularly Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), whose mother had been a devout Catholic. Early Nazi rhetoric and propaganda reinforced the importance of God and Christianity in the social and cultural life of Germany.
Whatever their spiritual beliefs, however, Hitler and his regime feared and detested the power and influence of organized religion, particularly the Catholic Church. They attempted to bind religion to the state to render it obedient. Where this could not be achieved, they persecuted churches and arrested dissenting church leaders.
The population of Germany in 1933 was around 60 million. Almost all Germans were Christian, either Roman Catholic (ca. 20 million) or Protestant (ca. 40 million). The Jewish community in Germany in 1933 was less than 1% of the total population.
It is noteworthy that in 1933, following Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor on January 30th the Nazi Party rapidly transformed Germany from a democracy into a one-party totalitarian state, known as the Third Reich; and the Third Reich at once began implementing radical racist and anti-Semitic policies. Key events included the Reichstag Fire on February 27, 1933, which allowed the Nazis to suppress opposition, the establishment of the first concentration camp for political prisoners at Dachau on March 22, 1933, and the Enabling Act of March 23,1933 granting Hitler dictatorial power.
The spread of Nazi totalitarianism in 1933-34 compelled German churches to take a position on Hitler and his regime and ideology. Some Protestant churches supported the Nazi movement. They advocated the creation of a Reichskirche: a ‘state church’ loyal to Nazism and subordinate to the state. The Deutsche Kristen (“German Christians”) was the large evangelical branch of German Protestants supportive of the Reichskirche. They saw Hitler as a visionary leader who could transform and revive German Christianity. There was also a strong anti-Semitic strain within the Deutsche Kristen, however. Some of its leaders urged the rejection of Jewish texts and the expulsion of Christian converts with Jewish heritage. The leader of the Deutsche Kristen, Ludwig Muller (1883-1945), met with Hitler several times and promised his church’s support for the Nazis. Hitler therefore had him appointed Reichsbischof (“Bishop for the Reich”).
On the other hand, in May 1934, several Protestant churches united to form the Bekennende Kirche (Confessing Church), which resisted attempts to ‘Nazify’ German churches. Members of the Bekennende Kirche were strongly critical of Nazi policies during the mid-1930s, particularly its anti-Semitic policies and actions.
The most famous members of the Confessing Church were the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and executed at the Flossenbürg concentration camp in 1945 for his role in the conspiracy to overthrow the regime; and Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892-1984), who was arrested by the Gestapo in 1938 and detained in Dachau until 1945. Other members of the Bekennende Kirche risked their lives by sheltering Jewish-born Christians and supplying fugitives with forged papers during the war.
The relationship between Catholicism, Hitler’s original religion, and the Nazi Party was more conciliatory at first but quickly deteriorated. Before 1933, however, some bishops had prohibited Catholics in their dioceses from joining the Nazi Party. This ban was dropped, after Hitler’s March 23, 1933, speech to the Reichstag in which he described Christianity as the “foundation” for German values. The Catholic-aligned Center Party voted for the Enabling Act of 1933,
German Catholics had long desired a concordat – an agreement with the government that would guarantee their rights and religious freedoms. In March 1933, Hitler expressed support for this idea. But Hitler, in fact, had no great desire to protect Catholic rights and privileges. He wanted a one-sided concordat to reduce the political influence of the Catholic Church.
In April 1933, Nazi delegates began negotiations with Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (1876-1958) the Vatican’s delegate to Germany, who became Pope Pius XII in 1939. As these negotiations progressed, the Nazis launched a wave of anti-Catholic intimidation: shutting down Catholic publications, breaking up meetings of the Catholic-based Centre Party, and throwing outspoken Catholics into concentration camps.
The resulting agreement, the Reichskonkordat, was signed into law on July 20, 1933. It was a diplomatic and political victory for the Nazis, mainly because the Catholic Church and its representatives were banned from participating in politics.
Between 1934 and 1936, the Nazis shut down several Catholic and Lutheran youth groups. Many of their members were subsequently absorbed into the Hitler Youth. Catholic schools were closed and replaced with ‘community schools’ run by Nazi sympathizers. A year-long campaign against Catholic schools in Munich in 1935 saw enrollments there drop by more than 30%.
Direct attacks on the Catholic Church and its members escalated in 1936. Dozens of Catholic priests were arrested by the Gestapo and given show trials, accused of involvement in corruption, prostitution, homosexuality, and paedophilia. Show trials were public trials in which the guilt or innocence of the defendant had already been determined. The purpose of show trials was to present both accusations and verdicts to the public, serving as warnings to would-be dissidents.
Anti-Catholic propaganda in 1936 appeared on street corners, billboards and in the pages of the notorious anti-Semitic newspaper, Der Sturmer. This Nazi persecution produced a defensive response from the Catholic Church. In March 1937, Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) released an encyclical titled Mit brennender Sorge (‘With burning concern’). It was written by Michael von Faulhaber (1862-1952) Archbishop of Munich, in consultation with other Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Pacelli.
Mit brennender Sorge criticized Nazi breaches of the Reichskonkordat, condemned Nazi views on race, and ridiculed the glorification of politicians and the state. “Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the state, or a particular form of state… above their standard value and raises them to an idolatrous level,” the letter said, “distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God.”More than 250,000 copies of the encyclical were distributed to German churches, to be read to congregations from the pulpit.
The action greatly infuriated Hitler, and the Nazi response was swift and intense. Gestapo agents raided churches and printers, seizing and destroying copies of the encyclical wherever they could be found. Propaganda and show trials against Catholic clergy gathered pace through 1938-39 and several priests ended up in the concentration camps in Dachau and Oranienburg.
Contemporary historians see Pope Pius XII’s relationship with Nazi Germany marked by controversy and debate, centered on the Pope’s wartime neutrality and public silence regarding the Holocaust. While the Vatican claims his silence stemmed from a desire for diplomacy and to protect the Catholic Church, others argue it reflected an anti-Jewish bias and a preference for authoritarianism.
Pius XII did maintain links to the German Resistance and shared intelligence with the Allies, but at the same time he developed alliances with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Historical research and probing continue. But I doubt that he will be canonized like his successors John XXIII (1881-1963), Paul VI (1897-1978), and John Paul II (1920-2005).
Another Voice 