Concordant With The Vatican

Question 1

Concordant with the Vatican
Background Fact 2 - Why did Nazis work with churches?

Answer 1

To consolidate their power and minimise opposition, the Nazis worked with different churches to gain their support due to their large following.

Question 2

Concordant with the Vatican
Catholic church - Political parties + trade unions

Answer 2

• Hitler gained support from the Catholic Centre Party for the enabling act. He banned political parties and trade unions however promised to protect the Catholic church,

✔ This gained him a better population within the church which was a large community in Germany. Hitler could not ban churches due to the influence they held on the population and so decided to protect them to gain their trust.

Question 3

Concordant with the Vatican
Catholic church - Protestantism

Answer 3

• Overtime, Hitler took control of different branches of the Protestantism in Germany. From this they created national faith based on Nazism.

✔ There were little churches dedicated to protestants, which meant they could be influenced easily with little opposition from the public.

x However, the Catholic church was a global community and had more power over the population. This made it hard to control and influence.

Question 4

Concordant with the Vatican
Catholic church - Pope Pius XI

Answer 4

• Hitler worked with the Catholic church led by Pope Pius XI. They agreed that the Centre Party would be abolished and would stay out of politics in return for its freedom of religion.

✔ This agreement meant that Hitler would receive no opposition from the Catholic church and would avoid opposition form its community.

Question 5

Concordant with the Vatican
Catholic church - Concordant

Answer 5

• In July 1933, both sides signed a concordant to work together. They agreed that in theory, the church would continue to control education and youth, however overtime, this was broken as the Nazis gained further power.

✔ This let the Nazis influence an entire community of people who were Catholic.

x However, attacking churches overtime caused public anger and therefore opposition.

Question 6

Concordant with the Vatican
Historians - Concordant stopped attacks

Answer 6

Richard J Evans - Even though the Nazis would go back on their promises in the Concordant, signing the deal stopped the Catholic Church from facing even more extreme attacks.

Question 7

Concordant with the Vatican
Historians - Concordant masked plans

Answer 7

Geoff Layton - The Concordant was an initial success but masked the Nazis’ ultimate plans to undermine the Church.