Religion in Nazi Germany Flashcards
why was the control of religion important in Nazi Germany?
- church was very influential in personal lives
- wanted to reduced church’s power to have undivided loyalty
- In his first speech as chancellor, Hitler acknowledged the ‘central’ role that Christianity played in Germany. However, this approach did not last long.
in 1935, what was the division of people among religions in Germany?
~45 million Protestant Christians, 22 mill Catholic Christians, 500,000 Jews and 25,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses
what policy did Hitler adopt towards Catholics and why?
As Catholics had a single, central leader in the Pope, infiltrating and taking control of the religion was extremely difficult so Hitler opted for a policy of conciliation towards Catholics.
what was kulturkampf?
conflict between civil government and religious authorities especially over control of education and church appointment
why did bishops want to work with hitler?
frightened of bad relations like under bismarck (Kulturkampf)
when was the Nazi Concordat with the Vatican?
July 1933
what did the Nazi Concordat with the Vatican do?
agreed that Nazis wouldn’t interfere in Catholic church and Vatican would diplomatically recognise Nazi regime
when was the Ministry for Church Affairs set up?
1935
what did the Ministry for Church Affairs do?
- range of anti-religious policies aimed at undermining the influence of religion on the German people
- broke concordat
- started arresting priests
- catholic newspapers banned
when were crucifixes removed from schools?
1936
when were all catholic schools closed?
1939
how did the attitude of the regime towards catholics change in the late ’30s?
intensified oppressive policies - members of the Catholic Clergy were killed and imprisoned for opposing regime
who was Johannes Neuhäusler?
a catholic priest imprisoned by the Nazis
what was the pope’s response to the increased oppression of Catholicism in the ’30s?
1937 - ‘with burning anxiety’ letter to churchs said nazis were ‘hostile to christ and his chruch’ but had little effect as people too scared to speak out
when was the ‘with burning anxiety’ letter?
1937
why did hitler increase the oppression of Catholicism in the ’30s?
he felt catholics listened to the pope more than him
who was archbishop galen?
an archbishop who openly criticised nazis for terror tactics, euthanasia, conc camps and was placed under house arrest (example of individual not institutional opposition)
what was the nazi attitude to protestantism and why?
thought they were easier to control (no external leader and many different factions) so nazis thought the state could accommodate Protestantism
what is a quote said by a German protestant priest?
“German first, Christian second”
what was the confessing church?
a rebellious church group formed by Neimoller (a protestant pastor) directed at the regime’s ecclesiastical policy, stressing the church’s autonomy from political interference, and the German Christian movement (not at its overall political and social objectives, though many objected to things like T4)
when was the confessing church founded?
1934
who was Dietrich Bonhoeffer?
a key founding member of the confessing church who opposed nazis from start, then joined resistance and helped jews escape and planned to assassinate hitler
when was Bonhoeffer arrested?
April 1943 by Gestapo - imprisoned at Tegel prison for 1.5 years - then transferred to Flossenburg concentration camp
when and why was Bonhoeffer killed?
- accused of being associated with July Plot - tried along with other accused plotters
- hung 9 April 1945 during the collapse of the Nazi regime.
how many pastors belonged to the confessing church?
~7000
what happened as a result of the protest statement read from the pulpits of confessing churches in March 1935?
Nazi authorities reacted forcefully by arresting over 700 pastors.
when was the protest statement read from the pulpits of confessing churches?
march 1935
when was the Reich church established?
1933 under the leadership of Muller
what was the aim of the Reich church?
to be a new national church
what were some aspects of the Reich Church?
- instructed preachers to exclude any teaching from the Old Testament, as this was considered a Jewish document.
- cross became swastika
- merged bible with mein kampf
- embraced many of the nationalistic and racial aspects of Nazi ideology
- supported a “nazified” version of Christianity.
how many jehovah’s witnesses were killed in concentration camps?
1/3
what was the german faith movement?
a religious movement in Nazi Germany which sought to move Germany away from Christianity towards a religion that was based on Germanic paganism and Nazi ideas.
who belonged to the german faith movement?
- initially invited various different groups, including religious free-thinkers (at first even including Jews), racialists, and political opponents of the Nazis, to join a group that was seemingly antagonistic to the Nazi Church
- racialists did not believe Jews should be included in the movement, leaving only racialists and those who had abandoned German Christianity (i.e. unconventional) to compose the German Faith Movement.
what did ceremonies of the german faith movement involve?
sermons, german classical music, political hymns
how many people followed the german faith movement?
~200,000 followers at its height (less than 0.3% of the population) - most out of fear
what were the main ideas of the german faith movement?
- ‘blood and soil’ ideology
- syncretism of Christian ceremonies with pagan equivalents; the most favoured pagan deity being the sun
- cult of Hitler’s personality
- spread of ‘norse paganism’ throughout Germany
what was the ‘blood and soil’ ideology?
nationalist slogan expressing Nazi Germany’s ideal of a racially defined national body (“Blood”) united with a settlement area (“Soil”).- rural and farm life forms idealized as a counterweight to urban ones - tied to lebensraum
