Volksgemeinshaft- Churches

Question 1

What were the statistics on religion in the 1930’s?

Answer 1

1/3 were Catholic

58% protestant

Question 2

How do we know religion was ingrained in Weimar?

Answer 2

There was a political party specifically for Catholics, Z

Question 3

What did Nazis want to do to religion?

Answer 3

Although brought up catholic, Hitler wanted to replace christianity with a new aryan faith- with religion people could not worship Hitler or be entirely faithful to the regime.

Question 4

How did Hitler plan to take over the churches?

Answer 4

He could not remove the churches completely as there would be a outcry so tried to limit their power gradually until they had none.

Question 5

What happened after WW2?

Answer 5

Catholic and protestant churches issued confessions of guilt ‘lack of decisiveness opposing nazism’

Question 6

What did Wright believe about the churches?

Answer 6

The churches did oppose Nazi aggression, but only to protect their position

Question 7

What was the concordant?

Answer 7

Signed between the Nazi party and the catholics. The church would stay out of politics and the Nazi party would not reorganise the church.
It was signed despite sterilisation law being passed.
It made the third Reich undemocratic, but did allow the churches to continue

Question 8

Who was Pope Pius XII and what did he say?

Answer 8

He negotiated the concordant and them became Pope in 1939. During the negotiations he said there was a ‘pistol at their head’
He was seen as a Nazi sympathiser as he refused to excommunicate Catholics who were participating in genocide.

Question 9

What terms of the concordant did Nazis break?

Answer 9

In NOLK catholic leaders were killed
Catholic youth groups were shut down in 1936
Catholic schools were shut down
Bishops arrested and put in concentration camps

Question 10

What did Wilt believe about the churches?

Answer 10

Churches response to Nazism was timid and half-hearted

Question 11

What did the Churches do when faith schools got shut down?

Answer 11

They did nothing

Question 12

What did the Catholic Church do to oppose the regime?

Answer 12

Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical in 1937 called ‘with burning grief’, 250,000 copies were issued and the encyclical attacked the Nazis for breaking the concordant.
However the church took part in no tangible action against the state.

Question 13

What did Housden believe about the churches?

Answer 13

Churches wanted to fit themselves into the path of the reich rather than change of the course of it completely

Question 14

What Bishop spoke out against Nazi policy?

Answer 14

Galen spoke out in sermons against Nazi policy, including euthanasia. Was too popular to punished

Question 15

What happened to the protestant churches?

Answer 15

Churches co-ordianted into the German Reich church, led by Ludwig Müller

Question 16

What did Müller do to anger many people?

Answer 16

He tried to get rid of the old testament and create new aryan German religion- angered many, but no mass protests.

Question 17

What did Noakes believe about the church?

Answer 17

They were allowed to keep their own ideologies

Question 18

What was the German christian movement?

Answer 18

It was a section of the protestant church that broke off and aimed to remove un-German references from the bible.

Question 19

What group was set up in September 1933?

Answer 19

The emergency league of pastors was set up to resist Nazis changing their religion. Had 7000 members

Question 20

What was the confessing church?

Answer 20

Groups broke away from the protestant church in 1934, in protest of state interference. It was the general term for these groups.

Question 21

Who were the leaders of the confessing church?

Answer 21

Martin Niemöller was outspoken against the Nazis and detained at Dachau
Bonhöeffer was also a leader, he taught trainee pastors to resist Nazism and tried to get the confessional church to condemn the Nuremberg laws, however didn’t work. Sent to Flossenburg

Question 22

What did Barnett believe about the churches?

Answer 22

They had no room for self sacrifice or heroism

Question 23

Which church was more successful at resisting Nazism?

Answer 23

Prodestant, in Catholic Church only individuals who spoke out not the organisation a whole, whoever there were organisations set up in the protestant churches who spoke out against Nazism.

Question 24

What were the statistics on the emergency league of pastors?

Answer 24

In 1934 the Covenant counted 7,036 members, after 1935 the number sank to 4,952
7000-5000

Question 25

What is my LOA for the churches?

Answer 25

Only individuals resisted, not entire groups and protestant more than catholic