Religion in Nazi Germany
Key question: how did the Nazis regard religion?
Base answer: with suspicion and a desire to move belief from
God to Hitler
Main idea:
Nazification and indoctrination
Nazism was a fundamentally anti-Christian
philosophy.
Nazism glorified strength, violence
and war, Christianity taught love,
forgiveness and neighbourly respect.
Christianity was regarded as the product of an
inferior race – Jesus was a Hebrew. (Picture 4) He
was not white. Some leading Nazis, such as Himmler
and his deputy, Heydrich, openly revealed their
contempt for Christianity.
Hitler was more cautious, although what were
probably his true feelings were revealed in a
private conversation in 1933:
“Neither of the denominations – Catholic or
Protestant, they are both the same – has any
future left … That won’t stop me stamping out
Christianity in Germany root and branch. One is
either a Christian or a German. You can’t be
both.”
What the Nazis wanted instead of normal
religion
In place of Christianity, the Nazis wanted ‘teutonic
paganism’, which became known as the German Faith
Movement.
To what ‘Teutonic’ is a reference?
It is basically a reference to the ancient
tribe of Germans, called ‘Teutons’. ‘Teutonic’
now refers to that which is of German
descent.
Although a clear Nazi religious ideology was never
fully outlined, what there was revolved around four
main themes:
• the propagation of the ‘Blood and Soil’
ideology
• the replacement of Christian ceremonies –
marriage and baptism – by pagan
equivalents
• the rejection of Christian ethics – closely
linked to racial and nationalist views
• the cult of Hitler’s personality.
However, even the Nazi government knew that religion
was a very delicate issue. At first, the Nazis tried
to calm the fears of the Churches, while the Nazi
dictatorship was being established.
Conciliation and conflict 1933–5
Key question:
why did conciliation lead to conflict?
Base answer:
Nazi ideology and guarantees of religious
tolerance were unacceptable to the
Churches
At first Hitler agreed that the Churches were a
central part of Germany. Nazi members were
encouraged to go to Protestant Church services. The
reason was to show that the Churches had nothing to
fear from the Nazis.
The Catholic Church also responded well to Nazi
‘suggestions’. Catholic bishops wanted to safeguard
the position of the Church under the Nazis and in
July 1933 a Concordat was signed between the Papacy
and the regime.
What is a ‘Concordat’?
It’s an agreement between two or more ‘sides’
which guarantees that they will be cordial
(friendly) towards each other. (Picture
3)
Which Pope reigned during most of World War II?
His Holiness Pope Pius XII (Picture 1)
In the agreement it was decided that:
• the Nazis would guarantee the Catholic Church
religious freedom
• the Nazis would not interfere with the
Catholic Church’s property and legal
rights
• the Nazis would accept the Catholic Church’s
control over its own education
In return, the Catholic Church would not interfere
in politics and would give diplomatic recognition to
the Nazi government. Remember that the Roman
Catholic Church was not part of the government, and
was controlled totally by The Pope in Rome.
Essentially the Roman Catholic Church was - and is -
an organisation entirely controlled by The Pope, and
makes its own laws and rules.
At first the Concordat seemed to be a great success.
However, it was all insincere
(Hitler was terrible liar) and by the end of 1933
Nazi interference in religious affairs was already
causing resentment and disillusionment in both
Catholic and Protestant Churches.
The Nazis hoped that the Protestant Churches would
gradually be ‘co-ordinated’ through the group called
the German Christians (Deutsche Christen). This
group hoped to reconcile their Protestant ideas with
Nazi nationalist and racial thinking by finding
common ground.
A new Church constitution was created in July 1933
with the Nazi sympathiser Ludwig Muller (Picture 2)
as the first Reich Bishop – an interesting
application of the Führerprinzip.
Churches and state
Key question:
How did the relationship between the Churches
and state change over time?
Base answer:
from tolerance to opposition and the main idea:
Nazification and indoctrination
By 1935 it was obvious that the Nazi leadership had
achieved just limited success in controlling the
Churches. The leadership could not make a clear
choice between total suppression or limited
persecution. Total suppression would alienate too
many people and limited persecution would give the
church too much freedom.
To destabilise the Churches, the Ministry
of Church Affairs adopted a policy of undermining
both the Protestant and Catholic Churches by a
series of anti-religious measures, including:
• closure of Church schools undermining of
Catholic youth groups
• personal campaigns to discredit and harass
the clergy
• confiscation of Church funds
• a campaign to remove crucifixes from
schools
• the arrest of more and more pastors and
priests.
The Churches were weakened by this approach, but it
also stimulated individual declarations of
opposition from both Protestants and Catholics.
The Pope, Pius XI, eventually vehemently attacked
the Nazi system in his encyclical, or public letter,
of 1937 entitled With Burning Concern (Mit
Brennender Sorge). The conflict between the Churches
and the state continued.
The outbreak of war brought about a cautious policy,
as the regime wished to avoid unnecessary tensions.
Following the military victories of 1939–40 the
persecution intensified, as a result of pressure
applied by anti-Christian enthusiasts, such as
Bormann and Heydrich and the SS hierarchy.

The Crucifix is a symbol of the
Roman Catholic Church. It always shows Christ on the
Cross.
Empty crosses are a symbol of
Protestant churches. (Picture 5)
Monasteries were closed, Church property was
attacked and Church activities were severely
restricted. Even so, religion was such a politically
sensitive issue that Hitler did not allow
subordination of the Churches to give way to
wholesale suppression within Germany.
Conclusions
Key question:
Did Nazi religious policy succeed in its aims?
Did the Churches effectively oppose the
Nazis?
Base answer:
not really. The Nazis limited the freedom of
the Churches but did not suppress them.
The Nazis achieved only limited success in their
religious policy. Many individual Christians made
brave stands against the Nazis. This made the
dictatorship wary of launching a fundamental assault
on religion, so German loyalty to Christianity
survived in the long term despite Nazism.
Hitler killed himself before his programme for
taking over the Churches could be made successful.
However, both the Catholic and Protestant Churches
failed to provide effective opposition to Nazism.
Both could have provided the focus for active
resistance. Instead, they preferred, as
institutions, to adopt a pragmatic policy towards
Nazism.
They stood up for their own religious practices and
traditions with shows of dissent, but denunciations
of the regime were left to individuals. The reasons
for the Churches’ reluctance to show opposition to
the regime lay in their conservatism:
• They distrusted the politics of communism
which rejected the existence of religion
itself.
• There was a nationalist sympathy for Nazism,
especially after the problems of
1918–33.
• Both Churches feared the power of the Nazi
state.
In such a situation, their emphasis on pastoral and
spiritual comfort was perhaps the most practical and
realistic policy for them.
