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Adolf Hitler's religious beliefs have been a matter of dispute, in part because of apparently inconsistent statements made by and attributed to him. The relationship between Nazism and religion was complex and shifting over the period of the party's existence and during its years in power.

Childhood and youth

Adolf Hitler was brought up in his family's religion by his Roman Catholic parents. According to historian Bradley F. Smith, Hitler's father, though nominally a Catholic, was a freethinker, while his mother was a practising Catholic. According to historian Michael Rissmann young Adolf was influenced in school by Pan-Germanism and Darwinism and began to reject the Church and Catholicism, receiving Confirmation only unwillingly. A boyhood friend reports that after Hitler had left home, he never attended Mass or received the Sacraments. Georg Ritter von Schönerer's writings and the written legacy of his Pan-German Away from Rome! movement, which agitated against the Roman Catholic Church at the end of the 19th century, may have influenced the young Adolf Hitler.

Views as an adult

Hitler's religious beliefs can be gathered from his public and private statements; they present a discrepant picture and some attributed private statements remain disputed.

Public statements

In public statements, especially at the beginning of his rule, Hitler frequently spoke positively about the Christian heritage of German culture and his belief in the "Aryan" Christ. In doing so, he used his "ability to simulate, even to potentially critical Church leaders, an image of a leader keen to uphold and protect Christianity," according to Ian Kershaw. Kershaw adds, that Hitler by this ability also succeeded in appeasing possible Church resistance to anti-Christian Nazi Party radicals. For example, on March 23, 1933, he addressed the Reichstag: "The National Government regards the two Christian confessions (i.e. Catholicism and Protestantism) as factors essential to the soul of the German people. ... We hold the spiritual forces of Christianity to be indispensable elements in the moral uplift of most of the German people." At one point he described his religious status: "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so." Hitler never formally ended his church membership, but according to Albert Speer, "he had no real attachment to it."

Mein Kampf displays a more ambivalent attitude. In an attempt to justify Nazi intolerance he recommends militantism, which he associates with Christianity's rise to Roman state religion, as a model for the Nazis in their pursuit of power, while simultaneously lamenting the demise of ,

"The individual may establish with pain today that with the appearance of Christianity the first spiritual terror entered into the far freer ancient world, but he will not be able to contest the fact that since then the world has been afflicted and dominated by this coercion, and that coercion is broken only by coercion, and terror only by terror. Only then can a new state of affairs be constructively created. Political parties are inclined to compromises; philosophies never. Political parties even reckon with opponents; philosophies proclaim their infallibility. "

Private statements

Hitler’s private statements are more mixed. There are negative statements about Christianity reported by Hitler’s intimates, Goebbels, Speer, and Bormann. Joseph Goebbels, for example, notes in a diary entry in 1939: "The Führer is deeply religious, but deeply anti-Christian. He regards Christianity as a symptom of decay." Albert Speer reports a similar statement: “You see, it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn’t we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?" In the Hossbach Memorandum Hitler is recorded as saying that "only the disintegrating effect of Christianity, and the symptoms of age" were responsible for the demise of the Roman empire.

Positive Christianity

In contrast to other Nazi leaders, Hitler did not adhere to esoteric ideas, occultism, or Nazi mysticism, and possibly even ridiculed such beliefs in private. Drawing on Higher Criticism and some branches of theologically liberal Protestantism, Hitler advocated what he termed Positive Christianity, purged of everything that he found objectionable. Hitler never directed his attacks on Jesus himself, but viewed traditional Christianity as a corruption of the original ideas of Jesus, whom Hitler regarded as an Aryan opponent of the Jews. In Mein Kampf he wrote that Jesus "made no secret of his attitude toward the Jewish people, and when necessary he even took the whip to drive from the temple of the Lord this adversary of all humanity, who then as always saw in religion nothing but an instrument for his business existence. In return, Christ was nailed to the cross." Hitler rejected the idea of Jesus' redemptive suffering, stating in 1927: "My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter."

Hitler's god and racism

Hitler did not believe in a "remote, rationalist divinity" but in an "active deity," which he frequently referred to as "Creator" or "Providence". In Hitler's belief God created a world in which different races fought each other for survival along social darwinist lines. The "Aryan race", supposedly the bearer of civilization, is allocated a special place:

"What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and the reproduction of our race ... so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe. ... Peoples that bastardize themselves, or let themselves be bastardized, sin against the will of eternal Providence."

The Jews he viewed as enemies of all civilization and as materialistic, unspiritual beings, writing in Mein Kampf: "His life is only of this world, and his spirit is inwardly as alien to true Christianity as his nature two thousand years previous was to the great founder of the new doctrine." Hitler described his supposedly divine mandate for his anti-Semitism: "Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."

Hitler and Protestantism

As Protestantism was more open to reinterpretations, such as Positive Christianity and a non-traditional re-reading of sacred scripture, and because some of its branches had similar views, Hitler demonstrated a preference for Protestantism over Catholicism. His views were supported by the German Christians movement, but rejected by the Confessing Church. According to Steigmann-Gall, Hitler regretted that "the churches had failed to back him and his movement as he had hoped;" and he stated according to Albert Speer: "Through me the Protestant Church could become the established church, as in England."

Anti-Semitism

In his rhetoric Hitler allegedly also fed on the old accusation of Jewish Deicide. Because of this it has been speculated that Christian anti-Semitism influenced Hitler's ideas, especially such works as Martin Luther's essay On the Jews and Their Lies and the writings of Paul de Lagarde. However in Mein Kampf Hitler writes of an upbringing in which no particular anti-Semitic prejudice prevailed. In Linz Hitler wrote of no apparent anti-Semitism either in his family unit nor being expressed by the Catholic Church of his childhood.

Hitler and Catholic ritual

In his childhood, Hitler had admired the pomp of Catholic ritual and the hierarchical organisation of the clergy. Later, he drew on these elements, organizing his party along hierarchical lines and including liturgical forms into events or using phraseology taken from hymns. Because of these liturgical elements, Hitler's Messiah-like status and the ideology's all-encompassing nature, the Nazi movement is sometimes termed a "political religion". Hitler himself, however, strongly rejected the idea that Nazism was in any way a religion.

Hitler, the Nazi Party and atheism

Hitler was opposed to state atheism, which for example was part of the political system of the Soviet Union, but he nevertheless desired a religiously neutral state system, at least during the years of his dictatorship. Nevertheless within his Nazi Party some atheists were quite vocal. Especially Baldur von Schirach, Arthur Axmann and Martin Bormann were known as atheists, even though von Schirach during the Nuremberg Trials declared himself to have never been one, while admitting to his, allegedly private, aversion from Christian Churches. Bormann once was even criticized by Joseph Goebbels for his constant attacks against the pro-Nazi Evangelical Lutheran Churches of Germany, a thing which Goebbels considered inopportune and even dangerous during the war. From Hitler's toleration of declared atheists within his party, can be concluded, that Hitler in the public realm accepted different religious opinions, ranging from atheist to Islamic, as long as those adhering to these different creeds would support the Nazi régime. In this sense Hitler could also be described as a religious pluralist.

Hitler's marriage and suicide

On April 29, 1945, Hitler and Eva Braun chose to marry only in front of a civil servant of the city of Berlin and chose not to hold any religious service or blessing ceremony for their marriage whatsoever. His mistress and later wife, Eva Braun once said to Hitler during the last days before the fall of Berlin and the Reich Chancellery: "I can't understand how all this can have happened, it's enough to make one lose one's faith in God!" This may indicate, that at least Braun herself still clung to belief in one Supreme Being.

Despite the unclear position of Hitler's public speeches on religion, it may be concluded from his self-chosen suicide, that he had no attachment to Roman Catholic, and general Christian, teachings on morality which forbid suicide in all cases.

Hitler and the future of the Catholic Church

Hitler already had plans for the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Church was supposed to "eat from the hands of the government." The exact plans are detailed by German historian Heinz Hürten of the University of Duisburg as follows: as a first step Hitler wanted to force German Catholics to abolish priestly celibacy and accept a nationalisation of all church property, as had happened in France in 1905. After the "Final Victory" of National Socialism, all monastic orders and religious congregations were to be dissolved, and influence by the Catholic Church upon education of children was to be forbidden. Hitler proposed to reduce vocations to the priesthood by forbidding seminaries from receiving applicants before their 25th birthdays, hoping that these men would marry beforehand, during the time (18 - 25 years) in which they were obliged to work in military or labour service. Along with this process, the Church's sacraments would have to be revised and changed to so-called "Lebensfeiern", non-Christian celebrations of different periods of life.

According to Dutch historian Bert Natter, the aim of Hitler was to slowly dismantle the institutions of the Catholic Church and fit the institution itself into a new National Socialist German state religion, because Hitler still firmly believed, that religion and mysticism were things "the simple people need." But since the "laws of evolution" - upon which a new religion would have to be founded - were not yet precisely researched, according to Hitler, it was decided to keep these changes and laws on hold, pending the final victory. Hitler and Goebbels also recognised that such changes might create a third front of Catholics against their regime in Germany itself. Nevertheless in his diary Goebbels openly wrote about the "traitors of the Black International who again stabbed our glorious government in the back by their criticism", by which he meant the indirectly or actively resisting Catholic clergymen (who wore black cassocks).

References

1. "Closely related to his support of education was his tolerant skepticism concerning religion. He looked upon religion as a series of conventions and as a crutch for human weakness, but, like most of his neighbors, he insisted that the women of his household fulfill all religious obligations. He restricted his own participation to donning his uniform to take his proper place in festivals and processions. As he grew older Alois shifted from relative passivity in his attitude toward the power and influence of the institutional Church to a firm opposition to "clericalism," especially when the position of the Church came into conflict with his views on education." - Bradley F. Smith: Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood and Youth Stanford/California, 1967 p. 27
2. Historian Bradley F. Smith: "Alois insisted she attend regularly as an expression of his belief that the woman's place was in the kitchen and in church....Happily, Klara really enjoyed attending services and was completely devoted to the faith and teachings of Catholicism, so her husband's requirements worked to her advantage. "Bradley F. Smith: Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood and Youth Stanford/California, 1967 p. 42
3. Michael Rissmann, Hitlers Gott. Vorsehungsglaube und Sendungsbewußtsein des deutschen Diktators, Zürich München: Pendo, 2001, p. 94-96 ISBN 3-85842-421-8. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (sections 2041–2043) defines Mass attendance on Sundays and Holy Days as the "First Precept of the Church", an absolute minimum requirement.
4. Los-von-Rom-Bewegung Von Schönerer influenced Austrian German nationalists deeply according to historians.
5. Kershaw, Ian The ‘Hitler Myth': Image and Reality in the Third Reich (Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 109.
   "Hitler’s evident ability to simulate, even to potentially critical Church leaders, an image of a leader keen to uphold and protect Christianity was crucial to the mediation of such an image to the church-going public by influential members of both major denominations. It was the reason why church-going Christians, so often encouraged by their ‘opinion-leaders’ in the Church hierarchies, were frequently able to exclude Hitler from their condemnation of the anti-Christian Party radicals, continuing to see in him the last hope of protecting Christianity from Bolshevism."
6. quoted by Dennis Barton..
7. cited by John Toland, Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography, New York: Anchor Publishing, 1992, p. 507 ISBN 0-385-42053-6.
8. Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 96
9. Mein Kampf, vol 2, Chapter 5.
10. The collection called Table Talk is questioned by some; while most historians consider it a useful source, they do not regard it as wholly reliable. Ian Kershaw makes clear the questionable nature of Table Talk as a historically valid source; see his Hitler 1889-1936 Hubris London, 1998, xiv. Richard Carrier goes further contending that certain portions of Table Talk, especially those regarding Hitler's alleged hatred of Christianity, are outright inventions: see his "Hitler's Table Talk, Troubling Finds" German Studies Review26:3 October 2003. However, although Kershaw recommends treating the work with caution, he does not suggest dispensing with it altogether. (The Holy Reich, p. 253)
11. Richard Steigmann-Gall, The Holy Reich, p. 252-253; Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich, Orion Pub., 1997 ISBN 1-85799-218-0, p. 96.
12. Online copy of the Hossbach memorandum
13. Steigmann-Gall, p. 255
14. Steigmann-Gall, p. 257, 260
15. Cited in Norman H. Baynes, The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1, New York: Oxford University Press, 1942, p. 19-20 ISBN 0-598-75893-3. In a speech delivered on 12 April 1922, Munich
16. Hitler's religious beliefs and fanaticism with Selected quotes from Mein Kampf
17. Steigmann-Gall, p. 26
18. Steigmann-Gall, p. 26
19. Steigmann-Gall, p. 84
20. Steigmann-Gall, p. 260
21. William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), p. 91, 236, argues that Luther's essay was influential. Uwe Siemon-Netto disputes this conclusion. Uwe Siemon-Netto, The Fabricated Luther: The Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995), p. 17-20.
22. Michael Rissmann, p. 96.
23. Especially Eric Voegelin: in Political Religions, (Edward Mellen Press, 1986) ISBN 0-88946-767-6, advocated such a classification. Discussion at Rissmann, p. 191-197.
24. Friedrich Zipfel, „Kirchenkampf in Deutschland 1933-1945“, Walter der Gruyter & Co., Berlin, 1965, p. 225.
25. Zipfel, p. 226.
26. Roman Catholic Canon Law of 1917, forbids suicide and the Christian burial of those who committed suicide.; "Do not harm yourself" (Act 16:25-34)
27. HÜRTEN, H. `Endlösung` für den Katholizismus? Das nationalsozialistische Regime und seine Zukunftspläne gegenüber der Kirche, in: Stimmen der Zeit, 203 (1985) p. 535-538
28. NATTER, B. Hitlers Tafelgesprekken 1941-1944, Antwerp and Amsterdam, 2005, pages 32, 36 (etc).
29. HÜRTEN, H. `Endlösung` für den Katholizismus? Das nationalsozialistische Regime und seine Zukunftspläne gegenüber der Kirche, in: Stimmen der Zeit, 203 (1985) p. 534-546

External links

• A review of Richard Steigmann-Gall's book on Nazism, Hitler, and Christianity.

• Adolf Hitler