Did the Nazis succeed in controlling the churches?

In order to have built their powerbase the Nazis courted the Churches in a speech in 1930, Hitler said that Christianity was the 'unshakable foundation of the moral life of our people,' and signed an agreement with a Catholic Church to let them worship as they pleased. In return the pope promised to stay out of German politics. Hitler was very clever in that he managed to unite the protestant churches into one, he could therefore control the whole of the protestant religion through a single bishop, and the Protestants became known as German Christians and even wore Nazi uniforms.

The Churches for their part were frightened of communism which had taken over in Russia. Communism was basically an atheist philosophy that did not recognise religion. Therefore many religious leaders may have sought protection from the Nazis, rather than sympathise with their views. The Nazis at heart did not believe in religion at all, and set up an alternative religion called the faith movement; this was a pagan style worship of nature centred on the sun. As the Nazis grew stronger with more support they began to assert their anti religious beliefs and this led to conflict with religious leaders and the Nazis, for example Paul Schneider who was a pastor in a small town, criticized the Nazis and was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Cardinal Galen also attacked Nazi policies in 1934 but because he was well known the Nazis could not take any direct action against him, but executed 3 catholic priests for distributing his sermons. And in many rural areas the local priests clashed with Nazi school teachers and leaders of the youth movement - who were trying to lure young people away from Catholicism. Jehovah's witnesses were sent to concentration camps.

To control the churches Hitler set up a new department called, 'the department of church affairs' in 1935. In 1936 they ran campaigns to stop children attending church schools, and Christmas carols were banned from schools in 1937. In 1938 priests were stopped from teaching religious classes in schools and in the following year all remaining church schools were abolished. The Nazis had succeeded in abolishing church schools and the German society had gradually moved away from the influence of church, but as the war started the church in particular-religion found its own needs among the soldiers and the relatives. Many people both Catholics and Protestants prevented the Nazis form moving crucifixes from churches.

In conclusion the Nazis were initially successful but when the people and the religious leaders realised what the Nazis really stood for, they objected and fought back as best they could. So I do not think that the Nazis were entirely successful in controlling the churches.