In 1936, the Reich Church was created which was an umbrella organization of all 28 Churches.
• Hitler set up this “German Faith Movement” as an alternative to Christianity. This used the swastika rather than the Christian cross as its symbol. The Bible was replaced by "Mein Kampf" which was placed on the altar along with a sword. Only invited Nazis were allowed to give sermons in a Reich Church.
Hitler gave his support to the "German Christians", who believed that pastors (=a person/priest authorized to conduct religious worship) should take an oath of loyalty to Hitler, and that any member of the church who had Jewish ancestry should be sacked.
The "German Christians" were lead by Ludwig Muller who believed that any member of the church who had Jewish ancestry should be sacked from the church. Muller supported Hitler and in 1933 he was given the title of "Reich Bishop".
Their slogan was “The swastika on our breasts and the cross in our hearts”.
Those who opposed the views of Muller were called the "Congressional Church". This was lead by Martin Niemoller. He was famous in Germany as he had been a World War One U-boat captain. Therefore, he was potentially an embarrassing foe/enemy to the Nazis. Regardless of this, he was not safe from the (which was the German Secret Police) who arrested him for opposing Hitler. Niemoller was sent to a concentration camp for 7 years where he was kept in solitary confinement. Many other Confessional Church members suffered the same fate.
However, the Roman Catholic Church was more difficult to deal with and Hitler realized that he had to be very clever. The Catholic Church was an international body, run from outside Germany by the Pope who had immense power. Catholics were very loyal to their church; it had its own schools, colleges and even its own political party (the Center Party). This was seen as a serious rival to Nazi power.
Hitler agreed to leave the Catholics alone if the Pope kept out of German politics: the Catholic Church viewed the Nazis as a barrier to the spread of communism.
However, when he came to power, Hitler made a speech saying that the church was really important for Germany and he would respect it. At first the Catholics seemed happy with this. In March, the Center Party agreed to dissolve itself after supporting the Enabling Act in return for an agreement between Hitler and the Pope. This was called the Concordat.
The Concordat said that:
- Catholics were free to follow their religion
- Catholic schools could continue
- They could continue to write and publish religious material
- Religious orders could continue
In return, the Catholic Church would:
- Totally withdraw from all aspects of politics
- Catholic Bishops would take an oath of loyalty to the state
Of course, Hitler had no intention of keeping to this agreement and he almost immediately began to try to undermine/hinder the Church’s influence. He set up Nazi groups to infiltrate (To pass troops in relatively small numbers through an opening in the enemy's position) Catholic groups, and tried to brainwash the people into Nazi ideas. From 1935 onwards, he began a campaign to discredit Catholic priests by accusing them of all sorts of crimes. There were public trials and many went to prison camps.
• In 1937: Hitler started a attack on the Catholic Church (arresting 200 priests on charges of financial and sexual impropriety). Pope Pius XI issued a declaration entitled "Mit brennender Sorge" which meant with burning anxiety, over what was going on in Germany. Despite this, there was never a total clampdown (=sudden restriction on an activity) on the Catholic Church in Germany. It was a worldwide movement with much international support.
• Over the course of the following years, the Churches came increasingly under attack. Attacks on Church schools meant that the amount of kids at Church schools, fell from 65% to 5% between 1935-7, so that by 1939, all Church schools had been abolished; however, although this suggests that Hitler had been successful in controlling the Church, in practice, the laws were difficult to enforce, and many Nazis remained Christian themselves!
In 1941, a secret report compiled by Protestants stated that children in Germany were being brought up minus a Christian education. It stated that the Nazis confiscated vast areas of church property, and that the Catholic Church in Germany was suffering from the same fate.
Hitler needed to control the churches, especially the Roman Catholic Church, because he realized that if he didn’t, people might realize that his demands and the church’s teachings were different. Then they might be persuaded by their priests to disobey him. He wanted complete control of Germany and that meant that there could be nothing else which might take the people’s loyalty away from him. The Roman Catholic Church was the biggest threat because it was a worldwide church, run from another country. Also, Roman Catholics tended to follow their church’s teachings closely. Hitler didn’t intend to compete with priests or even the Christian God for the people’s loyalty.
