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The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945

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Recent years have brought forth several efforts to examine the attitude of Christian leaders in Germany toward the Nazis as they came to power in Germany. Equally interesting, but much more difficult to uncover, is the attitude of the Nazi leaders towards Christianity. As Richard Steigmann-Gall makes clear in The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945, the difficulty comes from the fact that there was not a unified "Nazi view" of Christianity. Some Nazis were pagans, others considered themselves to be Christians, and many shifted their views over time. As for the official position of the regime, Steigmann-Gall finds no evidence of a Nazi plan to rid Germany of all forms of Christianity. Rather, the plan was to eliminate Catholicism and to reshape Protestantism. Indeed, many National Socialists actually considered themselves to be good Christians. They were able to do so because they rejected the traditions and lines of authority within the existing Protestant and Catholic churches. Thus freed from hierarchy and tradition, they were able to interpret Scripture according to their own views. Bolstered by some extremely harsh writings by their German hero Martin Luther, the Nazis reformulated biblical teachings to serve their racial doctrine. They elected a hand-picked Reich bishop to unify Protestant Churches into a single new confession of "German Christians" whom they then hoped to exploit. This plan for "positive Christianity" failed, however, because too many conservative Protestant ministers rejected the core values of Nazism. By 1937, it became clear that the Nazis would not be able to construct a single German, Protestant Church, and relations soured. Hitler's position in all this is somewhat ambiguous. His few clear anti-Christian statements relate to specifically Catholic doctrine, not to Christianity more generally. One is left with the impression that Hitler fully rejected the teachings of the Catholic faith into which he had been baptized as a child, but that he never truly rejected his own warped view of Protestant Christianity. An extremely valuable contribution. THis is a First Things review

Richard Steigmann-Gall's new book offers an important re-evaluation of German history. For years scholars have argued that Nazism was fundamentally anti-Christian. In recent years we have become more aware of the moral failure of Christianity to oppose the Nazis, whether it is over the recent controversies over the Vatican and the Pope, or from the disproportionate support given the Nazis by rural Protestant believers, or from the complete failure of German chaplins to oppose war crimes while assigned to the Wehrmacht. Now Steigmann-Gall reminds us that the Nazis themselves were not uniformly, or even mainly, anti-Christian.

Steigmann-Gall starts off with telling us that one prominent Nazi war criminal, Erich Koch, was in 1932 the president of a provincial Protestant Church synod. Other Nazis were also Christian believers, such as William Kube and Walter Buch, the head of the Nazi Party Court, and Martin Boorman's father-in-law. More typically, many Nazis were believes in "positive Christianity," which was fiercely nationalist and anti-Jewish. Goebbels spoke of the struggle "between Christ and Marx," and Hitler spoke well of Jesus (supposedly an Aryan Christ) and The Ten Commandments to the end of his life. Goering had his children baptized, as well as Goebbels. These Nazi Christians disliked Catholicism-it was too powerful and internationalist a movement to be incorporated into Nazi doctrine-but at least until 1937 many Nazis were keen with working on organizing the Protestants into a more unified Church. Nor was this simply a sign of the Nazi lust for power. There were many elements within German Protestant doctrine that made a rapport with the Nazis plausible-a shared anti-Semitism, authoritarianism, nationalism and pseudo-socialist demagoguery. Steigmann-Gall, in his discussion of the struggle between the "German Christians" and the less Nazi "Confessing Church," makes good use of his knowledge of the chaos and confusion, the polyocracy of the Nazi state. He points out that many of the "German Christians" moves were made on their own initiative, not the Nazi Party's, that many Nazis, including Hitler, were opposed to their rashness and crudity, that much of the opposition to their hamhandedness came from loyal and viciously anti-Semitic Nazis from Franconia. He also reminds us of the fundamental loyalty of most of the Confessing Church. (No Protestant publicly protested the Euthanasia campaign and one Confessing Church member lauded that only 0.3% of clergymen were non-Aryan.)

There was a paganist element among the Nazis from the very beginning, and it continued right to the end. For much of the twenties and thirties this was personified by the figure of Alfred Rosenberg, whose sinister stare and vicious ideology blurred the fact, as Steigmann-Gall shows, that he was a stupendously ineffective politician and player in the Nazi regime. Indeed, refutations of his pompous "Myth of the Twentieth Century" were allowed to circulate freely in the thirties. Heinrich Himmler was also a powerful "pagan", and it is striking that both Hitler and Goebbels viewed his nostalgia for the Ancient German Past and his enthusiasm for Occultist and Asian religions as very silly. As time went on there would be bans on clergymen becoming Nazis, and restrictions on SS members holding Church Office. But these restrictions also applied to professional pagans. In the war years, Martin Boorman, the power beyond the throne asserted his own fierce anti-Christian views. These views seemed to be based, as Steigmann-Gall points out, not on any coherent Nazi anti-Christianity, but on spite towards his in-laws. Nor was he always successful in his struggles in the Nazi's chaotic bureaucracy. Goebbels prevented him from having Bishop Galen executed for denouncing euthanasia, and also prevented him from removing religious music from the air. Even Boorman could not remove churches altogether from his dark plans for the Warthegau. Himmler's deputy, Heydrich, was also a powerful pagan, but after his assassination his replacement, Kaltenbrunner, eased snooping of Christians noticeably. Steigmann-Gall makes some important points about Hitler's rage against Christainity. First off, Hitler was not an atheist, despised atheism and of course despised the Enlightenment Liberalism and Marxist Socialism that are the main sources for modern atheism. Secondly, one should be cautious about Hitler's "Table Talk." Richard Carrier has argued that it has been unscrupulously translated: while in English Hitler denounces Christianity as the greatest idiocy, in the actual German it is clear that Hitler's target is transubstantiation. Steigmann-Gall points out that Hitler had the habit of telling people what they wanted to hear, and his most venomous comments were made in front of Bormann and Himmler. Third, Steigmann-Gall also makes the suggestion that instead of seeing Hitler's anger at Christianity as a revelation of Nazism's basic antipathy, it should be seen as the bitter rage of a defeated megalomaniac, a rage Hitler also directed at the army, some of his closest associates, and indeed the German people themselves.

There is one major flaw with the book. "Positive Christians" spoke of getting rid of the Old Testament and described Jesus as an Aryan. While Anti-Semitism can be compatible with Christianity, these beliefs clearly aren't. Steigmann-Gall does not really deal with this point. It is not enough for him to show that many Liberal Protestants had a dim view of Judaism. The connections he does draw, between the liberal scholar von Harnack's sympathy with the anti-Jewish heretic "Marcion" are too small and too obscure to bear the weight Steigmann-Gall places on them. Liberal biblical scholarship clearly showed that Jesus was a Jew. How anyone could have thought otherwise is not something that Steigmann-Gall explains. Nevertheless, this is an important revision that simply goes beyond what leading Nazis happened to think. Instead of viewing Nazi anti-Semitism as a new "racial" variety we can see its continuity with other religious and conservative ideologies. Instead of viewing totalitarianism as fundamentally anti-Christian we can see it is as similar to other expressions of "post-Christian" moralisms. It is, as Steigmann Gall's says "much closer to us than we dare allow ourselves to believe."

In his book *The Holy Reich* Richard Steigmann-Gall argues persuasively that the Nazis did not reject Christianity, but reinterpreted it to fit their own ideology. Contrary to conventional wisdom, most Nazi leaders, including Hitler, were not keen on reviving paganism. Rather, they talked about something which at first glance seemed very appealing - "positive Christianity." Also referred to as "active" or "practical" Christianity, it emphasized deeds over doctrine.

The Nazis contrasted "positive Christianity" with "negative Christianity." The former evoked good feelings - and was quite adaptable. The latter, with its doctrines such as original sin, made people feel bad and did not adapt so easily. The Nazis particularly despised the dogma, ritual and internationalism of the Catholic Church. Those things they saw as evidence it had been "corrupted by Jews." In the early years of his regime, Hitler worked hard to establish a Protestant *Reich Church* (modeled after the Church of England) but eventually dropped the project because of resistance from Evangelicals who valued doctrine.

The "positive Christianity" of the Nazis gave them no firm ground for approaching Jesus. They actually went so far as to deny that Jesus was a Jew and to cast him as the model anti-Semite.

As a Catholic priest, the book gave me a lot to think about. Even though we live in a society very different from Germany of the 1930's, still we face some similar challenges, particularly regarding the worth of each human life. And we see similar efforts to recast Jesus without consideration of early Christian creeds.

Prof. Steigmann-Gall presents a convincing argument for the influence of Christianity on Nazism and anti-Semitism; contradicting the prevailing view that Nazism was an atheistic movement. I found this book to be well thought out and intriguing.

This work completely shocked me. I was expecting to read about Hitler the atheist, and instead got a completely different interpretation of Hitler and his henchmen. Steigman-Gall wants us to believe that the Nazis were inspired by Jesus' message as delivered by the New Testament -- and he has me completely convinced. He's got an awful lot of evidence to back his arguments, much of it from familiar sources like Mein Kampf, but also alot of new stuff. It is shocking. Not only were these men talking about being Christian, they're practicing Christians. I also ended up learning about Nazis I had hardly heard of before, but who were important leaders none the less.

It's really unbelievable that we've never heard about all this before. At one level it shouldn't be surprising, since "The Popes against the Jews" and other books I've read lately about the churches already showed just where antisemitism came from. We already knew about such connections. But you never hear about the Nazis themselves. As Steigman-gall says, it's always assumed that the Nazis hated Christianity, even if there were many, many Christians who liked, and even loved, Nazism. He shows that in reality it cut both ways, that the Nazis liked Christianity, and even believed that their party itself was a kind of Christian party. I can't believe we're only hearing about this now!

Richard Steigmann-Gall's account is thorough, well researched, and well sourced. He provides ample quotes from original sources for anyone who is inclined to doubt his positions. The simple fact of the matter is that Nazism was a "Christian Nation" movement that emerged from centuries of anti-Semitism (beginning with Martin Luther's own treatise entitled "Concerning the Jews and their Lies", culminating in the rise of the self-proclaimed "Christ Socialists" known as the Nazis. This book is as sober and accurate as it is shocking, especially given the decades of misinformation that nearly every school child is taught about the origins and worldview of Nazism.

According to Richard Steigman-Gall, the answer seems to be (a) when? and (b) what do you mean by Christian?

Steigman-Gall's honest and objective unravelling of those points makes for a fascinating examination of a religious culture that was not monolithic, but which offered, particularly in the form of "Liberal Christianity" something which could be used by any group with its own particular ideological agenda.

Over the course of his work, Steigman-Gall shows the movement of National Socialism from an attempt to incorporate a form of Protestant Christianity into the National Socialist movement to a decision to abandon Protestantism and Christianity altogether. Steigman-Gall begins with a description of the religious identity of National Socialism that is compatible with a thread of German Protestantism, but a thread that ultimately can't pull all of Protestantism into the National Socialist orbit.

Steigman-Gall's methodology is to look exhaustively at the personalities and groups that provided the interface between the Nazis and Christianity. The names and acronyms fly fast and furious, which is why I eventually started a list of names and the page numbers of their appearance so that I could keep straight who the DC, DBG, BK were, and what side they were on.

According to Steigman-Gall, the Nazis positioned themselves religiously under the rubric of "Positive Christianity." Under Steigman-Gall's description, "Positive Christianity" was a Protestant German project. The leaders of the attempt to unify the division of Germany into often antagonistic Catholic and Protestant "confessions" under the heading of "Positive Christianity" were themselves Protestants who did not find a conflict between their Christianity and their German nationalism. Catholic contribution to this movement is essentially missing in that Catholic members of the National Socialist party were either "nominal Catholics," such as Hitler and Goebbels (See "The Holy Reich", p. xv) or openly apostate, such as Himmler. The "Catholic" Himmler expressed his hatred of the temporal power of the Catholic Church and stated his belief that "to be Protestant was to be German and to be German was to be Protestant." (Id., at p. 234 - 235.) Protestant Nazis were prone to "display far less anticlericalism toward their church than did Catholics who regarded their confession its temporal message as innately antithetical to their politics." (Id., at p. 27, 125.) Herman Goring remained a practicing Lutheran throughout his Nazi career. (Id., at p. 120.)

Positive Christianity had its roots in a theological movement that identified the nation and the race - the Volk and the state - as God-ordained. This movement was called the "theology of the orders of Creation ("Schopfungsglaube") and was advocated by influential Lutheran theologians. (The Holy Reich, p. 34 - 36.) The "orders of creation" theology was a reason that eventually there was no Protestant active protest against the euthanasia of the disabled, despite the fact that there was such an active protest by Catholic clerics. Another movement that suggested a possible marriage of National Socialism and Protestant Christianity was "liberal Christianity." Liberal Protestant theologians, including Adolf von Harnack, engaged in a hostile anti-semitic rhetoric which reached the point of arguing for the removal of the Old Testament from the Christian canon. (Ironically, this position has also been expressed by the New Atheist debater Christopher Hitchens.) With such scholarly cover, Nazis eventually appropriated Christ as the original anti-semite and socialist by appealing to Christ's scourging of the money-lenders from the Temple as the laudable original act of anti-semitism.

Throughout his book, Steigman-Gall points out the disparately unfavorable treatment of Catholicism as compared to Protestantism. For example, in Mein Kampf, Hitler opined that Protestantism was a better defender of the "interests of Germanism" because of Protestantism's roots in German nationalism. Hitler was willing to recognize Martin Luther as a "volkish hero equaled only by Richard Wagner and Frederick the Great." (The Holy Reich, p. 63.) Hitler's attitude toward Catholicism was more ambiguous, but many in the National Socialist movement unambiguously equated Catholicism with Judaism as a "supranational power" that the Nazis were fighting against. (Id. P. 64.) Hitler was recorded in private moments as expressing his belief that Catholic allegiance to Rome was inimical to the independence of true German character; Nazi leaders publically expressed their belief that "ultramontanism" - Catholic allegiance to an authority "over the mountains", i.e., the Pope - was a threat to German national interests. (Id., at p. 65 - 66, 70.) As Nazi entrenchment in power continued after the so-called "Seizure of Power" ("machtergreifung") in 1933, Nazi antipathy to the ultramontane nature of the Catholic Church became more open. ( Id., at 119.) In 1934, Catholic civil servants were expelled from the government. (Id., at p. 120.)

Nazis attempted to court Protestants into joining a "national church" which would become the "established church" of Germany. However, despite the willingness of Protestant churches to accept much of the Nazi program, many Protestants found that attempt by Nazi sympathizers in the "German Church" to remove the Old Testament was a "bridge too far." This attempt led to the formation of the Pastor's Emergency League by Wilhelm Niemoller and others. (The Holy Reich, p. 164.) The Pastors' Emergency League eventually became the "Confessing Church", which gradually took a more oppositional stance toward the Nazis. Eventually, Hitler gave up on the idea of integrating Protestantism into the Nazi state, although he expressed his disappointment to Niemoller by saying "inwardly stood closer to the Protestant Church" and that he had expected a different attitude from Protestant pastors than from Catholics. (Id., at p. 168.)

After the turn from Protestantism, Hitler and the National Socialists began a movement against Christianity. (The Holy Reich, p. 259.) The chief architect of this movement was Martin Borman. Under Bormann, there was a mass exodus of Nazis from the churches and expulsion of clergy - which meant Protestant clergy - from the Nazi party. (Id.) With respect to Hitler, Stegman-Gall concludes that "even though he never converted to paganism, Hitler nonetheless became increasingly opposed to Christian institutions, and on the face of it, to the Christian religion as well." Interestingly, Stegman-Gall notes that Hitler never turned against "Jesus," or at least his conception of Jesus as the "original anti-semite." In this regard, Hitler retained something of an adherence to a form of liberal Christianity that permitted Christ to be removed from history.

I was motivated to read "The Holy Reich" after hearing Christopher Hitchens describe Fascism as a form of "right wing Catholicism." I was honestly surprised to find the depth of the interaction of a form of Christianity - liberal Protestantism - with the National Socialist agenda. The more I read, though, the more I realized that it should have been obvious that religion is a project with many strains, and that liberal Protestantism, with its willingness to deconstruct the text in favor of some all-inclusive social theory, i.e., "Christ, the Marxist," or "Christ, the Feminist" or, in Hitler's case, "Christ, the anti-semitic warrior," would be conducive to the Nazi project.

Reality, and, therefore, history, is more complex than the Manichean comic book approach of a Christopher Hitchens. So, was Hitler a Christian? Well, it depends. He was not a Christian in any orthodox sense of the word in that his Christianity involved Jesus the Jew being the first anti-semite. He may have viewed himself as a Christian at some point in his career, but that was a waning attachment by the end of his life.

As a Catholic I approached this book with some trepidation, particularly in light of the picture showing Hitler leaving what appears to be a Catholic church. Obviously, publishers have to sell books and playing on the prejudice of those who want Hitler to be a Catholic, or a Christian, serves that end. To the extent that members of the "religion poisons everything" crowd actually read this book, hopefully they will be induced to think about the complexity of history as it is really played out.

I also recommend Catholicism and the Roots of Nazism: Religious Identity and National Socialism, which makes many of the same points concerning the earliest phase of National Socialist party.

It has long been the comfortable belief of Christians that Naziism was an anti-Christian political movement. The author debunks this belief with thorough scholarship. Many top Nazis held strongly Christian -- and especially Protestant -- views, and identified Hitler with Martin Luther, himself an arch-antisemite. Nazis obtained some of their strongest support from the Lutheran clergy. On the other side of the coin, many Nazis were known in church circles, like Erich Koch, who was simultaneously President of the East Prussian Protestant Church Synod and Gauleiter of East Prussia, and later became Reich Commissioner for Ukraine, supervising mass-murder there.

In Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945" the author, Richard Steigmann-Gall, shows that the Nazi face of Christianity grew out of 19th Century Protestant liberalism's efforts to accomodate the growing modernism and secularism of Western Europe. But, more importantly it clearly shows that time and again it was the Catholic Church, whether it was the Vatican or on the Diocesan level, that consistantly stood in opposition to Naziism's anti-life programs like the T4 program (the purposeful killing of the mentally ill) and the eradication of Jews, Gypsies, and others. The same cannot be said for most of the Protestant churches in Germany. This is not to say that there were no Catholics involved in even the darkest deeds of National Socialism, but Richard Steigmann-Gall shows that many of the Catholics who embraced Naziism either abandoned their Catholic faith, became quasi-pagans, or converted to Protestantism.

Finally, a fair treatment of this dark period of history and the relationship of the Nazi regime and Christianity. We get to see how form Naziism's inception to its demise that some of the Christian churches and the regime went from embracing each other to almost outright hatred. Many surprises in this book that will shatter your preconceived notions about Christianity, Paganism, and Atheism in Nazi Germany. This is a must read for all Roman Catholics who need a good academic response to the calumny of writers like John Cornwell, James Carroll, or Garry Wills. This book should be in every Roman Catholic apologists library.

It may come as a shock to some, but National Socialism was a Christian ideology. This book makes that clear. Dr. Steigmann really did his research, and he proves that many of the top National Socialist leaders, including Hitler, were Christians. However, their Christianity was very different from modern American evangelistic Christianity. The Christianity of late 19th/early 20th century Germany was more akin to the primitive 1st century Greek Christian Church in terms of its emphasis on racial purity and anti-Semitism. German National Socialism and its fundamental idea of Positive Christianity was simply a return to the Bible and primitive Christianity as opposed to Catholic priestcraft, universal salvation, multiculturalism, and man-made tradition.

Many Germans believed National Socialism was the political expression of Christianity. Dr. Steigmann's book proves that is what they believed. It is an excellent read and remarkably objective.