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6/29/22

Nazi Germany as a Christian State: The “Protestant Experience” of 1933 in Württemberg

The study of German Christian responses to the Nazis is undoubtedly a growing field of historical inquiry. Within this topic much of the focus has been on larger church organizations, such as the Catholic Church or on those who were engaged in the “Church Struggle” (Kirchenkampf)––the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche, BK) or the German Christian Faith Movement (Glaubensbewegung Deutsche Christen, GDC). There are numerous such works that form excellent studies of church organizations, as well as individual theologians Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

From Wikeoedia we read: Smaller religious minorities such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Baháʼí Faith were banned in Germany, while the eradication of Judaism was attempted along with the genocide of its adherents. The Salvation Army and the Seventh-day Adventist Church both disappeared from Germany, while astrologers, healers, fortune tellers, and witchcraft were all banned. However, the small pagan "German Faith Movement" supported the Nazis.[11] Some religious minority groups had a more complicated relationship with the new state, for example the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) withdrew its missionaries from Germany and Czechoslovakia in 1938, but German LDS church branches were permitted to continue to operate throughout the war, however, they were forced to make some changes in their structure and teachings.[12][13]

Nazi ranks had people of varied religious leanings. They were followers of Christianity, but were frequently at odds with the Pope, who denounced the party by claiming that it had an anti-catholic veneer. They were also antisemitic and considered paganism and other forms of heterodox religious beliefs to be heresy.

Additionally, there was some diversity in the personal views of the Nazi leaders as to the future of religion in Germany. Anti-Church radicals included Hitler's personal secretary Martin Bormann, the paganist Nazi philosopher Alfred Rosenberg, and the paganist occultist Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Some Nazis, such as Hans Kerrl, who served as Hitler's Minister for Church Affairs, advocated "Positive Christianity", a uniquely Nazi form of Christianity which rejected Christianity's Jewish origins and the Old Testament, and portrayed "true" Christianity as a fight against Jews, with Jesus depicted as an Aryan.[14] protestant-experience-of-1933-in-wurttemberg/AF6644556511E6BD982A22F62A544232#">Nazi Germany as a Christian State: The “Protestant Experience” of 1933 in Württember.

Read more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Nazi_Germany

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