History

The Struggle Against Christianity in Germany

The struggle against Christianity in Germany assumed greater proportions by the end of 1941. On Nov. 10 the official Vatican radio station in Rome broadcast, without comment, a catechism published by the German weekly Nordland, organ of the "German Believers in God," in its issue of Sept. 15. There the principles of the German faith were given in the form of questions and answers. Some of the answers read: "We National Socialists are believers in God because in us as German men veneration of the divine and faith in it are impressed in an indelible manner in our blood and being. We National Socialists believe: in the divine; in the unity of the universe; in Mother Earth; in destiny; in the creative force of our blood; in our people and its mission; in our Fuehrer; in the National Socialist peoples community; in ourselves." In the catechism it was further said: "The divine in its highest form is personified in the German people because ... the individual only within his people can develop his divine faculties and energies or rather only in the people can he live. What derives from the fact that the divine in the highest form is personified in the people? It derives from it that service for the Fuehrer, for the people, and for the fatherland is divine service. To believe in our people and in its mission means: to have unshakeable conviction that our people represents the highest worth of all humanity on earth; to follow the will of nature according to which the best people is called upon to command; to know that to be led by the best people redounds from the necessity of things in benediction on other nations; to work, sacrifice ourselves and fight indefatigably for the ascent and victory of our people."

A book circulated by the end of November in 200,000 copies in Germany, especially among the Elite Guard and the youth and called God and People, outlined the national German faith which was to replace the Catholic and Protestant churches. The book had no author named, but the unknown writer identified his views with those of the Nazi party and of its Fuehrer. The wide and encouraged circulation at a time of extreme paper shortage was proof enough of the semi-official character of the book. There it was said: "We Germans have been called by fate to be the first to break with Christianity; it is to be an honor ... For two thousand years the Church had time to begin molding mankind into a cleaner, higher striving race. The Church not only did nothing, but has degenerated into a restraining impediment. Finally, the Fuehrer and his movement have come, decried as heretic, to perceive and form true divine will. Christianity has failed and thus runs in its death hour. A thousand bonds tie us to the Christian belief. But one blow will make us free. To make Germans strong and ripe for this step is our task, our holiest obligation." This new German faith is in no way dogmatic: "German faith will not dictate to anyone his relationship to God. Everyone seeks his own way. But no one seeks it in Rome or Jerusalem. Germany is our Holy Land. It will be our religion ... We want faith which flames out of the depths of German nature and out of German hearts." The Catholic bishops protested against the spread of this book in a letter read from all pulpits, in which they said: "The existence of Christianity and of the Church in Germany is at stake. Recently a book has been spread in hundreds of thousands of copies which asserts we Germans have to choose between Christ and the German people. With flaming indignation, we German Catholics refuse to make such a choice."

At the beginning of 1942 Dr. Alfred Rosenberg, who has been one of the spiritual fathers of National Socialism, has released for publication a 30 point program defining the "religion of National Socialism." The 30 points, which may be of immense importance for the future of Germany and of any German-controlled parts of the world, in view of the position of the author and the official character of the program, are the following: The National Reichs Church will take over all existing