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In public statements made during his rule, Hitler continued to speak positively about a Nazi vision of Christian German culture, [158] and his belief in an Aryan Christ. Hitler added that Saint Paul , as a Jew, had falsified Jesus' message – a theme Hitler repeated in private conversations, including, in October 1941, when he made the ...
Some Nazis, such as Hans Kerrl, who served as Hitler's Minister for Church Affairs, advocated "Positive Christianity", a uniquely Nazi form of Christianity that rejected Christianity's Jewish origins and the Old Testament, and portrayed "true" Christianity as a fight against Jews, with Jesus depicted as an Aryan.
Hitler's public presentation of Positive Christianity as a traditional Christian faith differed. Despite Hitler's insistence on a unified peace with the Christian churches, to accord with Nazi antisemitism, Positive Christianity advocates also sought to distance themselves from the Jewish origins of Christ and the Christian Bible.
In public speeches prior to and in the early years of his rule, he described himself as a Christian. [37] Hitler and the Nazi party promoted Positive Christianity, [38] which rejected most traditional Christian doctrines such as the divinity of Jesus, as well as Jewish elements such as the Old Testament.
In the 1920 programme of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), Adolf Hitler first mentioned the phrase "Positive Christianity".The Nazi Party did not wish to tie itself to a particular Christian denomination but with Christianity in general, [6] [7] and sought freedom of religion for all denominations "so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the Germanic race."
The Nazis co-opted the term Gleichschaltung (coordination) to mean conformity and subservience to the Nazi Party line: "there was to be no law but Hitler, and ultimately no god but Hitler". [9] Other authors, such as Richard Steigmann-Gall , argue that there were anti-Christian individuals in the Nazi Party but that they did not represent the ...
By 1941, most Christians in Europe were living under Nazi rule. Generally, the life of their churches could continue, provided they did not attempt to participate in politics. When the Nazi regime undertook the industrialized mass-extermination of the Jews, the Nazis found a great many willing participants. [13]
Catholic Bavaria resented rule by Protestant Berlin; although Hitler initially saw its revolution as a means to power, an early attempt was fruitless. Imprisoned after the 1923 Munich Beer Hall Putsch , he used the time to produce Mein Kampf ; he claimed that an effeminate Jewish-Christian ethic was enfeebling Europe, and Germany needed a man ...