Adolf Hitler and Christianity
Adolf Hitler and Christianity refers to the relationship of Chancellor of Germany and founder of NSDAP, Adolf Hitler to the Christian religion.
Contents
History
What is known for certain is that Hitler belonged to the Catholic Church, born to a devout Austrian Catholic mother Klara Hitler, never claimed to have left that Church, nor was he excommunicated from it. Hitler considered himself to be a Christian and stated so explicitly in his book Mein Kampf. Unlike, for example Benito Mussolini, Hitler did not make at any point in his career, broad based atheistic statements, nor did he ever state desire to see religion abolished.
Some public speeches and private opinions (if any of the second hand reports in Table Talk are to be taken as trustworthy at all) we have of Hitler demonstrate some heterodox Christian opinions which had become popular in Germany since the 18th century. These partly derive from rationalist higher criticism, popularised by the Tübingen School.
- The Government’s concern lies in an honest coexistence between Church and State; the fight against a materialist worldview and for a genuine Volksgemeinschaft equally serves both the interests of the German nation and the welfare of our Christian faith. – Adolf Hitler, 23 March 1933[1]
Mein Kampf
The Christian religion is mentioned several times in Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), the personal autobiography of Adolf Hitler, authored in 1925 to 1926. These statements do not delve deeply into dogmatic considerations as such (particularly when contrasted with the later Table Talk); the book, evidently, does not conflict with Catholic orthodoxy, as it was never placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum by the Holy See. Within the book Hitler speaks about how Jesus Christ drove the Jewish money lenders out of the Temple of God, he criticises Jewish materialism as "inwardly as alien to true Christianity as his nature two thousand years previous was to the great founder of the new doctrine." Hitler declares that "by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." This is completely inline with traditional Christian teachings. For example, Pope Gregory VII stated to the King of Castile in 1081, "to allow that Christians are subordinated to Jews and are delivered to their whims, means to oppress the Church of God, means to revile Christ himself." Hitler and the NSDAP were delivering their people from the Jewish supremacy of the Weimar Republic.
Table Talk
On the English-speaking internet, there exists a vast body of quotes attributed to Adolf Hitler in which he is apparently attacking the Christian religion. These are usually employed by Christians (and sometimes pro-NS pagans) in debates with atheists who are typically trying to distance Hitler from their religion, based on Jewish and Allied propaganda that he is somehow a moral pariah. The problem with these quotes are that they come from two dubious sources; Hitler Speaks and Table Talk. The former book is regarded by academia as a hoax, the German traitor Hermann Rauschning authored this in 1939, when he was in need of money and was commissioned by a Jewish publisher in Paris, Emery Reves. The second, Table Talk, a stated series of monologues by Adolf Hitler from 1941 to 1944, have been mistranslated (from German to French, then French to English) to give a different meaning, having passed through the hands of the eccentric François Genoud. Some of these may also reflect the views of atheist, Martin Bormann, who signed off on the notes.
Anti-communist
Hitler liberated Germany from the Jews (deadly enemies of the faith, since the times of Jesus Christ), attempted to erect a system of true social justice where there is no warfare between classes, wherever possible he saw that Freemasonry was suppressed and did all within his power to defend Europe from Communism, taking part in the Spanish Crusade and leading Free Europe in Operation Barbarossa against the Godless Jewish Bolshevik horde.
See also
External links
- Was Catholic Hitler "Anti-Christian"? On the Trail of Bogus Quotes by Richard C. Carrier
- Adolf Hitler's religious views at WikiQuote
References
- ↑ https://archive.ph/xRwIh Adolf Hitler policy statement on the Enabling Act to the Reichstag
