Kirchenkampf (, lit. 'church struggle') is a German term which pertains to the situation of the Christian churches in Germany during the Nazi period (1933–1945). Sometimes used ambiguously, the term may refer to one or more of the following different "church struggles": The internal dispute within German Protestantism between the German Christians (Deutsche Christen) and the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) over control of the Protestant churches; The tensions between the Nazi regime and the Protestant church bodies; and The tensions between the Nazi regime and the Catholic Church.
When Hitler obtained power in 1933, 95% of Germans were Christian, with 63% being Protestant and 32% being Catholic. Many historians maintain that Hitler's goal in the Kirchenkampf entailed not only ideological struggle, but ultimately the eradication of the churches.The Nazi Master Plan: The Persecution of the Christian Churches , Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, Winter 2001, publishing evidence compiled by the O.S.S. for the Nuremberg war-crimes trials of 1945 and 1946 Other historians maintain no such plan existed.
Some leading Nazis such as Alfred Rosenberg and Martin Bormann were vehemently anti-Christian, and sought to de-Christianize Germany in the long term in favor of a racialized form of Germanic paganism. The Nazi Party saw the church struggle as an important ideological battleground. Hitler biographer Ian Kershaw wrote of the struggle in terms of an ongoing and escalating conflict between the Nazi state and the Christian churches. Historian Susannah Heschel wrote that the Kirchenkampf refers only to an internal dispute between members of the Confessing Church and members of the (Nazi-backed) "German Christians" over control of the Protestant church. Pierre Aycoberry wrote that for Catholics the phrase Kirchenkampf was reminiscent of the Kulturkampf of Otto von Bismarck's time – a campaign which had sought to reduce the influence of the Catholic Church in majority Protestant Germany.
Background
Nazism wanted to transform the subjective consciousness of the German people – their attitudes, values, and mentalities – into a single-minded, obedient Volksgemeinschaft or "National People's Community". According to Ian Kershaw, in order to achieve this, the Nazis believed they would have to replace class, religious and regional allegiances by a "massively enhanced national self-awareness to mobilize the German people psychologically for the coming struggle and to boost their morale during the inevitable war". According to Anton Gill, the Nazis disliked universities, intellectuals and the Catholic and Protestant churches, their long term plan being to "de-Christianise Germany after the final victory". 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". 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 movement's position.
Nazi ideology conflicted with traditional Christian beliefs in various respects – Nazis criticized Christian notions of "meekness and guilt" on the basis that they "repressed the violent instincts necessary to prevent inferior races from dominating Aryans". Aggressive anti-church radicals like Alfred Rosenberg and Martin Bormann saw the conflict with the churches as a priority concern, and anti-church and anti-clerical sentiments were strong among grassroots party activists. East Prussian Party Gauleiter Erich Koch on the other hand, said that Nazism "had to develop from a basic Prussian-Protestant attitude and from Luther's unfinished Reformation". Hitler himself disdained Christianity, as Alan Bullock noted:
Though he was born as a Catholic, Hitler came to reject the Judeo-Christian conception of God and religion. Though he retained some regard for the organizational power of Catholicism, he had nothing but utter contempt for its teachings, which he said, if taken to their conclusion, "would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure". However, important German conservative elements, such as the officer corps, opposed Nazi attacks on the churches and, in office, Hitler restrained his own anticlerical instincts out of political considerations, as well as the anticlericalism of his underlinings.
Hitler biographer Ian Kershaw wrote that, while many ordinary people were apathetic, after years of warning from Catholic clergy, Germany's Catholic population greeted the Nazi takeover with uncertainty, while among German Protestants, there was more optimism that the Nazi takeover would bring about a strengthened Germany with an "inner, moral revitalisation". However, within a short period, the Nazi government's tensions with the Christian Churches was to become a source of dissatisfaction in more religious circles.
Chronology of the Kirchenkampf in five stages Lueker et al. divide the Kirchenkampf into five stages.
First (spring to autumn 1933)
Hitler makes efforts to assimilate the churches into the culture of Nazism. Hitler moves to neutralize German Catholic political activity, resulting in the dissolution of the Centre Party and the signing of the Reichskonkordat. Preparation to create unified single Reichskirche from the 28 regional Protestant churches: Hitler installs pro-Nazi chaplain Ludwig Müller as Reich Bishop; splitting German Protestants.
Second (autumn 1933 to autumn 1934) Regime attempts to bring churches under control of the Nazi state (Gleichschaltung). Nazi breaches of Concordat commence immediately after signing: sterilization law promulgated, Catholic Youth Leagues dissolved; clergy, nuns and lay leaders harassed. Heretical views of Reich Bishop and German Christians, lead Martin Niemöller to found Pastors' Emergency League which grows into Confessing Church, from which some clergymen oppose the regime. The Barmen Declaration asserting—against the claims of the Reich—that Jesus Christ is the sole source of revelation and authority for the church is adopted in May.
Third (autumn 1934 to February 1937) Regime tries to bring the Protestant churches under its control by taking charge of church finances and governance structures. Failure of Müller to unite Protestants in Nazified Church sees Hitler appoint Hans Kerrl as Minister for Church Affairs. 1936, Nazis remove crucifixes in schools. Catholic Bishop of Münster, Clemens von Galen, protests and public demonstrations follow. 1936 – Confessing Church protest to Hitler against antisemitism, "anti-Christian" tendencies of regime, and interference in church affairs. Hundreds of pastors arrested, funds of the church confiscated, collections forbidden.
Fourth (February 1937 to 1939) Opposition to the church is no longer waged primarily by the Deutsche Christen but directly by Nazism itself through the party and state apparatus through increased imprisonment of resistant clergy. March 1937: Pope Pius XI issues Mit brennender Sorge encyclical, denouncing the Anti-Christian nature of Nazi ideology, protesting regime's violations of Concordat, racism and human rights abuses. Regime responds with intensification of Church Struggle. Heat was turned up on the "immorality trials" propaganda campaign. Christmas 1937 address, Pope tells cardinals "rarely has there been a persecution so grave." 1 July 1937, Martin Niemöller arrested. Martin Bormann unsuccessfully attempts to close the religious faculties but was successful in reducing the amount of religious instruction provided in public schools to two hours per week. 1937, Confessing Church proscribed.
Fifth stage (1939 to 1945) Bonhoeffer, a leading figure in the Confessing Church, is imprisoned (1943) and executed (1945). More clergy were imprisoned. Priest block was established at Dachau. In June 1941, Martin Bormann and Adolf Wagner order crucifixes to be removed from all classrooms in Bavaria. Mass protests mounted up in Munich condemning the move, and Hitler forced Bormann to rescind the order. July–August 1941 – Cardinal Clemens August Graf von Galen's sermons denounce lawlessness of Gestapo, confiscations of church properties, and Nazi euthanasia. Government takes program underground. Clergy were drafted into the military. Church publications were censored or banned. Services and functions restricted or banned.
Nazi relationship with the Christian Churches
Prior to the Reichstag vote for the Enabling Act of 1933 under which Hitler gained the "temporary" dictatorial powers with which he went on to permanently dismantle the Weimar Republic, Hitler promised the Reichstag on 23 March 1933, that he would not interfere with the rights of the churches. However, with power secured in Germany, Hitler quickly broke this promise. He divided the Lutheran Church (Germany's main Protestant denomination) and instigated a brutal persecution of the Jehovah's Witnesses. He dishonoured a Concordat signed with the Vatican and permitted attacks on Catholic organizations and education. A special Priests Barracks was established at Dachau Concentration Camp for clergy who had opposed the Hitler regime – its occupants were mainly Polish Catholic clergy.
Leading Nazis varied in the importance they attached to the Church Struggle. Kershaw wrote that, to the new Nazi government, Race policy and the 'Church Struggle' were among the most important ideological spheres: "In both areas, the party had no difficulty in mobilizing its activists, whose radicalism in turn forced the government into legislative action. In fact the party leadership often found itself compelled to respond to pressures from below, stirred up by the Gauleiter playing their own game, or emanating sometimes from radical activists at a local level". As time went on, anti-clericalism and anti-church sentiment among grass roots party activists "simply couldn't be eradicated" and they could "draw on the verbal violence of party leaders towards the churches for their encouragement.
Hitler himself possessed radical instincts in relation to the continuing conflict with the Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany. Though he occasionally spoke of wanting to delay the Church struggle and was prepared to restrain his anti-clericalism out of political considerations, his "own inflammatory comments gave his immediate underlings all the license they needed to turn up the heat in the 'Church Struggle, confident that they were 'working towards the Fuhrer'".
Bullock wrote that the churches and the army were the only two institutions to retain some independence in Nazi Germany and "among the most courageous demonstrations of opposition during the war were the sermons preached by the Catholic Bishop of Munster and the Protestant Pastor, Dr Niemoller..." but that "Neither the Catholic Church nor the Evangelical Church, however, as institutions, felt it possible to take up an attitude of open opposition to the regime". In the Nazi police state, the ability of the church and its members to oppose Nazi policy was severely restricted. In 1935, when Protestant pastors read a protest statement from the pulpits of Confessing churches, the Nazi authorities briefly arrested over 700 pastors and the Gestapo confiscated copies of Pius XI's 1937 anti-Nazi papal encyclical Mit brennender Sorge from diocesan offices throughout Germany. For refusing to declare loyalty to the Reich, or be conscripted into the army, Jehovah's Witnesses were declared "enemies", with 6000 of a total population of 30,000 sent to the concentration camps.