How successful were the Nazis in controlling the Church?

This is not the same as opposition that the church provided!

Successful

• Many Christians supported Nazis because of its anti-Communism and respect for traditional values.

• Catholic church signed a concordat (July 1933)

• 1936, church groups disbanded and Hitler Youth made compulsory.

• Attendance at church schools in 1935: 65% 1939: 5%

• Mid 1930s 'Church Succession Campaign'.

• 1937-OVer 100,000 Christians left the Church.

• Support to the German Christians 2/3 wore Nazis uniforms in Aug 1933.

Not Successful

• Despite the creation of the Reich Church, a confessional church was set up in September 1933, organised in october 1934)

• Despite aggressive moves against Christianity in the early years of the war, tjey had to pull back for fear of hostility.

• 1937 'With burning Grief. Encyclical from the Pope issued which resulted in hostility against the Nazi regime.

• Von Galen's public outcry on the euthanasia policy in 1941.

• Efforts to introduce the German Faith Movement failed.

Hitler recognised that the Church as an institution was hugely important. It had the power to impact on people's actions and opinions. Hitler wished to create a new Church that would be built on the foundation of Nazi ideology.

He set about several actions in order to control the Churches and then later replace the Churches with a new religion.

He tackled different measures to ensure that both the Catholic and the Protestant Churches' influence would be reduced.

However, many church members supported Nazism. They feared communism and saw Nazis as something that could protect them from the potential threat it posed. The Nazis were also successful because many Christians approved of the idea of traditional values being upheld.

In order to control the Protestant church, the Government gave support to German Christians. This was sucessful because two-thirds of those attending the Prussian synod wore Nazi uniforms in 1933.

On the other hand, they were not completely sucessful due to the breakaway of one hundred pastors in 1933, who subsequently set up the Confessional Church in October 1934.

To subdue the Catholic Church, the Nazis signed a Concordat with the Vatican in 1933. However, the Nazis lack of upholding their side of the bargain resulted in public outcry and hostility against the regime, demonstrating a lack of success in terms of total compliance. This was to culminate in the Encylical issued by the Pope; 'With Burning Grief' in 1937.

The Nazis recognised how important it was to control youth who attended Church. They were successful in controlloing them because in 1936, all Church groups were disbanded and attendance of the Hitler Youth made compulsory.

However, despite this, many young people managed to evade this commanment.

The effect of Nazis impact on controlling young Christians is demonstrated clearly through the dramatic decrease in attendance of Church schools from 65% to 5% from 1935 to 1939, showing how successful Nazi policies towards the Church were.

In addition to this, the 'Church Succession Campaign' saw over 100,000 Christians leaving the Church in 1937, showing that the Nazis were successful in encouraging peopel to detatch themsevles from the Church's influence.

However, von Galen's public outcry on Euthanasia in 1941 is highly significant because it showed that Nazi policies towards the churches coudl only go so far.