Nazi Germany and Religion—Some Thoughts on the Legal Framework Set by Religion Policy in a Polycratic Government System

Abstract

This chapter addresses the question of which goals were pursued by the Third Reich, and more precisely by its government and party functionaries, concerning institutionalized religion. It questions the interpretation developed in the early postwar period and primed by Theology that the Nazis strove for the destruction of institutionalized religion and the forced secularization. If one can even make out at all a central theme in Nazi religion policy, it would be pragmatism: In the initial phase, Adolf Hitler imposed secularism on high party functionaries in order to curtail loyalty to any other authority than the Nazi party. Several times, decisions in religion policy were also taken for the purpose of upholding Germany’s reputation abroad. After National Socialism had been consolidated by the mid-1930s, Hitler lost interest in religion policy and left it to Reich Church Minister Hanns Kerrl, to Chancellor of the Nazi party Martin Bormann, to the Nazi party’s Representative for Ideological Training Alfred Rosenberg, and later to the director of the Reich Security Main Office Reinhard Heydrich. These functionaries negotiated each decision in religion policy anew, both concerning the orientation of the two large churches (which experienced developments toward Neopaganism or German Christians within their rows) and smaller religious communities such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Mostly, the involved actors, public authorities, and party departments acted autonomously and on their own behalf when it came to political or administrative imperatives and institutionalized religions. However, since a clear list of responsibilities was never established and the security police, party offices, and other interest groups could always assert their own beliefs in religion policy, the result was a constant process of negotiation occurring.