Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T19:37:51.037Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anti-Bolshevism and Antisemitism: The Catholic Church in Germany and National Socialist Ideology 1936–1937

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

Gerhard Besier
Gerhard Besier
Affiliation:
Kirchliche Hochschule Berlin, Leuchtenburgstrasse 39/41, 1000 Berlin 37 (Zehlendorf), Berlin, Germany
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In his essay ‘Judaism and Christianity in the ideology and politics of National Socialism’ Klaus Scholder outlined the basic principles of Hitler's world view and examined his perception of the relationship between Christianity and antisemitism. According to Hitler, there could be no doubt that Christian leaders, given the nature of their beliefs, should be active exponents of antisemitism. He revitalised the old motif of the Jews as ‘Christ killers’ and described Jesus as ‘a leader of the people’ who ‘opposed Jewry’. Because of this he had been murdered on the initiative of the Jews and the Jew Paul ’refined, falsified and exploited the teaching of the Galilean for his own ends’.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , July 1992 , pp. 447 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 ‘Judaism and Christianity in the ideology and politics of National Socialism’, in Kulka, O. D. and Mendes–Flohr, P. R. (eds), Papers Presented to the International Symposium on Judaism and Christianity under the Impact of National Socialism (1919–1945), Jerusalem 1987, 183–95.Google Scholar Cf. Scholder, Klaus, ‘Politics and church politics in the Third Reich’, in von Aretin, K. O. and Besier, G. (eds), Klaus Scholder: a requiem for Hitler and other new perspectives on the German Church struggle, London–Philadelphia, 1989 140–56.Google Scholar

2 Scholder, , ‘Judaism and Christianity’, 194.Google Scholar

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid. 193f.

5 Ibid. 189f.

6 Hildebrand, K., Das dritte Reich, München 1979, 28.Google Scholar

7 Abendroth, H. H., Hitler in der spanischen Arena, Paderborn 1973, 33.Google Scholar

8 Beneckenstein, P. Meier, Dokumente der deutschen Politik, 7/1, Berlin 1940, 55.Google Scholar

9 Völkischer Beobachter (hereinafter cited as VB), 4 Sept. 1936, 1.

10 VB, 10 Sept. 1936, 2.

11 Ibid.16 Sept. 1936, 3.

12 Ibid. 11 Sept. 1936, 6ff.

13 Ibid.

14 Hockerts, H. G., Die Sittlichkeitsprozesse gegen katholische Ordensangehörige und Priester 1936/1937: eine Studie zur nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftstechnik und zum Kirchenkampf, Mainz 1971; L. Volk (ed.), Aklen deutscher Bischöfe öber dieLage der Kirche, 4: 1936–9, Mainz 1981;Google ScholarHehl, U. von, Priester unter Hitlers Terror: eine biographische statistische Erhebung, Mainz 1985;Google ScholarVolkmann, K. J., Die Rechtssprechung staatlicher Gerichte in Kirchensachen 1933–1945, Mainz 1978;Google ScholarMeier, J., Schulkampf in Baden 1933–1945: die Reaktion der katholischen Kirche auf die nationalsozialistische Schulpolitik, dargestellt am Beispiel des Religionsunterrichts in den badischen Volksschulen, Mainz 1983;Google ScholarDamberg, W., Der Kampf urn die Schulen in Westfalen 1933–1945, Mainz 1987.Google Scholar

15 Baudrillart in fact was not the cardinal of Paris but had become cardinal–priest in 1935: Saubeuier, V.-L., Baudrillart, s.v., Dictionnaire de Biographic Française v, Paris 1985, 893–5.Google Scholar

16 VB, 17 Sept. 1936, 1.

17 Ibid. 18 Sept. 1936, 1. See also Hudal, Alois C., Römische Tagebücher: Lebensberichte eines alien Bischofs, Stuttgart 1976.Google Scholar

18 B. Stasiewski (ed.), Akten deutscher Bischöfe, 3: 1935–1936, Mainz 1979, 479.

19 Ibid. 480.

20 Ibid. 481.

21 Volk, L.(ed.), Akten Kardinal Michael von Faulhaber, II: 1935–1945, Mainz 1978, 185.Google Scholar

22 Ibid. The papal speech to Spanish refugees in Rome is published in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Commentarium Officiate, Rome 1936, 375ff.

23 Volk, , Akten Kardinal Michael von Faulhaber, 190ff.Google Scholar

24 Ibid. 191.

25 Ibid. 193.

26 Ibid. 194.

27 W. Carsten (ed.), Kölner Aktenstücke zur Lage der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland 1933–1945, Köln 1949,150ff.

28 Volk, , Akten Kardinal Michael von Faulhaber, 233.Google Scholar

29 Ibid. 241.

30 Ibid. 245.

31 Ibid. Further on it is stated: ‘The essence and root of it [Bolshevism] is the negation of every kind of religion, it is state-directed atheism, it is a gateway to hell, a vanguard of AntiChrist which in an epistle of Paul is called the secret of malice.’

32 Albrecht, D., Der Notenwechsel zwischen dem Heiligen Stuhl und der deutscken Reichsregierung, 1, Mainz 1965, 409.Google Scholar

33 Adolph, W., Hirtenamt und Hitlerdiktatur, Berlin 1965, 161.Google Scholar

34 Volk, , Akten Kardinal Michael von Faulhaber, 833fGoogle Scholar