Ideological incompatibility: the forced fusion of Nazism and Protestant theology and its impact on anti-Semitism in the Third Reich.

• Author: Eldridge, Stephen W.

While Adolf Hitler's rise to power proved a rude awakening for many organizations in Weimar Germany, the upheaval it caused within the German Protestant Church is particularly noteworthy. Like a slithering snake, Nazi ideology crept into the very heart of German Protestantism. The church's traditional bonds of unity were torn asunder and the rich brotherhood established by Martin Luther was strained as never before. Although Nazi philosophy struck crippling blows at the organizational integrity of German Protestant churches, it was also responsible for a far more insidious danger. At stake during Hitler's tyranny was nothing less than the very fabric of German Reformation Christianity. Like a quickly replicating virus, National Socialism began to weave itself into the soul of Protestant theology, ultimately blurring the line between worship of nation and worship of God.

This study examines the unlikely combination of Protestant theology, religious/racial anti-Semitism, and Nazi ideology. While the vast majority of German Protestants were decent, well intentioned, God-fearing Christians, they were "acclimated" to accept the adulterated "Positive Christianity" so favorable to Nazi ideology. (1) As a consequence, they were predisposed to a collective ineffectualness in their efforts to protect the welfare of German Jews, both within the Protestant Church and without. The forces (or influences) that predisposed German Protestants to make only half-hearted efforts in defense of German Jews are somewhat understandable--although not excusable--when examined in context. First, the German public was swept up in an emotion-filled vision of resurrected national pride. When this great hope was promised to the masses through Hitler's National Socialism, the faith-based rationalism so prevalent in German Protestantism was consumed by this irresistible longing for national resurgence. Secondly, when one takes into account the history of anti-Semitism that has been a part of Christianity for over two millennia, German Protestants were susceptible to a latent anti-Semitism capable of producing apathy and misguided justification. When secular, racial anti-Semitic propaganda was openly infused into German culture, the collective Protestant psyche faced even greater ethical hurdles. Lastly, the anti-Semitic rhetoric of imminent Protestant scholars and German Protestants' national pride in Martin Luther cast a third strike against German Jews. By examining the theological and political maneuverings of the German Protestant Church, this study seeks to explain some of the key dimensions of this complex Protestant moral/political dilemma and its impact on German Jews.

To understand how the tenets of Protestantism could become tangled in Nazi ideology, one must first examine the intrinsic appeal that National Socialism held for the "average" citizen in Weimar Germany. During Hitler's rule, nearly all German citizens (ninety-five percent) considered themselves Christians. More than half (fifty-five percent) were Protestant. Thus, most Germans who welcomed Hitler's rise to power and witnessed his terror were self-professed Christians. Moreover, as in the days of Bismarck's Germany, German Protestants gravitated toward a brand of politics that was conservative, antidemocratic, and anticommunist. Like most Germans, they displayed an ardent nationalistic fervor in response to their country's capitulation at Versailles. The wounded nation yearned for redemption and sought deliverance from the perceived societal ills that the Weimar democracy had left in its wake. Such circumstances made a neatly packaged hybridized version of "Christian" National Socialism attractive to the average German citizen. (2)

The successful mixture and subsequent marketing of ideological principles separated by so great a chasm was nothing less than masterful. How does one reconcile the numerous Christian teachings on love and acceptance with the tenets of National Socialism? How could a conscientious Christian embrace the diverse brotherhood within the Protestant Church while endorsing the Nazi decree which stated that "[n]one but those of German blood, irrespective of religion, may be members of the nationality. No Jew, therefore, is a member of the nationality?" Although we will never know the exact combination of Nazi propaganda/opportunism and individual Christian rationalization that made this unlikely ideological pairing a reality, it happened frequently. (3)

To understand how intelligent German Protestants could accept National Socialism while professing their faith, one must examine the writings of those who openly embraced the two ideologies. One of the most insightful accounts which explains this dualism was penned by Cajus Fabricus, a professor of theology at the University of Breslau. During the 1930s, Fabricus became a leading apologist for the unique mixture of National Socialism and Christianity known as "Positive Christianity." In his seminal work, Positive Christianity in the Third Reich (1937), Fabricus described a kind of Christianity that was both theologically and nationalistically grounded. For Fabricus, Positive Christianity represented "[a] religion that has grown and become as one with the spirit of the German nation throughout the history of the centuries." For those who hoped that the advent of National Socialism would usher in a new age of German Christianity, the ideology of Hitler's party affirmed Positive Christianity. In the Germans' darkest hour, a political doctrine had come along that fully embraced the essence of German spirituality--these National Socialistic and Christian elements had coalesced to form a foundation upon which the entire nation could place their hope. (4)

Nazi idealists, both within Protestantism and without, brilliantly formulated their assault on the Christian mind. There can be no doubt that some approached this struggle for Germany's soul with opportunism, while others embraced the new nationalistic Christianity with the purest of intentions. Fabricus interchanged Protestant and Nazi ideology frequently throughout the pages of his defense. He described National Socialism as "emanating from within and testifying at every turn how great is the power of the spirit, perpetually striving to awaken man's noblest instincts...." (5) How could this glittering conglomeration of humanism, spirituality, and national pride fail to attract all but the wariest of German Protestants? At the core of this spiritual strain of National Socialism were the concepts of Volk (Race), Blood, and Soil. Although Fabricus expends much effort denying that these foundations supercede traditional Christianity and the worship of God, his motives are quite transparent.

There were, of course, Protestant scholars and writers who quickly saw through the thin veil of such forced ideological fusion. In Cross and Swastika (1938), Arthur Frey, head of the Swiss Evangelical Press Service in Zurich, opposed almost every argument put forth by Fabricus. Frey insisted that the Nazi State had been "religiously transformed so that it even becomes the source of religion." (6) In a similar vein, he wrote that in the realm of Positive Christianity, "[r]eligion is useful and necessary for the up building of the totalitarian State, but has no independent significance." (7) He then systematically dismantled the adulterated "Positive Christianity" that had been raging in Nazi Germany in the mid-1930s. He noted that the true goal of this "folkic" religion is to lead the German people to the highest stage of culture, where they can exercise the Aryan dominance that God had preordained in his divine ordering of races. (8) Frey then revealed how the disingenuous brand of "Nazified" spirituality ultimately led to a type of Hitler demagoguery. When Positive Christianity is accepted as the norm, Frey declared, the Fuhrer is elevated to master of the state, the highest law-giver, and supreme judge. Accordingly, Frey described Hitler as "not only the secular Kaiser, ... he is at the same time the Messiah who is able to announce a millennial kingdom." (9)

If Hitler is both the master of an Aryan people committed to "Positive Christianity" and the omniscient spiritual Messiah of the Third Reich, what had happened to the God of creation? For an alarming number of German Protestants, the line between blind allegiance to Positive Christianity and their former monotheistic fervor became extremely blurred. Aside from these disturbing "loyalty" issues loomed the inherent racism that had increasingly become a part of the new "Christian" Nazi doctrine. It only took a small step in reasoning to shift from national pride and volkisch rights to Aryan supremacy. It took an even shorter step from believing in Aryan supremacy to accepting the idea that God had ordained a racial hierarchy that left Jews at the very bottom of humanity. As a consequence, God-inspired commandments to embrace Christians of all races quickly gave way to drastic Protestant policies that excluded "racial Jews or Jewish Half-breeds" from church participation. (10)

The multidimensional appeal of volkisch National Socialism wrapped in a veneer of quasi-Christianity was only one of the cultural, ideological, and moral hurdles faced by German Protestants during the Nazi era. While the Nazi's siren call appealed to a widespread yearning for national redemption, the anti-Semitic rhetoric so prevalent in Christian history beckoned for different reasons. Anti-Semitism had endured in both secular and Christian circles since the first century. Although there had been periods in European and Middle Eastern history in which Jews had been persecuted less viciously, there were far more times when virulent anti-Semitism had been the norm. The patristic age (100-800 AD) offers numerous examples of the open animosity experienced by the Jews. Some of the most famous anti-Jewish writings of this period include...