Page 176 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The American Diplomats 163

according to Gordon, the Nazis aimed at nothing less than the cre-
ation of a “thoroughly ‘Germanized Christianity.’” the new religion was
designed to transform the evangelical Church, whose membership made
up about two-thirds of the nation’s population, into a religion that would
be “based on the ‘trinity of the divine creation of state, nation and race’
and would be imbued with a ‘heroic godlessness.’” the “New Christians,”
soon to be known as “German Christians,” were expected to disavow the
Old testament and replace it with the “old sagas and legends immortal-
ized in the Wagnerian operas.” special attention was to be paid to the re-
education of young Germans. the German Christians “apparently have in
mind organizations of the evangelical German youth which would in effect
be ecclesiastical storm detachments with a militaristic spirit, from which
members for the regular storm detachments could later be recruited. in
order to expedite matters, the Nazis are urging the appointment of state
commissioners with the task of reorganizing the church.” throughout 1933,
the New Christians became ever more determined to meld Nazism with
Christianity. For example, when repairs on a church in Mainbernheim in
Bavaria were completed in august, the workers placed a large swastika on
the church tower. the point was to unite the Nazi symbol with the Cross
of Christ. 43
another major concern of the German Christians was to rid religion in
Germany of any ties to Judaism; they claimed that Jesus was not a Jew and
that Christianity emerged not from Judaism but from a struggle against Ju-
daism. accordingly, they insisted on strict enforcement of the “principle of
racial purity,” or the so-called aryan paragraph. every official of the church
not only had to be loyal to the Nazi Party but also had to prove that he was
a pure aryan. No one married to a non-aryan, as defined in the aryan para-
graph, would be allowed to join the church. ambassador dodd observed
that as late as september 1933 the newspapers in Germany had remained
silent on these measures to give the impression that they had been imple-
mented with very little controversy or opposition. 44
in November 1933, dodd added the following examples of how Nazi
dogma was being infused into the evangelical Church: “the Bishop of
Brunswick is reported to have blessed the dead for their entry into Valhalla.
Bishop [Joachim] Hossenfelder spoke of Horst Wessel’s storm detachment
in Heaven.” at a convention of German Christians in saalfeld, Church-

Horst Wessel (1907–1930) was a Nazi activist who joined the sa and was murdered un-
der circumstances that are still unclear. the Nazis claimed that Wessel was killed by a Commu-
nist, making him a national hero. His stature as a martyr was enhanced because he had written
the words for the song “die Fahne Hoch,” the anthem of the Nazi Party.