The Anti-Christian Nazis of "The Man in the High Castle"

The Man in the High Castle series by Amazon shows the Nazis, in their control of eastern North America and in their influence in the mountains neutral zone, to be decidedly hostile to the Christian religion. The Bible is banned. So far as I recall, there was no evidence of (above ground) churches, and in a late episode, we see a snatch of ritual of the Reich sponsored religion, apparently a marriage of fascism with ancient German mythology. Think swastikas, dirndls and lots of blond pigtails.

The implicit claim of the series, that Nazism was “godless” is historically inaccurate and politically dangerous. This sort of revisionism is particularly attractive to the right wing, especially the far right wing. The not so hidden message is: “There is no reason to be afraid of political movements just because they are nationalist, racist, and bind the state to capital, subjugating the employed classes. That isn’t what made Nazism bad; all the really bad stuff came from the fact that they were atheists.” For example, Dinesh DeSousa includes Hitler among the “atheist tyrants,” Hitler becomes a card carrying atheist, as if he were Madalyn Murray O'Hair or Ayn Rand.

It is perfectly clear, however, that the Nazi Party was not atheist. Its foundational 25 Points included: “the Party represents a positively Christian position without binding itself to one particular faith.” (“Twenty five Points” (1920), Point 24.)  Let me run through, in a roughly chronological fashion, evidence respecting Nazi attitudes towards Christianity and atheism.

Early Hitler

The revisionist account highlights the statement of one eyewitness that Hitler seemed hesitant while taking his first communion. Isn’t that strange for such a well-adjusted youth? Unmentioned is that he soon became an altar boy. Hitler never renounced his membership in the Catholic Church and (shockingly) the Church never excommunicated him. “I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.”(to General Gerhard Engel, 1941.)He ordered top lieutenants to remain in the Church as well.   Goebbels, Himmler, and Heydrichs were to the end at least nominal communicants of the Catholic Church.

Hitler apparently got the idea of using the swastika in the Nazi flag from the prominent hooked crosses in the Benedictine Abby of Lambeth where, as a boy, he sang in the choir and reportedly had an inclination towards the priesthood. “Swastika” was apparently a word unknown to Hitler. His design for the Nazi flag was set out in Mein Kampf, “eine Fahne aus rotem Grundtuch mit einer weißen Scheibe und in deren Mitte ein schwarzes Hakenkreuz." (single binding edition, p. 556) (“a flag of red background with a white disk in the middle of which is a black hooked-cross.”)

Hitler suggested that it was the teachings of the Austrian Christian Social movement that won him over to antisemitism, despite his initial distaste.

I was not in agreement with the [movement’s] sharp anti-Semitic tone,... My common sense of justice, however, forced me to change this  . . . My views with regard to anti-Semitism thus succumbed to the passage of time, and this was my greatest transformation of all. ... Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord" (Mein Kampf, Vol. 1,Ch. 2).

In the first instance it was religious doctrine, not Aryan “racial science” that persuaded Hitler to antisemitism.  “The anti-Semitism of the new [Christian Social] movement was based on religious ideas instead of racial knowledge" (Mein Kampf, Vol. 1, Ch. 3)

A few of several additional positive references to Christianity in Mein Kampf:

But if out of smugness, or even cowardice, this battle is not fought to its end, then take a look at the peoples 500 years from now. I think you will find but few images of God, unless you want to profane the Almighty. (Vol. 1, Ch. 10)

It is a sin against the will of the Eternal Creator if His most gifted beings by the hundreds and hundreds of thousands are allowed to degenerate in the present proletarian morass . . . (Vol. 2, Ch. 2)

The folkish-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of God's will, and actually fulfill God's will, and not let God's word be desecrated. For God's will gave men their form, their essence, and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord's creation, the divine will. (Vol. 2, Ch. 10)

Thus inwardly armed with confidence in God and the unshakable stupidity of the  voting citizenry, the politicians can begin the fight for the ‘remaking’ of the Reich as the call it. (Vol. 2, Ch. 1)

Almighty God, bless our arms when the time comes . . .(Vol. 2, Ch. 13)

Towards the Nazi State

Hitler’s Pro-Christian pronouncements kept coming as Nazism metastasized

The fact that the Catholic Church has come to an agreement with Fascist Italy ...proves beyond doubt that the Fascist world of ideas is closer to Christianity than those of Jewish liberalism or even atheistic Marxism... (Völkischer Beobachter, 2 29, 1929, on the new Lateran Treaty between Mussolini's fascist government and the Vatican.)

Today Christians ... stand at the head of [this country]... I pledge that I never will tie myself to parties who want to destroy Christianity. ... We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit ... (The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1 (London, Oxford University Press, 1942), pg. 871-872)

Let us pray in this hour that nothing can divide us, and that God will help us against the Devil! Almighty Lord, bless our fight! (address to the SA in 1930)

To do justice to God and our own conscience, we have turned once more to the German Volk. (Speech about the need for a moral regeneration of Germany, 2/10/1933.)

The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality....  (Berlin, 2/1/1933.)

I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews, I am fighting for the Lord's work. (Speech, Reichstag, 1936.) 

The Catholic Church should not deceive herself: if National Socialism does not succeed in defeating Bolshevism, then the church and Christianity in Europe too are finished. Bolshevism is the mortal enemy of the church as much as of fascism. ...Man cannot exist without belief in God. The soldier who for three and four days lies under intense bombardment needs a religious prop. (Conversation with Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber of Bavaria, 11/ 4/1936.)

 

Nazism and the Churches

 The Reichskonkordat of 1933 between the Nazis and the Vatican:

Article 1. The German Reich guarantees freedom of profession and public practice of the Catholic religion. It recognizes the right of the Catholic Church to regulate and manage her own affairs independently within the limits of the law applicable to all and to issue – within the framework of her own competence – laws and ordinances binding on her members.

* * *
Article 4. The Holy See shall enjoy full freedom in its contact and correspondence with the bishops, clergy and all other members of the Catholic Church in Germany. The same applies to the bishops and other diocesan authorities in their contact with the faithful in all matters of their pastoral office. Instructions, ordinances, pastoral letters, official diocesan gazettes and other enactments concerning the spiritual guidance of the faithful, issued by the ecclesiastical authorities within the framework of their competence, may be published without hindrance and made known to the faithful in the ways heretofore usual.

            * * *             

         Article 19. Catholic theological faculties in state universities are to be                 maintained...

           
             * * *    

Article 21. Catholic religious education in elementary, vocational, secondary schools and institutions of higher learning is a regular school subject, and is to be taught in accordance with the principles of the Catholic Church. . . .

             * * *

Article 23. The retention of Catholic denomination schools and the establishment of new ones is guaranteed. . . .

In a speech given at the time that the Concordat was being negotiated, Hitler explained:

Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith . . . we need believing people. (April 26, 1933.)

The chief concession given by the Vatican was political non-involvement.

Article 32. . . . the Holy See will enact regulations to exclude the clergy and members of religious orders from membership in political parties and from working on their behalf.

The Nazis were, unsurprisingly, not fastidious in complying with all aspects of this concordat. In March, 1937, Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical, “Mit brennender Sorge” (“With Burning Concern”), which was read in all Catholic churches. Without naming Hitler or the Nazi Party, it criticized “idolatrous” Germanicism and racism. There were Nazi reprisals, including prosecution of many involved in the printing and distribution of the encyclical, and some other trumped up prosecutions of Catholics. There was not, however, a general reprisal against the church. The Nazis elected not to nullify the concordat.

The Nazi strategy towards Protestantism was to seek control of church organizations by placing Nazis or fellow travelers in leadership positions. A dramatic success of this strategy was the official merger of protestant youth groups into the Hitler Youth. Despite the stalwart opposition the “Confessing Church,” and such heroic figures as Niemöller and Bonhoeffer to the Reichskirche, a great part of German Protestantism became Nazi-sympathetic.

So the Nazis did not seek to exterminate either Catholicism or German Protestantism. Their goal, largely but incompletely successful, was to coexist and co-opt. Nazi practice towards freethinkers and atheists was very different, as will be seen shortly.

Hitler’s Personal Theology.

Hitler’s own religious views were certainly not those of orthodox Catholicism, and I am not interested in arguing with anyone who insists that Hitler was not really a Christian. The debate about how much and exactly which doctrine one must accept to be entitled to the word has often proved sterile – when it hasn’t turned into a deadly campaigns against “heresy.” There is this to be said, however, respecting the bona fides of Hitler’s Christian faith: He clearly had no use for a Jew who taught peace, forgiveness, and celebrated a hated foreigner (Samaritan) for aiding an injured man on the road.

My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them. (Munich speech on 4/12/1922.)

Christ was nailed to the Cross for his attitude towards the Jews; (Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 11.)

Alongside his belief in a militantly anti-Semitic Jesus, Hitler probably did hold to some more standard theistic commitments, those he called basic religious convictions, “for example, the indestructibility of the soul, the eternity of its existence, the existence of a higher being, etc. . (Mein Kampf ,Vol. 2, Chapter 1.)

Notes of some of Hitler’s private conversations, however, underscore the distance he had traveled from the catechism of his youth. For example, he mocked transubstantiation. Among skeptics on transubstantiation, however, atheists are clearly in the minority.

There are other quotations, some genuine although some of the most dramatic spurious, in which Hitler expresses hostility towards other Christian doctrines, practices, and denominations. The best scholarship, however has it that Hitler was, to the end, an idiosyncratically heterodox Christian. (See generally, Richard C. Carrier, “Hitler’s Table Talk: Troubling Finds,” German Studies Review, Vol 26, No. 3 (Oct. 2003) pp. 561-576.)

When the issue is “Hitler theist or atheist?” whether he was too unorthodox to count as a true Christian is immaterial. True, it has often seemed an irresistible inference among Christians that anyone who does not adhere to the chief points of their own doctrine must be an atheist, but that has always been nonsense. If Hitler failed to attend mass, that may show he was not a good Catholic; it does not show he was an atheist.

Was a Non-theistic Nazi Religion in the Offing?

Alfred Rosenberg, the “philosopher” of the Nazi hierarchy, wrote on reforming Christianity, not only by rooting out any Jewish elements, but by incorporating features from German and Aryan history and mythology. Himmler at times seemed to go farther contending for replacing Christianity with a religion based on history and mythology. In High Castle, Himmler takes the reins of Nazism after Hitler’s death. This gives the series authors some excuse for the Germanic rituals briefly shown in the series. In the real world, neither Rosenberg’s nor Himmler’s religious ideas were taken seriously, by Hitler, the rest of the inner circle, or anybody else.

There is a passage in Mein Kampf that reflects Hitler’s early views on the resurrection of the old German culture for the new movement.

. . . nomenclature which belongs to the ancient Germanic times and does not awaken any distinct association in our age. This habit of borrowing words from the dead past tends to mislead the people into thinking that the external trappings of its vocabulary are the important feature of a movement. ( Vol. 1, Ch 12.)

Hostility to Atheism

It is argued that Hitler’s Christian language and his accommodations towards the churches was merely a cynical and temporary concession to populations too numerous to be confronted more directly. There were 500,000 members of the German Freethinkers League, and many more, if uncounted, atheists who were not members of the League. In 1933 Hitler outlawed all atheist and freethinking groups. Freethinkers Hall, the League’s national headquarters was turned over to a Protestant group the goal of which was to bring congregants who had fallen away from the Nazi influenced churches back into the fold. (See New York Times, May 14, 1933, page 2.)

The advantages for the individual which may be derived from compromises with atheistic organizations do not compare in any way with the consequences which are visible in the destruction of our common religious and ethical values. The national Government sees in both Christian denominations the most important factor for the maintenance of our society. ... (Hitler, speech before the Reichstag, March 23, 1933.)

Consider the pride with which made the following boast:

We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out. (Speech, Berlin, 24 Oct. 1933.)

When Adolf Hitler says “stamped it out” there is no reason to read that as high metaphor. The revisionism that would make hostility to Christianity a hallmark of Nazism and Hitler into an atheist is belied by the evidence. The original Philip K. Dick, novel, to the best of my recollection, did not make this mistake. It is a shame that the series did.