Is this true?

[ronki23]

I thought Hitler had support of the Catholic Church?

Was Hitler atheist or Christian?

What type of Christian was Hitler?

 

[Viker]

This is the best I can come up with.

Apparently, he was a German Christian. Some variation of Christian nationalism as well.

Religious views of Adolf Hitler - Wikipedia

He often criticized atheism.

 

[Stevicus]

View attachment 65684

I thought Hitler had support of the Catholic Church?

Was Hitler atheist or Christian?

What type of Christian was Hitler?

I'm not sure of those maps. The pics are kind of blurry. I did find this other map:

This map represents the last free election before the Nazi seizure of power in 1933.

 

[Valjean]

Historically, the Catholic Church has played ball with whomever is in power.
For many years, those in power have returned the favor, but the church is not what it used to be.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

View attachment 65684

I thought Hitler had support of the Catholic Church?

That's right.

Reichskonkordat - Wikipedia

Was Hitler atheist or Christian?

What type of Christian was Hitler?

He was baptized Catholic, but in adulthood he first described himself as a German Christian. Mein Kampf suggests that he was heavily inspired by the religious writings of Martin Luther.

Later, he split with the German Christians and founded his own Christian denomination.

 

[idea]

The Mormons did family history work for Hitler to help track down who was Jewish. Loved the Hitler youth programs etc. Baptized Hitler (baptisms for dead in temple)... That's organized religion for you.

Moroni and the Swastika: Mormons in Nazi Germany - if you like reading horror stories.

 

[Heyo]

View attachment 65684

I thought Hitler had support of the Catholic Church?

Was Hitler atheist or Christian?

What type of Christian was Hitler?

True but slightly misleading. Catholics voted mainly for the Zentrumspartei (Centre) and BVP which did vote for the Ermächtigungsgesetz with the NSdAP. March 1933 German federal election - Wikipedia
Basically, the fascists never got a majority in a free election but they got power through scarring other politicians with "socialists and communists" who were the opposition to the fascists.

 

[Augustus]

I thought Hitler had support of the Catholic Church?

He didn't have the "support" of the Church, they signed an agreement to allow them to continue operating in Germany which is very different to "support".

While many in the church were hostile to the Nazis, it can be argued the Church should have done more to oppose them.

Was Hitler atheist or Christian?

What type of Christian was Hitler?

Neither.

He was most likely some kind of Providential deist who believed in some vague force of nature and destiny.

He wasn't an atheist, and saw atheism as being a marker of communism.

Despite it being a claim beloved of internet atheists, he likely wasn't a Christian either. Scholarly views range from "he was staunchly anti-Christian" to "it's a mixed bag and we can't really tell either way", with the centre of balance being far closer to the former.

He doesn't seem to have been religious before entering politics, and as an arch-propagandist, once in politics you would expect him to use whatever language best served his need at the time. As Goebbels noted in his diary (28 Dec 1939), Hitler told him:

“The best way to finish off the churches is to pretend to be a more positive Christian.”

The bulk of the available evidence from his close associates tends to present him as being anti-Christian from the late 30s onwards, and many of the top Nazis (Bormann, Goebbels, Himmler, etc.) were explicitly anti-Christian.

Given the need for sycophancy to gain Hitler's favour and advance to the top, it would be strange that so many of the top officials felt comfortable showing open contempt for Christianity if Hitler had actually been a Christian.

 

[ChristineM]

Hitler was Catholic,

Germany was majority protestant.

 

[PureX]

Tolerating and supporting are not the same things.

 

[Augustus]

Later, he split with the German Christians and founded his own Christian denomination.

A "Christian denomination" where the founding "theologian" was the leading Nazi ideologist, and neo-pagan, Alfred Rosenberg.

The same leading Nazi ideologist, and neo-pagan, Alfred Rosenberg who advocated for the phasing out of Christianity, replacing the cross with the swastika, stopping the printing of the Bible, and replacing it in churches with Mein Kampf.

Seems a strange appointment for a Christian to make...

 

[Ella S.]

Hitler was certainly not Christian. He was suspicious of Christianity and despised its teachings. He did use Christian imagery in the same way he used socialist imagery; as a Machiavellian propaganda tactic.

Hitler's actual beliefs were heavily based in appeals to pseudoscience and conspiracy theories, so he believed in a God through a sort of Deistic/Pantheistic lens since that was what was popular with scientists at the time.

He wasn't even pagan, like I used to think, and he regarded the occultists under Himmler and the Thule Society with derision. He wanted to progress humanity passed the era of what he considered primitive superstitions, so he was fairly anti-religious in general.

I can kind of understand why Hitler's self-identification as a man of science and progress would lead to the popular misconception that he's an atheist and why his widespread use of appeals to Christian motifs would lead to the other misconception that he was Christian. But his private discourses were a lot clearer on the matter.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Hitler was certainly not Christian. He was suspicious of Christianity and despised its teachings.

He despised other Christian denominations, sure, but this is almost par for the course for Christian leaders who form new denominations.

I mean, look at Martin Luther: he - at great personal risk - made a big public show of announcing his lengthy list of things he despised about Christianity; would we say that he wasn't a Christian?

Same for Joseph Smith: he declared every Christian denomination but his to be "apostate." Was he not a Christian?

He did use Christian imagery in the same way he used socialist imagery; as a Machiavellian propaganda tactic.

Propaganda and religion aren't exactly mutually exclusive.

 

[Ella S.]

He despised other Christian denominations, sure, but this is almost par for the course for Christian leaders who form new denominations.

I mean, look at Martin Luther: he - at great personal risk - made a big public show of announcing his lengthy list of things he despised about Christianity; would we say that he wasn't a Christian?

Same for Joseph Smith: he declared every Christian denomination but his to be "apostate." Was he not a Christian?

It wasn't just a denomination in-fighting thing. Hitler considered Christianity to be an outcropping of Judaism, ultimately revolving around a Jew (Jesus) and the Jewish God. While he tried to remove the Jewish elements for Positive Christianity, this was solely because Christianity was a popular religion, as far as I can tell. He still regarded the religion as fundamentally Jewish in private.

And he was a paranoid anti-semite, so that was a big deal for him. As pointed out earlier in this thread, the main people he put in charge of forming Positive Christianity weren't even Christian themselves, but pagans.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

It wasn't just a denomination in-fighting thing. Hitler considered Christianity to be an outcropping of Judaism, ultimately revolving around a Jew (Jesus) and the Jewish God. While he tried to remove the Jewish elements for Positive Christianity, this was solely because Christianity was a popular religion, as far as I can tell. He still regarded the religion as fundamentally Jewish in private.

And he was a paranoid anti-semite, so that was a big deal for him. As pointed out earlier in this thread, the main people he put in charge of forming Positive Christianity weren't even Christian themselves, but pagans.

Marcion, the Christian leader who produced Christianity's first written Bible, was also a raging anti-semite on a quest to remove Jewish elements from Christianity.

Apparently Hitler was following in a long-standing Christian tradition.

 

[Ella S.]

Marcion, the Christian leader who produced Christianity's first written Bible, was also a raging anti-semite on a quest to remove Jewish elements from Christianity.

Apparently Hitler was following in a long-standing Christian tradition.

If he was Christian and created Positive Christianity from a Christian perspective, I would agree that it wouldn't be the first time something like that happened. Not only Marcion, but arguably early and later groups that would all be lumped under the "Gnostic" umbrella, too.

In Hitler's case, though, he was not a Christian. He viewed Christianity with disdain and he put non-Christians in charge of creating Positive Christianity for the express purpose of propaganda, not as something he himself believed.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

If he was Christian and created Positive Christianity from a Christian perspective, I would agree that it wouldn't be the first time something like that happened. Not only Marcion, but arguably early and later groups that would all be lumped under the "Gnostic" umbrella, too.

In Hitler's case, though, he was not a Christian. He viewed Christianity with disdain and he put non-Christians in charge of creating Positive Christianity for the express purpose of propaganda, not as something he himself believed.

Why do you say that Hitler wasn't a Christian?

Is it anything deeper than just "people don't like to be in the same category as Hitler" or "Hitler's bad and I think Christianity's good, so they're incompatible"?

You seem to be begging the question on this. I'd say it's par for the course for the founder of a new Christian denomination to view other denominations with contempt. After all, if they thought Christianity was fine as-is, they wouldn't be motivated to "correct" things by creating a new denomination.

Also, can you think of any other founder of a Christian denomination that you consider not a Christian?