Religious composition of Nazi Germany

hauptmannn · Post by **hauptmannn** » 20 Dec 2003 05:46

Can anyone give me proportions of the religious composition of Germany during hitler's reign? I do understand that Hitler introduced his own religion.

Juancho · Post by **Juancho** » 20 Dec 2003 08:43

hauptmannn wrote:Can anyone give me proportions of the religious composition of Germany during hitler's reign? I do understand that Hitler introduced his own religion.

There were Catholics, Lutherans, and protestants of other denominations. It is not true that Hitler introduced his own religion. His government controlled the Church by mean ways. Somethig interesting is that they 'adapted' the origin of Jesus Christ, saying he could be a son of a german soldier who went to the old Israel as part of the Roman Legions, so they 'created' an aryan Jesus.
It is known that they also pursued Catholic priests by accusations of pedophilia, and sexual harassment.

Cheers,

Juan

R.M. Schultz · Post by **R.M. Schultz** » 20 Dec 2003 10:48

The north of Germany is largely Lutheran (with a smattering of Reformed and Baptist), while Bavaria and Austria are overwhelmingly Catholic. The Imperial Reich was thus about 2/3 Protestant, but after the unification with Austria this was reversed.

nondescript handle · Post by **nondescript handle** » 20 Dec 2003 12:39

The Nazis didn't start their own religion, but they introduced a new category in official papers.
In the spaces were you mark your denomination they split the 'no-denomination' into 'gottgläubig' (godbelieving) and 'glaubenslos' (nonbeliving). That was done to encourage Theists to split from organised religions, because organised churches were organisations independent form the party.

@ R.M. Schultz: Of the 62 million Germans of the 1925 census 24 million were Lutherians and 12 million Roman-Catholics (and 57645 Baptist), so your initial ratio is about correct.
But even if all 7 million Austrians (1939) would have been catholic (about 2/3 is todays ratio) it woulden't change the ratio to 2/3 Catholic overall.

Regards
Mark

Helly Angel · Post by **Helly Angel** » 20 Dec 2003 15:57

Well, I read about a religion called "Asatru" between several members of the SS.

You can found today the reprint of the official book "SS Family Ceremonies" with the rituals, tools, etc.

But I think that these ideas were into a minority.

Asatru is the people who believe in Odin, Thor, Locky, Asgard, etc.

http://www.pzg.biz/ss_family.htm

Best,

R.M. Schultz · Post by **R.M. Schultz** » 20 Dec 2003 19:34

nondescript handle wrote:@ R.M. Schultz: Of the 62 million Germans of the 1925 census 24 million were Lutherians and 12 million Roman-Catholics (and 57645 Baptist), so your initial ratio is about correct.
But even if all 7 million Austrians (1939) would have been catholic (about 2/3 is todays ratio) it woulden't change the ratio to 2/3 Catholic overall.

I have never actually seen these statistics and only remember these ratios from a college lecture. What if we throw in the Alsatioans, Tyrol, and Sudaten Germans (who were also largely Catholic) what does that do to our ratios?

nondescript handle · Post by **nondescript handle** » 20 Dec 2003 20:32

Alsace and Lorraine (1910) 1.9 million; 76% Catholic; 21% Protestant
Sudetenland (1939) 3 million; 88% Catholic; 6% Protestant
Source: http://www.literad.de/regional/laender.html

Thats 4 million additional Catholics and 0.6 million additional Protestants.
And add 7 million Austrian Catholics (assumed 100%) then we get 23 million Catholics, a 1:1 ratio by rule of thumb.

Regards
Mark

michael mills · Post by **michael mills** » 21 Dec 2003 02:01

Juancho wrote:

Somethig interesting is that they 'adapted' the origin of Jesus Christ, saying he could be a son of a german soldier who went to the old Israel as part of the Roman Legions, so they 'created' an aryan Jesus.

The above is taken directly from the polemical Jewish tradition about Jesus the Nazarene (called Yeshu hannotsri in Hebrew), which is that he was the illegitimate son of a gentile soldier called Pandera (or Pantira, or Stada) with a Jewish prostitute called Mary the Women's Hairdresser (in Aramaic Maryam Nisaya Megaddelet, the same character called Mary Magdalene in the Gospels).

That Jewish tradition was well-known to German theologians who had studied Hebrew, eg Martin Luther, and was the reason why they accused the Jews of slandering Jesus. Streicher also used the Jewish tradition in his anti-Jewish propaganda.

However, I doubt very much that any group of National Socialists took over the Jewish tradition and made a religion out of it.

Windward · Post by **Windward** » 21 Dec 2003 05:00

Katholische Kirche in Deutschland
Catholic church in Germany

>1945 A.D. (n.Chr.)

Windward · Post by **Windward** » 21 Dec 2003 05:02

Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland
Evangelical (lutheran) church in Germany

>1945 A.D. (n.Chr.)

regards!

Kephra · Post by **Kephra** » 21 Dec 2003 08:24

much more to read here:

http://www.thirdreichforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=6107

Petter · Post by **Petter** » 22 Dec 2003 17:11

Helly Angel wrote:Well, I read about a religion called "Asatru" between several members of the SS.

You can found today the reprint of the official book "SS Family Ceremonies" with the rituals, tools, etc.

But I think that these ideas were into a minority.

Asatru is the people who believe in Odin, Thor, Locky, Asgard, etc.

http://www.pzg.biz/ss_family.htm

Best,

I guess you mean Asatro, which is (and has always been, long before the Nazis!) the name of the Nordic mythology.

Tony Slug · Post by **Tony Slug** » 23 Dec 2003 05:32

These are the official stats on SS-members' religion categorised per province, dated Dec. 31st, 1938...

Sorry about the tweaked scan btw.

- T -

Leibstandarte_reenactor · Post by **Leibstandarte_reenactor** » 23 Dec 2003 05:36

my family is from Munich and they are lutherans, they have been almost from the begining and before that they were cathloc

Tony Slug · Post by **Tony Slug** » 23 Dec 2003 05:38

you mean to say they are 450 years old ?

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Religious composition of Nazi Germany

Religious composition of Nazi Germany

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