The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945

by Richard Steigmann-Gall

Analyzing the previously unexplored religious views of the Nazi elite, Richard Steigmann-Gall argues against the consensus that Nazism as a whole was either unrelated to Christianity or actively opposed to it. In contrast, Steigmann-Gall demonstrates that many in the Nazi movement believed the contours of their ideology were based on a Christian understanding of Germany's ills and their cure. He also explores the struggle the "positive Christians" waged with the party's paganists and demonstrates that this was not just a conflict over religion, but over the very meaning of Nazi ideology itself. Richard Steigmann-Gall is assistant professor of history at Kent Sate University. He earned his BA and MA at the University of Michigan, and PhD at the University of Toronto. He has earned fellowships and awards from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism in Israel, and the Max-Planck Institut fur Geschichte in Göttingen. His research interests include modern Germany, Fascism, and religion and society in Europe, and he has published articles in Central European History, German History, Social History, and Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte.

Genres: History, Religion, Germany, Nonfiction, World War II, Christianity, Politics

294 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Tim O'Neill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always find it's a sign of a good book if I come away from it thinking differently about the topic. Steigmann-Gall's extremely thorough survey of Nazi attitudes to Christianity does an excellent job of challenging some dominant narratives; particularly the idea that the Nazis were thoroughly anti-Christian and any and all accommodation of Christianity within Nazi ideology was merely expedient if not downright duplicitous. Much commentary on the relationship between Christianity and German National Socialism has fallen into a simplistic form of this narrative, setting up the two belief systems as diametrically opposite and so automatically diametrically opposed.

I have to say, I've never find this narrative completely convincing. Germany was an overwhelmingly Christian country when the Nazis came to power (62.7% Protestant, 32.5% Catholic and the remaining 4.8% non-religious, Jewish or other religion), so the idea that all of the Nazi Party membership or even the Nazi leadership elite were vehemently anti-Christian is dubious on that basis alone. Clearly the majority of committed Nazis found ways to accommodate their ideology with their faith. Steigmann-Gall details the how earlier Völkisch movement and, oddly, some elements in liberal Protestantism, laid the foundations for a "Germanised" form of Christianity that actually made this process relatively smooth for many Christian Nazis.

Of course, Steigmann-Gall's arguments are in many respects revisionist and so in many places he can appear to be making Nazism sound far more Christian-friendly than perhaps it was or to underplay conflicts and tensions that other historians have overplayed. That can happen when countering a dominant historical narrative. In other places, however, I think he actually does take his argument beyond the evidence.

He maps a clear progression whereby the tensions between the "Positive Christianity" of some Nazi leaders, the paganism of others and the anti-Christian elements in the Party lead eventually to an overall general anti-Christian and overtly anti-clerical policy becoming dominant, from around 1937 onward. He attributes this largely to the rise in influence of Martin Bormann, who in the later years of the Reich manoeuvred himself into a position of influence over Hitler and Nazi policy that slowly eclipsed the other Nazi leaders. For Steigmann-Gall, Bormann was not really anti-Christian per se, and his anti-Christian comments and activities were most a matter of his political jockeying and an "attempt to outdo other Nazis, to shame them and thereby bring them under his control" (p. 251). There's no doubt that Bormann was primarily a political animal, but the fact that he chose to oppose his rivals on this particular issue, including other quite anti-Christian Nazis such as Rosenberg and Himmler, makes the claim his motivations were purely political rather hard to credit.

The figure who, surprisingly, appears very little in the book is Hitler himself. Apart from a few paragraphs, Steigmann-Gall leaves most of his discussion to the views of other Nazis, often rather junior officials and ideologues. He rightly notes that Hitler was not an atheist, rejected and even scorned pagan revivalism and regarded most Völkisch occultism as silly. He also made admiring comments about Jesus, but had a weird conception of him as an Aryan fighter who opposed "Jewish capitalism" and so was "liquidated". He seems to have seen Christianity as a Jewish distortion of Jesus' "true" message, which was hijacked by the apostle Paul. But often in the book it seems Steigmann-Gall is working hard to align Hitler's conceptions as closely as possible to Christianity, despite having little to work with. There doesn't seem to be any clear idea of Hitler believing that Jesus was God or that he actually rose from the dead or any other fundamental Christian beliefs about him. This is in contrast to the Nazis who actually were Christians, if rather unorthodox ones, who shared similar ideas of Jesus as a non-Jewish anti-Semite, but did so while also accepting him as divine etc. Prominent Nazis certainly seemed to be under no illusion that Hitler was not a Christian in any sense. In a 1942 dispute with Bormann about an order to cease the broadcast and public performance, his Chancellery deputy Walter Tiessler argued that even Hitler did not have a problem with Christian themed music, writing "if the Fuhrer, as a non-Christian, nevertheless possesses enough piety to .... listen for six hours to Parsifal" the German people could also listen to "St Matthew's Passion".

One theme which becomes clear over and over again in Steigmann-Gall's book is that much Nazi antipathy and persecution was directed at the Catholic Church while sympathy with Nazified or Nazi-compatible views of Christianity was actually quite strong in many Protestant churches. This is in stark contrast with the popular but wildly erroneous perception that it was the Catholic Church that cosied up to the Nazis, with the attitudes of the Protestant churches being all but ignored. It would be interesting to explore why this strange perception is so prevalent in the media and popular culture.

Steigmann-Gall's work is a great contribution to the study of Nazi ideology and made more useful by the fact that it steers the reader through complex evidence about a set of beliefs that was actually wildly incoherent and often contradictory. It has sharpened and refined many of my perceptions about this subject and changed some of my views, and that is always a fine thing in any historical study.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steigmann-Gall challenged scholarship stressing the anti-christian nature of National Socialism by arguing that point 24 of the NSDAP platform highlights the ways in which the Nazis saw themselves as part of the wider Christian community. Until 1937, Nazis made an active attempt to attract protestant membership. Protestants were seen as more nationally German than Catholics, and veneration of heroes such as Martin Luther was common. Only after 1937 did Bormanns influence on the party lead to a loss of power for Christians. Even then, they continued to appeal to point 24.

So far so good. As academic reviewers noted, however, Steigmann-Gall underestimated the influence of polytheism and paganism in the Nazi ranks, taking the occasional pro-Christian statement of men like Han F.K. Günther wildly out of context. Nazis often used Christian language without any deep rooted Christian beliefs. Nazism was a fundamentally anti-christian movement.

[Jason P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I value the work the author put into researching and writing it. The myth that the Nazis were anti-christian, pagan, or even atheist is far too common even among educated people. On the whole, the author provides strong evidence that the Nazi regime was either Christian or at least highly supportive of Christianity. The issues were far more with the contradictions of protestantism and Catholicism than Christianity itself. Many members also had problems with the institutions of Christianity, but not the religion itself. There was a pagan faction with Nazism, but its influence is highly exaggerated. There was absolutely no Atheist faction. Hitler's Table Talks are often used as definitive proof that Hitler was not Christian, but closer examination shows this is far less clear. While he did heavily criticize Christianity at times, he also still highly praised Jesus as a warrior against Jewish Materialism. Overall, excellent history. Highly recommend.

[Barbara Carder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Steigmann-Gall's research feels like second and third source material from which he pulled information that conformed to his theory of why Jews were picked for the holocaust. It made me go on a research journey of my own through mounds of WWII, German/Nazi/Hitler/Holocaust material as well as Protestantism, Martin Luther and scads of associated stuff on world religions in order to sift through it all and balance competing perspectives. If there was a 'holy reich' it was not Steigmann-Gall's, but a psychopathic deviant's dream of supreme authority. The structure around this satantic 'god' looked a helluva lot like a hierarchical 'church.'

[Regős Pál · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent, crystal clear study. Decades of research, irrefutable logic, and entertaining style. Recommended.

[drowningmermaid · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know how when you get an urge to read a dry doctoral thesis?

Well, this one is about Nazis and their religious beliefs and practices. Kinda loved the summary of the most popular Nazi fiction book called "The Sin in the Blood" which features a guy fathering three different children by three different women but the babies are born with nasty gross Jew features and, defying all biology and reason, he reaches the brilliant conclusion that it's because they had slept with a Jew LITERAL DECADES EARLIER.

Okay it was only two different women, and the first one straight up cuckolded him, but seriously Nazis suck at fiction.

It is REALLY interesting to read how closely Nazism ties in the Protestantism, and how it was viewed as a fundamentally Christian movement by most of its upper echelons. Sound familiar? Because it is. It very much is.

I kinda lost interest when it failed to detail how spectacularly Goebbels-- who appears here as the most openly and deeply devout-- carried on his extramarital affairs. Which, I mean, feels relevant.

Stopped p.75.

[Cardoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Holy Reich opened my eyes to a side of history I hadn’t fully understood before. Richard Steigmann-Gall presents a careful, well-researched look at how “positive Christians” influenced Nazi ideology, challenging the assumption that Nazism was entirely secular or anti-Christian.

This book is both rigorous and readable. It made me think deeply about the intersections of faith, politics, and ideology, and I found myself reflecting long after I put it down. Essential reading for anyone wanting to understand this complex and troubling period of history.

[FellowBibliophile KvK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superbly documented exploration of the relations between the regime and the Churches. Of particular interest is how it shows much-maligned men like Walter Buch, Erich Koch and Wilhelm Kube fighting, to the extent that they could, against the regime's Richard Dawkins/Christopher Hitchens-style fanatics, Bormann and Heydrich. Even Hierl turns out to be not as extreme as he is otherwise made out to be.

[A. A. Kerr · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very tidy and insightful look into a complex and (for many, touchy) subject. Steigmann-Gall's writing is highly accessible, and the subject of the book is a crucial one. Historians, sociologists and scholars of religion alike ought to read this book at their earliest opportunity.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing analysis of religion within the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. Great job at exploring internal party politics and the conflict between differing factions and churches.

[Desollado · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very complete and enlightening approach.

[Domenico Francesco · Rating 1 out of 5]

Il tema sarebbe stato estremamente interessante se fosse stato trattato in maniera professionale e soprattutto onesta: il libro sembra il classico caso di opera realizzata con una conclusione a priori invece che un conclusione dedotta nel corso dello studio. Steigmann-Gall sostiene che non solo il nazismo fosse appoggiato da alcune frange cristiane che utilizzavano l'ideologia hitleriana in funzione strumentale ma che addirittura lo stesso nazismo fosse di connotazione intrinsecamente cristiana. Inoltre il linguaggio è molto sensazionalistico e giornalistico più che da studio storico e tende ad enfatizzare continuamente le idee sostenute a priori. Per chi ha già letto altri libri sul tema si accorgerà subito non solo delle estreme semplificazioni di molte affermazioni ma anche delle numerose affermazioni prese fuori dal loro contesto e un generale cherry picking fatto assai in malafede per poter affermare le idee dell'autore, e di conseguenza si accorgerà delle lacune e della poca solidità delle stesse all'interno dell'opera, scritta più con piglio provocatorio che per un sincero studio alla base. Come già detto che nella società nazista ci fossero persone religiose e alcuni membri del clero collaborassero col regime, o che la propaganda nei primi anni utilizzasse un linguaggio che riprendeva dalla coscienza comune delle persone non implica una continuità dei due pensieri non considerando sovrapposizioni, inclusioni e strumentalizzazioni da parte del regime. Sul tema consiglio il già ben più lucido (e affascinante) The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany sulle riletture e le vere concezioni del cristianesimo da parte del nazismo, così come i libri sulla sacralizzazione della politica nei fascismi di Emilio Gentile.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wrote a note that this book was 'interesting, but dry with academic prose' - which really means it has interesting to say but it is a snore fest except for the obsessive and much I love history and fascination for the Nazi period I wouldn't give this book shelf space because I would never read even a few pages of it again.

I give four stars research but really think it a one star book.