Life in Nazi Germany Church notes

PROTESTANTS

. many protestants were anti-semitic and anti-communist so there were some overlaps between them and nazi ideology

. Some Nazi-leaning protestant pastors staged mass weddings for SA brownshirts - in return the Nazis turned the 450th birthday of Martin Lither into a major holiday

. at the beginning of the Nazi regime most of their support came from the protestant areas who believed with their views

THE GERMAN CHRISTIANS

. A pressure group of Nazi supporters operating withing the german evangelical church

. 600,000 supporters by the mid-1930's

. hung swastika flags from churches and pastors wore SA or ** uniforms while conducting their services

. Hitler was portrayed as the national messiah

THE REICH CHURCH

. In 1933 the Nazis began to coordinate the 28 seperate churches in the evangelical church into a single centalised reich church

. Muller, a nazi, was appointed reich bishop and took over the administrative headquarters of the evangelical church with the help of a squad of stormtroopers

. in november 1933 the German Christians celebrated their triumph in taking over the reich Church by holding a mass rally where they demanded that any pastors who had not declared their allegiance to the new regime be dismissed along with all non-aryans

. By the end of 1933 the Reich Church had successfully been coordinated into the volksgemeinshcaft

THE CONFE**IONAL CHURCH

. In September 1933 Neimoller and Bonhoeffer set up a Pastor's emergency league 

. With the support of about 5,000 pastor, the new church was established to resist state interference in the church and to re-establish a theology based solely on the bible

. There were some successes:

- by 1939 only 5% of people were listed…