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The religious beliefs of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, have been a matter of debate. His opinions regarding religious matters changed considerably over time. During the beginning of his political life, Hitler publicly expressed favorable opinions towards Christianity.[1][2] Most historians describe his later posture as adversarial to organized Christianity and established Christian denominations.[3][4] He also criticized atheism.[5]

Hitler was born to a practicing Catholic mother, Klara Hitler, and was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church; his father, Alois Hitler, was a free-thinker and skeptical of the Catholic Church.[6][7] In 1904, he was confirmed at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Linz, Austria, where the family lived.[8] According to John Willard Toland, witnesses indicate that Hitler's confirmation sponsor had to "drag the words out of him ... almost as though the whole confirmation was repugnant to him".[9] Hitler biographer John Toland offers the opinion that Hitler "carried within him its teaching that the Jew was the killer of God. The extermination, therefore, could be done without a twinge of conscience since he was merely acting as the avenging hand of God ..." Rissmann notes that, according to several witnesses who lived with Hitler in a men's home in Vienna, he never again attended Mass or received the sacraments after leaving home at 18 years old.[10] Krieger claims that Hitler had abandoned the Catholic Church[11] while Hitler's last secretary asserted that he was not a member of any church.[12] Otto Strasser stated critically of the dictator, "Hitler is an atheist" for his unsettling sympathy to "Rosenberg's paganism."[13] Hitler privately assured General Gerhard Engel in 1938 that "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so."[14]

In a speech in the early years of his rule, Hitler declared himself "not a Catholic, but a German Christian".[15][16][17][18][19] The German Christians were a Protestant group that supported Nazi Ideology.[20] Hitler and the Nazi Party also promoted "nondenominational"[21] positive Christianity,[22] a movement which rejected most traditional Christian doctrines such as the divinity of Jesus, as well as Jewish elements such as the Old Testament.[23][24] In one widely quoted remark, he described Jesus as an "Aryan fighter" who struggled against "the power and pretensions of the corrupt Pharisees"[25] and Jewish materialism.[26] Hitler spoke often of Protestantism[27][page needed] and Lutheranism,[28] stating, "Through me the Evangelical Protestant Church could become the established church, as in England"[29] and that the "great reformer" Martin Luther[30] "has the merit of rising against the Pope and the Catholic Church".[31]

Hitler's regime launched an effort toward coordination of German Protestants into a joint Protestant Reich Church (but this was resisted by the Confessing Church), and moved early to eliminate political Catholicism.[32] Even though Nazi leadership was excommunicated from the Catholic Church,[33][better source needed] Hitler agreed to the Reich concordat with the Vatican, but then routinely ignored it, and permitted persecutions of the Catholic Church.[34] Several historians have insisted that Hitler and his inner circle were influenced by other religions. In a eulogy for a friend, Hitler called on him to enter Valhalla[35] but he later stated that it would be foolish to re-establish the worship of Odin (or Wotan) within Germanic paganism.[36] Most historians argue he was prepared to delay conflicts for political reasons and that his intentions were to eventually eliminate Christianity in Germany, or at least reform it to suit a Nazi outlook.[37]

Historiography[edit]Hitler with Vatican ambassador Cesare Orsenigo

Alan Bullock wrote that Hitler had been raised Catholic, but, though impressed by its organizational powers, repudiated Christianity on what he considered to be rational and moral grounds.[38] Bullock wrote that Hitler believed neither in "God nor conscience", but found both "justification and absolution" in a view of himself echoing Hegel's view that heroes were above conventional morality, and that the role of "world-historical individuals" as the agents by which the "Will of the World Spirit", the plan of Providence is carried out. Following his early military successes, Hitler "abandoned himself entirely to megalomania" and the "sin of hubris", an exaggerated self-pride, believing himself to be more than a man.[39] Once the war was over, wrote Bullock, Hitler wanted to root out and destroy the influence of the churches, though until then he would be circumspect for political reasons:[38]

In Hitler's eyes, Christianity was a religion fit only for slaves; he detested its ethics in particular. Its teaching, he declared, was a rebellion against the natural law of selection by struggle and the survival of the fittest.

— Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny

At the turn of the century, leading Hitler expert[40] Ian Kershaw wrote an influential biography of Hitler which used new sources to expound on Hitler's religious views. He concluded that Hitler was spiritual, but nevertheless critical of the churches:

...making the German Army "into the first army in the world, in training, in the raising of units, in armaments, and, above all, in spiritual education (in der geistigen Erziehung)" was vital. If this did not happen, then "Germany will be lost," [Hitler] declared.[41]

...

However much Hitler on some occasions claimed to want a respite in the conflict [with the churches], his own inflammatory comments gave his underlings all the license they needed to turn up the heat on the "Church Struggle", confident that they were working towards the Fuhrer...Hitler's impatience with the churches prompted frequent outbursts of hostility. In early 1937, he was declaring that "Christianity was ripe for destruction" (Untergang), and that the churches must therefore yield to the "primacy of the state", railing against "the most horrible institution imaginable"[42]

British historian Richard J. Evans, who writes primarily on Nazi Germany and World War II, noted Hitler claiming that Nazism is founded on science: "Science, he declared, would easily destroy the last remaining vestiges of superstition' Germany could not tolerate the intervention of foreign influences such as the Pope and 'Priests', he said, were 'black bugs', 'abortions in black cassocks'."[43]

British historian Richard Overy, biographer of Hitler, sees Hitler as having been a skeptic of religion: "Both Stalin and Hitler wanted a neutered religion, subservient to the state, while the slow programme of scientific revelation destroyed the foundation of religious myth."[44] Overy writes of Hitler as skeptical of all religious belief, but politically prudent enough not to "trumpet his scientific views publicly", partly in order to maintain the distinction between his own movement and the godlessness of Soviet Communism.[45] In 2004, he wrote:[46]

He was not a practising Christian but had somehow succeeded in masking his own religious skepticism from millions of German voters. Though Hitler has often been portrayed as a neo-pagan, or the centrepiece of a political religion in which he played the Godhead, his views had much more in common with the revolutionary iconoclasm of the Bolshevik enemy. His few private remarks on Christianity betray a profound contempt and indifference ... Hitler believed that all religions were now "decadent"; in Europe it was the "collapse of Christianity that we are now experiencing". The reason for the crisis was science. Hitler, like Stalin, took a very modern view of the incompatibility of religious and scientific explanation.

Historian Percy Ernst Schramm describes Hitler's personal religious creed, after his rejection of the Christian beliefs of his youth, as "a variant of the monism so common before the First World War".[47] According to Schramm, these views were indirectly influenced by the work of Ernst Haeckel and his disciple, Wilhelm Bölsche.[25] Schramm quotes Dr. Hanskarl von Hasselbach, one of Hitler's personal physicians, as saying that Hitler was a "religious person, or at least one who was struggling with religious clarity". According to von Hasselbach, Hitler did not share Martin Bormann's conception that Nazi ceremonies could become a substitute for church ceremonies, and was aware of the religious needs of the masses. "He went on for hours discussing the possibility of bridging the confessional division of the German people and helping them find a religion appropriate to their character and modern man's understanding of the world."[25]

Hitler's personal conception of God was as "Providence". For instance, when he survived the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944, he ascribed it to Providence saving him to pursue his tasks. In fact, as time went on, Hitler's conception of Providence became more and more intertwined with his belief in his own inability to make an error of judgment. Alfred Jodl stated at Nuremberg that Hitler had "an almost mystical conviction of his infallibility as leader of the nation and of the war". Another of his physicians, Dr. Karl Brandt, said that Hitler saw himself as a "tool of Providence. He was ... consumed by the desire to give the German people everything and to help them out of their distress. He was possessed by the thought that this was his task and that only he could fulfill it."[25]

BBC historian Laurence Rees characterises Hitler's relationship to religion as one of opportunism and pragmatism: "his relationship in public to Christianity – indeed his relationship to religion in general – was opportunistic. There is no evidence that Hitler himself, in his personal life, ever expressed any individual belief in the basic tenets of the Christian church".[48] Considering the religious allusions found in Mein Kampf, Rees writes that "the m

  The directives[edit]Directive NoDate issuedSubjectNotesFull text1September 1, 1939Plan of Attack on PolandInvasion of Poland[2]2September 3, 1939Hostilities in the West3September 9, 1939Transfer of Forces from Poland to the West4September 25, 1939Finishing the War in Poland5September 30, 1939Partition of Poland, removing restrictions on naval warfare.6October 9, 1939Plans for Offensive in the West7October 18, 1939Preparations for Attack in the West8November 20, 1939Further Preparations for Attack in the West9November 29, 1939Instructions for Warfare against the Economy of the Enemy10January 19-February 18, 1940Concentration of Forces for "Case Yellow" (Fall Gelb)Manstein Plan10aMarch, 1940Case "Weser Exercise" against Denmark and NorwayOperation Weserübung11May 14, 1940The Offensive in the West12May 18, 1940Prosecution of the Attack in the West13May 24, 1940Next Object in the West14June 8, 1940Continuation of the Offensive in France15June 14, 1940Advance on the Loire16July 16, 1940Preparations for Operation Sea LionSpecifies a broad front landing on south coast of England from Ramsgate to Isle of Wight.[3]17August 1, 1940Battle of Britain[4]18November 12, 1940Seizure of GibraltarOperation FelixFull text19December 10, 1940German occupation of Vichy FranceOperation AttilaFull text20December 13, 1940German invasion of GreeceOperation Marita[5]21December 18, 1940Invasion of the Soviet UnionOperation BarbarossaFull text; Alt. Full text22January 11, 1941German Support for Battles in the Mediterranean AreaOperation Sonnenblume23February 6, 1941Directions for Operations against the English War Economy24March 5, 1941Co-operation with Japan25March 27, 1941Plan of Attack on YugoslaviaOperation Strafe[6]26April 3, 1941Co-operation with our Allies in the Balkans27April 4, 1941Plan of Attack on Greece28April 25, 1941Invasion of CreteOperation Mercury[7]29May 17, 1941Proposed Military Government of Greece[8]30May 23, 1941Support of anti-British forces in Iraq(see Führer Directive No. 30)31June 9, 1941German Military Organisation in the BalkansBattle of Crete32June 11, 1941Plans following defeat of the Soviet UnionOperation OrientFull text32aJuly 14, 1941Use of resources following defeat of the Soviet UnionFull text33July 19, 1941Continuation of the War in the EastTwo Panzer Groups were removed from Army Group Centre, depriving it of the armour which it would otherwise have used to attack Moscow.[9]33aJuly 23, 1941Supplement to 3334July 30, 1941Strengthening Soviet resistance34aAugust 12, 1941Supplement to 3435September 6, 1941Closing the encirclement of Leningrad, destruction of the Southwestern FrontBattle of Moscow, Siege of Leningrad36September 22, 1941Instructions for Winter operations in the ArcticInstructions to the Army High Command, Norway, the navy and the air force for winter operations in and around northern Norway, Finland, and the Soviet Arctic regions.37October 10, 1941Reorganizing forces in the Arctic38December 2, 1941Transfer of air units to the Mediterranean39December 8, 1941Abandoning the Offensive40March 23, 1942Competence of Commanders in Coastal AreasCommand Organization of the Coasts Atlantic Wall;[10][11]41April 5, 1942Summer Campaign in the Soviet UnionOperation Blue[12]42May 29, 1942Instructions for operations against unoccupied France and the Iberian PeninsulaOperation Attila replaced by Case Anton; Operation Isabella cancelled;[13]43July 11, 1942Continuation of Operations from the Crimea44July 21, 1942Operations in Northern Finland45July 23, 1942Continuation of Operation Brunswick46August 18, 1942Instructions for Intensified Action Against Banditry in the East47December 28, 1942Outlines the Chain of command for the South Eastern Mediterranean, and defensive strategies for a possible Allied attack on the Balkans and surrounding islands.48July 26, 1943Command and defence measures in the southeast49July, 1943Believed to be a contingency plan to seize Italian positions in the event of their withdrawal from the war.Did not survive?50September 28, 1943Concerning the preparations for the withdrawal of 20th Mountain Army to Northern Finland and Northern Norway51November 3, 1943Preparations for a two-front war[14]52January 28, 1944Battle of RomeBattle of Monte Cassino53March 8, 1944Establishment of fortified areas and strong points54April 2, 1944Measures to halt the Soviet advance in the East55May 16, 1944Utilization of long range bombardment against England56July 12, 1944Orders for the protection of shipping57July 13, 1944Protocols for how authorities should operate in the event of an invasion of the Reich58July 19, 1944Preparations for the defense of the Reich59July 23, 1944Reorganization of Army Group North's command structure60July 26, 1944Defensive measures for the Italian Alps61August 24, 1944Establishment of defensive positions in the West62August 29, 1944Establishment of defenses along the German northern coastal regions63September 1, 1944Order for the West Wall to be on the defensive64September 3, 1944Orders for Commander-in-Chief West64aSeptember 7, 1944Conferring powers to Commander-in-Chief West64bSeptember 9, 1944Supplement to 64a65September 12, 1944Defensive measures for the South-East66September 19–22, 1944Second decree on command authority within the Reich in the event of invasion67November 28, 1944Exercise of command for isolated units68January 21, 1945Reestablishing the command supremacy of the Fuhrer69January 28, 1945Employment of the Volkssturm70February 5, 1945Evacuation of refugees from the East to Denmark71March 20, 1945Orders for a scorched earth campaign within the Reich"Decree Concerning Demolitions in the Reich Territory" also known as Nero Decree72April 7, 1945Reorganization of command in the West73April 15, 1945Organization of command in the event Northern and Southern Germany are separated74April 15, 1945Order of the day to soldiers on the Eastern Front