New Social Order (Part C) 
 Source: J. Noakes & G. Pridham, Documents on Nazism 1919-1945 (London 1974), pp. 349-374. 
 
 
 Religion 
 The culmination of the Nazi attempt to mould society in accordance with their ideology would have been a fundamental conflict with religion. National Socialism claimed to be totally comprehensive since it aimed to transform not only the State and its institutions but also its substructure-the social system, manners of living and even attitudes to life. Religion, with its influence over certain sections of the population, presented ultimately a rival to Nazi ideology, which assumed many of the characteristics of a religion with its adulation of the Fuehrer and its intense nationalism. Hitler chose for tactical reasons not to provoke a conflict with the Churches until such time as he could deal with the problem without difficulty. In his speech to the Reichstag on 23 March 1933, he had declared that Christianity was 'the unshakable foundation of the moral and ethical life of our people' and promised that the rights of the Churches would remain unaffected. 
 
 
 Repudiation 'German Christians' by the Confessional Church 
 A number of Protestant leaders had responded with considerable enthusiato Hitler's rise to power in 1933 and were affected by the feeling of 'national revival'. But Hitler's announcement of a new constitution for the Protestant Church (July 1933) uniting the 28 Provincial Protestant Churches (Landes-kirchen) to form one Reich Church under a pro-Nazi Reich Bishop, and his promotion of the pro-Nazi (German Christians', produced strong reactions leading to the establishment of a so-called Confessional Church, whose opposition to the totalitarian claims of the Nazi regime implied a fundamental challenge. This opposition was primarily theological, as seen in the rejection of the 'German Christians' in the Barmen Declaration of May 1934, which reasserted Jesus Christ as the only source of revelation. In October 1934, however, the Confessional Church formally rejected the Reich Church by creating its own government: 
 1. We declare that the Constitution of the German Evangelical Church has been destroyed. Its legally constituted organs no longer exist. The men who have seized the Church leadership in the Reich and the states have divorced themselves from the Christian Church. 
 
 2. In virtue of the right of Churches, religious communities and holders of ecclesiastical office, bound by scripture and confession, to act in an emergency, the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church establishes new organs of leadership. It appoints as leader and representative of the German Evangelical Church, as an association of confessionally determined Churches, the Fraternal Council of the German Evangelical Church and from among it the Council of the German Evangelical Church to the management leadership. Both organs are composed and organized in accordance with the confessions. 
 
 3. We summon the Christian communities, their pastors and elders, to accept no directions from the present Church Government and its authorities and to decline cooperation with those who wish to remain obedient to this ecclesiastical governance. We summon them to observe the directions of the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church and its recognized organs. 
 The Confessional Church won the allegiance only of a minority of Protestant pastors, the majority of whom gave active support to neither the Confessional Church nor the German Christians. The Confessional Church also suffered from differences of attitude between its leaders in the different regions of the country, but its protests had some effect. The Government came round to the view that the German Christians had acted too brashly and too hastily. The Catholic Church also reacted strongly to the encroachments of the Nazis in Church affairs. It was at first content with the negotiations of the Concordat of 1933 (see above, Part II, 'The Seizure of Power') but disillusionment set in when it became clear that the Nazis interpreted the Concordat differently from the Vatican. Particular dismay was voiced over the apparent official approval given to the book, The Myth of the 20th Century (regarded by Catholics as an attack on Christianity) when its author, Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi ideologist, was given a position involving supervision of cultural affairs. 
 Good attendance at churches 
 The Catholic Church was in a stronger position than the Protestant Church in Germany because it was more united and also more cosmopolitan. Moreover, church attendance was generally higher and more regular among Catholics. This report from the Landrat of Bad Kreuznach (February 1936) admitted some of the difficulties met wizen dealing with the passive resistance of Catholic priests: The efforts by the Catholic Church, already mentioned last month, to further the consolidation of its supporters by all means have been continued intensively. Catholic churches are full to overflowing. Even in the early hours of the morning the churches are very well attended. At this point, I would like again to refer to the following: it is often the case that Catholic priests appeal from official orders to a contrary statement on the part of their Episcopal authorities, or refer the State authorities to higher church authorities. For example, it has never been possible in the whole district to obtain the membership lists of Catholic associations from the priests, as this ostensibly contradicts an order of the bishop. In order to avoid such fiascoes, which can be detrimental to the authority of the State, I should like to suggest that in such cases there should first be direct contact with the Episcopal authorities. Furthermore, police statements as to the reading out of pastoral letters have probably, in my opinion, little practical value in so far as this reading takes place on principle in all churches on the order of the bishop. 
 
 
 Catholic Bishops' disillusionment with National Socialism 
 The Catholic Church, which had felt little sympathy for the democracy of the Weimar Republic, had initially welcomed the Nazi Government because of its anti-Communism and its promise of establishing order in the country. Some of its leaders, like those of the Protestant Church, reacted sharply when the Nazis tried to intervene in the Church's internal affairs. By 1937, when Pope Pius XI issued his encyclical criticizing the position of the Catholic Church in Germany, tile situation had worsened and relations between the Catholic Church and the Nazi Government were very strained. On 13 December 1936 the Bavarian bishops had expressed their disillusionment with the Government in their pastoral letter: After the deplorable fight carried on by Marxists, Communists, Free Thinkers and Freemasons against Christianity and the Church we welcomed with gratitude the National Socialist profession of positive Christianity. We are convinced that many hundreds of thousands are still loyal to this profession of faith and, indeed, we observe with sorrow how others tend to remove themselves from Christian belief and from the program of the Fuehrer, and by this means put the Third Reich on a new basis, a Weltanschauung standing in open contradiction to the commandments of Christianity. This formation of National Socialism into a Weltanschauung which cuts it away from any foundation in religion is developing more and more into a full-scale attack on the Christian faith and the Catholic Church. All this bodes ill for the future of our people and our fatherland. Our Fuehrer and Chancellor in a most impressive demonstration acknowledged the importance of the two Christian confessions to State and society, and promised the two confessions his protection. Unfortunately, men with considerable influence and power are operating in direct opposition to those promises and both confessions are being systematically attacked. Certain of those who lead the attack on the Churches wish to promote a united church in which the confession of faith will become meaningless. Most especially they seek to rid Germany of the Catholic Church and declare it to be a foreign to our country and its people. These folk lack all real understanding of our holy faith and of the Christian religion in any form. 
 In 1933 a Concordat was signed between the Holy Father and the German Reich. This was done, as is said in the preamble, out of a 'common desire to consolidate and enhance the friendly relations existing between the Holy See and the German State'. But instead of the much wished-for friendship, there has developed an ever-growing struggle against the Papacy, a struggle carried out in writings and speeches, in books and study courses, in organizations, schools and camps. A hate for 'Rome' has been engendered even in the ears of children. . . . Under the Concordat, Catholic organizations and societies were promised protection for their continued existence. But instead of this continued protection, the exact reverse has taken place until by gradual means the continuation of these organizations has been made impossible. . . . According to the Concordat, insults to the clergy were to be punished. But where is the protection against the kind of inswhich come in speeches, writings, broadsheets and pictures? Where is the State protection of the honor of clergy when it comes to caand posters which are set before the eyes of children even in the remotest villages? It has been reported to us that an anticlerical cartoon was exhibited in a class-room. When the parish priest urged the teacher to remove it, he refused. . . . 
 Nothing could be further from our intentions than to adopt a hostile attitude toward, or a renunciation of, the present form taken by our Government. For us, respect for authority, love of Fatherland, and the fulfillment of our duty to the State are matters not only of conscience but of divine ordinance. This command we will always require our faithful to follow. But we will never regard as an infringement of this duty our defense of God's laws and of Ibis Church, or of ourselves against attacks on the Faith and the Church. The Fuehrer can be certain that we Bishops are prepared to give all moral support to his historic struggle against Bolshevism. We will not criticize things which are purely political. What we do ask is that our holy Church be permitted to enjoy her God-given rights and her freedom. 
 The resistance of the Catholic Church to State interference 
 Church opposition to the Nazis remained of a largely theological nature until the war brought cooperation between the confessions. Opposition was the result of official interference in religious matters rather than of abhorrence at the political methods of the Nazis or their racial policy (on which question the Churches were on the whole notoriously silent). There were limits to the official direction of ecclesiastical affairs. The Gestapo could ban the distribution of pastoral statements, but could not prevent priests from reading them out in church. In 1940 efforts to control religious festivals aroused strong resistance: The concluding reports on Corpus Christi Day permit the generalization that the decree of the General Plenipotentiary for the Reich Administration concerning the switching of Corpus Christi as a public holiday, in accordance with Reich regulations, from g May 1940 to Sunday 26 May 1940 was simply sabotaged by the Church and the population. Immediately after its publication the decree was the subject of lively discussion and the reaction of the clergy was in general that the celebration of Corpus Christi on a Thursday was the law of the Church and must be upheld by the Catholic population. The Bishop of Fulda even took the view that such a switch could only be undertaken by the Church or the Pope himself, that interference with this canonical and most solemn religious festival was inadmissible and the State decree invalid.... The position adopted uniformly by almost all the Church authorities finally led to Corpus Christi being celebrated as a religious festival and work stopped on that day. This was particularly true of the countryside and especially of the mainly Catholic parishes. 
 Hess had warned in a speech to Party leaders in September 1938 that 'a religion that has influenced, indeed dominated, the life of a people for two thousand years cannot be destroyed or overcome by external measures'. As the Fuehrer's Deputy, he was presumably expressing Hitler's own views at the time. The war changed the situation as it created new possibilities for the application of Nazi ideology (for instance, racial policy) and brought to the fore men who favored more radical policies. Martin Bormann, who rose high in the Nazi hierarchy during the war and enjoyed increasing influence over Hitler, had made little secret of his long-standing antagonism toward religion. An order sent to the Gauleiters in June 1941 outlined his uncompromising views. 
 
 
 Bormann declares Christianity to be irreconcilable with National Socialism, June 1941 
 The concepts of National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable. The Christian Churches build on people's ignorance and attempt to preserve the ignorance of as wide a section of the population as possible. National Socialism, on the other hand, is based on scientific foundations. Christianity has immutable tenets, laid down nearly 2000 years ago, which have increasingly petrified into dogmas incompatible with reality. National Socialism, on the other hand, if it is to continue to fulfil its task, must always be in accordance with the latest findings of scientific research. The Christian Churches have always recognized the dangers which threaten their existence in the form of exact scientific knowledge. They have therefore endeavored by means of pseudo-science, which is what theology is, to suppress or falsify scientific research with their dogma. Our National Socialist ideology is far loftier than the concepts of Christianity, which in their essential points have been taken over from Jewry. For this reason also we have no need of Christianity. 
 No human being would know anything of Christianity if it had not been drilled into him in his childhood by pastors. The so-called 'dear God' does not by any means give young people advance notice of his existence. Astonishingly, for all his omnipotence, he leaves this to the efforts of the pastors. If, therefore, in the future our youth learns nothing of this Christianity, whose doctrines are far inferior to ours, Christianity will disappear of its own accord. 
 It is also surprising that before the beginning of the present era nothing was known of this Christian God. Further, since that point in time the vast majority of the earth's inhabitants have never learned anything about this Christianity; so, according to the arrogant but Christian doctrine, they were damned from the start. 
 If we National Socialists speak of belief in God, we do not understand by God, as the naive Christians and their spiritual camp followers do, a human-type being sitting around somewhere in space. Rather must we open people's eyes to the fact that, apart from our small planet which is very unimportant in the universe, there are an inconceivably large number of other bodies, innumerable additional bodies, which like the sun are surrounded by planets and these in turn by smaller bodies, the moons. The natural force by which all these innumerable planets move in the universe we call 'the Almighty' or 'God'. The claim that this world force is concerned about the fate of every single being, of the tiniest earth bacillus, or can be influenced by so-called prayers or other astonishing things, is based on a proper dose of naivete or else on a calculating shamelessness. 
 As opposed to that, we National Socialists set ourselves the task of living as naturally as possible, that is to say, biologically. The more accurately we recognize and observe the laws of nature and of life, and the more we adhere to them, so much the more do we conform to the will of the Almighty. The more insight we have into the will of the Almighty, the greater will be our successes. 
 It follows from the irreconcilability of National Socialist and Christian concepts that we must reject any strengtof existing denominations or any demand by Christian denominations in the process of emerging. We should not differentiate here between the various Christian denominations. For this reason too the thought of establishing a Reich Evangelical Church by merging the various Evangelical Churches has been definitely given up because the Evangelical Church is just as hostile to us as the Catholic Church. Any strengthening of the Evangelical Church would merely redound to our disadvantage. 
 It was a historical mistake on the part of the German emperors of the Middle Ages that they repeatedly created order at the Vatican in Rome. It is always an error, into which we Germans unfortunately fall too often, to attempt to create order where we ought to have an interest in disunity and separation. . . . In former generations the leadership of the people lay exclusively in the hands of the Church. The State limited itself to issuing laws and decrees and primarily to administration. The real leadership of the people lay not with the State but with the Churches. The latter exerted through the priest the strongest influence on the life of the individual human being, on families and on the community as a whole. . . . The State was dependent on the aid of the Church. . . . 
 The ideological dependence of the State on the Church, the yielding of the leadership of the people to the Church, had become a matter of course, so that nobody dared oppose it seriously. To refuse to accept this as an incontrovertible fact from the beginning was considered absurd stupidity until just before the take-over of power. 
 For the first time in German history, the Fuehrer has the leadership of the people consciously and completely in his own hands. In the Party, its components and its affiliated organizations the Fuehrer has created for himself, and thereby for the German Reich, an instrument which makes him independent of the Church. All influences which might impair or damage the leadership of the people exercised by the Fuehrer with the help of the NSDAP must be eliminated. More and more the people must be separated from the Churches and their organs, the pastors. Of course, from their own viewpoint, the Churches must and will defend themselves against this loss of power. But never again must influence over the leadership of the people be yielded to the Churches. This influence must be broken finally and completely. 
 Only the Reich Government and under its direction the Party, its components and affiliated organizations, have the right to the leadership of the people. Just as the deleterious influences of astrologers, seers and other quacks are eliminated and suppressed by the State, so must the possibility of Church influence also be totally removed. Not until this has happened does the leadership of the State have real influence over its individual citizens. Not until then are people and Reich secure in their existence for the future. 
 It would only repeat the fatal mistakes of past centuries if we were to contribute in any way to the strengthening of one of the various Churches, in view of our knowledge of their ideological hostility towards us. The interest of the Reich lies not in conquering but in preserving and strengthening ecclesiastical particularism.