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Do not fill this in! === Deism in Nazi Germany === {{under discussion inline|talk=Nazism section removed}} {{Main|Gottgläubig|Ideology of the Nazi Party|Religion in Nazi Germany}} {{Further|Kirchenkampf|Reichskonkordat|Religious aspects of Nazism}} [[File:PositiverGott.jpg|thumb|left|230px|''On positive German God-belief'' (1939)]] In [[Nazi Germany]], ''[[Gottgläubig]]'' (literally: "believing in God")<ref name="Steigmann-Gall">{{Cite book |last=Steigmann-Gall |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Steigmann-Gall |year=2003 |chapter=''Gottgläubig'': Assent of the Anti-Christians? |chapter-url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/12631/1/NQ41317.pdf |url-status=live |title=The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945 |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=218–260 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511818103.009 |isbn=9780511818103 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428235847/https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/12631/1/NQ41317.pdf |archive-date=28 April 2021 |access-date=9 March 2022}}</ref><ref name="Ziegler">{{Cite book |last=Ziegler |first=Herbert F. |date=2014 |title=Nazi Germany's New Aristocracy: The SS Leadership, 1925-1939 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBgABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA86 |url-status=live |location=[[Princeton, New Jersey]] |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |pages=85–87 |isbn=978-14-00-86036-4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510154611/https://books.google.com/books?id=kBgABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA86 |archive-date=10 May 2018 |access-date=9 March 2022}}</ref> was a [[Religious aspects of Nazism|Nazi religious term]] for a form of [[non-denominationalism]] practised by those German citizens who had [[Apostasy in Christianity|officially left Christian churches]] but professed faith in some higher power or [[Creator deity|divine creator]].<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> Such people were called ''Gottgläubige'' ("believers in God"), and the term for the overall movement was ''Gottgläubigkeit'' ("belief in God"); the term denotes someone who still believes in a God, although without having any [[Organized religion|institutional religious]] affiliation.<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> These [[Nazi Party|National Socialists]] were not favourable towards religious institutions of their time, nor did they tolerate [[atheism]] of any type within their ranks.<ref name="Ziegler"/><ref name="Burleigh 2012">[[Michael Burleigh|Burleigh, Michael]]: [https://books.google.com/books?id=l5gcZpnL5QUC&dq=gottglaubig&pg=PA196 The Third Reich: A New History; 2012; pp. 196–197] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527135625/https://books.google.com/books?id=l5gcZpnL5QUC&pg=PA196&dq=gottglaubig&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RVtlU-L_HNGe7AbJ64DoBg&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=gottglaubig&f=false |date=27 May 2016 }}</ref> The 1943 ''Philosophical Dictionary'' defined ''Gottgläubig'' as: "official designation for those who profess a specific kind of piety and morality, without being bound to a church denomination, whilst however also rejecting [[irreligion]] and [[Atheism|godlessness]]."<ref>{{Cite book |date=1943 |title=Philosophisches Wörterbuch Kröners Taschenausgabe. Volume 12 |page=206 |chapter=amtliche Bezeichnung für diejenigen, die sich zu einer artgemäßen Frömmigkeit und Sittlichkeit bekennen, ohne konfessionell-kirchlich gebunden zu sein, andererseits aber Religions- und Gottlosigkeit verwerfen}}. Cited in Cornelia Schmitz-Berning, 2007, p. 281 ff.</ref> The ''Gottgläubigkeit'' is considered a form of deism, and was "predominantly based on creationist and deistic views".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.pl/books?id=6XHOEAAAQBAJ&pg=RA2-PA1939&lpg=RA2-PA1939&dq=%22gottgl%C3%A4ubig%22+%22deist%22 |title=Adolf Hitler: A Biography |page=75 |first=Ileen |last=Bear |year=2016 |isbn=9789386019479 |publisher=Alpha Editions}}</ref> In the 1920 [[National Socialist Programme]] of the [[Nazi Party|National Socialist German Workers' Party]] (NSDAP), [[Adolf Hitler]] first mentioned the phrase "[[Positive Christianity]]". The Nazi Party did not wish to tie itself to a particular [[Christian denomination]], but with Christianity in general, and sought [[freedom of religion]] for all denominations "so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the [[Germanic race]]." (point 24). When Hitler and the NSDAP got into power in 1933, they sought to assert state control over the churches, on the one hand through the ''[[Reichskonkordat]]'' with the [[Roman Catholic Church]], and the forced merger of the [[German Evangelical Church Confederation]] into the [[Protestant Reich Church]] on the other. This policy seems to have gone relatively well until late 1936, when a "gradual worsening of relations" between the Nazi Party and the churches saw the rise of ''Kirchenaustritt'' ("leaving the Church").<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> Although there was no top-down official directive to revoke church membership, some Nazi Party members started doing so voluntarily and put other members under pressure to follow their example.<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> Those who left the churches were designated as ''Gottgläubige'' ("believers in God"), a term officially recognised by the Interior Minister [[Wilhelm Frick]] on 26 November 1936. He stressed that the term signified political disassociation from the churches, not an act of [[Apostasy in Christianity|religious apostasy]].<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> The term "dissident", which some church leavers had used up until then, was associated with being "without belief" (''glaubenslos''), whilst most of them emphasized that they still believed in a God, and thus required a different word.<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> A census in May 1939, six years into the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi era]]<ref>Johnson, Eric (2000). ''Nazi terror: the Gestapo, Jews, and ordinary Germans'' New York: Basic Books, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gmuw9TvbFdUC&pg=PA10 p. 10.]</ref> and after the annexation of the mostly Catholic [[Anschluss|Federal State of Austria]] and mostly Catholic [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia|German-occupied Czechoslovakia]]<ref>In 1930, Czechia had 8.3 million inhabitants: 78.5% Catholics, 10% Protestants (Hussites and Czech Brethren) and 7.8% irreligious or undeclared citizens. {{cite web|url=https://www.czso.cz/documents/10180/32846217/130055160118.xlsx/8da2b875-fd8c-4a7a-b697-4735cdeaf7f5?version=1.0|title=Population by religious belief and sex by 1921, 1930, 1950, 1991, 2001 and 2011 censuses 1)|language=cs, en|access-date=2 January 2017|publisher=Czech Statistical Office|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170117194829/https://www.czso.cz/documents/10180/32846217/130055160118.xlsx/8da2b875-fd8c-4a7a-b697-4735cdeaf7f5?version=1.0|archive-date=17 January 2017}}</ref> into [[German-occupied Europe]], indicates{{sfn|Ericksen|Heschel|1999|p=10}} that 54% of the population considered itself Protestant, 41% considered itself Catholic, 3.5% self-identified as ''Gottgläubig'',<ref name="Evans546">[[Richard J. Evans]]; ''The Third Reich at War''; Penguin Press; New York 2009, p. 546</ref><ref name="books.google.de">{{cite book |last=Lumans |first=Valdis O. |year=1993 |title=Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe, 1933–1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TIZSO31iSO4C&q=gottglaubig&pg=PA48 |location=[[Chapel Hill, North Carolina]] |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |isbn=9780807820667 |page=48 |access-date=2023-05-17 |archive-date=2023-04-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417144005/https://books.google.com/books?id=TIZSO31iSO4C&q=gottglaubig&pg=PA48 |url-status=live }}</ref> and 1.5% as "atheist".<ref name="Evans546"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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