Gottgläubig

Origins

The 1920 National Socialist Programme of the NSDAP introduced the phrase 'Positive Christianity,' and the party sought freedom for Christian denominations as long as they did not endanger the state or oppose Germanic moral senses. After coming to power in 1933, the Nazi regime pursued control over churches through the Reichskonkordat with the Roman Catholic Church and the merger of Protestant churches into the Reich Church. Relations worsened from late 1936, leading to a rise in Kirchenaustritt ('leaving the Church').

Although no official directive mandated leaving, some Nazi Party members voluntarily revoked church membership and pressured others to follow. Those who left were designated Gottgläubige, a term officially recognized by Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick on 26 November 1936. Frick stressed that the term signified political disassociation, not religious apostasy. Earlier, leavers had used 'dissident,' which implied being without belief, whereas most still believed in a God.

Alfred Rosenberg left his church on 15 November 1933, remaining the only prominent Nazi leader to do so for three years. In early 1936, SS leaders Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich terminated their Catholic membership, followed by several Gauleiter. Late 1936 saw many Catholic party members leave, and 1937 brought a flood of Protestant departures. Hitler himself never repudiated his Catholic membership, telling his General Gerhard Engel in 1941 that he remained a Catholic, though his actual religious views remain unclear due to conflicting accounts.

Demography

People identifying as Gottgläubig held a wide range of beliefs, including non-clerical Christianity, Germanic Neopaganism, generic non-Christian theism, deism, and pantheism. Strictly speaking, they were not required to terminate church membership but were strongly encouraged to. The 17 May 1939 census was the first to allow registration as Gottgläubig. Of 79.4 million Germans, 2.7 million (3.5%) claimed this designation, compared to 94.5% Christians, 300,000 Jews (0.4%), 86,000 adherents of other religions (0.1%), and 1.2 million (1.5%) with no faith. Urban areas with lowest Nazi support had the highest rates, led by Berlin (10.2%), Hamburg (7.5%), Vienna (6.4%), Düsseldorf (6.0%), and Essen (5.3%). The term appeared sporadically after the war and was recognized in the 1946 census in the French Occupation Zone before fading.

Himmler and the SS

Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, a former Roman Catholic, was a main promoter of the Gottgläubig faith and was particularly hostile to Christianity, its values, and clergy. He declared that National Socialists believed in a Godly worldview and insisted on a creator God who favoured and guided the Third Reich and the German nation. Himmler stated that anyone not believing in God was arrogant, megalomaniacal, and stupid, and thus unsuited for the SS.

He did not allow atheists in the SS, viewing their refusal to acknowledge higher powers as a potential source of indiscipline. Himmler was unconcerned with how to label this higher power—God Almighty, the Ancient One, Destiny, Waralda, Nature, or other terms were acceptable as long as they referred to a higher power that created the world and endowed it with laws of struggle and selection. Only those opposing belief in a higher power were considered godless; everyone else was Gottgläubig but should be outside the church.

SS members were pressured to identify as Gottgläubig and revoke church membership, under threat of expulsion. SS personnel records show most who left churches did so just before or shortly after joining. Sicherheitsdienst members were the most willing, with 90% withdrawing from Christian denominations. Among SS officers, 74% who joined before 1933 and 68% who joined after 1933 declared themselves Gottgläubige. By the end of 1937, 16% of general SS membership had left their churches.