[Book review] Catholicism & the Roots of Nazism - Restating the obvious

The Maui News ^ | October 28, 2013 | Harry Eagar

[Alex Murphy]

CATHOLICISM & THE ROOTS OF NAZISM: Religious Identity & National Socialism, by Derek Hastings. 290 pages, illustrated. Oxford

Although numerous Catholic apologists have been concerned to deny it, it goes without saying that a mass political party organized in 85% Catholic Bavaria must have been, in some sense, compatible with Roman Catholicism.

And so it was. In “Catholicism & the Roots of Nazism,” Derek Hastings shows precisely how this worked and, following the failed putsch of 1923, how Nazism left Catholicism behind.

Bavarian Catholics before 1914 were deeply divided between “politicals,” allied to the Center Party and the Vatican; and “religious,” nominally non-political and nationalist. The religious Catholics were Jew-haters while the politicals were Jew-dislikers.

Obviously, the religious were likely adherents of a racist-nationalist political grievance party, of which there were many in Germany. Of these, only the DAP (later NSDAP) was overwhelmingly Catholic. Hastings persuasively traces the symbiotic growth of the alliance, dominated by the once-central figure of the Catholic Jew-hater Franz Schronghamer-Heimdal.

But it was not until 1923, when numerous priests became active recruiters in a hugely successful membership drive, that Nazism took off. Hitler then overreached, and the party went into temporary eclipse.

His alliance with the Lutheran bigot Ludendorff, combined with political failure, drove Catholics out of the revived party from 1924; but in the only real failing of Hastings‘ impressive account, this is not described as what it was -- the abandonment of Catholicism by Nazism, rather than the other way around.

The Nazis briefly (through 1926) allied with Protestant anti-semites, then gathered self-confidence and abandoned dependence on confessional politics altogether.

The conflicts between Nazi politics and German religion, however, were never concerned with the two great crimes we revile the Nazis for -- violent conquest and Jew-murder. The religions never objected to either. Schrongkamer remained a popular, locally revered Catholic publicist up to his death in 1962.

Hastings asks -- as writers of dissertations have to do -- what is the significance of his research; and his answer is thoughtful.

But for an American reader in the 21st century, there is an additional significance to his thorough inquiry into the (one imagines) turgid files of Bavarian religious publications of the early 20th century. We are now told by American rightwingers that Nazism learned racism from Darwinism.

This is improbable. Bavaria was saturated in Catholicism not Darwinism. Hastings shows (without drawing attention to his feat) that justifications for anti-Jewish racism in the publications of the nascent Nazi party, and in non-Nazi publications by its allies, never mentioned Darwinism but derived their Jew-hatred entirely from traditional and ancient folk and religious sources.

This archival excavation goes back far before Drexler started the DAP, and even before Hitler moved to Munich.

In his introduction, Hastings reviews other scholars who have inquired into Nazi racism, and gives the back of his hand to Daniel Goldhagen’s thesis of a pre-existing “eliminationist” German Jew-hatred. This is strange, since Hastings’ own excavations find numerous eliminationist and even exterminationist statements from Bavarian Catholic apologists from before 1914.

In 1919, for example, Schronghamer wrote: “The salvation of the world can only come through the extermination of the world poison whose destructive capacities we recognize in the intellectual foundations of Jewry.” The word Hastings translates as extermination is unequivocal: Vernichtung, and many other Catholic apologists used it, too.

Goldhagen has been disparaged by many academics, but “Catholicism & the Roots of Nazism” goes far to show he got it right.

[Alex Murphy]

Although numerous Catholic apologists have been concerned to deny it, it goes without saying that a mass political party organized in 85% Catholic Bavaria must have been, in some sense, compatible with Roman Catholicism. And so it was. In “Catholicism & the Roots of Nazism,” Derek Hastings shows precisely how this worked and, following the failed putsch of 1923, how Nazism left Catholicism behind....

.... it was not until 1923, when numerous priests became active recruiters in a hugely successful membership drive, that Nazism took off. Hitler then overreached, and the party went into temporary eclipse. His alliance with the Lutheran bigot Ludendorff, combined with political failure, drove Catholics out of the revived party from 1924; but in the only real failing of Hastings‘ impressive account, this is not described as what it was -- the abandonment of Catholicism by Nazism, rather than the other way around. The Nazis briefly (through 1926) allied with Protestant anti-semites, then gathered self-confidence and abandoned dependence on confessional politics altogether.

[G Larry]

Does this ass of author acknowledge that in 1923 the true goals and objectives of Nazism were not obvious?

[fruser1]

Interesting story, but I see this more as a Bavarian/humanisitc problem than a Catholic problem.

There is nothing in (nor was there ever) Catholic doctrine that calls for killing jews, etc..

If some folks decided to use religion to justify their own bigotry, that’s their problem, not the Church’s problem. Technically, such justification is a sin under Catholic doctrine - taking the Lord’s name in vain.

[agere_contra]

So ... Bavarian Catholicism and Nazism parted company in 1923?

Wow. That's ... devastating. Not.

It's obvious why Hitler found Lutherans more apt to his purpose. Martin Luther was the most horrendous anti-semite.

Here's Luther on the Jewish question.

"My advice, as I said earlier, is: First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are able toss sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone could also throw in some hellfire...

Second, that all their books-- their prayer books, their Talmudic writings, also the entire Bible-- be taken from them, not leaving them one leaf, and that these be preserved for those who may be converted...

Third, that they be forbidden on pain of death to praise God, to give thanks, to pray, and to teach publicly among us and in our country...

Fourth, that they be forbidden to utter the name of God within our hearing. For we cannot with a good conscience listen to this or tolerate it..."

And in another place:

"Burn their synagogues. Forbid them all that I have mentioned above. Force them to work and treat them with every kind of severity, as Moses did in the desert and slew three thousand...

If that is no use, we must drive them away like mad dogs, in order that we may not be partakers of their abominable blasphemy and of all their vices, and in order that we may not deserve the anger of God and be damned with them."

And this startling take on Christ's command to baptize the whole world in the name of the Trinity:

"If I had to baptize a Jew, I would take him to the bridge of the Elbe, hang a stone round his neck and push him over with the words I baptize thee in the name of Abraham."

Also an intriguing admonition apparently straight from the Book of Esther:

"The Jews deserve to be hanged on gallows seven times higher than ordinary thieves."

(all quotes above taken from "The Jews and their Lies").

This is terrible, appalling stuff. Luther was clearly off his head.

I'm not surprised that his philosophy fed the horrors of Nazism - not just his visceral hatred of Jews, but also the idea that no sin can separate a believer from God.

Presumption is a sin against the Holy Spirit. Once a man believes that God will save him no matter what he does - whether he repents or not - just as long as he believes then the gates of hell stand wide open.

[Salvation]

Not true......move on folks.

[RedStateGuyTrappedinCT]

Does this ass of author acknowledge that in 1923 the true goals and objectives of Nazism were not obvious?

Kinda strange how history repeats itself. How many progressives (or just ordinary people) do you know who supported 0bama because "he was for helping the poor" , or "society needs to be more fair".

Think of the 1920s equivalent of today's "low information voter".

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“Does this ass of author acknowledge that in 1923 the true goals and objectives of Nazism were not obvious?”

Good question.

Better question: In later years, when the true goals and objectives of Nazism were obvious, what happened to Catholic participation?

[Alex Murphy]

There is nothing in (nor was there ever) Catholic doctrine that calls for killing jews, etc.. If some folks decided to use religion to justify their own bigotry, that’s their problem, not the Church’s problem. Technically, such justification is a sin under Catholic doctrine - taking the Lord’s name in vain.

IMO the author's argument is built on the statement that "a mass political party organized in 85% Catholic Bavaria must have been, in some sense, compatible with Roman Catholicism". I believe that the author is speaking of a "cultural" or social compatibility, not necc. compatibility with the catechism or the magisterium of the church.

[prof.h.mandingo]

You can't spell Nazi without Hitler. He was National Socialism. While Catholics did support the early NSDAP once it became heavily antisemitic Hitler lost at least some Catholic support. Early Nazi propaganda was not as antisemitic as it became later. Early on Hitler railed against the Treaty of Versailles and other ills, inflation, etc. He used hatred of Jews later in his push to gain power.
There is not denying some church members and priests, bishops went along with the Nazi's but Hitler feared and distrusted the Church. He got along much better with the Ludendorf types of anti’semite.

[NKP_Vet]

More Catholic-bashing nonsense. If Catholics were in cahoots with the Nazis and had so much in common with them, why did Hitler murder Catholic priests wholesale? Thousands of Catholic priests were gassed along with their Jewish friends.
Pope Pius XII will one day be a canonized saint, so the bashers can hang it in their ear.

[G Larry]

Catholics were also killed by Nazis in large numbers, expecially the clergy.

Catholics also helped thousands of Jews escape, according to Jewish authors.

[elhombrelibre]

I recommend you do further research.

http://spiritualwarfare666.webs.com/Nazis_Anti-Christian.htm

The following was taken from the book: "The Third Reich in Power" by Richard J. Evans © 2005

"By 1938 the majority of Catholic youth groups had been closed down on the grounds that they were assisting in the dissemination of ‘writings hostile to the state’. Catholic Action, whose leaders in Germany allegedly maintained communications with Prelate Kaas, the former leader of the Centre Party, was also banned in 1938. State subsidies for the Church were cut in Bavaria and Saxony, and monasteries were dissolved with their assets confiscated. House-searches and arrests of ‘political’ priests underwent a sharp increase, with a steady stream of well-publicized cases of ‘abuse of the pulpit’ brought before the court."

[elhombrelibre]

Also from Evans' book:

"Armed since 1936 with his new powers as Head of the German Police, Himmler now stepped up the campaign against the Church. Together with his deputy Reinhard Heydrich, he placed secret agents in Church organizations, and escalated police harassment of clerics. There was a further clamp-down on the diocesan press, restrictions were placed on pilgrimages and processions, even Catholic marriage guidance and parenthood classes were banned because they did not convey the National Socialist view of these things.”

[ifinnegan]

This is utter garbage.

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

Just like Nancy Pelosi calling abortion “sacred”....cultural Catholics are as susceptible to infestation as anybody, perhaps moreso by definition that they are already pulled toward themselves, emotional feel-good as a god.

Who cast so many votes for Obama....as well as against....and similarly in every past election in the last two decades.

The source of Hitler’s support, his evil, was evil-infested folks. Some purged themselves, some didn’t, and for enough, it was too late either way.

Who killed Jesus? Some Jews technically - infested by evil, making their free will choice. Evil is not ethic or racial, but goes after us all. I killed Jesus, every time I sin. And so far He’s shown me mercy, when I go to confession and repent completely and sincerely.

I knew I would be voting for a Destroyer if I voted for the black candidate years ago. Many others didn’t think that deeply. That’s also how Hitler got elected.

Maybe instead of blaming Hitler’s voters, we should be blaming Hitler’s opposing candidates and their parties!!!!!!

[elhombrelibre]

http://creation.com/review-walker-swastika-against-the-cross

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

The Nazi argument against the Jews was more based on racial and ethnic factors than religious reasons. The Nazis LOATHED Christianity-—Catholicism and Protestantism and all other forms. Jesus was after all Jewish-—a reason for the Fuehrer to thoroughly despise Christianity in all of its forms.

Anti-Semitism in Europe has very deep roots which Nazism exploited. Jews were forbidden to own property throughout most of European history-—therefore confined in urban ghettoes. The Jews became dominant various professions-—most notably money lending, currency exchange, precious metals. They also became middlemen and merchants, buying wholesale and selling retail. Because of Jewish business and professional practices, Hitler and other anti-Semites viewed them as parasites feeding off and exploiting the host countries they were living in.

[Campion]

it goes without saying that a mass political party organized in 85% Catholic Bavaria must have been, in some sense, compatible with Roman Catholicism.

LOL. Nazism's origins were with the "Los von Rom Bewegung" ("away from Rome movement") in Vienna. It came out of an anti-Catholic, neo-pagan (including Blavatsky's "Theosophist" cult) milieu. There was never anything "compatible with Roman Catholicism" about it.

[Alex Murphy]

Maybe instead of blaming Hitler’s voters, we should be blaming Hitler’s opposing candidates and their parties!!!!!!

An interesting observation. Were Hitler's opponents the equivalent of today's McCain / Romney, i.e. offering "National Socialism Lite"?

[Wallace T.]

In the 1932 German elections, Hitler and the Nazis drew greater support from the Lutheran dominated areas in the north and center of Germany than in the Catholic areas of the south. The Reformed (Calvinist) areas, mostly in the west, close to the Dutch and French borders, were not enthusiastic for the Nazis. Luther was well known for his anti-Semitic diatribes written toward the end of his life. There were of course Catholics and Calvinists who despised the Jews, but Luther's disdain for Jews had a more lasting effect on members of the church that bears his name.