Was Hitler a Christian?

[ApeNotKillApe]

What shall we do with...the Jews?...I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings...are to be taken from them.
What shall we do with...the Jews?...I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews.
What shall we do with...the Jews? I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach on pain of loss of life and limb.
What shall we do with...the Jews?...set fire to their synagogues or schools and bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them.
What shall we do with...the Jews?...their homes also should be razed and destroyed.

all quotes from Martin Luther...who surely would have attained the rank of Oberstgruppenführer for his pupil Adolf.

Are Christians really expected to do all that work? Geez, and you thought being a Jew was hard...

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Most scholars agree that Hitler came to reject the Christianity of his upbringing, partially because his father was a secularist. Hitler also claimed on numerous occasions that he was raised to power by divine providence, so it's unlikely he was an outright atheist, though of course he could have been making his proclamations about being Catholic and being providentially chosen just to solidify his powerbase and elevate his mythos. As I said, exactly what you'd expect of a psychopath with power.

The problem also exists that we're talking about a person whose views morphed over time, to become increasingly hostile to the church toward the end. In his early speeches, he uses Christian language and concepts...by the end, some of the diaries/memoirs of his officers indicate that he was outright hostile to Christianity, and thought it needed to be subjugated.

[Albert] Speer wrote after the war that Hitler had "no real attachment" to Catholicism, but that he never formally left the Church. [Historian Laurence] Rees concludes that "Hitler's 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". [...] [Historian] Julian Baggini writes that Hitler's Germany was not a "straightforwardly atheist state," but one which "sacrilized" notions of blood and nation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_...olf_Hitler

[abaris]

Most scholars agree that Hitler came to reject the Christianity of his upbringing, partially because his father was a secularist.

No, they don't. It's still a big we don't know if and what he believed. Truth is, we don't even know where his antisemitism really came from and when it began to be an obsession. In Vienna he collaborated with a jew selling the postcards he painted and he socialised with jews when staying at the men's asylum.

All we do know is that he was influenced by the figures I named before - by his own admission. Later on, after the first war, he was heavily influenced by Dietrich Eckart. These are known facts, as well as him being influenced by the Wagner clan, who also was antisemitic. Ironically, Richard Wagner's son, Siegfried, was gay.

We have to very careful when it comes to the accounts of August Kubizek, who was a close friend of Hitler in Vienna, or Albert Speer in his memories. Both tried to be seen in a positive light. Speer more than Kubizek, since Kubizek only indirectly profited from Hitler and never held any official position.

We can only go what he said in his speeches, what he wrote in Mein Kampf and what he said at his table conversation at his headquarters, recorded by the aforementioned Henri Picker.

[Pat Mustard]

Most scholars agree that Hitler came to reject the Christianity of his upbringing, partially because his father was a secularist. Hitler also claimed on numerous occasions that he was raised to power by divine providence, so it's unlikely he was an outright atheist, though of course he could have been making his proclamations about being Catholic and being providentially chosen just to solidify his powerbase and elevate his mythos. As I said, exactly what you'd expect of a psychopath with power.

The problem also exists that we're talking about a person whose views morphed over time, to become increasingly hostile to the church toward the end. In his early speeches, he uses Christian language and concepts...by the end, some of the diaries/memoirs of his officers indicate that he was outright hostile to Christianity, and thought it needed to be subjugated.

[Albert] Speer wrote after the war that Hitler had "no real attachment" to Catholicism, but that he never formally left the Church. [Historian Laurence] Rees concludes that "Hitler's 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". [...] [Historian] Julian Baggini writes that Hitler's Germany was not a "straightforwardly atheist state," but one which "sacrilized" notions of blood and nation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_...olf_Hitler

What I'd say about Hitler and christianity is that he wanted to shape it towards his own ends. This can be seen by the creation of the German faction within the evangelical church and the various attempts (mostly successful) to subsume catholic and protestant social groups into the wider Nazi plethora of social groups.

But this being said he was no different than a whole string of strong christian rulers stringing all the way back to Constantine the Great of Rome. Such rulers included Henry IV of Germany, the various Capets of France, the Hapsburg HRE and Spanish Emperors, English and British Kings such as Henry II, Henry VIII and James II &VII (second of England, seventh of Scotland, who had the KJV written specifically to alter the christian message to bolster his conception of the divine right of kings), the Scandinavian kings, especially after the rise of protestantism, and last but not least the Russian Tsars. Powerful men throughout history have tried to mould organised religion to their whims, especially christianity, because organised religion grants a whole nexus and scaffolding of power to which the powerful can buttress their position. I'd be very much suprised if none of above mentioned had the same attitude to christianity as Hitler did (in that they believed in god, but thought the religion was there to serve them).

[Anomalocaris]

 Christians, whatever else they might or might not be, do not hold the belief that "Christianity is all full of shit" as Hitler evidently believed.

Horseshit.

There are protestant motherfuckers who do not even consider catholics to be christians.

That completely irrelevant to what I said.

[Godscreated]

Beside you.

GC

You mean to say that I get God all to myself?  No wonder the other 7 billion + people never get any of their prayers answered.  I'll tell God to send the devil to keep you company.

 God's beside you to get you to quit keeping the devil's company.

GC

[Godscreated]

 I see you have no respect for your fellow human beings, the correct wording is Holy Bible,

Your misogynistic, racist, psychopathic screed is quite like the old Holy Roman Empire, in that it is very much not a holy thing. It barely even qualifies as a biblion.

 Having a bad day are you, well better to take it out on someone who understands.

GC

[Godscreated]

Beside you.

GC

No he isn't. Since God is nothing more than your wishful thinking and your imagination, and since you are not physically near me, your fictional super hero is NOT near me.

The only correct thing to say about all god claims is that they are popular, and in that context, yes, those claims are hard to get away from. I cant watch TV or drive down the street even look in my snail mail box without getting a sales pitch. 

And the worst part is that every claimant of every god of all names, you all think you got it right. Your "God" is no more next to me than Yoda or Harry Potter.

 I didn't say He was beside you, so lower your egotistical manner and stay away from post that are not intended for you.

GC

[Godscreated]

@ Redbeard The Pink, I'm not going around and around with you, if you want to believe Hitler was a Christian fine, you will be in a minority that holds no effect on the reality of history.

GC

[Minimalist]

Horseshit.

There are protestant motherfuckers who do not even consider catholics to be christians.

That completely irrelevant to what I said.

Not to me it isn't.