From news@sunmail.lrz-muenchen.de Thu Apr 3 03:41:56 1997 Return-Path: news@sunmail.lrz-muenchen.de Received: from beaver.cs.washington.edu (beaver.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.1]) by aramis.rutgers.edu (8.6.12+bestmx+oldruq+newsunq+grosshack/8.6.12) with ESMTP id DAA26951 for ; Thu, 3 Apr 1997 03:41:55 -0500 Received: from sunsrv5.lrz-muenchen.de (sunsrv5.lrz-muenchen.de [129.187.13.15]) by beaver.cs.washington.edu (8.7.5/7.1be+) with SMTP id AAA07095 for ; Thu, 3 Apr 1997 00:41:51 -0800 (PST) Received: from sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de by sunsrv5.lrz-muenchen.de; Thu, 3 Apr 97 10:41:45 +0200 Received: by sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de (5.0/SMI-SVR4) id AA26394; Thu, 3 Apr 1997 10:41:45 +0200 To: soc-religion-christian@moderators.uu.net Path: not-for-mail From: Helmut.Richter@lrz-muenchen.de (Helmut Richter) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Nazism and the Chruches (was Re: Einstein quote on Christians) Date: 3 Apr 1997 08:41:44 GMT Organization: Leibniz-Rechenzentrum, Muenchen (Germany) Lines: 100 Message-Id: <5hvqg8$pon$1@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de> References: <5g7qj2$kqv@geneva.rutgers.edu> <5gahje$naj@geneva.rutgers.edu> <5gia9r$40h@geneva.rutgers.edu> Reply-To: Helmut.Richter@lrz-muenchen.de Nntp-Posting-Host: sun5.lrz-muenchen.de Dave Charles wrote about a touchy chapter in German church history, but most regrettably without the necessary historical accuracy. The quotations below are from this posting. Rick Gutbrod seconded with a longer posting which contained more reliable material. Both postings, however, lack an understanding of how the persecution of the large churches by the Nazis worked. Hitler's first aim, not only concerning churches but as much also concerning other groupings like trade unions, recreational associations or youth organisations, was not destruction but what he called "Gleichschaltung" (lit.: switching equal). That is, no matter whether friend or enemy, the aim was that *all* organisation be not forbidden but controlled by the Nazis. In this strategy, not weakening but strengthening the organisation of the churches was his aim: the better the church is organised, the easier is it to get hold of it by replacing few people at the top. To this end, a centralised church organisation was attempted with a Reich bishop at the top - an attempt which failed later because nobody was interested in the Reich bishop's activities. The contract (Konkordat) with the Roman Church in 1933 was a decisive step in the direction to strengthen in order to control. In hindsight, it was probably a blunder of the leadership of the Roman Church who underestimated the positive effect the Konkordat would have on Hitler's reputation and overestimated the area of relative freedom for the church the Konkordat would offer. The Church was assured some security and a number of rights in order to increase the state's influence. At the same time, local a ctivities of the churches were hindered at a local level. Both postings contain comments on the "spiritual leaders". This is an inaccurate term if those people are meant who were installed by the Nazis into the top positions of the churches in order to control. In fact, there was no church authority functioning at that time. As early as 1934 the Bekenntnissynode der Deutschen Evangelischen Kirche (Confession Synod of the German Evangelical Church) stated: "We state: the constitution of the German Evangelical Church is abolished. Its legitimate bodies do not exist any longer. The men who have usurped the church leadership in the Reich and in the States have separated themselves from the Christian Church by their actions." >The German churches were creating a significant problem for Hitler >concerning his persecution of the Jews. He knew that he would not be able >to challenge the churches, but would need to silence them to continue his >plans. As the persecution started to grow Hitler called together the >leaders of the Catholic Church in Germany and the Lutheran Church for a >meeting. He offered to establish a mandatory "Church Tax" (Kirchensteuer) >with the payroll deductions going directly to the church IF the church >would ignore the issue of the Jews. The churches agreed. Church taxes in Germany have their roots in the secularisation, i.e. the confiscation of church property by the state in 1803 where the churches lost most of their previous income. It was different from one region to another how a compensation was impleme nted. In Bavaria for instance, church taxes in their present form exist since 1908. There is, however, one feature which indeed stems from the Nazi time: as a consequence of the Konkordat, since 1934, the church tax was taken as a deduction from the salar y, just like the tax of the state. This practice which belongs into the time where Hitler still thought he could easily "switch equal" the churches as a whole was revoked in 1942; it was reestablished in December 1945, months after the breakdown of the Hitler regime. As to the alleged meeting, I would like to learn when, where and with which participants it took place. >Most of the >"new" churches in Germany were built in the late 1940's from this money. Could you please name one or two churches in Germany that were built in the 1940s? I can hardly imagine that Hitler would have allowed to build churches, rather he commanded the destruction of churches (e.g. St. Matthew's in Munich, the oldest Protestant church in town, had to be blown up in June 1938 because it had too prominent a place in the "capital of the movement"). From 1943 onward, building churches would have been futile since the towns were repeatedly bombed by the allies. From 1945 onward, in the years of famine, people as well as churches has other problems than building churches. From 1948 onward, there was hardly much of the money from Hitler's days left as the old currency (Reichsmark) was no longer valid. >In order to eliminate the tax deduction >you must make a public declaration posted at City Hall and in your church >of your intent to not pay the tax. This statement is incorrect as far as the required publicity is concerned. >If you do not pay the tax you are not >eligible for "special services" of the church, such as weddings, baptism, >funerals, etc. The tax is simply the membership fee. In principle, there is nothing special about a church who will only do these services to their own members. You might be interested in the amount of church taxes: they are between 8 and 10 percent of the state income tax which in turn, depending on how much you earn and how many people live on your income, is roughly 12 to 35 percent of the income. Helmut