Kirchenkampf

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Kirchenkampf (German: [ˈkɪʁçn̩kampf], lit. 'church struggle') is a German term which pertains to the situation of the Christian churches in Germany during the Nazi period (1933–1945). Sometimes used ambiguously, the term may refer to one or more of the following different "church struggles":

1. The internal dispute within German Protestantism between the German Christians (Deutsche Christen) and the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) over control of the Protestant churches;
2. The tensions between the Nazi regime and the Protestant church bodies; and
3. The tensions between the Nazi regime and the Roman Catholic Church.

When Hitler obtained power in 1933, 95% of Germans were Christian, with 63% being Protestant and 32% being Catholic.^[1] Many historians maintain that Hitler's goal in the Kirchenkampf entailed not only ideological struggle, but ultimately the eradication of the churches.^[2][3][4] Other historians maintain no such plan existed.^[5] The Salvation Army, Christian Saints, Bruderhof,^[6] and the Seventh-day Adventist Church all disappeared from Germany during the Nazi era.^[7]

Some leading Nazis such as Alfred Rosenberg and Martin Bormann were vehemently anti-Christian, and sought to de-Christianize Germany in the long term in favor of a racialized form of Germanic paganism. The Nazi Party saw the church struggle as an important ideological battleground. Hitler biographer Ian Kershaw wrote of the struggle in terms of an ongoing and escalating conflict between the Nazi state and the Christian churches. Historian Susannah Heschel wrote that the Kirchenkampf refers only to an internal dispute between members of the Confessing Church and members of the (Nazi-backed^[8]) "German Christians" over control of the Protestant church.^[9] Pierre Aycoberry wrote that for Catholics the phrase kirchenkampf was reminiscent of the kulturkampf of Otto von Bismarck's time – a campaign which had sought to reduce the influence of the Catholic Church in majority Protestant Germany.