Was hitler a catholic?

[Charlemagne_II]

KingJohn

This gives me reason to believe he was an Atheist.

The fact that Hitler was present at the dedication of the new Nietzsche museum, and even had a photo taken of himself standing next to a bust of Nietzsche, suggests very strongly that you are right. Had he been a Christian of any denomination, he would have had more self respect than to help honor the world’s most famous atheist.

google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=nietzsche+hitler+photo&oq=nietzsche+hitler+photo&gs_l=hp.12…33i38.684.6528.0.8930.22.16.0.6.6.0.372.2099.7j8j0j1.16.0…0.0…1c.1.12.psy-ab.kiA24uylYbo&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.46340616,d.eWU&fp=3f53a0bc3d68739b&biw=1014&bih=593

 

[ngill09]

Well, he was no Christian neither was he a Catholic. I like to call him an Atheist because it was clear, he didn’t believe in God. Atheists can try and twists and distort all they want, Hitler hated God and didn’t believe in him.

Nowhere does Hitler say he hates God or doesn’t believe in Him. In many places he says he does believe in God and attributes his perverse works to Divine Will.

KingJohn

This gives me reason to believe he was an Atheist.

The fact that Hitler was present at the dedication of the new Nietzsche museum, and even had a photo taken of himself standing next to a bust of Nietzsche, suggests very strongly that you are right. Had he been a Christian of any denomination, he would have had more self respect than to help honor the world’s most famous atheist.

google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=nietzsche+hitler+photo&oq=nietzsche+hitler+photo&gs_l=hp.12…33i38.684.6528.0.8930.22.16.0.6.6.0.372.2099.7j8j0j1.16.0…0.0…1c.1.12.psy-ab.kiA24uylYbo&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.46340616,d.eWU&fp=3f53a0bc3d68739b&biw=1014&bih=593

Nietzsche was arguably not even an atheist.

 

[Charlemagne_II]

Adolf Hitler

“The religions are all alike, no matter what they call themselves. They have no future – certainly none for the Germans. Fascism, if it likes, may come to terms with the Church. So shall I. Why not? That will not prevent me from tearing up Christianity root and branch and annihilating it in Germany.”

What Martin Niemöller said, a Lutheran pastor in Germany who spent several years in one of Hitler’s concentration camps, appears in the Congressional Record, 14, October 1968, page 31636, as:

“When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church — and there was nobody left to be concerned.”

 

[edwest2]

Yes.

Peace,
Ed

 

[ngill09]

Adolf Hitler

“The religions are all alike, no matter what they call themselves. They have no future – certainly none for the Germans. Fascism, if it likes, may come to terms with the Church. So shall I. Why not? That will not prevent me from tearing up Christianity root and branch and annihilating it in Germany.”

What Martin Niemöller said, a Lutheran pastor in Germany who spent several years in one of Hitler’s concentration camps, appears in the Congressional Record, 14, October 1968, page 31636, as:

“When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church — and there was nobody left to be concerned.”

Yeah, and I hear you can be imprisoned for preaching Christianity in the Atheist country of Saudi Arabia.

 

[ngill09]

Adolf Hitler's prayer:

For this, to be sure, from the child’s primer down to the last newspaper, every theater and every movie house, every advertising pillar and every billboard, must be pressed into the service of this one great mission, until the timorous prayer of our present parlor patriots: ‘Lord, make us free!’ is transformed in the brain of the smallest boy into the burning plea: 'Almighty God, bless our arms when the time comes; be just as thou hast always been; judge now whether we be deserving of freedom; Lord, bless our battle!"

This one’s ironic given the “Separation of Church and State” thread here:
Adolf Hitler:

Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith …we need believing people.

Adolf Hitler:

We were convinced that the people need and require this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.

“In Freethinkers Hall, which before the Nazi resurgence was the national headquarters of the German Freethinkers League, the Berlin Protestant church authorities have opened a bureau for advice to the public in church matters. Its chief object is to win back former churchgoers and assist those who have not previously belonged to any religious congregation in obtaining church membership. The German Freethinkers League, which was swept away by the national revolution, was the largest of such organizations in Germany. It had about 500,000 members…”

 

[Fairwinds]

More to the point, if Hitler was a Catholic, was he a Catholic in good standing with the Church? Some like to point out that anyone baptized a Catholic is a Catholic until he dies, whether or not he renounces Catholicism. I don’t see the point of debating this. Clearly Hitler was baptized a Catholic. But the real question is whether as an adult he was a practicing Catholic in good standing with the Church.

Or if he was something else, what was he? Pagan? Atheist? Etc.

hitler was Catholic in the same way that Count Tilly, Napoleon Bonaparte, Francisco Franco or Ferdinand Marcos were Catholic.

 

[edwest2]

You’ll already be aware that this is getting close to dangerous ground.

If we try to blame the Holocaust on Hitler alone, or on one sector of society, or on anything else alone then it may happen again. There was universal culpability, and many of us here may have been swept along too.

I don’t understand what you are saying. My parents were both in Germany for the entire war. We had friends who were there as well. This has led me to study the Nazis in great detail.

Peace,
Ed

 

[inocente]

I don’t understand what you are saying. My parents were both in Germany for the entire war. We had friends who were there as well. This has led me to study the Nazis in great detail.

I posted that in November 2010, so maybe I won’t understand what I was saying either.

I think I meant there but for the grace of God. It’s tempting to say we could never do such things and blame it on some evil only found in Germans, but they were human as we are human, we all share the same human nature. That means we are capable of the same things, and unless we’re constantly on our guard the horror could happen again.

 

[Charlemagne_II]

In 1933, the same year that Hitler was professing to be on the side of religion, he said this:

“I am insulted by the persistent assertion that I want war. Am I a fool? War! It would settle nothing.” Interview with Le Matin, November 10, 1933

As subsequent events proved, Hitler was against Christianity and for war.

 

[Ismael]

Yes.

Peace,
Ed

Hitler might have believed he was a “Catholic”… so in that sense he might have been, but he was certainly NOT representative of Catholicism and Catholics in general, just like an hardcore capitalist who claims to be communist is representative of communism

However, Hitler had very strange ideas that are very contrary to what the Catholic Church (or Christianity in general teaches).

He admired some things about the Church (organization) but despised others (i.e. acceptance that all humans are equally children of God).

He did however have very anti-religeous sentiments. He disagreed with the estabilished Christianity. Hitler & Co. sought to create a new form of “Christianity” based upon Nazi ideology, but not based upon something the Catholic Church might agree upon.

Hitler’s Christianity was something that mixed Nietzsche, Huxley and R. Bultmann (although none of them would have agreed with Hitler in the end). A sort of “athesit religion” based upon cult of a superior race, with an Aryan Jesus as the Uber Mensch.

Of couse also today several celebrities ‘claim to be Catholic’, but refute most of the Church teachings.

So the answer is: he might have been a ‘cultural catholic’ (ie. a person born into a Catholic family) and might have believed to be Catholic (I strongly doubt that though), but his thoughts and acts are against what the Church teaches.

If people seek to use Hitler against the Church it is pointless. Most nazi were Germans (Hitler was Austrian though), does it mean that Germans are inherently evil or are they representative of the German people as a whole?

 

[robwar]

Hitler might have believed he was a “Catholic”… so in that sense he might have been, but he was certainly NOT representative of Catholicism and Catholics in general, just like an hardcore capitalist who claims to be communist is representative of communism

However, Hitler had very strange ideas that are very contrary to what the Catholic Church (or Christianity in general teaches).

He admired some things about the Church (organization) but despised others (i.e. acceptance that all humans are equally children of God).

He did however have very anti-religeous sentiments. He disagreed with the estabilished Christianity. Hitler & Co. sought to create a new form of “Christianity” based upon Nazi ideology, but not based upon something the Catholic Church might agree upon.

Hitler’s Christianity was something that mixed Nietzsche, Huxley and R. Bultmann (although none of them would have agreed with Hitler in the end). A sort of “athesit religion” based upon cult of a superior race, with an Aryan Jesus as the Uber Mensch.

Of couse also today several celebrities ‘claim to be Catholic’, but refute most of the Church teachings.

So the answer is: he might have been a ‘cultural catholic’ (ie. a person born into a Catholic family) and might have believed to be Catholic (I strongly doubt that though), but his thoughts and acts are against what the Church teaches.

If people seek to use Hitler against the Church it is pointless. Most nazi were Germans (Hitler was Austrian though), does it mean that Germans are inherently evil or are they representative of the German people as a whole?

Yes, Hitler was baptized Catholic and did go through confirmation. However, he never practiced it and did everything possible against Christianity. He also was a practicing occultist and a very immoral man. Your answers is very good. Hitler subscribed to the idea of riding Christianity of anything “jewish”. He was a sicko that left his faith.

 

[Charlemagne_II]

One famous Catholic’s opinion of Hitler in 1933:

“Having been asked the question ‘What in your opinion were the most stupid things of 1933?’ I can answer it very simply if I may be permitted to answer it sincerely. By far the stupidest thing done, not only in the last year, but in the last two or three centuries, was the acceptance by the Germans of the Dictatorship of Hitler, to say nothing of Goering.” G. K. Chesterton

 

[edwest2]

Hitler might have believed he was a “Catholic”… so in that sense he might have been, but he was certainly NOT representative of Catholicism and Catholics in general, just like an hardcore capitalist who claims to be communist is representative of communism

However, Hitler had very strange ideas that are very contrary to what the Catholic Church (or Christianity in general teaches).

He admired some things about the Church (organization) but despised others (i.e. acceptance that all humans are equally children of God).

He did however have very anti-religeous sentiments. He disagreed with the estabilished Christianity. Hitler & Co. sought to create a new form of “Christianity” based upon Nazi ideology, but not based upon something the Catholic Church might agree upon.

Hitler’s Christianity was something that mixed Nietzsche, Huxley and R. Bultmann (although none of them would have agreed with Hitler in the end). A sort of “athesit religion” based upon cult of a superior race, with an Aryan Jesus as the Uber Mensch.

Of couse also today several celebrities ‘claim to be Catholic’, but refute most of the Church teachings.

So the answer is: he might have been a ‘cultural catholic’ (ie. a person born into a Catholic family) and might have believed to be Catholic (I strongly doubt that though), but his thoughts and acts are against what the Church teaches.

If people seek to use Hitler against the Church it is pointless. Most nazi were Germans (Hitler was Austrian though), does it mean that Germans are inherently evil or are they representative of the German people as a whole?

I answered the question and you went off in various directions. The exact history of Hitler’s association with the Catholic Church, Christianity and religion in general is complicated and should not be the subject of guesswork. Volumes have been published of Hitler’s public speeches to the people. He thanks God in one speech.

Better to look at Hitler from the perspective of Pope Pius XII. The Pope issued various statements condemning the Nazis. He was very concerned about all people being persecuted at the time, not just Catholics. As someone who has researched Hitler, the Nazi Party (NSDAP) and the political situation in Europe at the time, it was clear that Hitler was a politician first. He didn’t like Protestants either.

As someone who studies photos from the period, one common theme occurs at the burial sites of German soldiers that were killed during the war. There are crosses on their graves. But it is still difficult today, to calmly look at the data, the facts, and assemble a proper picture. But most of the truth has come out.

You’ll have to provide references to your claims since his book, Mein Kampf, does not touch on the things you raised. You also do not seem to be aware that Hitler’s personal bodyguards, the SS, which gradually evolved into a military arm of the Wehrmacht (armed forces), had to prove their pure blood with a genealogy going far back. That pure Aryan blood must avoid contamination by inferior races and ethnic groups, so they had to be eliminated.

Peace,
Ed