This involved an unlikely coalition of the government, liberals, and conservatives pursuing a series of policies which included: a desire to see Protestantism dominant in Germany (popular amongst Prussian conservatives), efforts to ensure that intellectual life was free from Catholic clerical influence (popular amongst liberals), and the establishment of a German community which was free from the external influence of the Pope (popular among members of the Prussian-dominated government). In the early summer of 1933 this led to the establishment of a ‘Reich Church’ to replace the regional churches which had made up the old Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (as the German Protestant Church was called). As nationalism, and racial and ethnic tensions, are once more on the rise in 21st-century Europe, the alliance between millions of Christians and the Nazis, and the far-right generally across the European continent in the 1930s and ‘40s, stands as a stark warning.
Author: Martyn Whittock
Published at: 2026-01-31 22:11:00
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