Quote:
Originally Posted by Stefan
I'm really not sure that Nazism had any specific religion though I agree with Kai that (much like communism) the idea was that eventually Nazism would take the place of religion.
|
It seems to me that
both idealogies tended to gravitate toward, and were led by, the cult of personality. Every home and business was required to have pics of the Learless Feader on the wall and statues and busts abounded, as though each dicatator wanted to be presented as the state diety to his adoring countrymen.
Both had the worshipped idealology. The Germans, the vaunted, hardworking volk, tiller of the land who was of the party and for the party; the Soviets had the bourgeoise, salt of the earth, strenghth of the nation, who was also of the party and for the party. Both forms of government have more in common than they have differences.
There are numerous examples of people of faith being persecuted in Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany actively surpressed Christians who saw nothing "Christian" about what was happening in the country at the time. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Neimoller come to mind first. While there was no active, organized opposition to the Christianity by the Nazi Party, other than attacks on dissidents, I have no doubt that judging by their desire to control the pulpit and the compulsary inclusion of all "Aryan" children into the various party-controlled youth organizations, that the eventual intent was to heavily marginalize the Church at some point, once the war was over.
There were Christian military leaders (e.g. Johannes Blaskowitz) whose Christian beliefs clashed with the doctrine and practice of the Nazi ideology and whose careers were cut short as a result