Weimar and Nazi Germany Topic Summaries

Impacts on religion

GCSE > History > CCEA > GCSE History: Weimar and Nazi Germany (1890-1945) > Nazi dictatorship (1933–1939) > Impacts on religion
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Key Terms
  • The Nazis attempted to control churches through agreements and pressure. Religion was tolerated only if it supported Nazi ideology.
  • In 1933, Hitler signed the Concordat with the Pope, agreeing that Nazis and the Catholic Church would stay out of each other’s affairs. After the Pope’s 1937 denunciation of Nazi abuses, hundreds of Catholic priests were arrested.
  • The Protestant Church was reorganised into the National Reich Church, adopting Nazi symbols and replacing religious teachings with Nazi ideology.
  • Despite his efforts, Hitler never fully eliminated church influence.
  • The Protestant Pastor Martin Niemöller initially supported Hitler but became a vocal opponent of the Nazis in the late 1930s. He was imprisoned in a concentration camp for 6 years but survived.

‘First they came’ (1946) poem by Martin Niemöller

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

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