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''Kirchenkampf'' (English: "church struggle") is a German term pertaining 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": the internal dispute between the German Christians (''Deutsche Christen'') and the Confessing Church (''Bekennende Kirche'') over control of the Protestant churches; the battle between the Nazi regime and the Protestant church bodies; and the battle between the Nazi regime and the Roman Catholic Church. Around two thirds of Germans were Protestant, and one third Catholic when the Nazis took power. Many historians maintain that Hitler's goal in the ''Kirchenkampf'' entailed not only ideological struggle, but ultimately the eradication of the churches.〔Frank J. Coppa (Controversial Concordats ), p. 124, CUA Press, 1999〕〔Sharkey, Joe (Word for Word/The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler's Forces Planned To Destroy German Christianity ), ''New York Times'', January 13, 2002〕〔(The Nazi Master Plan: The Persecution of the Christian Churches ), ''Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion'', Winter 2001, publishing evidence compiled by the O.S.S. for the Nuremberg war-crimes trials of 1945 and 1946〕〔Griffin, Roger ''Fascism's relation to religion'' in Blamires, Cyprian, (World fascism: a historical encyclopedia, Volume 1 ), p. 10, ABC-CLIO, 2006: “There is no doubt that in the long run Nazi leaders such as Hitler and Himmler intended to eradicate Christianity just as ruthlessly as any other rival ideology, even if in the short term they had to be content to make compromises with it.”〕〔Mosse, George Lachmann, (Nazi culture: intellectual, cultural and social life in the Third Reich ), p. 240, Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2003: "Had the Nazis won the war their ecclesiastical policies would have gone beyond those of the German Christians, to the utter destruction of both the Protestant and the Catholic Church."〕〔Bendersky, Joseph W., (A concise history of Nazi Germany ), p. 147, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007: “Consequently, it was Hitler’s long range goal to eliminate the churches once he had consolidated control over his European empire.”〕〔Shirer, William L., (Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany ), p. 240, Simon and Schuster, 1990: “And even fewer paused to reflect that under the leadership of Rosenberg, Bormann and Himmler, who were backed by Hitler, the Nazi regime intended eventually to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists.”〕〔Fischel, Jack R., (Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust ), p. 123, Scarecrow Press, 2010: “The objective was to either destroy Christianity and restore the German gods of antiquity or to turn Jesus into an Aryan.”〕〔Dill, Marshall, (Germany: a modern history ) , p. 365, University of Michigan Press, 1970: “It seems no exaggeration to insist that the greatest challenge the Nazis had to face was their effort to eradicate Christianity in Germany or at least to subjugate it to their general world outlook.”〕〔Wheaton, Eliot Barculo (The Nazi revolution, 1933-1935: prelude to calamity:with a background survey of the Weimar era ), p. 290, 363, Doubleday 1968: The Nazis sought "to eradicate Christianity in Germany root and branch."〕 Other historians maintain no such plan existed.〔Steigmann-Gall, Richard (2003)' ''The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 260.〕〔Snyder, Louis L. (1981) ''Hitler's Third Reich: A Documentary History''. New York: Nelson-Hall, p. 249.〕〔Dutton, Donald G. (2007). ''The Psychology of Genocide, Massacres, and Extreme Violence''. Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 41.〕〔Heschel, Susannah (2008). ''The Aryan Jesus''. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 23.〕 The Salvation Army, Christian Saints and Seventh Day Adventist Church all disappeared from Germany during the Nazi era.〔(GCSE Bitesize: The Treatment of Religion ); BBC; online 13 July 2014〕 Nazi ideology was hostile to traditional Christianity in various respects and 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〔Stackelberg, Roderick (2007) ''The Routledge companion to Nazi Germany.'' New York: Routledge, (p. 261. )〕) "German Christians' over control of the Protestant church.〔Heschel, Susannah (1994). ("Nazifying Christian Theology" ) ''Church History'' 63 (4): 587-605.〕 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 destroy the influence of Catholicism in majority Protestant Germany. ==Background== Nazism wanted to transform the subjective consciousness of the German people - their attitudes, values and mentalities - into a single-minded, obedient "national community". According to Ian Kershaw, in order to achieve this, the Nazis believed they would have to replace class, religious and regional allegiances by a "massively enhanced national self-awareness to mobilize the German people psychologically for the coming struggle and to boost their morale during the inevitable war".〔Ian Kershaw; ''The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation; 4th Edn; Oxford University Press; New York; 2000; pp173-74〕 The Nazis disliked universities, intellectuals and the Catholic and Protestant churches. According to Gill, their long term plan was to "de-Christianise Germany after the final victory". The Nazis co-opted the term Gleichschaltung to mean conformity and subservience to the National Socialist German Workers' Party line: "there was to be no law but Hitler, and ultimately no god but Hitler".〔Anton Gill; An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler; Heinemann; London; 1994; pp. 14-15.〕 Nazi ideology conflicted with traditional Christian beliefs in various respects - Nazis criticized Christian notions of "meekness and guilt" on the basis that they "repressed the violent instincts necessary to prevent inferior races from dominating Aryans".〔(Encyclopedia Britannica Online - ''Fascism - Identification with Christianity'' ); web 24 April 2013〕 Aggressive anti-Church radicals like Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann saw the conflict with the Churches as a priority concern, and anti-church and anti-clerical sentiments were strong among grassroots party activists.〔Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; WW Norton & Company; London; p.381-382〕 East Prussian Party ''Gauleiter'' Erich Koch on the other hand, said that Nazism "had to develop from a basic Prussian-Protestant attitude and from Luther's unfinished Reformation".〔Laurence Rees; ''The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler''; Ebury Press 2012; p137〕 Hitler himself disdained Christianity:〔Alan Bullock; ''Hitler, a Study in Tyranny''; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; p218〕 Though raised a Catholic, Hitler rejected the Judeo-Christian conception of God and religion.〔Laurence Rees; ''The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler''; Ebury Press 2012; p135〕〔Alan Bullock; ''Hitler, a Study in Tyranny''; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; p216〕 Though he retained some regard for the organisational power of Catholicism, he had utter contempt for its central teachings, which he said, if taken to their conclusion, "would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure".〔Alan Bullock; ''Hitler, a Study in Tyranny''; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; p218〕〔 Hitler ultimately believed "one is either a Christian or a German" - to be both was impossible.〔Geoffrey Blainey; ''A Short History of Christianity''; Viking; 2011〕 However, important German conservative elements, such as the officer corps, opposed Nazi persecution of the churches and, in office, Hitler restrained his anticlerical instincts out of political considerations.〔〔Alan Bullock; ''Hitler, a Study in Tyranny''; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; p236〕 Hitler biographer Ian Kershaw wrote that, while many ordinary people were apathetic, after years of warning from Catholic clergy, Germany's Catholic population greeted the Nazi takeover with apprehension and uncertainty, while among German Protestants, many were optimistic a strengthened Germany might bring with it "inner, moral revitalisation".〔Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; WW Norton & Company; London; p.261〕 However, within a short period, the Nazi government's conflict with the churches was to become a source of great bitterness.〔Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; WW Norton & Company; London; p.372〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kirchenkampf」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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