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:''For the significance of occultism and paganism in Nazism see the article Religious aspects of Nazism.'' In 1933, prior to the annexation of Austria into Germany, the population of Germany was approximately 67% Protestant and 33% Catholic.〔("The German Churches and the Nazi State" ). ''USHMM''. Retrieved 10 July 2014.〕 A census in May 1939, six years into the Nazi era〔Johnson, Eric (2000). ''Nazi terror: the Gestapo, Jews, and ordinary Germans" New York: Basic Books, (p. 10. )〕 and incorporating the annexation of mostly Catholic Austria into Germany, indicates that 54% considered themselves Protestant (including non-denominational Christians), 40% Catholic, 3.5% self-identified as "''gottgläubig''" (lit. "believers in god", often described as predominately creationist and deistic〔(Valdis O. Lumans; Himmler's Auxiliaries; 1993; p. 48 )〕), and 1.5% as non-religious. There was some diversity of personal views among the Nazi leadership as to the future of religion in Germany. Anti-Church radicals included Hitler's Personal Secretary Martin Bormann, Minister for Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, Neo-Pagan Nazi Philosopher Alfred Rosenberg, and Neo-Pagan Occultist Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Some Nazis, such as Hans Kerrl, who served as Hitler's Minister for Church Affairs, believed Christianity could be Nazified into "Positive Christianity", by renouncing its Jewish origins, the Old Testament and Apostle's Creed, and holding Hitler as a new "Messiah". Nazism wanted to transform the subjective consciousness of the German people—their attitudes, values and mentalities—into a single-minded, obedient "national community". The Nazis believed they would therefore have to replace class, religious and regional allegiances.〔Ian Kershaw; ''The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation; 4th Edn; Oxford University Press; New York; 2000"; pp. 173–74〕 Under the ''Gleichschaltung'' process, Hitler attempted to create a unified Protestant Reich Church from Germany's 28 existing Protestant churches. The plan failed, and was resisted by the Confessing Church. Persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany followed the Nazi takeover. Hitler moved quickly to eliminate Political Catholicism. Amid harassment of the Church, the Reich concordat treaty with the Vatican was signed in 1933, and promised to respect Church autonomy. Hitler routinely disregarded the Concordat, closing all Catholic institutions whose functions were not strictly religious. Clergy, nuns, and lay leaders were targeted, with thousands of arrests over the ensuing years. The Church accused the regime of "fundamental hostility to Christ and his Church". Smaller religious minorities such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and Bahá'í Faith were banned in Germany, while the eradication of Judaism by the genocide of its adherents was attempted. The Salvation Army, Christian Saints and Seventh Day Adventist Church all disappeared from Germany, while astrologers, healers and fortune tellers were banned. The small pagan "German Faith Movement", which worshipped the sun and seasons, supported the Nazis.〔(GCSE Bitesize: The Treatment of Religion ); BBC; online 13 July 2014〕 Many historians believed that Hitler and the Nazis intended to eradicate Christianity in Germany after winning victory in the war.〔 *Sharkey, (Word for Word/The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler's Forces Planned To Destroy German Christianity ), New York Times, 13 January 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 Hiltz 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." *Shirer, William L., (Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany ), pp. 240, Simon and Schuster, 1990: “And even fewer paused to reflect that under the leadership of Rosenberg, Bormann and Himmler, who were backed by Hiltz, 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 ), pp. 290, 363, Doubleday 1968: The Nazis sought "to eradicate Christianity in Germany root and branch."〕〔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.”〕 ==Background== Christianity has ancient roots among Germanic peoples dating to the missionary work of Columbanus and St. Boniface in the 6th–8th centuries. The Reformation, initiated by Martin Luther in 1517, divided German Christians between a majority of Protestants and a minority of Roman Catholics. The south and west remained mainly Catholic, while north and east became mainly Protestant.〔(Encyclopædia Britannica Online - ''Germany : Religion'' ); web 23 May 2013〕 The Catholic Church enjoyed a degree of privilege in the Bavarian region, the Rhineland and Westphalia as well as parts in south-west Germany, while in the Protestant North, Catholics suffered some discrimination.〔United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, @ushmm.org See Churches in Nazi Germany〕〔Lewy, Gunther, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany, 1964, First Da Capo Press, pp. 342–45〕 Bismarck's ''Kulturkampf'' ("Battle for Culture") of 1871–78 had seen an attempt to assert a Protestant vision of German nationalism over Germany, and fused anticlericalism and suspicion of the Catholic population, whose loyalty was presumed to lie with Austria and France, rather than the new German Empire. The Centre Party had formed in 1870, initially to represent the religious interests of Catholics and Protestants, but was transformed by the ''Kulturkampf'' into the "political voice of Catholics".〔Shelley Baranowski; ''Nazi Empire - German Colonialism and Imperialism from Bismarck to Hitler''; Cambridge University Press; 2011; pp.18-19〕 Bismarck's ''Culture Struggle'' failed in its attempt to eliminate Catholic institutions in Germany, or their strong connections outside of Germany, particularly various international missions and Rome.〔Encyclopedia Britannica Online: ''Blessed Clemens August, Graf von Galen''; web Apr 2013.〕 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「Religion in Nazi Germany」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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