Religion in the Third ReichYouth Propaganda

Abstract

The article explores the place of religion in the public propaganda of the Third Reich, with a special emphasis on youth policy in the 1930s. It shows that the Nazi attitudes towards religious institutions remained highly ambiguous. On the one hand, they sought to create a new mytho-ritual system based on traditional Germanic beliefs. On the other hand, the state sought legitimation from Christian institutions, as illustrated by the Concordat with the Roman Catholic Church and the establishment of the «National Reich Church» for the Protestants. In addition, the article shows that the formation of the Nazi ideology was not only the consequence of the social and political crisis of the Weimar Republic, but also resulted from the crisis of the secular culture.