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Catholic Church And Nazi Germany
Popes Pius XI (1922–1939) and Pius XII (1939–1958) led the Catholic Church during the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. Around a third of Germans were Catholic in the 1930s, most of whom lived in Southern Germany; Protestants dominated the north. The Catholic Church in Germany opposed the NSDAP, and in the 1933 elections, the proportion of Catholics who voted for the Nazi Party was lower than the national average. Nevertheless, the Catholic-aligned Centre Party voted for the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave Adolf Hitler additional domestic powers to suppress political opponents as Chancellor of Germany. President Paul Von Hindenburg continued to serve as Commander and Chief and he also continued to be responsible for the negotiation of international treaties until his death on 2 August 1934. Hitler and several other key Nazis had been raised as Catholics but they became hostile to the Church in their adulthood; Article 24 of the National Socialist Program called for conditio ...
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Erich Klausener
Erich Klausener (25 January 1885 – 30 June 1934) was a German Roman Catholic, Catholic politician and Catholic martyr in the "Night of the Long Knives", a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders. Family Klausener was born in Düsseldorf to a Catholic family. His father, Peter Klausener (1844–1904), was a member of the Austrian Flirsch Klausener family, who came to the Rhineland in 1740, and are relatives of the Cluysenaar family. His father studied law and served as an Assessor (law), assessor and justice of the peace in Malmedy, Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia. His mother, Elisabeth Bisenbach (1864–1944), was from an upper-class family in Düsseldorf. Klausener followed his father's career in public service, serving for a time in the Prussian Ministry of Commerce. He served as an artillery officer in Belgium, France and on the Eastern Front (World War I), eastern front of World War I, a ...
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Catholic Church In Germany
The Catholic Church in Germany () or Roman Catholic Church in Germany () is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the Pope, assisted by the Roman Curia, and with the German bishops. The current "Speaker" (i.e., Chairman) of the episcopal conference is Georg Bätzing, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Limburg. It is divided into 27 dioceses, 7 of them with the rank of metropolitan sees. Growing rejection of the Church has had its impact in Germany; nevertheless, 28.5% of the total population remain Roman Catholic (23.9 million people as of December 2022). Before the 1990 reunification of Germany by accession of the former German Democratic Republic (or East Germany), Roman Catholics were 42% of the population of West Germany. Religious demographic data is relatively accessible in Germany because, by law, all Christian taxpayers must declare their religious affiliation so that the church tax can be deducted by the state and passed on to the relevant c ...
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World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ...
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Mit Brennender Sorge
''Mit brennender Sorge'' ( , in English "With deep it. 'burning'anxiety") is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI, issued during the Nazi era on 10 March 1937 (but bearing a date of Passion Sunday, 14 March)."Church and state through the centuries", Sidney Z. Ehler & John B Morrall, pp. 518–519, org pub 1954, reissued 1988, Biblo & Tannen, 1988, Written in German, not the usual Latin, it was smuggled into Germany for fear of censorship and was read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches on one of the Church's busiest Sundays, Palm Sunday (21 March that year).Anton Gill; An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler; Heinemann; London; 1994; p.58 The encyclical condemned breaches of the 1933 '' Reichskonkordat'' agreement signed between the German Reich and the Holy See. It condemned " pantheistic confusion", " neopaganism", "the so-called myth of race and blood", and the idolizing of the State. It contained a vigorous defense of the Old Test ...
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Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally from the Latin , a Latinization of Greek (), meaning "circular", "in a circle", or "all-round", also part of the origin of the word encyclopedia). The term is now primarily associated with papal encyclicals. The term has been used by Catholics, Anglicans and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Catholic usage Although the term "encyclical" originally simply meant a circulating letter, it acquired a more specific meaning within the context of the Catholic Church. In 1740, Pope Benedict XIV wrote a letter titled ''Ubi primum'', which is generally regarded as the first encyclical. The term is now used almost exclusively for a kind of letter sent out by the pope. For the modern Catholic Church, a papal encyclical is a specific category of papal ...
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Catholic Bishops In Nazi Germany
Catholic bishops in Nazi Germany differed in their responses to the rise of Nazi Germany, World War II, and the Holocaust during the years 1933–1945. In the 1930s, the Episcopate of the Catholic Church of Germany comprised 6 Archbishops and 19 bishops while German Catholics comprised around one third of the population of Germany served by 20,000 priests. In the lead up to the 1933 Nazi takeover, German Catholic leaders were outspoken in their criticism of Nazism. Following the Nazi takeover, the Catholic Church sought an accord with the Government, was pressured to conform, and faced persecution. The regime had flagrant disregard for the Reich concordat with the Holy See, and the episcopate had various disagreements with the Nazi government, but it never declared an official sanction of the various attempts to overthrow the Hitler regime. Ian Kershaw wrote that the churches "engaged in a bitter war of attrition with the regime, receiving the demonstrative backing of millions of ...
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Night Of The Long Knives
The Night of the Long Knives (, ), also called the Röhm purge or Operation Hummingbird (), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate his power and alleviate the concerns of the German military about the role of Ernst Röhm and the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA), the Nazis' paramilitary organization, known colloquially as "Brownshirts". Nazi propaganda presented the murders as a preventive measure against an alleged imminent coup by the SA under Röhm – the so-called ''Röhm Putsch''. The primary instruments of Hitler's action were the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) paramilitary force under Himmler and its Security Service (SD), and Gestapo (secret police) under Reinhard Heydrich, which between them carried out most of the killings. Göring's personal police battalion also took part. Many of those killed ...
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Vatican City
Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (; ), is a Landlocked country, landlocked sovereign state and city-state; it is enclaved within Rome, the capital city of Italy and Bishop of Rome, seat of the Catholic Church. It became independent from the Kingdom of Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty. It is governed by the Holy See, itself a Legal status of the Holy See, sovereign entity under international law, which maintains Temporal power of the Holy See, its temporal power, governance, diplomacy, and spiritual independence. ''Vatican'' is also used as a metonym for the pope, the central authority of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Holy See and the Roman Curia. With an area of and a population of about 882 in 2024, it is the List of countries and dependencies by area, smallest sovereign state in the world both by area and List of countries and dependencies by population, by population. It is among the List of national capitals by population, least populated capit ...
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Reichskonkordat
The ''Reichskonkordat'' ("Concordat between the ... between the Holy See"> ... between the Holy See and the German Reich") is a treaty negotiated between the Vatican and the emergent Nazi Germany">Holy See and the German Reich">Holy See"> ... between the Holy See and the German Reich") is a treaty negotiated between the Vatican and the emergent Nazi Germany. It was signed on 20 July 1933 by Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII, on behalf of Pope Pius XI and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of President Paul von Hindenburg and the German government. It was ratified 10 September 1933 and it remains in force to this day. The treaty guarantees the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. When bishops take office, Article 16 states they are required to take an oath of loyalty to the Governor or President of the German Reich established according to the constitution. The treaty also requires all clergy to abstain from working in and ...
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National Socialist Program
The National Socialist Program, also known as the Nazi Party Program, the 25-point Program or the 25-point Plan (), was the party program of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP, and referred to in English as the Nazi Party). Adolf Hitler announced the party's program on 24 February 1920 before approximately 2,000 people in the Munich Festival of the Hofbräuhaus; within the program was written "The leaders of the Party swear to go straight forward, if necessary to sacrifice their lives in securing fulfilment of the foregoing points" and declared the program unalterable. The National Socialist Program originated at a DAP congress in Vienna, then was taken to Munich by the civil engineer and theorist Rudolf Jung, who having explicitly supported Hitler had been expelled from Czechoslovakia because of his political agitation. The historian Karl Dietrich Bracher summarizes the program by saying that its components were "hardly new" and that "German, Austrian and Bohe ...
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Paul Von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German military and political leader who led the Imperial German Army during the First World War and later became President of Germany (1919–1945), President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934. He played a key role in the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 when he appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. Hindenburg was born to a family of minor Prussian nobility in the Grand Duchy of Posen. Upon completing his education as a cadet, he enlisted in the Third Regiment of Foot Guards as a second lieutenant. He saw combat during the Austro-Prussian War, Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian War, Franco-Prussian wars. In 1873, he was admitted to the prestigious Preußische Hauptkadettenanstalt, War Academy in Berlin, where he studied before being appointed to the General Staff Corps. In 1885, he was promoted to major and became a member of the German General Staff. After ...
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Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming Chancellor of Germany#Nazi Germany (1933–1945), the chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of in 1934. His invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 marked the start of the Second World War. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust: the genocide of Holocaust victims, about six million Jews and millions of other victims. Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and moved to German Empire, Germany in 1913. He was decorated during his service in the German Army in the First World War, receiving the Iron Cross. In 1919 he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and in 1921 was app ...
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