- From the ashes of the Catholic Centre Party (Zentrum), rose the current Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party which when formed in 1949 effectively succeeded the pre-war Catholic Centre Party, with many former members joining the party, including its first leader Konrad Adenauer.
- Adenauer pardoned many former Nazis and reintegrated them into society, arguing that they were staunchly anti-communist and politically useful for the CDU in its struggle against East Germany and the Soviet Union’s influence in Europe.
- German news outlets for years have written hit pieces on the BJP and the RSS labelling them Hindu extremists, but have glossed over the inglorious history of their right-wing party which is now facing an existential crisis with the rise of AfD, which is an ultra-rightwing political party.
After the end of the Second World War that brought an end to the Nazi rule under Adolph Hitler, the vacuum of leadership was filled with leaders who once supported the brutal Nazi regime. From the ashes of the Catholic Centre Party (Zentrum), rose the current Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party which when formed in 1949 effectively succeeded the pre-war Catholic Centre Party, with many former members joining the party, including its first leader Konrad Adenauer.
The Catholic Centre Party though now shielded by some historians was instrumental in giving support to Hitler in 1933 when his party Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or the German for ‘National Socialist German Workers’ Party, aka Nazi fell short of seats in the Reichstag which was later christened as the German Bundestag.
The Catholic Centre Party was the major political force in Germany from the 19th century until its dissolution in 1933. It primarily represented Catholic interests and played a key role in surprisingly Leftist Weimar Republic politics. Fact is the Centre Party in March 1933, under the leadership of Ludwig Kaas, voted in favour of the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz), which gave Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers[1].
The Enabling Act officially titled Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich (lit. ’Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich’) gave the German Cabinet but most importantly, the Chancellor, Adolph Hitler power to make and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or the then President Paul von Hindenburg.
Over time it was ruled that the Catholic Centre Party was strongly opposed to Nazism and deemed it as hostile to Catholicism and democracy. But it voted in favour of the Enabling Act under duress. It has been stated that the Nazis had arrested and threatened political opponents, creating an atmosphere of fear. But the main aim was to protect the Church, Catholic and Lutheran which are still the predominant denomination in Germany in the hopes that Hitler would honour his promises to respect Catholic institutions.
Also, the Vatican was negotiating a concordat with Nazi Germany, which also played a very important role in letting them cooperate with the Nazis. It must be noted that in 1929, the Vatican signed the Lateran Treaty[2] to put an end to the heated ‘Roman Question’ with Benito Mussolini founder of the National Fascist Party (PNF). Under this treaty, the Vatican will be recognised as an independent state under the sovereignty of the Holy See or the Pope. After the treaty was signed, the Vatican referred to Mussolini as “the man whom providence has sent us” which means God-Send.
So much so, the Vatican ambassador or the Nuncio to Germany in the 1920s who later became the Vatican’s secretary of state responsible for signing a pact with Nazi Germany in 1933 became Pope Pius XII in 1939. The agreement stated that the Nazis would not interfere with the Catholic Church, and the Vatican would recognize the Nazi regime. This agreement gave the Nazis not only more power in Germany, it also gave them international recognition and success and helped to consolidate it. After the end of the war, many in the Vatican allegedly helped Nazis like Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele escape[3].
But one of the defences given to protect the legacy of the Catholic Centre Party is that it was dissolved in 1933 and its leaders went into exile. However, what they fail to mention is that Konrad Adenauer was the party’s first leader and German chancellor from 1949 to 1963. However, what no one will say is that Adenauer received a pension from the Nazi regime but it was deemed as a struggle against them. What is even more shocking and brazen was when Hans Globke was his Chief of Staff[4]. Globke was Germany’s highest civil servant in West Germany and more importantly, he was responsible for drafting and writing Hitler’s infamous Nuremberg Laws against the Jews.
Adenauer’s logic was not all Nazi party members had been true believers in Hitler’s ideology. Therefore he pardoned many former Nazis and reintegrated them into society, often arguing that they were staunchly anti-communist, thus politically useful for the CDU and its struggle against East Germany and the Soviet Union’s influence in Europe[5].
Like many other high-profile Nazis, Globke claimed that he was part of a resistance group and to have ‘prevented worse’ he cooperated in writing the Racial Laws. After the war, he was not convicted and like many other Nazi officials, he went to work for the new German government, mainly the Catholic Centre Party.
To this day those who want to become biblical scholar’s evangelists the work of Gerhard Kittel is the most important read. Kittel wrote the “Theological Dictionary of the New Testament” (TDNT, “Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament”). He was the leading authority when it to came studying the language and context of scripture.
However, Kittel was an open supporter of Nazi antisemitic policies and even wrote a book in 1933, Die Judenfrage (The Jewish Question), in which he justified anti-Jewish measures from a Christian perspective[6]. He aligned his theology with Nazi racial ideology, portraying Judaism as a negative force within Christianity. After World War II, he was arrested and tried for his role in Nazi propaganda, though he was released due to health reasons.
The Christian Democratic Union received the largest percentage of votes in the recently concluded general election. But the truth of the matter is that this political party after the end of the Second World War, actively had former Nazis as well as Nazi collaborators into its higher ranks (like Hans Globke and Theodor Oberländer but also future CDU chairman and West German chancellor Kurt Georg who had joined the Nazi Party in 1933.
German news outlets for years have written hit pieces on the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh calling them right-wing Hindu extremists. Copious articles are available where, Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS, and Veer Savarkar are demonized as Hindu nationalists and Fascists. But at the same time, they gloss over the inglorious history of their right-wing party which is now facing an existential crisis with the rise of Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) which is an ultra-rightwing political party. Ironically the AfD got most of its votes from areas that were under the control of communist East Germany.
Gerald Steinacher a research fellow at Harvard University in his book Nazis On the Run: How Hitler’s Henchmen Fled[7] writes how the Vatican and how the Church dreaded the Soviet Union and spread communism and the thought process to help Nazis was to save European Christianity. The same argument was made by the Christian Democratic Union which wanted societal reintegration efforts and under this garb, it absorbed and absolved hundreds of Nazis responsible for committing crimes against humanity and it was called a pragmatic approach.
References:
- [1] https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-enabling-act
- [2] https://www.vecarchives.org/blog/2019/ninety-years-ago-the-lateran-treaty-of-1929
- [3] https://aseemamag.com/pope-pius-xiis-secret-wwii-archives-are-now-open/
- [4] https://www.annefrank.org/en/timeline/231/trial-of-former-nazi-hans-globke/
- [5] https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/from-dictatorship-to-democracy-the-role-ex-nazis-played-in-early-west-germany-a-810207.html
- [6] https://darrowmillerandfriends.com/2016/12/12/death-of-god-nazi-theology/
- [7] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236761179_Nazis_on_the_Run_How_Hitler’s_Henchmen_Fled_Justice_review
Balaji is a freelance writer with an MA in History and Political science and has published articles on defence and strategic affairs and book reviews. He tweets @LaxmanShriram78. Views expressed are the author’s own.
Aayush Pal 
Aadeepto Majumdar 
Shashank Pandey