The Protestant Reich Church (Reichskirche) was formed by Adolf Hitler in 1933, by merging 28 regional churches into one Church. The founding of the Church was the result of work by the German Christians, who had gained a large majority at the 1933 church elections.^[1] It was based on Nazi ideas of creating a "positive Christianity", namely purifying Christianity of any Jewish elements including even the Old Testament, an idea which had existed in a small minority of Christian groups since the time of Marcion of Sinope, but the Protestant Reich Church did so for racial more than theological reasons. Ludwig Müller was elected "Reich Bishop".^[2]

Although initially supported by the regime, the Nazis eventually lost interest in the experiment after it failed to supplant or absorb traditional Christianity. After 1937, relations between the Reich Church and the Nazi government began to sour.

See also

• Evangelical Church in Germany

References

1. ^ The 1933 German Protestant Church Elections: Machtpolitik or Accommodation? by Shelley Baranowski. Church History, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Sep., 1980), pp. 298-315. Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church History.
2. ^ Thomas M.Schneider, Reichsbischof Ludwig Muller: Eine Untersuchung zu Leben und Personlichkeit. Arbeiten zur kirchlichen Zeitgeschichte, Series B: Darstellungen 19, Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1993, 384 pp.

External links

• A Timeline of the Church in the Third Reich
• Review of "The Holy Reich"