Die Deutschen Christen im Nationalsozialismus und die Lebendige Kirche im Bolschewismus – zwei kirchliche Repräsentationen neuer politischer Ordnungen

Abstract

The Nazi-oriented «German Christians» and the «Living Church» in Bolshevism – Two Religious Manifestations of New Political Orders

Using the examples of the «Living Church» in the early Soviet Union and the «German Christians Religious Movement» in Nazi Germany, the article compares two church bodies which emphatically supported the new political orders against tendencies in the more traditional sections of their Churches. Both designed a political theology conforming to the core elements of the new political ideology (heroisation of the faith, glorification of nation and race in National Socialism, class struggle ideology and the cult of science in Bolshevism). Both groups were sustained by some members of the clergy who had already supported the new political order or the revolutionary goal before the new order had even come to power. In contrast to the «German Christians», however, support among the laity for the Russian movement remained poor. Nor did the «Living Church» succeed in achieving symbolic recognition by the Soviet regime, whereas National Socialism demonstrated acceptance for the religious programmes of the «German Christians».