# "Was Hitler a Christian"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hitler-a-christian/99631>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [March 22, 2002, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hitler-a-christian/99631 "2002-03-22T22:22:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2002, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hitler-a-christian/99631/1 "2002-03-22T22:22:04Z")

</div>

I just finished **Christianity on Trial** by _Vincent Carroll & David Shiflett_ and decided to Google the quote “One is either a Christian or a German” One of the listings was [SDMB staff reports: **Was Hitler a Christian?**](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhitlerchristian.html)

In this report it is stated:

> [@](#):
>
> Similarly, Hermann Rauschning, a Hitler associate, said, “One is either a Christian or a German. You can’t be both.”

According to many other listings on Google and also the above mentioned book, Hitler said to Rauschning “One is either a Christian or a German. You can’t be both.” IMHO, who said this makes a difference in making up one’s mind about how serious Hitler was about being a Christian.

In fairness the

> [@](#):
>
> Antiquity was better than modern times, because it didn’t know Christianity and syphilis.

that is questioned in the _Staff Report_ cannot be found in any other source by Google, which supports the report’s questioning of its reliability.

**Christianity on Trial** mentions a statement by one of Hitler’s henchman (page 117), that I think may well reveal the Third Reich’s opinion of Christianity.

> [@](#):
>
> Christianity has failed us in the social question, the racial question and in the educational question…Can one imagine of one of our Hitler Youth lads with a rosary? Or a SA or SS man taking part in a pilgrimage along with a lot of old women?..Our faith is in blood and earth, we want to be pure heathen, not contaminated with Christian ingrafts.

What they wanted was to design their own pagan religion according to their beliefs and claim it came from the past. Any guesses as to who the main god would have been modeled after?

As stated in the Staff Report, Hitler certainly was not an atheist, but that may only be because his ego would not allow him to be one.