THE NAZI CHURCH

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 574, 4 July 1933, Page 4

THE NAZI CHURCH

The possible reactions of Protestant and Catholic Germany to the browbeating of the church by the Nazi Chancellor, Herr Hitler will be interesting. This country, which has harboured some of the most intehse religious feeling in history and which was the cradle of Protestantism under Martin Luther, is apparently now to see its altars replaced by Nazi brass bands and its priests decked in the panoply of the Storm Troops. Even the marriage ceremony is to be transformed into a Nazi demonstration for recent messages record that the faithful are now being married in batches of 50 under the eyes of a full dress parade of brown-shirts and with the inevitable brass band supplying the wedding music. Herr Hitler is apparently determined that he will not only refuse to : tolerate any party other than the | Nazis, but he will also refuse to | tolerate any church that does not place God iri His proper jplace as a beneficient patron of the Nazi movement. Freedom of the press has been suppressed and there is no place for the individual except as a unit in the Nazi organisation. History has shown that suppression and oppression have inevitably fostered a religious revival and it is possible that even in this modern age a new prophet will arise in Germany to ; unfurl the banner of a militant ; church against the Nazi Chanj cellor. There are already signs I that Hitler's. uncompromising at;titude toward the church has jalienated the sympathy of some | of the strongest of his lieutenants while it is reported that even the unusually docile soldierPresident, Marshall von Hindenbur'g, has remonstrated with the Chancellor regarding his attitude toward the Protestant Church. In the meantime, Herr Hugenberg, Germany's most powerful newspaper baron and the leader of the Catholic party has had to submit to the compulsory; dissolution of his party and has been practically forced to retire from public life. But there are rumblings from the Vatican where the ex-Chancellor Herr von Papen, who is also a Roman Catholic, is apparently endeavouring to smooth over a difficult situation with the Holy See.