Editing Deism (section)

=== Deism in Nazi Germany ===
{{Main|Gottgläubig|Ideology of the Nazi Party|Religion in Nazi Germany}}
{{Further|Kirchenkampf|Reichskonkordat|Religious aspects of Nazism}}
[[File:PositiverGott.jpg|thumb|left|230px|''On positive German God-belief'' (1939)]]

In [[Nazi Germany]], ''Gottgläubig'' (literally: "believing in God")<ref name="Steigmann-Gall">{{Cite book |last=Steigmann-Gall |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Steigmann-Gall |year=2003 |chapter=''Gottgläubig'': Assent of the Anti-Christians? |chapter-url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/12631/1/NQ41317.pdf |url-status=live |title=The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945 |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=218–260 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511818103.009 |isbn=9780511818103 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428235847/https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/12631/1/NQ41317.pdf |archive-date=28 April 2021 |access-date=9 March 2022}}</ref><ref name="Ziegler">{{Cite book |last=Ziegler |first=Herbert F. |date=2014 |title=Nazi Germany's New Aristocracy: The SS Leadership, 1925-1939 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBgABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA86 |url-status=live |location=[[Princeton, New Jersey]] |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |pages=85–87 |isbn=978-14-00-86036-4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510154611/https://books.google.com/books?id=kBgABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA86 |archive-date=10 May 2018 |access-date=9 March 2022}}</ref> was a Nazi religious term for a form of [[non-denominationalism]] practised by those German citizens who had [[Apostasy in Christianity|officially left Christian churches]] but professed faith in some higher power or [[Creator deity|divine creator]].<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> Such people were called ''Gottgläubige'' ("believers in God"), and the term for the overall movement was ''Gottgläubigkeit'' ("belief in God"); the term denotes someone who still believes in a God, although without having any [[Organized religion|institutional religious]] affiliation.<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> These [[Nazi Party|National Socialists]] were not favourable towards religious institutions of their time, nor did they tolerate [[atheism]] of any type within their ranks.<ref name="Ziegler"/><ref name="Burleigh 2012">[[Michael Burleigh|Burleigh, Michael]]: [https://books.google.com/books?id=l5gcZpnL5QUC&dq=gottglaubig&pg=PA196 The Third Reich: A New History; 2012; pp.&nbsp;196–197] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527135625/https://books.google.com/books?id=l5gcZpnL5QUC&pg=PA196&dq=gottglaubig&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RVtlU-L_HNGe7AbJ64DoBg&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=gottglaubig&f=false |date=27 May 2016 }}</ref> The 1943 ''Philosophical Dictionary'' defined ''Gottgläubig'' as: "official designation for those who profess a specific kind of piety and morality, without being bound to a church denomination, whilst however also rejecting [[irreligion]] and [[Atheism|godlessness]]."<ref>{{Cite book |date=1943 |title=Philosophisches Wörterbuch Kröners Taschenausgabe. Volume 12 |page=206 |chapter=amtliche Bezeichnung für diejenigen, die sich zu einer artgemäßen Frömmigkeit und Sittlichkeit bekennen, ohne konfessionell-kirchlich gebunden zu sein, andererseits aber Religions- und Gottlosigkeit verwerfen}}. Cited in Cornelia Schmitz-Berning, 2007, p. 281 ff.</ref> The ''Gottgläubigkeit'' is considered a form of deism, and was "predominantly based on creationist and deistic views".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6XHOEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22gottgl%C3%A4ubig%22+%22deist%22&pg=RA2-PA1939 |title=Adolf Hitler: A Biography |page=75 |first=Ileen |last=Bear |year=2016 |isbn=9789386019479 |publisher=Alpha Editions}}</ref>

In the 1920 [[National Socialist Programme]] of the [[Nazi Party|National Socialist German Workers' Party]] (NSDAP), [[Adolf Hitler]] first mentioned the phrase "[[Positive Christianity]]". The Nazi Party did not wish to tie itself to a particular [[Christian denomination]], but with Christianity in general, and sought [[freedom of religion]] for all denominations "so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the [[Germanic race]]" (point 24). When Hitler and the NSDAP got into power in 1933, they sought to assert state control over the churches, on the one hand through the ''[[Reichskonkordat]]'' with the [[Roman Catholic Church]], and the forced merger of the [[German Evangelical Church Confederation]] into the [[Protestant Reich Church]] on the other. This policy seems to have gone relatively well until late 1936, when a "gradual worsening of relations" between the Nazi Party and the churches saw the rise of ''Kirchenaustritt'' ("leaving the Church").<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> Although there was no top-down official directive to revoke church membership, some Nazi Party members started doing so voluntarily and put other members under pressure to follow their example.<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> Those who left the churches were designated as ''Gottgläubige'' ("believers in God"), a term officially recognised by the Interior Minister [[Wilhelm Frick]] on 26 November 1936. He stressed that the term signified political disassociation from the churches, not an act of [[Apostasy in Christianity|religious apostasy]].<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/> The term "dissident", which some church leavers had used up until then, was associated with being "without belief" (''glaubenslos''), whilst most of them emphasized that they still believed in a God, and thus required a different word.<ref name="Steigmann-Gall"/>

A census in May 1939, six years into the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi era]],<ref>Johnson, Eric (2000). ''Nazi terror: the Gestapo, Jews, and ordinary Germans'' New York: Basic Books, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gmuw9TvbFdUC&pg=PA10 p.&nbsp;10.]</ref> and after the annexation of the mostly Catholic [[Anschluss|Federal State of Austria]] and mostly Catholic [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia|German-occupied Czechoslovakia]]<ref>In 1930, Czechia had 8.3 million inhabitants: 78.5% Catholics, 10% Protestants (Hussites and Czech Brethren) and 7.8% irreligious or undeclared citizens. {{cite web|url=https://www.czso.cz/documents/10180/32846217/130055160118.xlsx/8da2b875-fd8c-4a7a-b697-4735cdeaf7f5?version=1.0|title=Population by religious belief and sex by 1921, 1930, 1950, 1991, 2001 and 2011 censuses 1)|language=cs, en|access-date=2 January 2017|publisher=Czech Statistical Office|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170117194829/https://www.czso.cz/documents/10180/32846217/130055160118.xlsx/8da2b875-fd8c-4a7a-b697-4735cdeaf7f5?version=1.0|archive-date=17 January 2017}}</ref> into [[German-occupied Europe]], indicates{{sfn|Ericksen|Heschel|1999|p=10}} that 54% of the population considered itself Protestant, 41% considered itself Catholic, 3.5% self-identified as ''Gottgläubig'',<ref name="Evans546">[[Richard J. Evans]]; ''The Third Reich at War''; Penguin Press; New York 2009, p.&nbsp;546</ref><ref name="books.google.de">{{cite book |last=Lumans |first=Valdis O. |year=1993 |title=Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe, 1933–1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TIZSO31iSO4C&q=gottglaubig&pg=PA48 |location=[[Chapel Hill, North Carolina]] |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |isbn=9780807820667 |page=48 |access-date=2023-05-17 |archive-date=2023-04-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417144005/https://books.google.com/books?id=TIZSO31iSO4C&q=gottglaubig&pg=PA48 |url-status=live }}</ref> and 1.5% as "atheist".<ref name="Evans546"/>