Religious views of Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler's religious beliefs have been a matter of debate. In light of evidence such as his rejection of the tenets of Christianity as a teenager, and his strenuous efforts to reduce the influence and independence of Christianity in Germany after he came to power, Hitler's major academic biographers conclude that he was an opponent of Christianity. Historian Laurence Rees found no evidence that "Hitler, in his personal life, ever expressed belief in the basic tenets of the Christian church". Hitler's remarks to confidants, as described in the Goebbels Diaries, the memoirs of Albert Speer, and transcripts of Hitler's private conversations recorded by Martin Bormann in Hitler's Table Talk, are further evidence of his anti-Christian beliefs; these sources record a number of private remarks in which Hitler ridicules Christian doctrine as absurd and socially destructive.

Hitler, attempting to appeal to the German masses during his political campaign and leadership, sometimes made declarations in support of religion and against atheism. He stated in a speech that atheism (a concept he linked with Communism and "Jewish materialism") had been "stamped out", and banned the German Freethinkers League. Hitler was born to a practising Catholic mother, and was baptised and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. In his book Mein Kampf and in public speeches he affirmed a belief in Christianity. Hitler and the Nazi party promoted "Positive Christianity", a movement which rejected most traditional Christian doctrines such as the divinity of Jesus, as well as Jewish elements such as the Old Testament; Historian John S. Conway said that "Only a few radicals on the extreme wing of liberal Protestantism would recognize such a mish-mash as true Christianity." Hitler claimed that he continued to believe in an active Deity, and in one public speech, he stated that he held Jesus in high esteem as an "Aryan fighter" who struggled against Jewry.

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