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The celebration ofChristmas inNazi Germany included attempts by the regime to bring theChristian religious holiday into line withNazi ideology. TheJewish origins ofJesus and the commemoration of his birth as the JewishMessiah was troubling for some members of theNazi Party and theirracialist beliefs. Between 1933 and 1945, some government officials attempted to remove these aspects ofChristmas from civil celebrations and concentrate on culturalpre-Christian aspects of the festival. However, church and private celebrations remained Christian in nature.
Christianity had long been the main faith of the Germanic peoples, dating to the missionary work ofColumbanus andSt. Boniface in the 6th–8th centuries.[1] The Nazis ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. Nazism wanted to transform the subjective consciousness of the German people—their attitudes, values and mentalities—into a single-minded, cohesive "national community".[2] According to the American journalistShirer, "under the leadership ofRosenberg,Bormann andHimmler—backed by Hitler—the Nazi regime intended to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists."[3]
Hitler and the Nazi party promoted "Positive Christianity" early on, but Hitler had a falling out with Alfred Rosenberg and declared it not to be the official stance of the Nazi party. Positive Christianity itself was not exclusively Christian and was open to non-theists and even promotedWotan in Rosenberg'sMyth of the 20th Century.[4]
Early Nazi celebrations of Christmas occurred in 1921 whenAdolf Hitler made a speech in a beer hall inMunich to 4,000 supporters. Undercover police reporters wrote that the crowd cheered when Hitler condemned "the cowardly Jewsfor breaking the world-liberator on the cross", swearing he was "not to rest until the Jews ... lay shattered on the ground." The crowd then sang carols and nationalist hymns around aChristmas tree, with gifts being donated to working-class attendees of the speech.[5] After taking power in 1933, Nazi ideologues initially sought to reject Germany's long-held Christmas traditions—renaming the festivalJulfest, and propagating its Germanic origins as the celebration of thewinter solstice. But for the majority of Germans, the Christian traditions remained the basis of the holiday, and the churches were outraged by the removal of Christ from Christmas and maintained the Christian traditions among themselves.[6]
Nazi ideologists claimed that the Christian elements of the holiday had been superimposed upon ancient Germanic traditions.[7] They argued thatChristmas Eve originally had nothing to do with thebirth of Jesus Christ but instead celebrated thewinter solstice and the "rebirth of the sun",[7] and that theswastika was an ancient symbol of theBig Dipper in its 4 positions in thespring equinox,summer solstice,September equinox and thewinter solstice. Further, they perceived thatSanta Claus was a Christian reinvention of the Germanic God Wotan, more commonly known in his name in Norse mythology asOdin. Accordingly, holidayposters were made to depict Odin as the "Christmas or Solstice man", riding a white charger, sporting a thick grey beard and wearing a slouch hat, carrying a sack full of gifts.[8] The traditionalcrèche was replaced by a garden containing wooden toy deer and rabbits;[9] Mary and Jesus were depicted as a blonde mother and child.[7]
The Christmas tree was also changed. The traditional names of the tree,Christbaum orWeihnachtsbaum, was renamed in the press as a fir tree, light tree or Jul tree.[10] The star on the top of the tree was sometimes replaced with a swastika, a Germanicsun wheel or asig rune, and swastika-shaped tree lights.[7][11][12] During the height of the movement, an attempt was made to remove the association of the coming of Jesus and replace it with the coming of Hitler, referred to as the "SaviourFührer".[7]
Christmas carols were also changed.[13] The words to "Silent Night" were changed so it made no reference toGod, Christ, or religion.[7] Words were also changed to the hymn "Unto Us a Time Has Come" so as to remove references to Jesus. The modified version of the hymn was in use for several more years in post-war Germany.[11][14] The most popular carol promoted by the Nazis wasHans Baumann's "Exalted Night of the Clear Stars" [Hohe Nacht der klaren Sterne], which replaced traditional Christian themes with Nazi racial ideologies. The carol was popular after the collapse of Nazi Germany, was regularly performed into the 1950s, and is still sometimes performed in the modern day.[5]
Shop catalogues containing children's toys made available during the holiday season featured chocolateSS soldiers,[12] toy tanks, fighter planes and machine guns. As a sign of appreciation,Heinrich Himmler frequently gave SS members aJulleuchter ("Yule lantern"), a kind of ornate Germaniccandlestick, some of which were made atDachau concentration camp.[7][15][16] Housewives were prompted to bakebiscuits in the shape of birds, wheels and swastikas for their children.[17]
By 1944 the movement to remove Christian influences from Christmas lessened as the government concentrated more on the war effort.[7] In 1944 civil celebrations of Christmas marked the festival as a day of remembrance for Germany's war dead.[citation needed]
While most Germans embraced the Nazis' rebranding of Christmas, at times it was reported that there was hostility by a minority. Files from theNational Socialist Women's League reported, "that tensions flared when propagandists pressed too hard to sideline religious observance, leading to "much doubt and discontent.'"[5] The clergy were among those opposed to the redefining of Christmas. Reports say that inDüsseldorf the clergy used Christmas to promote women's clubs and encourage membership; theCatholic clergy threatened any woman who joined the National Socialist Women's League withexcommunication; and some religious women boycotted Christmas events organised by National Socialist Women's League.[5]
For a compilation of Christmas songs, there are indeed exceptionally little references to the biblical nativity story, or Christian elements in general. "Gott" (God) and "Engel" (angel) appear only twice, and are outnumbered by terms like "Stern" (star), "Licht" (light), "Nacht" (night), "Feuer" (fire), "Wald" (woods), etc. Santa Claus is replaced by a pagan "Sunnwendmann" (Solstice man). Instead of Mary, there is "Frau Holle" (Mother Hulda). And there certainly is not a single mention of the Jewish baby named Jesus.
