The German Faith Movement (Deutsche Glaubensbewegung) was a religious movement in Nazi Germany (1933–1945), closely associated with University of Tübingen professor Jakob Wilhelm Hauer. The movement sought to move Germany away from Christianity towards a religion based on Germanic paganism and Nazi ideas.
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History
Ceremonies of the movement involved sermons, German classical music and political hymns.
In his 1936 essay "Wotan" Swiss psychologist Carl Jung speaks of Ergriffenheit, explained in the English version as "a state of being seized or possessed", and characterizes Germany as "infected... rolling towards perdition". However, Jung sees the German Faith Movement as "decent and well-meaning people who honestly admit their Ergriffenheit and try to come to terms with this new and undeniable fact." He commends Hauer's book Deutsche Gottschau as an attempt "to build a bridge between the dark forces of life and the shining world of historical ideas".
The movement had around 200,000 followers at its height (less than 0.3% of the population). Following the Nazi accession to power, it obtained rights of civil tolerance from Rudolf Hess, but never the preferential treatment from the Nazi state for which Hauer campaigned.
The development of the German Faith Movement revolved around four main themes:
Similar movements have remained active in Germany since 1945 outside mainstream educational and social structures.