“It was reflective of the marginalized status of paganists in the NSDAP at this time that he (Hanno Konopath, a pagan) was additionally deprived of all his party offices by Walter Buch's party court on "grounds of immorality””

— The Holy Reich, pg. 131

Who is Walter Buch?

“Walter Buch. He is not a well-known Nazi, but as chairman of the party's Investigation and Conciliation Committee and president of the party's supreme court, he held one of the most powerful positions in Nazism. A sort of Nazi Cheka, his court had the power to discipline, expel and punish all party members, and none of its judgments could be overturned save for Hitler’s direct intervention.”

“Otto Wagener, Hitler's confidant , named Buch as one of only three men who "were prepared and in a position to tell Hitler their own views when they contradicted his."”

“Like the others surveyed so far, Buch related Nazism as a movement to Christ's own "struggle," sounding a distinct note of triumphalism.“

— The Holy Reich, pg. 47

“Life itself is struggle. The National Socialist Weltanschauung stands unreservedly for this truth. It is the fondation of all its works and deeds. With this conception, we follow the example of no one less than our Savior. When Point 24 of our program says the party stands for a positive Christianity, here above all is the cornerstone of our thinking. Christ preached struggle as did no other. His life was struggle for his beliefs, for which he went to his death. From everyone he demanded a decision between yes or no. That is the necessity: that man find the power to decide between yes and no.”

— Walter Buch, member of the SS and head of the NSDAP’s Investigation and Conciliation Committee, to an assembly of the National Socialist Student League

"Paganism never enjoyed a formal backing of government. On the contrary, the heathenish sectarianism of its various factions was not only considered a threat to the unity of the German folk, but also to the respectability of National Socialism and its claim to constitute a scientific worldview rather than a spiritual reform programme. With only a few exceptions, the Nazi leadership harbored no doubts that Paganism, given free play, would endanger the ideological consensus of the nation."

— Nordic Ideology in the SS and the SS Ahnenerbe, Horst Junginger

"Not surprisingly, these personal relations between Hauer and the top of the SS raised his hopes for the possibility to promote the fortune of the German Faith Movement and to enhance the role of Paganism in Germany by and large. Much to his consternation, the SS was anything but interested in religious or ideological support from his own or any other of the Pagan groups and associations. The two years between his first meeting with Himmler in April 1934 and his resignation from the position of Fuhrer of the German Faith Movement in April 1936 turned out to become a period of progressive disillusion. Neither Himmler nor any other SS leader were interested in responding to the Pagan offer. Even worse, Hauer could not refrain from recognizing that rejection described the attitude of the SS much better than mere indifference."

— Nordic Ideology in the SS and the SS Ahnenerbe, Horst Junginger

"Like Rosenberg, however, Darré quickly fell from grace, and was formally replaced as Reich Agriculture Minister in 1942 by Goring's subordinate Herbert Backe. Even before this date, however, Darré's adherence to a recrudescent, neopaganist agrarian ethos was losing him influence. It is perhaps no coincidence that Rosenberg's greatest adversary in the party, Erich Koch (a devout Christian), would quickly emerge as one of Darré's staunchest opponents."

— The Holy Reich, pg. 124

"From time immemorial, Poland had always the most radical national church; in itself that was not a bad thing, but it could not be allowed in Poland. How often had Hitler said that he wanted for Germany a radical church of that kind, whose processions were not led by modest church banners but by the national flag, and he wanted this same flag dressing the alters and flying from church towers."

— At the Heart of the Reich by Major Gerhard Engel, 26th of September 1939

“A Protestant newspaper observed with approval that pastors were to be found addressing outdoor Hitler Youth gatherings. At one such gathering a pastor invited Hitler Youth to regard Christ as the Lord: "He is our light. Away with all dialecticism and formalistic squabbling! Living faith is what counts. Christ seized upon this: selflessly devote yourself to the community, to your brothers; stand responsible before God, be overwhelmed by him. Be free of dross, be free of oneself! As John said: while he grows, I am diminished.”

— The Holy Reich, pg. 249

“In May 1935, Der Sturmer reported that a troop of Hitler Youth had greeted representatives of the Protestant Church in “full uniform” at Berlin. While Hitler Youth members were allowed these prerogatives, the same freedom of religious expression was not granted within the Hitler Youth to paganist organizations such as the German Faith Movement. When the German Faith Movement attempted to use a passage from one of Schirach’s (the leader of the Hitler Youth) poems, the leadership of the Hitler Youth voiced its disapproval. Writing to the head office of the Gestapo, the Reich Youth Leadership Office complained: “The Reich Youth Leader has never given the German Faith Movement permission to use this poem for propaganda purposes. That the Reich Youth Leader moreover has forbidden any propaganda activity in the Hitler Youth for the German Faith Movement is proof that the quote has been misused.” Schirach’s office requested that the Gestapo confiscate all copies of the leaflet.”

— The Holy Reich, pg. 250

Pagan Youth deemed degenerates in the Reich.

As concentrated as that sounds, the notion was mentioned by Fuhrer Hitler himself.

A Daily Times report published on October 11th, 1938 makes the following statement (verbatim) with a message from Hitler:

"Fuehrer Hitler is reported to be deeply disturbed by the anti-Catholic demonstrations in historic St. Stephen's Square in Vienna over the weekend. The mob of Nazi youths, who stoned and ran- sacked the archbishop's palace and arch episcopal offices, tossed a Crucifix, prayer books and a paint- ing of the Madonna into a bonfire, gave such graphic expression to the paganism of Nazidom as to have shocked even the leaders of that party. Since Austria is overwhelmingly Catholic, Hitler has reason to fear that this demonstration may touch off the antagonism between Nazis and Catholicism in a way which will lead to explosion within the enlarged reich and alienate his Italian ally. Hence he has ordered a thorough investigation of the disorders and threatens to punish the ringleaders."

🛡The Third Reich's War on the Occult

On June 9, 1941, less than two weeks before Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the Nazi security services launched an all-out campaign against occultist organizations and individuals. Officially dubbed the “Campaign against occult doctrines and so-called occult sciences” (Aktion gegen Geheimlehren und sogenannte Geheimwissenschaften), this sweeping move aimed at the definitive elimination of occult activities from the national community. Why did the SD and Gestapo put so much effort into pursuing marginal occult groups in June 1941, when the Nazi leadership had more pressing concerns? The answers to this question reveal the complexities and contradictions at the heart of the contested relationship between occultism and National Socialism.The hard-line anti-occultist faction within the Nazi movement was concentrated in the SD, the Sicherheitsdienst or ‘security service’ of the SS under Reinhard Heydrich. From 1933 to 1941 they were largely kept in check by other Nazi officials, including the staff of Rudolf Hess in his position as Deputy of the Führer and nominal head of the Nazi party. Hess was the highest-ranking Nazi protector of anthroposophical endeavors. The longstanding tension within the Nazi hierarchy over the status of occult groups was complicated by the pivotal role of Martin Bormann, technically Hess’s subordinate but his de facto equal in power, influence, and access to Hitler. Bormann was a confirmed opponent of occult organizations and a crucial ally of the SD, which in turn formed a central component of the police imperium overseen by SS head Heinrich Himmler.

From: Chapter 6 of 'Between Occultism and Nazism' by Peter Staudenmeier.
Other References: [1]

"Erich Koch, as we have already seen, was actually president of his provincial church synod."

"Erich Koch was not an anomaly: others in the party were involved in church bodies and Christian organizations."

"Darré's conflict with Koch occurred almost immediately after the seizure of power, when Koch announced plans to industrialize his Gau, East Prussia. This naturally horrified Darré (one of the most prominent Pagans in the party), who tried to enforce his own vision of an agrarian East Prussia through his Land representatives. When they challenged Koch's authority, Koch had them arrested."

"Koch spoke on the propitious circumstances surrounding Luther's birthday. He implied that the Nazi seizure of power was an act of divine will, since it so closely preceded this special anniversary. He explicitly compared Hitler and Luther, claiming that both struggled in the name of belief, that both had the love and support of the German nation, and that the Nazis fought with Luther's spirit."

Source: The Holy Reich

“In this obeying unalterable laws are included the sacred belief of our ancestors, that everything on this earth was created by God and inspired by God. Only foolish, malicious and stupid people created this pagan fable, the horror stories, that our ancestors worshipped gods and trees. No, they were convinced in God’s ancient knowledge and ancient teachings of His Divine Order of this world, wherein we were created in His image and where the plant and the animal world co-exist.”

— Heinrich Himmler in SS as an Anti-Bolshevik Organization (Die Schutzstaffel als Antibolschewistische Kampforganisation), a handbook for SS men that was not meant for public consumption. The ideology Himmler reflects in this statement must have come from the Christian Bible.

https://odysee.com/@hiddenhistory:43/TheGermanChurchSituation:3

Description: An American Baptist minister, Gerald Winrod, on rumors of Christian mistreatment by the Nazis, visits Germany in person to see the state of the church prior to the start of World War 2. His findings would surprise many today.

"Schirach (the head of the HJ) advised the Hitler Youth in his domain not to snub the clergy, and even went so far as to give military inductees a gift of religious pictures and texts, which included one of his own poems."

— The Holy Reich, pg. 349

"Publicly and privately, the party's elite rejected paganist attempts to claim the mantle of "party religion," whether these came from members of the party or the German Faith Movement. There is little to support the claim that the German Faith Movement or its ideology were ever "widely supported" in Nazi circles."

— The Holy Reich, pg. 260

Note: The German Faith Movement was eventually effectively banned in the Third Reich. Suppression of the organization was carried out by Heydrich and the SS, as covered earlier in this channel.

“One who was especially contemptuous of Bormann in this regard was the Gauleiter of Schwaben, Karl Wahl. Raised a Protestant, he had married a Catholic and had his children baptized Catholic. Wahl had a remarkably close relationship with the Catholic diocese of Augsburg, specifically its second in command, Bishop Eberle. Residents of Augsburg could observe the two openly walking together "deep in conversation”. When Wahl received an emissary from Bormann complaining that not enough had been done against the churches in Gau Schwaben, Wahl responded by asking whether Bormann was "out of his mind" for wanting to damage public morale in wartime. The emissary responded that the attack on the churches was Bormann's "hobby horse," and Wahl quietly let the matter drop. He chose to mitigate Bormann's orders whenever possible until, he reported, "one day I just cut loose and threw everything that had Bormann's name on it into the fie, unread."”

Source: The Holy Reich, pg. 369

"The churches still preach today what their master said 2000 years before. We deal with the same principles, with that great ideological structure which has passed through history. We therefore assemble the Volk around us again and again, we preach again and again the ideals through which we became great, not only in order to keep Our generation National Socialist, but rather to keep generations centuries after us National Socialist. We do nothing to harm the churches. On the contrary: We accept from them the work which they truly must manage themselves."

— Joseph Goebbels

“Consistency also characterized Goebbels’ low regard for the mysticism enjoyed by many anti-Christians. In June 1941, Goebbels banned all public performances of an occultist, telepathic, astrological or "supernatural" nature.”

Source: The Holy Reich, pg. 372

A False Hope

With the National Socialist takeover of power, Pagan hopes for more influence and a greater share mushroomed. For the first time ever Pagans thought to have good 
reason to expect an end of their marginalisation and becoming a valuable, hopefully even a vital, element of the National Socialist revolution that had been set in motion. To their painful experience none of the anticipations erupting in 1933 came true. There was no single institution or governmental department, which allowed a Pagan influence to spread. The Ministry of Science and Education rejected all Pagan ambitions of getting involved in matters of school and higher education. In spite of minor successes at the federal state level, Pagan teaching and teachers continued to be barred from the educational system. The early breakdown of the German Faith Movement provides convincing evidence that, even under favourite circumstances, Pagans failed to expand their influence on a larger scale. They were even unable to attain ideological coherence in their own ranks and unite more than a part of its spectrum. On these grounds it proved hopeless to draw level with the churches and become a force to be reckoned with. In fact, Paganism remained the outsider phenomenon it had been all along, without the least prospect of parity with its Christian opponents.

— Nordic Ideology in the SS and the SS Ahnenerbe (Chapter 4 - The Irrelevance of Paganism), Horst Junginger

"They [the foreign press] say of us that we are an anti-Christian movement. They even say that I am an outspoken Pagan…I solemnly declare here, before the German public, that I stand on the basis of Christianity, but I declare just as solemnly that I will put down every attempt to introduce confessional matters into our Hitler Youth."

— Baldur Von Schirach, head of the Hitler Youth

"Throughout 1933 Protestant field services were frequently conducted within the Hitler Youth. Many HJ units collectively attended Protestant services, and began meetings with such services. Pastors even took up office in the Hitler Youth. Well into the Third Reich, Hitler Youth continued to receive religious instruction from Protestant clergy, in which the juvenile audience was instructed to receive Christ, not Wotan, into their hearts. The HJ even participated in purely confessional ceremonies, such as a reception for the Inner Mission in Berlin. "

Source: The Holy Reich, pg. 345