I Was Looking for God: A Study of Wehrmacht Personnel and their Personal Relationships with Religion
Date of Award
3-2023
Degree Type
Masters Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
School
Humanities
Committee Chair
Dr. Andrew Wiest
Committee Chair School
Humanities
Committee Member 2
Dr. Brian LaPierre
Committee Member 2 School
Humanities
Committee Member 3
Dr. Joseph Peterson
Committee Member 3 School
Humanities
Abstract
The Wehrmacht was Germany’s fighting force in the field during World War II. Its brutality and discriminatory practices rivaled that of the Nazi paramilitary and police units dispatched alongside them in newly conquered areas during this conflict. Coming from a society that was not at all unfamiliar with Christianity, some within the Wehrmacht related to Christianity in some form and attempted to use it to either justify actions or make sense of the world around them.
While considerable scholarship exists on the Nazi Party’s relationship to Christianity as a convenient propaganda tool for both soldier and civilian alike, the historiography surrounding Wehrmacht personnels’ individual relationships to Christianity is underdeveloped. Using soldier correspondence from the home front, the Western Front, and especially the Eastern Front as well as wiretapped conversations from allied interrogation camps, the thesis argues that both soldiers and their loved ones did not just actively participate in Christian rituals under a totalitarian regime. They clung to Christian rituals and Christian faith in times of extreme uncertainty. This argument demonstrates how Nazism, and faith in Hitler, were often awkward bedfellows with a Christian worldview among the enlisted personnel of the Wehrmacht.
Copyright
Copyright 2023 Christopher Bishop All Rights Reserved
Recommended Citation
Bishop, Christopher, "I Was Looking for God: A Study of Wehrmacht Personnel and their Personal Relationships with Religion" (2023). Master's Theses. 966.
https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/966
Included in
Catholic Studies Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Christianity Commons, Cultural History Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, European History Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, History of Christianity Commons, History of Religion Commons, Holocaust and Genocide Studies Commons, Military History Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons