page_title: German Christians (movement)
section_title: Impact
hierarchical_section_title: German Christians (movement) / History / Nazi Germany / Impact
context_page_description: German Christians was a pressure group and a movement within the German Evangelical Church that existed between 1932 and 1945, aligned towards the antisemitic, racist and Führerprinzip ideological principles of Nazism with the goal to align German Protestantism as a whole towards those principles. Their advocacy of these principles led to a schism within 23 of the initially 28 regional church bodies in Germany and the attendant foundation of the opposing Confessing Church in 1934.
context_section_description: The Nazis found the Deutsche Christen group useful during the initial consolidation of power, but removed most of its leaders from their posts shortly afterwards; Reichsbischof Müller continued until 1945, but his power was effectively removed in favor of a government agency as a result of his obvious incompetence.
  The Deutsche Christen were supportive of the Nazi ideas about race. They issued public statements that Christians in Germany with Jewish ancestors "remain Christians in a New Testament sense, but are not German Christians." They also supported the Nazi party platform's advocacy of a "Positive Christianity" that did not stress the belief in human sinfulness. Some went so far as to call for the total removal of all Jewish elements from the Bible, including the Old Testament. Their symbol was a traditional Christian cross with a swastika in the middle and the group's German initials "D" and "C".
  It was claimed and remembered by the Deutsche Christen, as a "fact", that the Jews had killed Christ, which appealed to and actively encouraged existing anti-Semitic sentiments among Christians in Nazi Germany.
caption: Logos used by the German Christians in 1932, 1935 and 1937