In the following statement, which was originally presented as a talk at the international symposium »La Cena de le Ceneri« organized by the Alliance against Conformity in February 2004 in Freiburg (Germany), the German lawyer Dr. Armin Zadak explains the crucial background to Dr. Nittmann's case: the scandalous validity of the Hitler concordat in Germany to this very day.



Ladies and gentlemen! My dear friends!

Now that we have heard various important and essential lectures on the centuries of struggle of rationalism against the forces of obscurity, which have been fought in all countries over the world, today it is a great honour for me to speak to you about some points that are closely connected to the fact that we are currently holding our congress in a country that is entangled in and influenced by the church more than any other, so much so that you can truly characterise it as a »church state«.

Hitler lost the Second World War. His shameful deeds are condemned today, in contrast to the deeds of those who won their marauding wars and are still winning them today – those, in other words, who afterwards write history. However, in one way Hitler did not lose the war, as one of Hitler's extraordinarily shameful deeds is taking effect up to the present time and is, at least in Germany, being concealed perfectly: the immense privileges and subsidies he granted the church.

Hitler not only saw to it that in our times there are hardly any Jews in Europe and, in doing so, continued what the Catholic church had been doing for the last fifteen hundred years – as he himself explained to the official representative of the German episcopate as early as 1933, furthermore expressing that he might be doing Christianity a very good turn at the same time – but he also laid the foundation for the very unique position the church gained in the Third Reich, the position that remains unchanged today and from which all progressive people in this country are suffering to this day and, if the church had its way, they will continue to suffer from to the end of time.

This foundation is the concordat Hitler and the then Pope Pius XI signed as early as the first months of Hitler's dictatorship, on 20th of July 1933.

In order to understand the extraordinary importance of this fundamental treaty, first of all one ought to know that the last concordat between the German Reich and the Pope had been concluded 500 years before, in the year 1448, between Emperor Frederick III and Pope Nicolas V. This Viennese concordat meant that the Pope would be protected from the growing reformation, and it remained in force until the year 1806.

Since that time the church had been striving continuously and with great pertinacity towards attaining such a comprehensive and fundamental pact with the state once more. But it was in vain, for in the period after the French Revolution and secularisation neither the German empire of the 19th century nor any of the governments in the Weimar Republic was willing to guarantee the church the privileges they had been repeatedly claiming through such a contract.

But then, in Germany, the church got the unique opportunity to sign such a concordat once again: the Pope, since 1922 Pius XI, completely sympathised with the fascists not only in Germany, but also with those in all European countries, as in Russia the revolution had been victorious and the Pope feared nothing more than it spreading to other countries, especially in Western Europe. As the Pope saw it, the fascists were those who promised to fight all communists and socialists as their deadly enemies, which was exactly the same purpose the Pope was pursuing.

For this reason, the Pope not only supported the military dictatorship of Piludski in Poland, whom he signed a concordat with as early as 1925, and later on Franco in Spain, but also, and above all, the Italian fascist movement of Mussolini, who, in recognition of his services in the so-called Lateran treaties, presented him not only with the gift of today's »Vatican State«, but also, beside numerous other privileges, the amount of nearly 100 million Dollars, a tremendous amount, which in those days would have been enough for the capital of a world bank.

As in the case of Mussolini, the Pope rightly expected Hitler to completely wipe out all left wing parties in Germany, which were, as you know, very strong at this time; and last but not least he expected Hitler to start a war of extermination against the much hated Soviet Union. So on 8th of March 1933, the Pope declared to the French ambassador: »Hitler is the only head of government who not only shares the Pope's own view on Bolshevism, but also challenges it unmistakably and with great courage.«

This was the reason why the Catholic church, even before the presidential election of 1932, that means before Hitler came to power, spread masses of leaflets saying: »Catholics, vote for the devout Catholic Adolf Hitler!« This was also the reason why the Catholic Zentrum party, under the lead of a prelate and intimate confidant of the Pope, consented to Hitler's Enabling Act, when he – despite his unconstitutional ban of the communist party – still needed the votes of this Catholic party to get this Enabling Act through, which then, as you know, formed the basis for Hitler's dictatorship.

Hitler, for his part, needed the pontifical aid just as much as Mussolini had before, and therefore Hitler wanted the same kind of concordat with the Vatican as Mussolini had signed. But above all, Hitler required international acceptance very urgently, since particularly abroad there was absolutely no doubt about his criminal aims and he had already begun torturing German communists and democrats in concentration camps and started the first pogroms against the Jews.

So both Hitler and Pope Pius XI pursued the same line of policy. And for this reason they signed the concordat between the Vatican and the German Reich with extraordinary speed – on 20^th of July 1933 – a concordat, as you remember, that the church had been trying and failing to achieve for 130 years.

This concordat was actually Hitler's first international treaty. The church celebrated its signature by solemn divine services in all churches over the country, in which in particular uniformed SS and SA troops took part with their banners, and Hitler in this way gained his such urgently required recognition, both at home and abroad.

Both the official newspaper of the Nazi-regime, the so-called »Völkischer Beobachter«, and the German episcopate wrote in complete unison – and quite rightly – that by the concordat with the Vatican – and now I quote – »Hitler's and his government's reputations were established and heightened in a unique way« and that it implied an »enormous moral strengthening of the German Reich's National Socialist government and its prestige«. The extraordinary importance of this concordat best becomes clear by the following quotation from the then Munich cardinal Faulhaber. He said: »In fact Pope Pius XI has been the best friend, and at the beginning even the only friend, of the new empire. Millions abroad faced the new empire cautiously and distrustfully at first, and did not place any confidence in the new German government until the concordat had been signed.«

Hitler, of course, was also aware of all this. Therefore his gratitude to the Pope for this decisive support was tremendous. And in appreciation of this help Hitler conceded to the German church privileges that were unequalled all over the world.

The following points are only the salient ones of these privileges, laid down in the concordat:

• It was arranged, just to »cultivate good relations«, for a permanent German ambassador to reside at the Vatican and a permanent representative of the Vatican in the capital of the German Reich, who would basically be the »Doyen«, that means the principal and spokesman of all diplomats (final regulations).
• The state guaranteed the particular protection of the clerics from personal or official insult (Article 5).
• Clergymen's income was exempted from execution (Article 8).
• The false use of clerical clothing should be punished in the same way as the abuse of military uniform (Article 10).
• All the organisations of the church remained or became so-called corporations of public law, that means they obtained the same status as public institutions (Article 13); all their possessions and properties were guaranteed and it was expressly codified that church buildings should never be permitted to be pulled down (Article 17).
• Not only were separate theological colleges guaranteed, but also Catholic theological faculties at the state universities (Article 19).
• The church obtained the right of military religious welfare to be practised by a special army bishop (Article 27) as well as the right of pastoral care in all hospitals, prisons and any establishment of the public authorities (Article 28).
• Of particular importance to the church were – by the way, as in the dispute on the French education law – the guarantee of religious instruction in all public primary schools, vocational schools, secondary schools and high schools and the right to hold on to and set up new Catholic denominational schools (Article 23).

But the most important thing for the church – as we know today by its instructions to its negotiator – was:

• The right of the church to raise church taxes was guaranteed in the concordat and expressly laid down in its final regulations (to Article 13).

I would also like to mention, just for the sake of completeness, that the concordat also contained two top secret supplementary agreements according to the corresponding objectives of Pius and Hitler: one dealt with the concerted action against Russia, the other with the military service of the German clergymen and theologians in the event of a war.

I am sure you will agree with what I said before – that Hitler gave the church privileges that were absolutely unique. In Germany, incidentally, the Protestant Church also received such privileges shortly after, but it was Pope Pius XI who was the pioneer and pacemaker here.

You should not only keep these monstrous privileges in mind, but also, and perhaps even more so, the background against which this concordat was concluded – it was the thanks of one of the greatest criminals in world history, Adolf Hitler, paid to his greatest promoter, Pope Pius XI. – when I say to you now that this concordat between Hitler and Pius XI is valid in the Federal Republic of Germany, unchanged and without any limitation to this day.

This fact is an absolute scandal for the German state.

Whereas all the other agreements concluded by Hitler in the pursuit of his criminal goals had, of course, been annulled, the clergy and their political friends ensured after the overthrow of the Hitler government that this agreement, of all the international contracts made by the Third Reich, was the only one to remain in effect. This was even laid down in a hidden clause and at a hidden place in the German constitution – in Article 123. And so in the year 1957, the German Constitutional Court then expressly decided that the Hitler concordat should remain valid – and it is valid right up to today. And let me emphasize it once again: Above all it was the thanks of one of the greatest criminals in history to his »best and in the beginning only friend« – as we have heard in the own saying of the cardinal.

But now let me return briefly to the basic question of why the church has always been so extremely interested in having its rights set down in such an international treaty, or concordat: if such a concordat exists, then a state, even if there is a change in the balance of political power and the majority of the people wish for separation from the church, i.e. a secular system, even then a state would not remove these church privileges unilaterally without serious consideration – for it would always be violating an international treaty by doing so. So the church especially expects of such a contract that its privileges are untouchable and will be in effect for ever – just like in the Bible, according to which thousand years are as but a day in the eyes of God, as you know.

We are currently experiencing the consequences of this in Germany, I would like to mention only one for an example: while faculties are being closed at the state universities and costs being cut because money is supposed to be so short, the church is contractually guaranteed the continued existence and state financing of its own universities and other theological faculties, which means there can be no restrictions without the express support of the church, even though there are only few students today who want to `study` – if you want to call it like that – theology.

But the concordat between Pius XI and Hitler had, in addition to this general »guarantee for eternity« – there is no provision for a termination – it had one very special and outstanding historical significance for the church, and that to the present day: this is regarding the church tax:

(It is true that the Weimar constitution already contained a right of the churches to impose tax – by the way, they have the social democratic party to thank for this because they voted with the parties of the Right for the incorporation of this privilege into the constitution and expressly rejected an opposing bill from a left wing party, the USPD, and the majority required would not have been achieved without the social democratic votes.) However – and this was a considerable restriction – this right in the Weimar constitution only applied »in accordance with the laws of the Länder«, that means the federal states. So – even if there were already some contractual agreements in place in the Weimar Republic between the Vatican and individual German federal states – there were only a few, only three, to be precise (Bavaria, Prussia and Baden). But now, after the concordat between Hitler and the pope, not only all these agreements remained intact and were also supplemented.
    Above and beyond this, however, all the other German federal states, that is to say also those that had not previously had any agreements with the Vatican, were now included according to Article 2 of the concordat. And most importantly of all: the church's right to impose church tax was guaranteed without limitation, this is independently from the laws of the federal states, which means that not even any individual state can get out of the church's stranglehold.

And it is this scandalous legacy of Hitler's that also means that not a single political decision can be made in Germany today against the will and without the agreement of the church – just only remember the sinister attempts of Germany's church-dependent government to ban embryo research across all Europe for example.

The church's assets in Germany today are estimated at more than 500 billion euros. With the help of the state they take in about 9 billion euros a year in church tax. Additionally, the state pays them a further 9 billion euros from the treasury coffers and also gives them another 10 billion euros by not collecting taxes and charges that everyone else (also every group and association) has to pay. All in all, this means an annual sum of at least 28 billion euros.

To a great extent the churches in Germany have the concordat with Hitler to thank for the fact that they are the richest in the world and that they are getting richer day by day. Just imagine what useful, sensible and humane things could be achieved with such incredible amounts of money instead!

Ladies and gentlemen, my dear friends,

May this congress make a contribution towards taking the power from religion and its sinister organisations – in Germany and all over the world!


Thank you for your attention.