Kulturkampf Newsletter Introduction
Letter. c.10 February 1936
Subscription Letter for the KulturkampfNewsletter In France
…This subscription service will give a systematic and objective picture of the great struggle which has broken out in Germany between the essentially neo-pagan totalitarianism of National Socialism and the Christian churches. We are in a position to guarantee the authenticity of the material which we will publish and the veracity of the sources. We will attempt to demonstrate the facts scrupulously and in as extensive a way is possible, and at the same time, put the recorded facts in their proper context by means of brief commentaries written by competent collaborators. Thus, the bulletin will comprise a chronical of events, a body of the most important documents and the necessary interpretation.
The difficult circumstances from which all information coming from the Third Reich is subject will nevertheless will not permit us always to realize the ideal of a complete information service. This of that event will remain forever—or for a long time—unknown to the outside world. The difficulties of obtaining direct information will also result in part of the material becoming known only after a delay.
We intend to organize the matter of our newsletter in the following manner. It will report on the state of relations between the Church and the Reich, negotiations and progress and their results and especially violations of the Concordant by the Nazi dictatorship, the state authorities and the Party. It will trace the spread of the growing de-Christianization of public life which is taking place particularly within the world of education and which is made manifest in repressive measures against Christian organizations and the religious press. Measures of persecution against the clergy and against the faithful who are determined to preserve religious freedom will be faithfully recorded. In addition, the bulletin will provide a depiction of systematic anti-Christian propaganda and the unrest that has been stirred up against the churches and the faithful. It will also report on important National Socialist neo-pagan events, on the trend towards of the creation of a national German Church—containing a mix of Christian and pagan elements—and on organized neo-paganism. Finally, the most interesting documents covering the Kulturkampfin the Third Reich will be published…
Excerpted from “Confronting the Nazi War on Christianity: The Kulturkampf Newsletters” (1936-1939), Edited and translated by Richard Bonney