The SS As A Religious And Cultural Organization

h/t Vidar

This statement, which at first sight is puzzling, is hardly surprising after all that has just been said. While the NSDAP was a political organization that did not interfere much in religious matters, mainly for diplomatic reasons, the SS, as an ideological order, also made demands in this area. The return to a properly Aryan mental universe could not leave aside that which connects man to the absolute higher principle, i.e. religion. The denunciation of the inherent allogeneity of Judeo-Christianity, which had permeated the European mindset for centuries, was perhaps more virulent than that of Judaism. Christianity, which derived from Jewish philosophy, was not forgiven for having conveyed a globalist ideology and for having systematically erased and denigrated everything that might remind one of the ancient Germanic culture. As proof of this, let us take Cardinal Faulhaber’s sermon on New Year’s Eve in 1933: “One cannot speak of a Germanic culture per se dating from pre-Christian times on the basis of Tacitus. The Germans only became a people with a civilization in the full sense of the word through Christianity. The hardest task for Christian missionaries was to get the Germans to melt their swords into ploughshares. Christianity, protector of the weak and sick, teaching sin and shame of the body, contempt for animals and women, stigmatizing joy and pride, denigrating racial realities, was considered by the National Socialists as a “disease of the soul”.

This was certainly the first questioning in history of the validity of Judeo-Christian philosophy as a whole. However, judgements remained nuanced according to its different aspects. There was relative sympathy for Protestantism only insofar as it expressed a revolt against the Roman papist spirit (see the article “The German University in the Counter. Reformation”), but it was rejected for its dogmatic biblical side (see the article “The Witchcraft”). In 1937, Himmler even sent a letter to all heads of instruction forbidding them to attack the person of Christ, no doubt believing that such an attitude would have offended the convictions of the majority of the SS still attached to the old religion and that a study of customs in a positive sense could only exert the most persuasive action.

The gradual disappearance of Christianity was therefore to be replaced by a return to the founding spirit of Europe that had animated the pagan religion of the ancestors. The SS proposed to rediscover the principle of a properly Aryan religious attitude towards life and the world, which had been stifled and disguised under Christian coverings but was still present, particularly in the peasantry (see the articles ‘Harvest Customs’ and ‘Sacred Bread’). Religion was restored to its primordial meaning by placing it in the visible natural framework, a reflection of the invisible higher order. Man became aware that he was only a part of the natural order, subject to its law like every other living being. He could therefore only realize his full potential in this world by leading an existence that developed and nurtured the qualities of body, character and mind. To despise the physical and material aspect, as well as the living world in general, was to despise the sensitive mode of expression of the divine. In his respect for differences and his opposition to the unifying mixture, man was thus following the great commandments of sovereign nature. This piety, deeply faithful to the world of eternal natural laws, distanced itself as much from atheism, considered as a product of decadence, as from the outdated practices of pseudo-pagan groups (see the article “The Spiritual Crisis”). It also moved away from that form of idolatry which consisted in giving a material appearance (Christ the ‘son’ of God and the immaculate Virgin Mary) to a divine principle which was supra-material.

Through this fidelity to natural laws, the SS came to adopt an attitude that would nowadays be described as ‘ecological’, advocating a return to a healthy peasant life, the use of natural products (see the article ‘Why a Sudeten Spring’) and respect for nature (see the articles The Eternal Laws of Life’, ‘Comrade SS on my Side’, ‘The Forest as a Community of Life’, ‘Eternal Cycle’). This understanding of life was in stark contrast to the Christian tradition, which was hostile to all natural expression and taught the fear of God. The vanity of biblical man, believing himself superior to nature, can therefore only trigger the worst catastrophes, such as those looming on the horizon of the third millennium (disappearance of numerous animal species, deforestation, pollution, destruction of the ozone layer, etc.).

The SS always avoided criticizing the religious views of individuals as a strictly personal matter, It primarily attacked church philosophy and institutions in the context of the study of the National Socialist world view, which may seem paradoxical. The sense of sacredness and piety in every individual, Christian or otherwise, remained absolute. Freedom of belief was respected. On the application forms, it was asked whether the applicant was a “Catholic, Protestant or … believer” (gottglaubig), i.e. “pagan”. The “religious revolution” was carried out gradually in order to gain decisive power. An attempt was made to turn the Christians into pagans by impressing them with the pomp and depth of religious ceremonies and by studying and emphasizing the original, truly Aryan spiritual world. Only voluntary acceptance, not coercion, made the cleansing of the religious sense effective.

This ‘new’ yet immemorial religion had its own rites and ceremonies. It was also the task of the Schulungsamt to restore the original pagan meaning of festivals and ceremonies relating to the most important events in a person’s life, such as baptism (reformulated as naming), engagement, marriage (see the article “The Admission of Women to the SS Clan Community’), funerals, etc. Only the heads of training were authorized to design the spirit and form of the celebrations, with the exception of the practical applications, which were left to the heads of units. The SS did not want to create a new dogmatic clergy by granting prerogatives to the heads of instruction. The unit commanders performed certain ceremonies only where their men were directly concerned, thus excluding the risk of a sectarian transmission of religious power. Only the religious framework was maintained in which the personal sensitivity of each individual was freely expressed.

The festivals were conceived with the intention of restoring man’s privileged relationship with nature as an expression of divine creation. It was also a question of removing the Judeo-Christian reorientation imposed on traditional festivals such as Jul (Christmas), Ostara (Easter), Summer Solstice (or St John’s Day), In this respect, the peasant world was a perfect example of a society that had managed to preserve the meaning of its ancient traditions through its attachment to and loyalty to nature. Does the term “pagan” not come from “paganus”, the peasant, whom the Christians never managed to convert completely? Thus, man once again felt himself to be the indispensable and responsible link in the long chain of the clan, passing on life and traditions in an unchanging manner. The pride of the bodies and the faces with sparkling eyes turned towards the Sun testify to the joy of the creation that God has given to man, who thanks Him through the festivals.

This spiritual revolution also took place in the context of writing history in a Germanic sense. The Germans were truly discovering a part of history that had hitherto been ignored or despised, that of their Germanic ancestors. The Enlightenment had taken Greek civilization as its model. looking to it for aesthetic and philosophical roots. Germany was particularly affected by this phenomenon, and some even saw National Socialism as its heir. The plasticity of German neoclassical statues and architecture could betray this affiliation. However, a parallel and long-standing trend (German Romanticism) was to become more and more prevalent, that of a return to Germanness. The philosophy of the ‘Germanists’, especially those promoted by the SS, sought to bring the culture of Germany’s direct ancestors out of oblivion and contempt, thus demonstrating that German morality, poetry and art were not inferior to others. The work already undertaken by other researchers such as the Grimm brothers or Gustav Kossinna was continued on a larger scale. The purpose of such historical interest, apart from re-establishing the truth, was also to provide legitimacy to the SS Order, which drew references from the teachings of the great historical warriors, politicians and artists. Frederick II of Prussia, Dürer, Nietzsche, Wagner, Bismarck or René Quinton all testified to the permanence of a certain attitude specific to the Aryan race. Were they not examples of the creative genius that overcame time and fashion and which the SS tried to synthesize? Did they not always have a message to convey, being forerunners in their own way? Let us mention just a few of the ideas from which the SS drew inspiration: the Carolingian idea of empire, the creation of values in a Nietzschean sense, Wagnerian spirituality, Prussian military virtue and medieval chivalric mysticism.

The admiration aroused by René Quinton, although he was an enemy of Germany in his time (1914), also reveals the overcoming of political or nationalist divisions. It confirms that any heroic philosophy could not but resonate with National Socialism (see the article “Maxims on War”). Sometimes the qualities of foreign peoples were even praised (see the articles “Yamato’ and “The Empire of Ataturk”‘). The personality of Charlemagne did not leave the SS indifferent either. Some historians complacently spread the rumor after the war that he was called the

“executioner of the Saxons”. While not ignoring his troubled role in the Verden massacre, the SS saw him as the first architect of European unity and the creator of the principle of a Germanic Empire (see the articles “Charlemagne, Founder of a State” and “The Birth of Germanic Europe around 500 AD”). Charlemagne was a historical figure for both the Germans and the French and thus embodied the link between these two peoples of common origin.

-Edwige Thibaut, Paris, October 7th 1990