{"id":8529,"date":"2015-12-22T17:31:39","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T17:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=8529"},"modified":"2016-12-23T17:37:09","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T17:37:09","slug":"how-the-nazis-co-opted-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-the-nazis-co-opted-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Nazis co-opted Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Perry<\/a>, Georgia State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1921, in a Munich beer hall, newly appointed Nazi party leader Adolf Hitler gave a Christmas speech to an excited crowd. <\/p>\n

According to undercover police observers, 4,000 supporters cheered when Hitler condemned \u201cthe cowardly Jews for breaking the world-liberator on the cross\u201d and swore \u201cnot to rest until the Jews\u2026lay shattered on the ground.\u201d Later, the crowd sang holiday carols and nationalist hymns around a Christmas tree. Working-class attendees received charitable gifts. <\/p>\n

For Germans in the 1920s and 1930s, this combination of familiar holiday observance, nationalist propaganda and anti-Semitism was hardly unusual. As the Nazi party grew in size and scope \u2013 and eventually took power in 1933 \u2013 committed propagandists worked to further \u201cNazify\u201d Christmas. Redefining familiar traditions and designing new symbols and rituals, they hoped to channel the main tenets of National Socialism through the popular holiday.<\/p>\n

Given state control of public life, it\u2019s not surprising that Nazi officials were successful in promoting and propagating their version of Christmas<\/a> through repeated radio broadcasts and news articles.<\/p>\n

But under any totalitarian regime, there can be a wide disparity between public and private life, between the rituals of the city square and those of the home. In my research, I was interested in how Nazi symbols and rituals penetrated private, family festivities \u2013 away from the gaze of party leaders.<\/p>\n

While some Germans did<\/em> resist the heavy-handed, politicized appropriation of Germany\u2019s favorite holiday<\/a>, many actually embraced a Nazified holiday that evoked the family\u2019s place in the \u201cracial state<\/a>,\u201d free of Jews and other outsiders. <\/p>\n

Redefining Christmas<\/h2>\n

One of the most striking features of private celebration in the Nazi period was the redefinition of Christmas as a neo-pagan, Nordic celebration. Rather on focus on the holiday\u2019s religious origins, the Nazi version celebrated the supposed heritage of the Aryan race, the label Nazis gave to \u201cracially acceptable\u201d members of the German racial state.<\/p>\n

According to Nazi intellectuals, cherished holiday traditions drew on winter solstice rituals practiced by \u201cGermanic\u201d tribes before the arrival of Christianity. Lighting candles on the Christmas tree, for example, recalled pagan desires for the \u201creturn of light\u201d after the shortest day of the year.<\/p>\n

Scholars have called attention to the manipulative function of these and other invented traditions<\/a>. But that\u2019s no reason to assume they were unpopular. Since the 1860s, German historians, theologians and popular writers had argued that German holiday observances were holdovers from pre-Christian pagan rituals and popular folk superstitions. <\/p>\n

So because these ideas and traditions had a lengthy history, Nazi propagandists were able to easily cast Christmas as a celebration of pagan German nationalism. A vast state apparatus (centered in the Nazi Ministry for Propaganda and Enlightenment) ensured that a Nazified holiday dominated public space and celebration in the Third Reich.<\/p>\n

But two aspects of the Nazi version of Christmas were relatively new. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n A Christmas-themed stamp emphasizes light.<\/span>
\n Author provided<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First, because Nazi ideologues saw organized religion as an enemy of the totalitarian state, propagandists sought to deemphasize<\/a> \u2013 or eliminate altogether \u2013 the Christian aspects of the holiday. Official celebrations might mention a supreme being, but they more prominently featured solstice and \u201clight\u201d rituals that supposedly captured the holiday\u2019s pagan origins. <\/p>\n

Second, as Hitler\u2019s 1921 speech suggests, Nazi celebration evoked racial purity and anti-Semitism. Before the Nazis took power in 1933, ugly and open attacks on German Jews typified holiday propaganda. <\/p>\n

Blatant anti-Semitism more or less disappeared after 1933, as the regime sought to stabilize its control over a population tired of political strife, though Nazi celebrations still excluded those deemed \u201cunfit\u201d by the regime. Countless media images of invariably blond-haired, blue-eyed German families gathered around the Christmas tree helped normalize ideologies of racial purity. <\/p>\n

Open anti-Semitism nonetheless cropped up at Christmastime. Many would boycott Jewish-owned department stores. And the front cover of a 1935 mail order Christmas catalog, which pictured a fair-haired mother wrapping Christmas presents, included a sticker assuring customers that \u201cthe department store has been taken over by an Aryan!\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a small, almost banal example. But it speaks volumes. In Nazi Germany, even shopping for a gift could naturalize anti-Semitism and reinforce the \u201csocial death\u201d of Jews in the Third Reich<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The message was clear: only \u201cAryans\u201d could participate in the celebration.<\/p>\n

Taking the \u2018Christ\u2019 out of Christmas<\/h2>\n

According to National Socialist theorists, women<\/a> \u2013 particularly mothers \u2013 were crucial for strengthening the bonds between private life and the \u201cnew spirit\u201d of the German racial state.<\/p>\n

Everyday acts of celebration \u2013 wrapping presents, decorating the home, cooking \u201cGerman\u201d holiday foods and organizing family celebrations \u2013 were linked to a cult of sentimental \u201cNordic\u201d nationalism.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Christmas tree bulbs featuring the swastika were only one of a number of ways that Christmas became Nazified.<\/span>
\n Author provided<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Propagandists proclaimed that as \u201cpriestess\u201d and \u201cprotector of house and hearth,\u201d the German mother could use Christmas to \u201cbring the spirit of the German home back to life.\u201d The holiday issues of women\u2019s magazines, Nazified Christmas books and Nazi carols tinged conventional family customs with the ideology of the regime.<\/p>\n

This sort of ideological manipulation took everyday forms. Mothers and children were encouraged to make homemade decorations shaped like \u201cOdin\u2019s Sun Wheel\u201d and bake holiday cookies shaped like a loop (a fertility symbol). The ritual of lighting candles on the Christmas tree was said to create an atmosphere of \u201cpagan demon magic\u201d that would subsume the Star of Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus in feelings of \u201cGermanness.\u201d <\/p>\n

Family singing epitomized the porous boundaries between private and official forms of celebration. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n Sheet music for the popular carol Exalted Night of the Clear Stars.<\/span>
\n Author provided<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Propagandists tirelessly promoted numerous Nazified Christmas songs, which replaced Christian themes with the regime\u2019s racial ideologies. Exalted Night of the Clear Stars, the most famous Nazi carol, was reprinted in Nazi songbooks, broadcast in radio programs, performed at countless public celebrations \u2013 and sung at home. <\/p>\n

Indeed, Exalted Night became so familiar that it could still be sung in the 1950s as part of an ordinary family holiday (and, apparently, as part of some public performances today!<\/a>). <\/p>\n

While the song\u2019s melody mimics a traditional carol, the lyrics deny the Christian origins of the holiday. Verses of stars, light and an eternal mother suggest a world redeemed through faith in National Socialism \u2013 not Jesus.<\/p>\n

Conflict or consensus among the German public?<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ll never know exactly how many German families sang Exalted Night or baked Christmas cookies shaped like a Germanic sun wheel. But we do have some records of the popular response to the Nazi holiday, mostly from official sources. <\/p>\n

For example, the \u201cactivity reports\u201d of the National Socialist Women\u2019s League (NSF) show that the redefinition of Christmas created some disagreement among members. NSF files note that tensions flared when propagandists pressed too hard to sideline religious observance, leading to \u201cmuch doubt and discontent.\u201d <\/p>\n

Religious traditions often clashed with ideological goals: was it acceptable for \u201cconvinced National Socialists\u201d to celebrate Christmas with Christian carols and nativity plays? How could Nazi believers observe a Nazi holiday when stores mostly sold conventional holiday goods and rarely stocked Nazi Christmas books?<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, German clergymen openly resisted Nazi attempts to take Christ out of Christmas. In D\u00fcsseldorf, clergymen used Christmas to encourage women to join their respective women\u2019s clubs. Catholic clergy threatened to excommunicate women who joined the NSF. Elsewhere, women of faith boycotted NSF Christmas parties and charity drives. <\/p>\n

Still, such dissent never really challenged the main tenets of the Nazi holiday. <\/p>\n

Reports on public opinion compiled by the Nazi secret police often commented on the popularity of Nazi Christmas festivities. Well into the Second World War, when looming defeat increasingly discredited the Nazi holiday, the secret police reported that complaints about official policies dissolved in an overall \u201cChristmas mood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite conflicts over Christianity, many Germans accepted the Nazification of Christmas. The return to colorful and enjoyable pagan \u201cGermanic\u201d traditions promised to revitalize family celebration. Not least, observing a Nazified holiday symbolized racial purity and national belonging. \u201cAryans\u201d could celebrate German Christmas. Jews could not.<\/p>\n

The Nazification of family celebration thus revealed the paradoxical and contested terrain of private life in the Third Reich. The apparently banal, everyday decision to sing a particular Christmas carol, or bake a holiday cookie, became either an act of political dissent or an expression of support for national socialism.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Joe Perry<\/a>, Associate Professor of History, Georgia State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Perry, Georgia State University In 1921, in a Munich beer hall, newly appointed Nazi party leader Adolf Hitler gave a Christmas speech to an excited crowd. According to undercover police observers, 4,000 supporters cheered when Hitler condemned \u201cthe cowardly Jews for breaking the world-liberator on the cross\u201d and swore \u201cnot to rest until the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":8530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[387,1736,242,191,1735],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8529"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8531,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8529\/revisions\/8531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}