Häresie und Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts

Hitler referred to Alfred Rosenberg as the "Church Father of National Socialism". His main work, "The Myth of the Twentieth Century" (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts), was compulsory reading for every politics class in the Third Reich. As early as 1934, the Roman Curia had this significant National Socialist programmatic publication placed on the Index of Forbidden Books. Archival sources that became accessible in 2003 have cast new light on the circumstances surrounding the ban and provide answers to previously unanswered questions about the relationship between the Vatican and National Socialism. If the Church was truly keeping silent during the Third Reich, how can we account for this early ban? The symbolic act of banning this book was a deliberate statement by the Vatican, which did not shy away from stating its position against the idea of National Socialism. And this ban did not go without consequences. In response, the National Socialist Party set its entire propaganda apparatus in motion to defame the Church and German Catholics found themselves plunged into a crisis of conscience.

This volume examines who at the Roman Curia pushed for the ban of the "Myth", why it was enforced and, finally, what position Eugenio Pacelli took on the issue as the German Nuncio and, later, as Pope Pius XII.

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Dominik BURKHARD, Häresie und Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts. Rosenbergs nationalsozialistische Weltanschauung vor dem Tribunal der Römischen Inquisition, Paderborn et alibi 2005, 416 pages, hardcover, ISBN: 978-3-506-77673-0.