08/09/2019 Crucifix Decrees - Wikipedia

Crucifix Decrees
The Crucifix Decrees (Crucifix Struggle) were part of the Nazi Regime’s efforts to secularize public life.[1] For
example, crucifixes throughout public places like schools were to be replaced with the Fuhrer’s picture. The Crucifix
Decrees throughout the years of 1935 to 1941 sparked protests against removing crucifixes from traditional places.
Protests notably occurred in Oldenburg (Lower Saxony) in 1936, Frankenholz (Saarland) and Frauenberg (East
Prussia) in 1937, and in Bavaria in 1941.[2] These incidents helped to encourage Nazi party leaders to back away from
crucifix removals in 1941.

Contents
Historical Significance
A Woman's Role
References
Further reading

Historical Significance
Significance within the Crucifix Decrees lies within the single-issue based event that it was. The following list are some
of the events related to the Crucifix Decrees:

From 1935-1941, there were many cars blowing horns, church bells ringing in order to produce a general sense of
disruption.
Many mother's visited delegation meetings and threatened to remove their children from school.
Women were putting crucifixes around their children going into school's necks.
In 1935, a group of men pushed their way into a school to replace Hitler's picture with a crucifix.
The Bavarian Government Presidents expressed concern about the interference of Holy days and the morale of
the Catholic population in August 1937.
In upper Franconia women wrote letters to their husbands on the war fronts to tell them what was going on at
home in our to show how the war and home fronts were not on the same page.[3]
However, another significant note is how there were different reactions to the crucifix decrees on Nazi leaders' sides.
For example, in Oldenburg during 1936 a Gauleiter speech the crowd expected him to rescind the crucifix decrees, but
he began his speech on racial problems in Africa.[3] Another example occurred in the district of Ebergs where not a
single crucifix was removed from the start.[3] These examples show how single issues ranged among Nazi officials'
levels of strictness.

One German term "Handlungsspielraum" is the collective opinion being expressed in a way that the regime has to
respond to. This term signifies that organized protest, like those in the Crucifix Decrees among others, forces the
regime to take notice and possible action.

Furthermore, these events were part of Gleichschaltung on a larger note because of the all-encompassing mentality of
the regime. This was a sign that the regime was taking a step into religion, yet not completely voluntarily on the
citizens' side.

A Woman's Role

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifix_Decrees 1/2