Adolf Hitler's Speech in the Berlin Sportpalast: God and Power

“Providence,” said Adol Hitler, Germany’s Christian Nationalist leader, “only gave to us what we deserved in the end.” 

On January 30, 1940, the anniversary of his appointment as Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler gave a powerful defense of far-right conservative values. Those values resonate to a surprising degree in much conservative rhetoric today. Speaking in the enormous Berlin Sportpalast, Hitler ridiculed democratic ideals, while boasting that Heaven would stay on Germany’s side only if Germany remained resolute. Yet, as he spoke, World War II was already five months old, and Germany was destined to lie in ruins before Hitler’s leadership ended.

If there is a lesson in this, it is that people who follow strong, authoritarian leaders can expect to be filled with pride as they march to ruin. History has told that tale for centuries. Hitler’s spellbinding speech called his nation to glory and blamed their past failings on the enmity of others. Of course, Hitler was always the master of huge rallies. This rally speech showed every sign of careful, thoughtful preparation. Hitler laid out a value set that many people today still crave. Yet, as this speech proves, not everyone who calls on Providence is doing godly work. Likewise, when Donald Trump praised the vicious dictator Vladimir Putin for being a “strong leader,” was he saying anything much different?

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Let us start with a brief bit of historical context. After losing World War I, Germany signed the oppressive Treaty of Versailles, which imposed enormous national debt and crushed the German economy. The Weimar Republic proved to be too ineffectual to cope with either the post-war calamity or the Great Depression that crushed the world-wide economy. After a free election, Hitler established a coalition government in 1933, promptly abolished all political parties except his own, and got to work. Unlike other world leaders who made a mess of the Great Depression, Hitler appointed excellent economists to government positions and got Germany back to work. Germany’s September 1939 attack on Poland set Europe ablaze with war, but also brought Hitler to the height of his popularity. This set the stage for his triumphant speech.


First, Hitler Ridiculed Democracy

In this speech, Hitler argued that democracy was weak and ineffectual. The Weimar Republic was, in the 1920s, famously unable to control inflation. The government finally imposed anti-inflation policies, which smashed the German economy just as the Great Depression swept across the world. Facing economic calamity, the German people were ready to turn to radical leaders. With that background of recent history, Hitler lost no time ridiculing democracy: 

“Today there is much talk about democratic ideals in the outside world. But not in Germany! For here in Germany we had more than enough time—fifteen years—to acquaint ourselves with these democratic ideals. And we ourselves had to pick up the legacy left behind by this democracy.”

In that brief passage, Hitler mocked “democratic ideals” that the rest of the world admired: “But not in Germany!” Germany had experimented with democracy Hitler said: “we had more than enough time—fifteen years—to acquaint ourselves with these democratic ideals.”

It is no accident that Hitler rejected, not just democratic institutions, but the very concept—the ideals—of democracy. He drew a stark contrast between the strong national socialist government, on the one hand, and the weak democratic nations on the other. Making no apologies for authoritarianism, Hitler implied that strength, not democracy, was essential for a proud, successful Germany.

Hitler's attack on democracy led him directly to the oppressive terms of the Treaty of Versailles. He complained that all 440 articles of that treaty “represented a burden, an obligation, an indictment, and an extortion of Germany. The League of Nations guaranteed this Versailles.” Indeed, Hitler said, the League of Nations “was not an association of free and equal nations.” Instead, Hitler insisted. As he ridiculed the League of Nations’ supposed democratic ideals, its true purpose was merely to force Germany to fulfill the Treaty’s oppressive terms. This, in turn, let Hitler drive a spike into democracy's heart:

“This was the age of democratic Germany! Now that foreign statesmen repeatedly act as though they could not possibly trust present-day Germany, one should remark that this cannot possibly be applied to the Germany back then. This former Germany was their own creation, their own work. They should have been able to place trust in it.”

Underlining what he called the weakness of democratic institutions, Hitler then narrated a lengthy list of the economic calamities that befell Germany after World War I. Those included inflation, unemployment, and general discouragement. That led him to call on spiritual power.


Second, Hitler Called on Providence

Hitler was a big advocate of the Lost Cause theory of warfare. In his view, foreign powers forced World War I on Germany, but Heaven blessed Germany with military victories only as long as the people remained strong:

“The year 1915 improved the situation of the Reich further still; 1916, 1917; year after year; battle after battle. At times, everything seemed on the verge of collapse when, as though by miracle, the Reich was rescued. Germany then afforded us with truly astounding proofs of its internal strength. Obviously, Providence had blessed it.”

Next, however, Hitler said that the German people “became ungrateful” and began to listen to false promises:

“In its ungratefulness, the German Volk turned against its own Reich, its own leadership. And it was then that Providence turned away from the German Volk.”

In other words, Hitler said that the German people literally deserved their World War I defeat because they became weak, because they turned down Heaven’s gift of strength. He continued:

“Since then, I have come to regard this catastrophe as something not wholly undeserved. I have never complained that Providence had somehow wronged us.

“On the contrary, I always supported this thesis: Providence only gave to us what we deserved in the end. The German nation was ungrateful. Therefore it was deprived of its recompense! This will not happen a second time in our history.” 

Hitler did not worship a god of kindness, wisdom, or mercy. He worshipped a god of strength. He called on Germany to worship a god of power. In Hitler's vision, this version of Providence had led the German people to fight during the Second World War: 

“At times, our enemies were already jubilantly hailing our destruction. Yet the Movement held its own with a heart filled with strength and joy. Time and time again, trusting in the necessity of our struggle, it leapt up once more to face the enemy and to carry the victory in the end.”

Hitler's message was clear. He had no use for the weakness of democratic values. He held the western democracies up to ridicule as hypocrites who oppressed the German people even as they proclaimed noble ideals. He told his massive audience that Heaven would be on their side only if they remained resolute. He raised the issue beyond personality—above personality—to the greatness of his nation: 

“I wish to draw attention not to my own person and my surroundings, but rather to the past and to the future. I wish to stand up in honor before the past and the future, and with me the German Volk shall honorably hold its own.”

Conclusion

Perhaps more than any other leader, Hitler understood the power of speech. So, yes, this powerful speech laid out a clash of values. Strength, not democracy. Unity in the face of opposition. Hitler worshipped a warrior God. Although not in so many words, he implicitly called Germany’s churches to support Germany's cause. It was not his cause, he said, but that of the German people who needed to regain the character that they had lost at the end of World War I.

We all know that none of that worked out. In a little more than five years, Germany’s great cities became smoking piles of rubble. Five million Germans lay dead. The Holocaust, which was one of the most horrifying events in human history, brought the German nation to disgrace. After Germany surrendered in 1945, however, the nation adopted a genuine representative democracy that soon made Germany into one of the richest and most respected nations in the world. 

Today, as right-wing movements gain power around the world, let us remember that they promise nothing new. Right-wing dictators of 2022 still call on churches to support their agendas. Certainly, Vladimir Putin often describes himself as a Christian leader. As they worship a god of strength, not one of mercy; as they attack democratic institutions; as they blame others for their mistakes; as they call power, not justice, the ultimate virtue, they are walking the same path as Napoleon, Hitler, and Stalin: a path that leads only to disaster. Hitler’s compelling speech appealed to pride and strength, but he swept wisdom aside.


Adolf Hitler’s “Christian Nationalist” Speech

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Adolf Hitler’s “Christian Nationalist” Speech

In his April 12, 1922 Munich speech, testifying of his “boundless love as a Christian and a man,” Adolf Hitler warped Christianity to support cruel public policies. Just like conservative American politicians today, Hitler identified himself with the group that has since become known as Christian nationalists. To persuade conservative Christians, Hitler talked about Jesus as a warrior, not a peacemaker; a fighter, not a man of love. Hitler didn’t just give his audience an excuse to be cruel; he said that Christianity required Germans to lash out. Hitler is gone, but those themes resonate today.


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Adolf Hitler was a public speaker of hypnotic power, one of the last great masters of the ancient art of elocution, who could captivate his audience with a stream of words. Alternately thoughtful and bombastic, pleading and demanding, Hitler planned and rehearsed every word, every phrase, every gesture, and every facial expression in meticulous detail. He used his powers to rally Germans to an evil cause and ultimately to destruction, leading conservative Christians to become his all-too-willing tools.

Eleven years before he became Chancellor of Germany, Hitler was already a major Nazi Party leader. Do Hitler’s Christian nationalist views echo in the United States today? I think they do. As we’ll see in a moment, Hitler cited Jesus’ life and actions to support his values. But Hitler’s framework was nationalism. Hitler stated his nationalist theme with these opening words, where he praised a historical German leader:

“Frederick the Great after the Seven Years War had, as a result of superhuman efforts, left Prussia without a penny of debt.”

Not just great efforts, not just human efforts, but “superhuman” efforts. It’s only one step from the superhuman to the supernatural. Would the audience think that Hitler planned to make superhuman efforts himself? Maybe so. Here is how Hitler introduced his twisted version of Christian theology a few minutes later:

“I say: my feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Saviour as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to the fight against them and who, God’s truth! Was great not as sufferer but as fighter.” 

Hitler preached a violent, angry Christianity that provided strength and power. To Hitler, Jesus, his “Lord and Saviour,” was a “fighter.” Indeed, we will see that, by the speech’s end, Hitler transformed Christianity into a struggle to rescue downtrodden Germans. He didn’t do this by building them up, but by blaming their supposed enemies. 

Hitler was raised in the Catholic Church. However, he did not practice Christianity in adulthood. All the same, conservative Christians formed Hitler’s support base throughout his political career. Hitler, in turn, reached out to them, spoke in their terms, and placed himself in their ranks. Hitler depicted himself as a minority figure who, like Jesus, was fighting for an unpopular but noble cause. 

In turn, it appears that Hitler would have had no use for the Jesus who said, “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39). The Jesus of Matthew’s Gospel was not a fighter. Likewise, Hitler seemed to leave no place for the Golden Rule: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” That surprises me not at all. In my many years attending church in conservative areas, I have only heard one sermon (out of hundreds) about the ever-so-liberal Sermon on the Mount, and not even one about the Golden Rule. No, Hitler had no interest in submission. Indeed, he directly contradicted Matthew: 

“As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice.”

Hitler wasn’t turning the other cheek, was he? Continuing, Hitler tied Christian duty to patriotism, and, in turn, patriotism to anger:

“For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people. And when I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their pinched faces, then I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil, if I felt no pity for them, if I did not, as did our Lord two thousand years ago, turn against those by whom today this poor people is plundered and exploited.”

That is, Hitler felt that the solution to German workers’ economic struggles was to blame Jews. Using the language of liberalism – “plundered and exploited” – Hitler’s rhetoric twisted the issue into a mass of unsupported denunciations. He told his audience that Christianity not only allowed but required that they crush Jews. By this point in the speech, Hitler had spun Christian mercy into its opposite. Yet, as he did so, he continued to speak words with which, apparently, many German churchgoers could identify.

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Thus began Hitler’s pseudo-theology of Christian nationalism. Throughout the speech, Hitler talked about a Jesus who was a fighter, not a healer. Hitler taught a theology of strength. According to Hitler, Jesus was an enemy of Jews, and that Jesus “summoned men to the fight against them.” Jesus, Hitler emphasized, started with a handful of followers – as did Hitler himself – and rose to prominence by power. Indeed, as this 1922 speech continued, Hitler praised Jesus for “His fight for the world against the Jewish poison.”

Hitler concluded his speech by creating a new moral theology. Hitler’s religion did not speak for peace or Christian love, but, instead, for a new faith of strength and power:

“That is the mightiest of things which our Movement must create: for these widespread, seeking and straying masses a new Faith which will not fail them in this hour of confusion, to which they can pledge themselves, on which they can build so that they may at least find once again a place which may bring calm to their hearts.”

And with that comment, Hitler left the stage. Christianity had now vanished from his speech. Having left Jesus behind, Hitler announced a new nationalist faith. No longer guided by Christian values, Hitler subordinated Christianity, with its teachings of tolerance and love, to a new religion of nationalist triumph. Millions of German Christians followed him to the bitter end.

Germany was one of the world’s greatest nations, a center of art, music, literature, philosophy, and religion. If Nazism could arise there, it could arise anywhere. It could arise in the United States. Don’t ever think it couldn’t. In eleven years, Hitler’s powerful but evil rhetoric converted his great nation into a land of violence and hatred. When he cited his supposed Christian faith, Hitler gave his audience an excuse to commit wrongful deeds. How could it be wrong, Hitler implied, to be cruel in Jesus’ name? 

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Do you think that Hitler’s themes – a Christianity of power and struggle, whose rhetorical purpose is to promote national strength and vengeance, not mercy – resonate in the Christian Right of today? Or not? More important, is it even possible to fight for Christianity while forsaking its teachings? Please feel free to make comments below.

Technical note: "Elocution" has meant different things during different periods of rhetorical history. For more insight into the public speaking methods that Hitler was taught, interested readers might look at Gilbert Austin's book Chironomia, or the Art of Manual Rhetoric. It's fascinating, but it's also heavy-duty reading. François Delsarte may have been a more direct influence on Hitler or his mentors.