The Myth of the Twentieth Century
In 1924, during his imprisonment, Hitler had chosen Alfred Rosenberg to lead the Nazi movement in his absence. In his seminal 1930 work "The Myth of the 20th Century", Rosenberg wrote: "We now realize that the central supreme values of the Roman and the Protestant Churches [-] hinder the organic powers of the peoples determined by their Nordic race, [-] they will have to be remodeled". Hitler had called his book "derivative, pastiche, illogical rubbish!" But in January 1934, Hitler appointed Rosenberg as the cultural and educational leader of the Reich - the official Nazi philosopher and ideologist. Rosenberg was notoriously anti-Christian. Church officials were perturbed by Hitler's appointment of Rosenberg as Nazi philosopher as it apparently endorsed Rosenberg's anti-church and neo-pagan philosophy. The Vatican banned "The Myth of the Twentieth Century" in February, 1934. During the War, Rosenberg outlined the future he envisioned for religion in Germany. Among its articles: the National Reich Church of Germany was to claim exclusive control over all churches; publication of the Bible was to cease; crucifixes, Bibles and saints were to be removed from altars; and Mein Kampf was to be placed on altars as "to the German nation and therefore to God the most sacred book"; and the Christian Cross was to be removed from all churches and replaced with the swastika. But Rosenberg was, in the end, a marginalised figure in the Hitler regime.