Between cross and swastika – Difficult choices in troubled times A study of Bishop Alois Hudal’s understanding of national socialism as presented in Die Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus

摘要

Bishop Alois Hudal is a man who is often mentioned when the relationship between the Vatican and the national socialistic Germany of 1933-1945 is discussed. In these cases he is usually presented as a Nazi and sometimes even called “the brown Bishop”. One of the contributing factors for this infamous title, perhaps the most contributing, is the Bishops book Die Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus. National Socialism is a Weltanschauung with a certain set of doctrines that is hard, or rather impossible, to combine with any other Weltanschauung, whether it is a philosophical or a religious one. The purpose of this essay is to analyse Bishop Alois Hudal perception of National Socialism, as he presents in Die Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus and compare his conclusions of what National Socialism is, or ought to be according to him, with what modern scholars of fascism and National Socialism today deem as being National Socialism. There is also a hermeneutic aspect to this essay as the Bishop and his views are presented with the consideration of the historical times he lived and worked in. The result of the analysis and the comparison is that Bishop Alois Hudal can not be deem an ideological National Socialist based on the views he presents in Die Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus . He presents National Socialism as consisting of two wings, a left one and a right one. The right one, which he also considers to be the desired one, is a combination of the conservative part of the, then existing, National Socialistic Party and his own wishful thing. The left one on he describes is what modern scholars today considers as National Socialism. Though that form of National Socialism is something Alois Hudal abhors and distances himself from. Thus he can not be judged a National Socialist.