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Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 9.4 (2006) 132-144



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Dietrich von Hildebrand's Struggle Against German National Socialism

Translated by John Henry Crosby
Born 1942 in Vienna, Andreas Laun knew Dietrich von Hildebrand personally through his father, Hellmut Laun. Hildebrand played a significant role in Hellmut Laun's journey into the Catholic Church, resulting in a lifelong friendship between the two men. So it was that as a child Andreas Laun already came to know Hildebrand and that he began reading some of Hildebrand's works during his youth. Later, in the context of his [End Page 132] doctoral dissertation on natural law, he enthusiastically studied the works of the great ethicist, particularly Hildebrand's Ethics.

When studying the question of anti-Semitism as a moral theologian during the years of "remembrance" (around 1988, fifty years after the Anschluß, or annexation, of Austria by Nazi Germany), Andreas Laun discovered in a new way Hildebrand's struggle against National Socialism and its stance toward Judaism. Years later, having become auxiliary bishop of Salzburg, Andreas Laun organized a symposium on the relationship of Jews and Christians and published the papers in a collection titled, On the Way to Jerusalem.1

As a matter of historical fact there is no contesting that many Catholics either failed to recognize the ultimately diabolic spirit of National Socialism or else did so too late. Many underestimated the adversary out of naive credulity, while others attempted to come into dialogue with National Socialism; still others tried simply to preserve whatever they could. Gestures not meant to signify approval but which nonetheless were unfortunate, such as the handshake of Cardinal Innitzer and Adolf Hitler, and, above all, the endorsement of the Anschluß by the Catholic bishops, only served to make matters worse.

The result has been inevitable. Catholics who failed in any respect are portrayed by Catholic detractors as "typically Catholic," while the many other Catholics who became victims of the Nazi terror as well as those whose opposition to Hitler was motivated by their Catholic faith are ignored. Moreover, to avoid creating any impression of whitewashing the past for ideological reasons, there are even certain Catholic circles which exaggerate the failures of their own Church while they shrink from giving appropriate recognition to the real achievements of Catholics.

A particularly characteristic example of this is the way in which the moving and highly dangerous struggle2 of Dietrich von Hildebrand [End Page 133] against National Socialism was almost entirely ignored during the year commemorating the 50th anniversary of the German annexation of Austria in 1938. This is all the more unfortunate since there were few intellectuals in the Church who analyzed Hitler and his ideology so clearly and so unerringly and then fought against it with such passion as did the Catholic philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand.

Hitler's seizure of power in Germany had created a situation in which it was "absolutely impossible for me as a Catholic not to protest against the terrible falsehood [of National Socialism]. . . . Indeed, as a Catholic I felt myself obliged to take up the active struggle against National Socialism."3 The man who wrote these programmatic words was Dietrich von Hildebrand, son of the sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand, whose artistry, ironically, was especially prized by Hitler. Hildebrand studied philosophy with Edmund Husserl, converted to the Catholic Church at twenty-five, and, at the time of Hitler's takeover, was forty-four years old.

It was not long before his religious convictions and his philosophical eros were to be put to the test in a special way. While other great and talented men, including philosophers, artists, and scholars (such as Martin Heidegger or Konrad Lorenz), were falling prey to the philosophy of National Socialism in a way that is incomprehensible to us today, Hildebrand recognized the pernicious spirit of the movement: "And I tell you that the Nazis are nothing but animals," he said to one of his doctoral students.4

Whoever spoke in this way was in the greatest...

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