@NL,
NL wrote:
I think you need to look further back. Hitler could not get as far as he did without supporters early on. For example, Hitler's concordant with the Vatican was in 1933. It particularly affected Germany and countries that had a catholic majority, like the ones you mentioned.
Negotiations between the German Reich and the Holy See (those two were the related countries in this treaty) began as early 1919.
As a result, there had been various 'konkordats' between a couple of German states and the Holy See.
Under Hitler government, the Konkordat between the German Reich and the Holy See was finalised.
During the Weimar Republic (data from the Statistical Yearbook of the German Reich, 1930) 64,2 % of the the population was evangelical, 32,4 % Roman-Catholic, 0,1 % other Christian churches; 0,9 % Jews; 2,5 % "others".