Essay from the year 2008 in the subject History Europe - Germany - National Socialism, World War II, grade: 71 = A, Oxford Brookes University, course: The Nazi Dictatorship, 1933-1945, 11 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Free from any apologetic or debunking fuss, the essay depicts the complex relationship between the Nazi state and the Catholic and Protestant Churches during the Third Reich. Focussing on three major areas of conflict between the Churches and the Nazis(sychronization ('Gleichschaltung'), the Nazis' anti-church policies, the churches and euthanasia) the essay's argument is that a pragmatic approach by both Churches and the Nazis based on the preservation of mutual self-interest is the key to understand their