If one wishes to discuss the resistance of the German conservatives to National Socialism, one must first consider the central terms “resistance” and “conservatism.” Neither term has a fixed meaning, because both reflect the development of German history since the 1920s.

Historically, resistance must be understood as a phenomenon that varied according to the time of its occurrence and the intensity of the political pressures to which it responded. In this essay, resistance to Nazism is defined as any form of opposition to a regime that attempted to control every aspect of political, cultural, religious, and social life. The Nazi government sought to construct an order that made far-reaching demands on every German citizen and thereby conflicted with other comprehensive visions of social organization - for example, the ideals of the churches.

The extensive demands of the Nazis not only evoked the opposition of their traditional and most outspoken adversaries - the working-class movement - but also challenged a number of conservative parties, interest groups, and institutions that initially had accepted parts of the Nazi program. This held especially true for the groups that were the declared enemies of the Social Democrats, the Communists, and the free trade unions. The Catholic church, for example, which had strongly opposed political and cultural liberalism, did not hesitate to cooperate with the Nazis in the summer of 1933, the critical period when the party consolidated its power.