Adolf Hitler's bodyguard
When Hitler returned to Munich from military service in 1918, he became a member of the Nazi Party, an extremist far-right political party in Bavaria. In 1921, he was elected leader of the party. As his speeches promoted violence and racism, Hitler needed permanent security.
Criticism of the Catholic Church
Though the broader membership of the Nazi Party after 1933 came to include many Catholics, aggressive anti-Church radicals like Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and Hitler's chosen "deputy" Martin Bormann saw the campaign against the Churches as a priority concern, and anti-church and anticlerical sentiments were strong among grassroots party activists. While the Nazi Führer Adolf Hitler's public relationship to religion in Nazi Germany may be defined as one of opportunism, his personal position on Catholicism and Christianity was one of hostility. Bormann recorded in "Hitler's Table Talk" that Nazism was secular, scientific and anti-religious in outlook.