The Nazis and the Protestant Churches 28 protestant churches in Germany with over 45 million members – largest the Lutheran Church with 18 million Divisions and lack on international dimension arguably made Protestantism easier to ‘Nazify’ In April 1933 Hitler appointed Ludwig Muller as National Bishop or ‘Reich Bishop’ as a first step to ‘coordinating’ Protestantism Hitler also set up a new Reich Church headed by Muller in which the Jewish origins of Christ and Christianity were rewritten and an attempt made to marry Nazi ideas to protestant ideas.