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Raeder generally resisted attempts by the NSDAP to establish influence within the Navy, through he much preferred compromise rather than confrontation whenever possible.
The status of chaplains within the Navy were one of the few areas where Raeder did resist the attempts of the NSDAP in an aggressive manner, making it clear that his absolute opposition to introducing Nazi neo-paganism into the Navy, and that he would never tolerate neo-pagan rituals in the Navy.
At the same time, Raeder worked to promote National Socialist ideology as opposed to the NSDAP in the Navy, ordering in September 1936 that all officers read a tract by Kriegsmarine Commander Siegfried Sorge called Der Marineoffizier about what it took to be a good officer., Sorge had claimed that one could not be a good naval officer without believing in National Socialist values.
Sorge praised Hitler for the Night of the Long Knives, and claimed that if Hitler had been leader in 1918, then the High Seas Fleet mutiny would had been crushed just like Hitler had crushed the alleged SA mutiny of 1934.
Sorge used the examples of Julius Caesar and Ferdinand Magellan using brutal methods to crush mutinies to argue that great leaders throughout history had always used extreme violence to maintain discipline, and through he emphasized that a good officer should never had to be confronted with the threat of mutiny, but if such a threat did emerge, the best thing that could be done was to follow Hitler ’ s example in 1934, and have all the mutineers ’ summarily executed.
Der Marineoffizier ended with the claim that combating " Jewish materialism " were one of the good officer's principle duties, and this was best done by making "... Germans energetic and thankful followers of the Führer ", and help them "... understand that the Führer also had to use a heavy hand ... in order to accomplish his fantastic aim ".
Through Raeder never joined the N. S. D. A. P, maintaining throughout his life that he was " above politics ", in 1937, Hitler awarded Raeder the Golden Party Badge to honour him for his work in promoting National Socialism in the Kriegsmarine.
The American historian Keith Bird wrote if Raeder's claims after 1945 that he resisted efforts to introduce National Socialism in the Navy were true, then it would been very unlikely that Hitler would had awarded Raeder the Golden Party Badge.

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