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From German unification in 1871 through the early 1960s,
confessional tensions between Catholics and Protestants were a
source of deep division in German society. Engaging this period of
historic strife, Germany and the Confessional Divide focuses on
three traumatic episodes: the Kulturkampf waged against the
Catholic Church in the 1870s, the collapse of the Hohenzollern
monarchy and state-supported Protestantism after World War I, and
the Nazi persecution of the churches. It argues that memories of
these traumatic experiences regularly reignited confessional
tensions. Only as German society became increasingly secular did
these memories fade and tensions ease.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the western
and southern regions of Germany were home to intensely devout Roman
Catholic communities. By the late 1950s, however, this Catholic
subculture could not withstand the onslaught of a culture of
consumption--motorcycles, Hollywood films, and vacations abroad. In
The Wayward Flock, Mark Edward Ruff analyzes why the strategy of
using modern means to fight modern society--which had worked so
successfully from the 1870s to the 1920s--did not succeed in the
postwar era. Ruff examines the vast network of Catholic youth
organizations in West Germany that had traditionally served as a
source for future youth leaders and a means by which the church
could resist the changes of modern society. But organization
membership dwindled from nearly 1.5 million in the 1920s to 600,000
by the early 1960s, due in large part, Ruff argues, to generational
differences, an emerging ethic of consumption, and changes in West
Germany's political makeup. Ultimately, Ruff demonstrates, church
leaders were unable to provide viable alternatives to the
antimodern and antiliberal ideologies of the past.
Were Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church in Germany unduly
singled out after 1945 for their conduct during the National
Socialist era? Mark Edward Ruff explores the bitter controversies
that broke out in the Federal Republic of Germany from 1945 to 1980
over the Catholic Church's relationship to the Nazis. He explores
why these cultural wars consumed such energy, dominated headlines,
triggered lawsuits and required the intervention of foreign
ministries. He argues that the controversies over the church's
relationship to National Socialism were frequently surrogates for
conflicts over how the church was to position itself in modern
society - in politics, international relations and the media. More
often than not, these exchanges centered on problems perceived as
arising from the postwar political ascendancy of Roman Catholics
and the integration of Catholic citizens into the societal
mainstream.
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