Gemeinschaft und Versöhnung

Abstract

Summary This essay explores the dynamics of »forgiving and forgetting« among churches following the end of the Second World War, based on the example of the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht. Applying the Aleida Assmann’s theory of forgetting as a hermeneutical framework, the study traces the development of the correspondence between Erwin Kreuzer, Bishop of the Old Catholic Church of Germany, and an outspoken NS sympathizer, and Andreas Rinkel, Archbishop of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands. After the end of the war, this correspondence shows how the two protagonists arrive at a position of safeguarding the church community from different perceptions of the past in order to achieve, to a certain extent, a sense of common memory, as well as an admission of German (Old-Catholic) responsibility. This then enables a consensual »forgetting« that leaves the path free for reconciliation and for a common journey in the ecumenical movement, moving towards the rebuilding of Europe.