Katholische Kirche in der SBZ/DDR, 1945-1951: Die Formierung einer Subgesellschaft im entstehenden sozialistischen Staat (review)

Abstract

Katholische Kirche in der SBZ/DDR, 1945-1951: Die Formierung einer Subgesellschaft im entstehenden sozialistischen Staat. By Wolfgang Tischner. [Veroffentlichungen der Kommission ftir Zeitgeschichte, Reihe B, Forschungen, Band 90.] (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schoningh. 2001. Pp. 627. DM 168.) In Katholische Kirche in der SBZ/DDR, Tischner analyzes the development of German Catholicism in what became East Germany after the end of World War II. Tischner sees his work as part of an answer to the question why a Catholic subculture with an intact Weltanschauung survived in East Germany, while in the West, German Catholicism became part of the larger secularized society. While Tischner does not fully engage that question, he does provide an answer to the more interesting and less obvious question how the institutional Church and the subculture centering on it managed to survive in East Germany with sufficient independence to offer a viable personal and social alternative to the communist dictatorship. Tischner portrays clearly the difficult circumstances under which, in the immediate postwar era, the German Church sought to ease the suffering of its flock while adjusting to the new political and social realities of the Allied occupation. Tischner emphasizes the crucial role that Berlin's bishop, Cardinal von Preysing, played in maintaining a fair measure of freedom for the Church. Tischner also, however, shows the infighting and intrigue that divided the leaders of the various dioceses affected by the partition of Germany. Here, the Holy See's intentional refusal to adjust diocesan boundaries to new political realities forced bishops and leaders of church-related organizations such as the Caritas to create new structures. While these new structures grew, individuals pursued a wide spectrum of policies visa-vis the regime. Preysing's hard line enjoyed little support among those church leaders who sought to accept the new realities and lessen hostilities between the Church and the state. As Bernd Schafer has shown for the period after 1961 in Staat and katholische Kirche in der DDR, the more sophisticated East German regime of the later period would have known how to exploit these differences to its own advantage. Tischner shows that the Church's superior diplomatic and even political experience repeatedly allowed it to best the fledgling communist leadership, particularly because the East German regime feared the adverse publicity in the West that repressive measures would have entailed. By the early 1950's, however, the death of Preysing and the increasing sophistication of the communist regime led church leaders to seek a modus vivendi with the regime. …