Katholizismus und katholische Kirche in der DDR seit 1985

Abstract

The focus of scientific investigations on the Catholic Church in the GDR has until now been almost exclusively focussed on the relationship between church and state and has hardly considered the theological and pastoral changes which took place in the 1980's. In this way, a fundamental statement of the church had been all but ignored. With the end of the "Bengsch Era" in 1979, the maintenance of the church-political 'status quo' was gradually becoming less important. A new generation of bishops defined the GDR church as being for the people of "this country" and promoted believers to commit themselves to "this country" and its people. A commitment to the "socialist society" was as much as ever rejected. While the official church greeted the political and social upheavals of 1989 rather cautiously, after the first free elections, an over-proportionate number of Catholics were taking political offices. This was most likely due to a change in theological paradigms and the gradual formation of an 'elite' since the 1960's. After 1989, the external structures of the Catholic Church in the new Bundesländer were adapted to those of the Federal Republic. Ecclesiastical life, pastoral and Caritas are determined by the double Diaspora, and the postulate to influence all areas of social life, despite of limited personal and financial resources, can still be called the mark of the Catholic Church in the new federal states.