Kirchenreform und Sektenstiftung. Deutschkatholiken, Reformkatholiken und Ultramontane am Oberrhein (1844-1866) by Andreas Holzem (review)

116BOOK reviews Kirchenreform und Sektenstiftung. Deutschkatholiken, Reformkatholiken und Ultramontane am Oberrhein (1844-1866). By Andreas Hölzern. [VeröffentUchungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte, Reihe B: Forschungen , Band 65.] (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. 1994. Pp. xlviU, 460.) The Deutschkatholiken have received Ui German history as weU as in German historiography an attention which is quite out ofproportion with their importance as a reUgious movement. HaUed by liberals and Protestants as an enUghtened form of CathoUcism, in particular as an alternative to bigoted ultramontanism , it got an enormous support in pamphlets and newspapers of the time. This may explain why there exists in modern German historiography an overemphasis on the shortlived movement, which arose in 1844 as a protest movement against the exposure of the Holy Tunic in the cathedral of Trier. Among others Annette Kuhn (1971) and F. W. Graf (1978) have tried to link the DeutschkathoUzismus with their own theoretical problems,which have Uttle to do with its historical reaUty. CathoUc historiography, as can be presumed, has dealt with the movement in the manner of a summary executioner. Andreas Holzem has avoided the pitfaUs of his predecessors by taking a fresh look at pubUshed and above aU unpubUshed sources. His study concentrates on the movement such as it appears in southwest Germany: Hessen-Darmstadt, Württemberg, Baden, Nassau, and Kurhessen. His findings show that DeutschkathoUzismus is less a protest movement of Catholics who want to reform the Church, than of those men and women who have already gone a long distance from the Church. They have assumed the ideas of their Protestant or secularized surroundings on mixed marriages,the Bible, church authority, and popular piety. In the CathoUc language ofthe time it was therefore easy to label them as crypto-Protestants or bad Catholics. It is interesting to learn that only a smaU proportion belonged to the upper middle class; its sympathizers were recruited mostly from the lower classes. Holzem characterizes theU original reUgious impetus as a type of popular reUgious enUghtenment. As such it failed and contributed mainly as a negative myth to the growth and stabUization of ultramontanism. The losers were the Church reformers who in the southwest had considerable support Ui the movement against ceUbacy and other reform desiderata. The wise anti-Romanist Wessenberg foresaw right from the beginning the inevitable degeneration of DeutschkathoUzismus to a sect and refused even to see its propagator, Ronge. The careful investigation of Holzem shows how enUghtening concepts of social history can be for the clarification of the interrelations between poUtical, reUgious, and social history. At times the sociological vocabulary rises to triumphant heights, not always for the benefit of the reader. A general remark: Modernization becomes an aU-embracing positive catchword, but loses its expUcatory force the more it is used in a pseudomessianic way. One would wish that the social history of Old CathoUcism Ui the southwest, up to now nearly BOOK REVIEWS117 completely neglected, would find a treatment as adequate as Andreas Holzem's study of a movement with which it is sometimes confused. Victor Conzemius Lucerne, Switzerland Katholische Vereine in Baden undWürttemberg, 1848-1914:Ein Beitrag zur Organisationsgeschichte des südwestdeutschen Katholizismus im Rahmen der Entstehung der modernen Industriegesellschaft. By Winfrid Halder. [Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte, Reihe B: Forschungen, Band 64.] (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. 1995. Pp. xxix, 409.) Although the title suggests a rather narrowly defined monograph, this book makes a substantial contribution to the field. Winfrid Haider defines the function and meaning of the Verein (association or club), the Verband (association, federation, or union) and the Gewerkschaft (trade union) for modern German CathoUcism. He delineates the various forms of association, traces their development , and examines the relationship between clergy and laity in them. As a product of the Commission for Contemporary History, it is soUdly grounded Ui archival research. This work is the first comprehensive and systematic treatment of German Catholic voluntary associations to appear in a long time. Haider describes the Vereine as the infrastructure of nineteenth-century German CathoUcism, relying heavUy on the interpretations of Heinz Hurten, Klaus Schatz, and others. Beginning in the 1840's, a network of clubs, organizations, newspapers, and journals arose under the nominal...