The Sorcerer's Apprentice: The Life of Franz von Papen by Richard W. Rolfs, S.J. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS497 cese under Nazi rule does not focus on the usual historical showpiece, Bishop von Galen's celebrated 1941 sermons denouncing the regime's euthanasia program , but on the relationship between the church and the state and party during the 1930's, as initial efforts at cautious co-operation quickly gave way to open hostiUty. WhUe Kösters emphasizes the role of members of the new Catholic associations and adherents of new forms of piety in CathoUc resistance to the Nazis,he downplays the way in which a number ofmembers ofthe new groups went over to the Nazis or the role that the more numerous members of older associations or supporters of older ideas had in opposing the regime. (Women, frequent among these, are not discussed in his book.) Bishop von Galen himself, as the author notes, was no particular friend of the new forms ofpiety. More convincing is the author's observation that the Nazi regime, by persecuting and ultimately prohibiting most Catholic associations, left the field open to the adherents of a parish-based, intensive lay participation in reUgious services .This transition from the old network of associations to the new forms of piety went relatively smoothly in the rural areas of the diocese. In its industrial districts, though, just a smaU group of young men became intensively involved in parish life, whUe a much larger number were increasingly indifferent to religion , thus setting the stage for further developments afterWorldWar II. Appearing in the "Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte," a major monograph series of "official" CathoUc historiography in Germany, the book emphasizes a number of themes previously discussed by authors of sharply differing viewpoints, such as Günter Plum, Ui his 1972 study of religion, politics, and society in the Aachen region, or Doris Kaufmann's 1985 account of the CathoUc mUieu in the city of Münster. This convergence of "official" and "dissenting" Catholic historiography is itself suggestive of the growing inteUectual maturity of the study of the social history of reUgion in central Europe, of which this work provides a fine example. Although I am not sure that I always agree with the author's conclusions (in part, because he often formulates them in an indirect and guarded fashion), I nonetheless found his deeply researched and unusuaUy well written study a consistent source of information and thought-provoking insights. Jonathan Sperber University ofMissouri, Columbia The Sorcerer's Apprentice.The Life ofFranz von Papen. By RichardW Rolfs, SJ. (Lanham, Maryland: University Press ofAmerica. 1996. Pp. xiii, 470. $58.00 clothbound; $42.00 paperback.) Professor Rolfs has written the first complete biography ofan individual who faciUtated the triumph of Nazism in 1933. Franz von Papen was dapper, charming , and clever. If he was rooted in anything, it was his Catholic heritage, which 498BOOK REVIEWS did little to enUghten his poUtical judgment. Born into theWestphalian nobUity, Papen began his adult Ufe as a cavalry officer.WhenWorldWar I began, he was the German military attaché inWashington, D.C., where he was expeUed for espionage . During the 1920's Papen was elected to the Prussian Landtag, in which he served as an ultra-conservative member of the CathoUc Center Party. Toward the end ofthis period Papen began an association with Kurt von Schleicher ,a poUtical general and wire-puller,who Papen thought was "a man of great clarity and vision. . . ." When someone suggested to Schleicher that Papen lacked a strong inteUect, the former replied that he did not need one: "He's a hat" (pp. 80-81). Papen soon demonstrated that he was as clever as the general. Both wanted to revise the German constitution in an authoritarian direction. From 1930 to May, 1932, these two remained in the background hatching new plots and schemes. The most overused word in Rolfs's book is "crafty." When President von Hindenburg lost confidence in ChanceUor Heinrich Bruening, Papen became the Weimar RepubUc's penultimate chanceUor because of the speU he exercised over the aging and confused president. Papen's most notable achievements during his six months in office were lifting the ban on Hitler's private army (the S.A.) and then removing Prussia's Socialist leaders from power because...