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The Catholic Historical Review 88.1 (2002) 147-148



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Book Review

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


Katholische Kirche in der SBZ/DDR, 1945-1951: Die Formierung einer Subgesellschaft im entstehenden sozialistischen Staat. By Wolfgang Tischner. [Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte, Reihe B, Forschungen, Band 90.] (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. 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 vis-à-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 Schäfer has [End Page 147] shown for the period after 1961 in Staat und 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. This modus vivendi more or less protected the Church and its interests until 1989, albeit at the cost of relative political silence, publicly interpreted by the regime as support, which it was not.

This work, a revised dissertation supervised by Ulrich von Hehl, demonstrates a welcome level of maturity in the field not demonstrated by earlier works on the subject, such as that of Thomas Raabe. Also, Tischner is less affected by perfect hindsight than is Schäfer. Tischner pays much attention to the development of Catholic social welfare agencies, youth groups, and particularly to the development of a Catholic press. In a broader context, this work raises important questions about the nature of the Soviet occupation and the early development of the communist regime. Tischner shows that neither regime was monolithic and that careful exploitation of regional and personal differences could offer the Church great advantages in its dealings with government officials. Interesting is the extent to which the early GDR government's dealings with the Church were influenced by East German Christian Democrats who, although co-opted by the regime, attempted to protect the Church from influence. While even then there was no alternative to the communist regime, the regime itself was remarkably unsure of itself in its dealings with the Church. Furthermore, Tischner's archival work...

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