Bund oder Schar--Verband oder Pfarrjugend? Katholische Jugendarbeit im Erzbistum Paderborn nach 1945 (review)

In a revision of his dissertation, Matthias Schulze provides a superb organizational history of the Catholic youth organizations in the diocese of Paderborn for the years directly following World War II. In particular, he focuses on the decisions that led to the creation of the BDKJ, Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend (League of the German Catholic Youth), and the conflicts that ensued between diocesan officials, national officials in Catholic youth work, and representatives of individual, semi-autonomous youth organizations themselves.

Schulze begins by asking whether the year 1945 marked a restoration or a new beginning in Catholic youth work. Ultimately, he concludes that these years did not represent a decisive break. Instead, the years 1936/7 served as a critical caesura, when church officials were forced to restructure youth work fundamentally after Nazi officials dissolved a vast network of religious youth organizations that brought together more than 1.5 million young Catholics. Prior to 1936-7, Catholic youth work served as a mélange of independent ancillary organizations, groups in the tradition of the youth movement, and ordinary parish groups. These groups were often demonstratively active in the public realm. They marched with flags, banners, and uniforms, proclaiming their Catholic identity to the public. After 1937, church groups were forced to forswear the public sphere and retreat to the confines of the church. As a result of this process, which Schluze and others have termed "Verkirchlichung," membership shrank, but those who remained found their commitment to the Church palpably strengthened. The years after 1945 marked both a restoration and a new beginning. Some church officials sought to maintain the forms of youth work developed after 1936; others strove to restore the pre-1936 conditions, while still others aimed at a compromise. The result was the BDKJ, a hybrid organization which promised "unity through diversity."

Schulze directs his attention disproportionately to the Schar, a small group largely based in the Archdiocese of Paderborn which was founded in 1945/6 and remained anchored in the traditions of the youth movement; they found themselves in constant conflict, with both church authorities and the leaders of the BDKJ. By the late 1940's, this group's fortunes had waned, and by the middle of the 1950's had effectively ceased to exist in spite of an attempt to reorganize, once its leaders opposed the BDKJ's stance in favor of rearmament. To explain the erosion of the Schar, he points to organizational imbroglios and personnel conflict, amongst other factors. Had the voices of the young persons been allowed to emerge (he focuses primarily on the decisions and mindset of the leaders), he might have been able to develop more fully an assertion in his conclusion that the forms of the German youth movement were largely outdated by the late 1940's and 1950's.

Schulze's book will serve as a definitive account of the founding of the BDKJ, as his very detailed work masterfully brings together the most salient sources from a variety of church archives. His attempts to link his work to current discussions about the erosion of the Catholic milieu and to British occupation policy are, however, less successful, as his sources and chronology do not allow him to develop these issues with any depth. This fine organizational history will remain of interest primarily to specialists, but fills an important gap in the study of twentieth-century German Catholicism.