Die Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland zwischen SPD und SED: Anmerkungen zur Sozialdemokratisierung des Protestantismus
Since the 1960s many parts of the German Evangelical Churches have been affected by socialist ideas. In the following years, right-wing views amongst Protestants have largely been marginalized. Indeed one could say that the Church was no longer truly a church for all the people. At the same time num...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
1993
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| In: |
Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte
Year: 1993, Volume: 6, Issue: 1, Pages: 235-249 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Since the 1960s many parts of the German Evangelical Churches have been affected by socialist ideas. In the following years, right-wing views amongst Protestants have largely been marginalized. Indeed one could say that the Church was no longer truly a church for all the people. At the same time numerous Socialist politicians or clergy with similar views took over leading positions at the local and national levels. Such men as Erhard Eppler, Jürgen Schmude, Heinrich Albertz and others, who were both churchmen and socialist politicians, brought their political views to bear on church life. These men propagated their illusory view that a policy of detente between East and West could be achieved, and thereby contributed to a minimizing of the fundamental differences between the socialist-communist dictatorship of the East and the free democracy of the West -in contrast to those who worked for a more stable but distanced modus vivendi during the 1970s. The result was to see a steady trend towards acceptance in the Evangelical Churches of the positions held by the Socialist Unity Party in East Germany. As we now know from the records of the East German Ministry for State Security, the Socialist Unity Party and the meetings of these naive socialist politicians from West Germany with representatives of the East German regime, or with East German churchmen - some of whom have since been discovered to be agents of the Secret Police - led to a situation where the East German regime was able to exercise influence on the attitudes adopted in the life and thought of the West German churches. Whether or not they were conscious of the fact, some of these church representatives could be said to be serving the interests of the Communist regime, since the objectives of these left-leaning West German churchman and those of the East German authorities were similar. Both sought to weaken the antitotalitarian stance of the Federal Republic, to criticise the free market economy, to sever the connection between West Germany and the rest of western Europe, and to oppose the foreign and defence policies of the NATO Alliance. |
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| ISSN: | 2196-808X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte
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