Die Schulderklärungen der (deutschsprachigen) Kirchen zwischen Gewissen und Politik
The two declarations issued by the German and Austrian Catholic Bishops' Conferences in 1945 were similar in structure, in those addressed and in their intended goals. But the contents were strikingly different. The Austrian bishops avoided the question of guilt altogether, whereas the Germans...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
1998
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| In: |
Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte
Year: 1998, Volume: 11, Issue: 2, Pages: 355-377 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The two declarations issued by the German and Austrian Catholic Bishops' Conferences in 1945 were similar in structure, in those addressed and in their intended goals. But the contents were strikingly different. The Austrian bishops avoided the question of guilt altogether, whereas the Germans ascribed it to various perpetrators in varying degrees, which did not entirely exclude the church. Both differed from the Protestant Declaration of Guilt issued in Stuttgart in October 1945 by the leading members of the Evangelical Church in Germany, which came near to adopting a view of German collective guilt, even though it was not clear whether German Protestantism or the whole German people was meant. In one sense this ambiguity reflected the Protestants' deep attachment to German national life, whereas the Catholics still saw themselves as a despised minority. A further reason for the differences in the Declarations lay in the fact that the Protestant churches had been fatefully compromised by the "German Christians", whereas the Catholics could still try to rely on the moral authority of the Papacy. The Protestants sought to gain some such international support though their willingness to admit this general guilt. But, in fact, both Protestants and Catholics desired to be accepted by the Allied military powers as the spokesmen for the whole German people, and to promote re-christianisation as the answer to Germany's moral catastrophe. |
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| ISSN: | 2196-808X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte
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