This book explores the total resistance to Nazism among the Catholic Christian voters of the Zentrum party in the elections in German states in the Interwar period. Kolden explains the unique Catholic resistance by comparing the diverging evolutions of Catholic and Protestant cultures and mentalities since the awakening of German nationalism in the late 18th century. During the Empire (1871-1918) both socialists and Catholics were regarded as pariah groups by the dominant non-socialist Protestant majority, and more so after the WW1 defeat, when the pariah-parties, together with Protestant liberals, tried to accommodate the new democratic circumstances with their Weimar Constitution. When right-wing radicals, and eventually the Nazis, increased their support -largely on behalf of the rapid shrinking number of liberals-the Catholic church leaders showed a stubborn stance against the rightists, issuing several resolutions of condemnation from the middle of the 1920s until 1933, whereas no such appeared from their Protestant counterparts. In contrast, many local Protestant clergymen agitated for the Nazi party. The anti-Catholic sentiment, which had been obvious among some Nazis in the 1920s, was intensified with the publication of Alfred Rosenbergs The Myth of the 20th Century after the election in 1930, which enhanced the antagonism. The basic and profound difference in Catholic and Protestant cultures also appears in the difference between the less Christian-profiled agrarian parties, which were confessionally separated: antisemitic and right-wing radical Protestant parties confronted by one left-wing and democratic Catholic party. By1945 the bulk of the former rightist Protestants sided with the Catholics, who reorganized their party to the non-denominational CDU, which has been the mightiest proponent in Europe of the former party's ambitions of democracy, stability, anti-racism, human rights, and European unity.
Ingvar Kolden retired in 2017 after 37 years as a senior high school teacher.
Abbreviations Preface Introduction Chronological-Thematic Part Chapter One. The Pre-1914 Breeding Ground Chapter Two. The Heritage of World War I Versus the Values of 1789 Chapter Three. The Postwar Period: Change of Mentality among Protestants Thematic Part Chapter Four. Other Denominations and Nazism Chapter Five. Agrarian Parties and Confessional Differences Chapter Six. Women and Nazism Chapter Seven. Christian Youth Associations and Nazism Chapter Eight. The Relationship of Pius Xi to Totalitarianism Chapter Nine. Conclusions as to Differences of Mentality among the Confessions Defining of Terms References About the Author
'Credible and well-documented' sums up Dr. Kolden's demonstration of the differences between Catholics and Protestants in Germany during the Weimar Republic: the ideological contrasts, ecclesiastical divergence, and historical disparities in mentality. All in all these dissimilarities largely explain origin of the disparate Catholic and Protestant attitudes to right-wing radicalism and to Nazism...Dr. Kolden has gained new insight into a topic that is historically important and relevant today. -- Hans M. Bringeland, NLA University College Why were German Catholics less susceptible to vote for Hitler than their Protestant counterparts? In his well-researched answer to this question, Ingvar Kolden convincingly highlights the significance of religious attitudes and denominational affiliation in facing the challenge of Nazism. -- Christhard Hoffmann, University of Bergen
