Abstract
On July 31, 1919, Cardinal Archbishop Felix von Hartmann of Cologne established a new organization, Neudeutschland, for all Catholic students in the secondary schools of Germany. The attention of most Germans on that day, however, was riveted on the city of Weimar, where the new German constitution was being adopted, so that no popular outburst of either joy or chagrin accompanied the announcement.
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References
For the anxiety for the future, for the fear of the influence of socialist secularism within the Church’s view of its sphere of influence — including the Catholic schools — see the contemporary account by: Otto Zimmerman, S. J., “Revolutionäre Trennung von Kirche und Staat,” Stimmen der Zeit, Bd. 96 (1919), 345–359.
For an excellent analysis of the social structure of the Wilhelmian period, see: Arthur Rosenberg, Entstehung der Weimarer Republik (Frankfort A. M.: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 1961), 11–34. Also of importance for both the Wilhelmian and Weimar periods is: Karl Dietrich Bracher, Die Auflösung der Weimarer Republik (Stuttgart: 1955), 1-581.
All three are analyzed in: Walter Z. Lacqueur, Toung Germany (New York: Basic Books, 1962), 2–73. Also
Felix Raabe, Die Bündische Jugend (Stuttgart: Brentano Verlag, 1961, 12–22, 82-84.
Information on the history of the school organization and youth organization prior to 1904 can be found in: J. Alden Nichols, Germany After Bismarck (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958), 155–188
Robert Herndon Fife, The German Empire Between the Wars (New York: Macmillan, 1916), 319–358; Joseph Hess, Der Kampf um die Schule in Preussen, 1872-1906 (Köln, 1912).
An uncritical and laudatory work on Esch giving the basic facts of his life is: Helmut Holzapfel, P. Ludwig Esch, Ein Leben für die Jugend (Würzburg: Echter-Verlag, 1963).
Ludwig Esch, Neudeutschland, Sein Werden und Wachsen (Saarbrücken: Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag A. G., 1927), 9.
Prussia was still closed to Jesuits before World War I. For the history of the Jesuits in Germany and the controversy surrounding their activities in Prussia and Germany, see: Heinrich Brueck, Geschichte der Katholischen Kirche in Deutschland, Vol. IV (Mainz: Verlag von Franz Kirchheim, 1901), 121–137. The Jesuits were not completely freed from restrictions — particularly concerning the schools — until April, 1917. See
Ernst Christian Helmreich, Religious Education in German Schools: An Historical Approach (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), 83.
Heinrich Lutz, Demokratie im Zwielicht. Der Weg der deutschen Katholiken aus dem Kaiserreich in die Republik, 1914–1925 (München: Koesel-Verlag, 1963), 133. He cites: Michael von Faulhaber, Der Krieg im Lichte des Evangeliums (1915), 4.
Heinrich Lutz, “Die deutschen Katholiken in und nach dem ersten Weltkrie Hochland, 55. Jahrgang, No. 3 (1963), 200–201.
Lutz, “Die deutschen Katholiken,” 205-6. Also: John L. Snell, “Benedict XV, Wilson, Michaelis, and German Socialism,” Catholic Historical Review, Vol. XXXVII (1951), 155–60.
Hans Beyer, “Der ‘religiöse Sozialismus’ in der Weimarer Republik,” Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, No. 11-12 (1960), 1464–5.
Georg Schreiber, “Deutsche Kirchenpolitik nach dem ersten Weltkrieg, Gestalten und Geschehnisse der Novemberrevolution 1918 und der Weimarer Zeit,” Historisches Jahrbuch, LXX (1950), 296–333.
Leuchtturm (October, 1929), “Report on the Fulda Bund Meeting,” 197. For one analysis of the concept of Volk, see: George Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1964). It is to be noted that according to Mosse’s analysis of the concept of the Volk and its development in the German mentality, it would be impossible for a Catholic — particularly a priest — to be völkisch. See in particular pp. 31-51.
For an analysis of Scheler’s thought, see: John Raphael Staude, Max Scheler, 1874-1928 (New York: Free Press, 1967).
See the various articles by Martin Spahn cited by: John K. Zeender, “German Catholics and the Concept of an Interconfessional Party 1900–1922,” Journal of Central European Affairs, Volume XXIII, No. 4 (1964), 430.
Wilhelm Hedemann, “Die geistigen Strömungen in der heutigen deutschen Studentenschaft,” Akademisches Deutschland, Vol. III (Berlin: 1930-31), 387–88. Cited by
Robert G. L. Waite, Vanguard of Nazism, the Free Corps Movement in Postwar Germany, 1918-1923 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952), 207–8. Many of the first leaders of Neudeutschland came from the same generation that produced the FreeCorps members.
Friedrich Thimme, “Das Verhältnis zwischen Staat und Kirche und seine Veränderung durch die Revolution,” in: Friedrich Thimme und Ernst Rolffs (hsgb.), Revolution und Kirche (Berlin: Verlag von Georg Reimer, 1919), 35–40. Another recent account of the impact of Hoffmann’s activities is in
Rudolf Morsey, Die Deutsche Zentrumspartei, 1917-1923 (Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1966), 110–124.
Helmreich, Religious Education, 105-6. Also: Herman Giesecke, “Sozialdemokratische Schulpolitik, 1918-19,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 13. Jahrgang, Heft 2 (1965), 162–177.
Georg Schreiber, Zwischen Demokratie und Diktatur: Persönliche Erinnerungen an die Politik und Kultur des Reiches von 1919-1944 (Münster: Regensbergsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1949), 60–61.
Thimme, “Das Verhältnis,” 29. Hoffmann left the Ministry at the end of December, and Haenisch determined that nothing further would be done and that those decrees already issued would not be implemented until the National Assembly met. The elections for the Assembly were held January 19, 1919; on February 3, 1919, the Central Council of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviets formally handed over its power to the Assembly; on February 6, 1919, the Assembly convened. For information on Hoffmann, see: S. William Halperin, Germany Tried Democracy (New York: W. W. Norton, 1965), 129–131.
For the fears against the revolutionary actions, and the secularization clauses of the Constitution, see: Bischöfliche Arbeitsstelle für Schule und Erziehung, Das Ringen um das Sogenannte Reichsschulgesetz (Koeln: J. P. Bachern, 1926). This source contains not only the various forms of the various bills but the Reichstag debates held over each. Another source of the changes and proposed changes in the educational structure is
Isaac L. Kanden and Thomas Alexander (translators), The Reorganization of Education in Prussia: Based on official Documents and Publications (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University Bureau of Publications, 1927). For information on the workings of the revolutionary regime in Berlin, see
Charles B. Burdick and Ralph H. Lutz (eds.) The Political Institutions of the German Revolution, 1918-1919 (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966).
For a description of the school system, see: Helmreich, Religious Education, 53-100. Also: Wilhelm Roessler, Jugend im Erziehungsfeld (Düsseldorf: Pädagogischer Verlag Schwann, 1957), 162–174. For a sociologist’s point of view, see
Helmut Schelsky, Die skeptische Generation, eine Soziologie der deutschen Jugend (Düsseldorf: Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1957), 39–57.
John K. Zeender, “The German Catholics and the Presidential Election of 1925,” Journal of Modern History, Vol. 35 (1963), 370. Zeender cites: Consul Stocky to Carl Trimborn, October 12, 1918: Bachern Papers, Vol. LXXXIII. For an analysis of the mentality behind the need for such a party, see
Paul Arnold van Leewen, “Konservativer Nationalismus,” Die Schildgenossen, Jg. VII (1927) 61–65.
Klaus Epstein, Matthias Erzberger and the Dilemma of German Democracy (Princeton: University Press, 1959), 285–90. Further testimony to the opposition to the socialist stand on education can be found in: Kanden and Alexander, The Reorganization of Education in Prussia, 10-19; and
Franz von Papen, Memoirs (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1953), 91–92.
For the developments in the Volksverein and the struggle over its goals, see: Emil Ritter, Die Katholischsoziale Bewegung, Deutschland im Neunzehnten Jahrhundert und der Volksverein (Köln: J. P. Bachem, 1954). Ritter, a strong supporter of the Volksverein approach, criticized the bishops severely for their attitude as he believed strongly that the future of the church lay in its social activities, rather than those purely religious.
This concept of the “youth kingdom” was adopted from the pre-war experience of the Wandervogel. See: Waldemar Gurian, Die deutsche Jugendbewegung (Habelsschwerdt: Frankes Buchhandlung, 1924), 28–40. Youth kingdom connotes the uniqueness of being young and of youthful needs and fulfillments.
Rosenberg, Imperial Germany, 42-43. Also: Klaus Epstein, “Erzberger’s Position in the Zentrumsstreit before World War I,” The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. XLIV (April, 1958), 1–15. Finally: Lutz, “Die deutschen Katholiken,” 193-216.
For another area in which indecision as to the future course of organized Catholics — in this instance the Center Party, which also sought to find its place in the changed circumstances — see: Josef Becker, “Eine Niederschrift Joseph Wirths über seinen Eintritt in das Reichskabinett 1920,” Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins, Bd. 112 (1964), 243–250. Further: Rudolf Morsey, “Die Deutsche Zentrumspartei zwischen Novemberrevolution und Weimarer Nationalversammlung,” in: Dona Westfalica, Georg Schreiber zum 80. Geburtstage, dargebracht von der Historischen Kommission Westfalens, 1963.
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© 1970 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Warloski, R. (1970). The Establishment of Neudeutschland. In: Neudeutschland, German Catholic Students 1919–1939. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-0781-3_1
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