Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T23:17:38.211Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Luther Anniversary in East Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

Robert F. Goeckel
Get access

Extract

In 1983 two events focused international attention on East and West Germany. One was the collapse of talks on intermediate range missiles in Geneva and the consequent deployment of the missiles by NATO. The other was the 500th anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther. The Luther anniversary cast the spotlight particularly on communist East Germany, which revised its previously negative interpretation of Luther and not only marked his birth with elaborate festivities but also extended unprecedented assistance to the Lutheran church for its celebration. Yet, just as many wondered if inter-German detente would survive the I.N.F. deployment, so, too, many wondered at the nature of the church-state cooperation in the G.D.R., and if it would survive the Luther Year. The present analysis examines the character and direction of this churchstate relationship, using the Luther Year experience as evidence.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , October 1984 , pp. 112 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Jowitt, Kenneth, “Inclusion and Mobilization in European Leninist Regimes”, World Politics 28 (October 1975), 69–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 For a review of the church-state relationship in the G.D.R., see Beeson, Trevor, Discretion and Valour (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982), 193–218.Google Scholar On the Honecker era, see Goeckel, Robert F., “Zehn Jahre Kirchenpolitik unter Honecker” [Ten years of Honecker's policy toward the churches], Deutschland Archiv No. 9 (September 1981), 942–46.Google Scholar

3 Croan, Melvin, “A Quarter Century of the Two Germanies”, Survey 21 (Nos. 1–2, 1975), 79–84.Google Scholar

4 For an analysis of the shift in the official Marxist historiography of Luther, see Ronald D. Asmus, “The G.D.R. and Martin Luther”, unpub. 1983; also Eleutherius (pseud.), “Luther Rebaptized in Marxist Ideology?” Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe 3 (July 1983), 21–43.Google Scholar Also see Bräuer, Siegfried, Martin Luther in marxistischer Sicht von 7945 bis zum Beginn der achtziger Jahre [The Marxist view of Luther from 1945 to the beginning of the eighties] (Berlin/G.D.R.: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1983).Google Scholar

5 Abusch, Alexander, Der Irrtveg einer Nation [A nation on the wrong path] (Berlin/G.D.R.: Aufbau Verlag, 1949)Google Scholar, 20ff. All translations are by the author unless otherwise noted.

6 Steinmetz, Max, “Die frühbürgerliche Revolution in Deutschland (1476–1535)”, in Steinmetz, Max, ed., Die frühbürgerliche Revolution in Deutschland [The early bourgeois revolutioin Germany] (Berlin/G.D.R.: Akademie Verlag, 1961), 7–16.Google Scholar

7 Zschäbitz, Gerhard, Martin Luther: Grösse und Grenze [Martin Luther: Greatness and limits] (Berlin/G.D.R.: Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1967), 217–25.Google Scholar

8 Neues Deutschland, June 14–15, 1980, p. 3.

9 “Thesen über Luther” [Theses on Luther], Einheit No. 9 (September 1981), 890–903.Google Scholar

10 Historian Gunter Vögler, cited in Bräuer (fn. 4), 31; Brendler, Gerhard, “Martin Luther—Erbe und Tradition” [Martin Luther: Legacy and tradition], Wissenschaftliche Mit teilungen der Historikfrgesellschaft der DDR, 1979 I-II, 35.Google Scholar

11 Based on Theologische Studienabteilung, “Martin Luther und die Reformation in der Schulbuchliteratur der DDR seit 1945” [Martin Luther and the Reformation in the educational literature of the GDR since 1945], Information und Texte No. 11 (March 1983)Google Scholar, mimeo. (Bund der Evangelischen Kirchen in der DDR); Brauer (fn. 4), 17.

12 Neues Deutschland, June 14–15, 1980.

13 Brendler, Gerhard, Martin Luther. Theologie und Revolution (Berlin/G.D.R.: Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1983)Google Scholar; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 31, 1983.

14 “Das Wittenberg Jubiläum” [The Wittenberg anniversary], Evangelischer Pressedienst [hereafter cited as epd] Gru'ner Dienst (F.R.G.) No. 32 (December 2, 1967)Google Scholar; Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 9, 1983; discussion with officials of the churches' Luther committee.

15 Ibid.

16 “Thesen über Luther” (fn. 9), 890.

17 Weigand, Friedrich, “Lutherwort gegen Lutherwesen” [Luther's word versus Luther's ubstance], Stuttgarter Zeitung October 14, 1981.Google Scholar

18 Brauer, Siegfried, “Die Bedeutung Luthers fur die evangelische Kirche in der DDR” Luther's significance to the Evangelical church in the GDR], Die Christenlehre Nos. 8–9 August-September 1983)Google Scholar; epd Zentralausgabe No. 42 (March 2, 1982).Google Scholar

19 Interview with Dr. Helmut Zeddies (head of the church Luther committee) and Siegried Rakotz (head of the bureau of the state Luther committee) with Gerhard Rein, April 983, in archive, Evangelical Publicity Center, West Berlin; epd Documentation No. 22 (May 6, 1983), 5.Google Scholar

20 Zeddies, Helmut, Herder Korrespondenz No. 8 (August 1981).Google Scholar

21 epd Documentation No. 22 (May 16, 1983), 2Google Scholar; Rabe, F. W., “War der Reformator AntiSemit?” [Was the Reformer an anti-Semite?] Mecklenburgische Kirchenzeitung, February 8, 1981.Google Scholar

22 epd Documentation No. 22 (May 16, 1983), 2, 5.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., 24. Another example is the pope's visit to the Lutheran Lateran church in Rome for a celebration of the Luther anniversary.

24 Ibid., 2; epd Documentation No. 43 (October 10, 1983), 54–56.Google Scholar

25 Neues Deutschland, June 14–15, 1980, p. 4; Mecklenburgische Kirchenzeitung, March 14 and 21, 1982.

26 Evangelische Nachrkhtenagentur (G.D.R.), January 21, 1982, p. 2.

27 Neues Deutschland, May 5, 1982.

28 Neues Deutschland, November 26, 1983.

29 epd Berlin No. 108 (June 18, 1982)Google Scholar; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 8, 1983 and November 11, 1983; Asmus, Ronald, “Luther Year Ends in GDR”, Radio Free Europe RAD BR/22 (December 16, 1983), 3.Google Scholar

30 Henkys, Reinhard, Bund der Evangelischen Kirchen in der DDR [Federation of Evangelical churches in the GDR] (Witten/F.R.G.: Eckart Verlag, 1970), 69–83.Google Scholar

31 Neues Deutschland, April 22, 1983.

32 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 11, 1983; epd Documentation No. 43 (October 10, 1983), 54–56Google Scholar; epd Documentation No. 35 (August 10, 1981)Google Scholar; Asmus, Ronald D., “Is there a Peace Movement in the GDR?” Orbis 27 (Summer 1983), 301–42.Google Scholar

33 Neue Zeit, October 30–31, 1982; Neues Deutschland, April 22, 1983; epd Documentation No. 22 (May 16, 1983), 23–24.Google Scholar

34 Radio DDR, November 8, 1981; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 11, 1983.

35 Neue Zeit, October 30–31 and November 5, 1982.

36 Neue Zeit, October 31, 1981.

37 epd Documentation No. 22 (May 16, 1983), 6–7, 38–39Google Scholar; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 31, 1983. Observation of the Dresden church convention and reports from participants at church conventions at Magdeburg, Stralsund, and Frankfurt/Oder.

38 epd Documentation No. 43 (October 10, 1983), 5–6Google Scholar; Neues Deutschland, October 6, 1983.

39 Steinmetz, Max, “Schlusswort” [Epilog], in Steinmetz, Max and Brendler, Gerhard, eds., Weltwirkungder Reformation [Worldwide impact of the Reformation] (Berlin/G.D.R.: Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1969), 496Google Scholar; see also Croan, Melvin, “After Ulbricht: The End of an Era?” Survey 17 (1971), 74–92.Google Scholar

40 Neues Deutschland, June 14–15, 1980.

41 Frankfurter Rundschau, November 3, 1982; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 3, 1983.

42 Bulletin des Presse- und Informationsamts der Bundesregierung No. 69, June 28, 1983, pp. 637–41Google Scholar; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 31, 1983.

43 Czempiel, Ernst-Otto, “Foreign Policy Issues in the West German Federal Election of 1969”;, Comparative Politics 2 (July 1970), 606–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Adler, Kenneth and Wertman, Douglas“Is NATO in Trouble?” Public Opinion 4 (August-September 1981), 12.Google Scholar

44 Over 400 foreign guests attended the November 10 ceremony; they included, significantly, the Protestant bishop of communist China on his first visit to the G.D.R. See Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November n, 1983.

45 epd Zentralausgabe No. 233 (December 9, 1982)Google Scholar, No. 169 (September 1, 1983), No. 176 (September 15, 1983).

46 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 31, 1983; epd Zentralausgabe No. 185 (September 26, 1983)Google Scholar; epd Documentation No. 22 (May 16, 1983), 42.Google Scholar

47 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 19, 1983; Asmus (fn. 4), 21–22.

48 Die Welt, April 6, 1983; epd Documentation No. 22 (May 16, 1983), 32Google Scholar; Frankfurter Rundschau, November 3, 1982.

49 Adolf Laube, “Kunst und Reformation” [Art and Reformation] Radio DDR II, March 20, 1983; Laube, quoted in Der Spiegel, March 7, 1983, p. 2.

50 epd Documentation No. 8 (February 9, 1981), 1–11.Google Scholar

51 See Asmus (fn. 4), 24ff., for a discussion of the new emphasis on history in the G.D.R. and its relation to the national question in S.E.D. policy.

52 For example, Wolf, Christa, Kein Ort. Nirgends [No place. Nowhere] (Weimar: Aufbau Verlag, 1979)Google Scholar; Beckett, Bonnie, “The Reception of Pablo Neruda's Works in the German Democratic Republic”, in Gerber, Margy, ed., Studies in GDR Culture and Society (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1981), 205–22.Google Scholar

53 Brendler (in. 10), 37.

54 Based on informal estimates of the church Luther committee and an average tour price of 700 DM.

55 Beeson (fn. 2), 23–88, 329–79; Boiter, Albert, Religion in the Soviet Union, Washington Papers 8, No. 78 (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1977)Google Scholar; Bociurkiw, Bohdan R. and Strong, John W., eds., Religion and Atheism in the USSR and Eastern Europe (London: Macmillan, 1975)Google Scholar; Sanders, Irwin T., “Church-State Relations in Southeastern Europe”, East European Quarterly 16 (March 1982), 63–69.Google Scholar

56 Kramer, John M., “The Vatican's Ostpolitik”, Review of Politics 42 (July 1980), 283–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

57 Richter, Klemens, “Veranderte Haltung der DDR-Katholiken” [Changed attitude of GDR Catholics], Deutschland Archiv No. 5 (May 1983), 454–59.Google Scholar

58 Croan, Melvin, East Germany: The Soviet Connection, Washington Papers 4, No. 36 (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1976), 38–52.Google Scholar

59 Hruby, Suzanne, “The Church in Poland and Its Political Influence”, Journal of International Affairs 36 (Fall/Winter 1982–1983), 317–28.Google Scholar

60 Beeson (fn. 2), 219–55.

61 Ibid., 256–87.