From German unification in 1871 through the early 1960s, confessional tensions between Catholics and Protestants were a source of deep division in German society. Engaging this period of historic strife,Germany and the Confessional Divide focuses on three traumatic episodes: the Kulturkampf waged against the Catholic Church in the 1870s, the collapse of the Hohenzollern monarchy and state-supported Protestantism after World War I, and the Nazi persecution of the churches. It argues that memories of these traumatic experiences regularly reignited confessional tensions. Only as German society became increasingly secular did these memories fade and tensions ease.

Thomas Großbölting is Director of the Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg and Professor for Contemporary History at the University of Hamburg. From 2009 to 2020 he was Principal Investigator at the Cluster of Excellence Religion and Politics, University of Münster. His recent books includeWiedervereinigungsgesellschaft. Aufbruch und Entgrenzung in Germany since 1989/90 (2020),Was glaubten die Deutschen 1933-1945? (co-edited with Olaf Blaschke, 2020) andLosing Heaven. Religion in Germany since 1945 (2016).

Acknowledgments

Introduction
Mark Edward Ruff and Thomas Großbölting

Chapter 1. TheKulturkampf and Catholic Identity
Jeffrey T.  Zalar

Chapter 2. Time to Close Ranks: The Catholic Kulturfront during the Weimar Republic
Klaus Große Kracht

Chapter 3. The Revolution of 1918/1919: A Traumatic Experience for German Protestantism
Benedikt Brunner

Chapter 4. The Confessional Divide in Voting Behavior
Jürgen Falter

Chapter 5. The Fascist Origins of German Ecumenism
James Chappel

Chapter 6. Conversion as a Confessional Irritant: Examples from the Third Reich
Benjamin Ziemann

Chapter 7. Imperfect Interconfessionalism: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Early Christian Democracy
Maria Mitchell

Chapter 8. Importing Controversy: The Martin Luther Film of 1953 and Confessional Tensions
Mark Edward Ruff

Chapter 9. In the Presence of Absence: Transformations of the Confessional Divide in West Germany after the Holocaust
Brandon Bloch

Chapter 10. A Tense Triangle: The Protestant Church, the Catholic Church, and the SED State
Claudia Lepp

Chapter 11. A Minority between Confession and Politics: Catholicism in the Soviet Zone of Occupation and the GDR (19451990)
Christoph Kösters

Chapter 12. The Churches and Changes in Missionary Work. Biconfessionalism and Developmental Aid to the Third World since the 1960s
Florian Bock

Chapter 13. Deconfessionalization after 1945: Protestants and Catholics, Jews and Muslims as Actors within the Religious Sphere of the Federal Republic of Germany
Thomas Großbölting

Conclusion: Closing Reflections
Mark Edward Ruff and Thomas Großbölting