During the forty years of division, the Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany were the only organizations to retain strong ties and organizational structures: they embodied continuity in a country marked by discontinuity. As such, the churches were both expected to undergo smooth and rapid institutional consolidation and undertake an active role in the public realm of the new eastern German states in the 1990s. Yet critical voices were heard over the West German system of church-state relations and the public role it confers on religious organizations, and critics often expressed the idea that despite all their difficulties, something precious was lost in the collapse of the German democratic republic. Against this backdrop, the author delineates the conflicting conceptions of the Protestant and Catholic churches' public role and pays special attention to the East German model, or what is generally termed the "positive experiences of the GDR and theWende."

Barbara Theriault is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Montreal. She was previously postdoctoral fellow at the Canadian Center for German and European Studies (University of Montreal) andKollegiat at the Max-Weber-Kolleg für Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaften at the University of Erfurt.