The original concept of (geographical) universality or generality (καθολικóς = the whole) merged, during the Reformation, with the connotation of orthodoxy to denote the specific Catholic denomination, in contrast to Protestantism. Martin Luther (1483–1546) and John Calvin (1509–1564) also claimed catholicity for their churches, though not for the earthly institution, but for the transcendent, spiritual and invisible reality. As the distinction has become increasingly refined, the term now refers to all historically identifiable manifestations of Catholic Christianity.

Whilst, for the Protestant churches, the Catholic Church and Catholicism were regarded as one and the same right up into the 20th century, the Catholic side, however, had been distinguishing since the 19th century between the hierarchically structured institutional Church with its dogmatic doctrine and the cultural and social manifestation of the Roman Catholic tradition.^[1] The social and political self-organisation of Catholics from the late 19th century onwards, combined with the respective nationalisms within the European states, led to a heightened sense of identity – in some cases in distinction from the Roman Church hierarchy – as well as to their own organisational structures (associations, political parties, bishops’ conferences, etc.). As a result of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), the sometimes polemically distinct grade of terminology gave way to an ecumenical rapprochement.

In the early modern period, Catholicism was practised by a minority of Germans in Eastern Central Europe, albeit to varying degrees; particularly in the major cities, large sections of the population and numerous councillors professed the Lutheran and Reformed faiths. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) formulated a new self-image for the Church, one that was centrally structured and, through the Roman Curia (nuncios, etc.) and the reformed religious orders (particularly the Jesuits), was popularised amongst the region’s political and ecclesiastical elites. In addition to the strict dogmatic demarcation from other denominations, this complex historical process—known as ‘confessionalisation’—led in East Central Europe to a highly effective interaction between the Catholic Church and the respective sovereign, which had far-reaching consequences for the modern formation of the state and the creation of a disciplined society.

Bohemia and Moravia:

In Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, where the Roman Catholic faith had come under severe strain as a result of the Hussite conflicts of the 15th century, questions of faith became intertwined with the political emancipation of the estates. The first attempts at recatholisation were already being made by the Bohemian king towards the end of the 15th century; however, further political and religious unrest ultimately led to the traditional Catholic faith in Bohemia being confined to the northern, western and southern (Rosenberg) regions and to a few towns (primarily Pilsen/Plzeň and Budweis/České Budějovice), thus effectively becoming the loser in the struggle for religious freedom in Bohemia. The arrival of the Observant Franciscans and Carmelites brought new impetus to pastoral care and pilgrimages. The denominational conflicts in the lands of the Wenceslas Crown saw little change with the beginning of Habsburg rule in 1526. Amid ever-increasing polarisation along confessional and class lines, Lutheranism was readily and very early adopted on the estates of the nobility in German-speaking northern Bohemia and in the towns; Anabaptism spread, above all, through the patronage of the high nobility in southern Moravia. It was not until the Jesuits were sent to Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia in the mid-16th century that this trend was halted. Their sermons, pastoral care for the elite and the modern school system established by the Fathers—who were supported and patronised by the Habsburgs (whose confessors were Jesuits) and the papal nuncios, were frequently appointed and funded by the Catholic sovereign and the bishops, led to a thorough re-Catholicisation in their territories, particularly amongst the second generation; this was systematically and rigorously enforced in Bohemia and Moravia following the Battle of White Mountain in 1620. By 1624, Catholicism was the sole recognised denomination. Changes in landownership reinforced this process. Despite the ongoing state of war, significant impetus for a renewal of pastoral care, education, art and architecture was already being generated at that time. The revival of old pilgrimages and the establishment of new ones focused largely and uniformly on the Mother of God, who now became the ubiquitous symbol of the victorious ‘pure’ and ‘true’ Church (Marian columns, Loreto shrines, etc.). Counter-Reformation propaganda sought to win over the subjects by all media means, through overwhelming force, artistic sensibility and mass mobilisation.

Silesia:

A similar picture can be drawn for Silesia, where Hussitism, however, had remained without any significant influence; between the 16th and 17th centuries, a kind of enduring confessional coexistence developed between Lutherans and Old Church believers (cemented in the Convention of Altranstädt in 1707). Breslau/Wrocław, Liegnitz/Legnica, as well as Jägerndorf/Krnov and Troppau/Opava, together with the principalities of Oppeln/Opole and Ratibor/Racibórz, embraced the Reformation. The Counter-Reformation began in Silesia – encouraged and influenced by Bohemia – some 20 years later than it did there. The consequences of the Battle of White Mountain were also less severe for Silesia than forBohemia and Moravia (the Dresden Accord). As the imperial Catholic position gradually consolidated, a number of principalities reverted to Catholicism, and the territory of the Diocese of Breslau underwent increased re-Catholicisation. Political fragmentation and the Habsburgs’ expansion of their territorial rule fostered the spread of Catholicism throughout Silesia throughout the 17th century, even in the capital, Breslau. This development culminated in the founding of the local Jesuit university, the Leopoldina, in 1702, with its two Schools. Much like the other universities of the Society of Jesus in East Central Europe – many of which had been founded as early as the 16th century – the Leopoldina contributed to the modern education of the clergy in the respective regions well into the 18th century, and in some cases into the 19th; those established in Olmütz/Olomouc and Braunsberg/Braniewo (as counterparts to Königsberg/Kaliningrad) even extended as far as the Baltic and Scandinavian regions. The Jesuit colleges and universities were often affiliated with seminaries and boarding schools, which nurtured a disciplined clerical elite from an early age and, like the newly established printing works, exerted a wide-reaching influence beyond the region. It was not until the Age of Enlightenment that their significance waned considerably, due to the spirit of the times, the dissolution of the Jesuit Order in 1773 and, in Silesia, the transition to Prussian rule (1742). Furthermore, during the Baroque period, the Piarists and Ursulines arrived in the region for denominational educational and formative purposes.

Prussia:

In Prussia, the political situation regarding the Church was different, even though there were numerous parallels here in the implementation of the Counter-Reformation. The remaining State of the Teutonic Order was transformed in 1525 into a secular territory of the Protestant faith, and the bishoprics, along with their territories, were secularised shortly afterwards. Only the Diocese of Ermland, together with its population, remained permanently Catholic. Through the efforts of energetic, Roman-minded bishops (Hosius), Jesuits and its university, it became the driving force behind the Counter-Reformation even in neighbouring Royal Prussia, where the major cities of Danzig/Gdańsk, Thorn/Toruń and Elbing/Elbląg – with their extensive political autonomy – had adopted the Protestant faith. There, most monasteries were secularised; however, Catholic worship was preserved in isolated instances. Both the Polish king, in conjunction with the bishops and the nuncio, and a number of nobles who had returned to Catholicism promoted the tenacious advance of Catholicism in the 17th century through the establishment of reformed religious orders, schools and church buildings in or near the towns. These successes should not be overestimated – not least because of the political resistance from town councils and the shortage of clergy in the region. By contrast, Catholicism gained significant ground in the rural areas of Royal Prussia well into the 18th century. At that time, religious tolerance in Poland also seemed to have come to an end with the Toruń Blood Court (1724). Although on a much smaller scale than in Bohemia or Silesia, the pilgrimage tradition also developed in the Prussian territories, often drawing on late medieval places of worship (Marienwerder, Heiligelinde, etc.) and exhibited the typical elements of Baroque piety.

TheBaltic States:

In the Baltic region, the first half of the 16th century saw the introduction of the Lutheran confession, which was at times violent (expulsion of members of religious orders, iconoclasm), due to the antagonism between the estates and the bishop/monasteries. It was not until the reign of Stephen Báthory (1533–1586) that the Counter-Reformation began in Livonia, which was now under Polish-Lithuanian rule, again with the help of Jesuits and other reformed orders; however, Estonia and the bishoprics remained lost to Catholicism. Numerous town churches now passed back into Catholic hands. Swedish rule, combined with the largely anti-Catholic knighthood, once again thwarted such successes in Livonia during the 17th century.

Hungary:

Hungary, liberated from Ottoman rule in the 17th and early 18th centuries, took on a new religious character as a result of the influx of foreign settlers. The Catholic Church was one of the few landowners to have its property restored (approximately 21 per cent of the land). Despite legally enshrined religious tolerance, Catholic Germans were given preference during the resettlement, particularly in the towns; over the following decades, they established their own structures and traditions, extending even into the town administration. In this way, Catholicism was able to spread further, right into the border regions.

In 1742, following the Partitions of Poland, Silesia and West Prussia came under Prussian rule, which did not alter Catholic traditions and structures any more than the spirit of the Enlightenment did. Baroque piety, with its disciplining function, found fewer and fewer advocates, whilst coming under increasing criticism from the Enlightenment. Frederick the Great’s policy of religious tolerance initially even preserved the Jesuit schools, seminaries and universities for the education of the country’s own young people. It was not until the end of the 18th century that ecclesiastical property was secularised on a large scale and religious orders were dissolved; the major drain on church assets in Prussia occurred in 1810 with the secularisation of the chapters, monasteries and commanderies, as well as the episcopal estates and the cathedral chapter of Breslau. Following the Napoleonic Wars, a reorganisation of ecclesiastical structures in Prussia was therefore undertaken (De salute animarum, 1821), along with financial compensation in the form of state endowments and benefits. In the period that followed, a wholly new form of Catholicism flourished, one that placed less emphasis on its own traditions and instead incorporated social functions and a clear connection to Rome. New religious orders spread, particularly in Silesia (female social and charitable Institutes) and the Sudeten regions (especially the Redemptorists); they took over pastoral care and the old places of pilgrimage, which were brought to a previously unknown level of prosperity.

Just as the whole of church life experienced a revival in both quality and quantity, so, from around the middle of the century onwards, particularly in the Prussian and Sudeten German regions, social and political Catholicism developed as a new phenomenon, bringing together hundreds of thousands of Catholics within modern organisational structures. Well-organised Christian trade unions, political parties, professional associations and community organisations adapted to the modern world of industrialisation, provided faith-based responses (without any denominational polemics) and asserted their right to a say in public and political affairs. From the mid-century onwards, political Catholicism in Breslau (Bishop Melchior von Diepenbrock [1798–1853]) and the rest of Silesia developed into a centre of influence for the whole of Germany, which remained effective until 1933. As its direction was not necessarily aligned with that of the episcopate and the Roman Curia, this gave rise to various points of friction. Viewed as a whole, these new forms of Catholicism strengthened the parish system and entrusted parish priests with entirely new responsibilities.

The rise of nationalism in the mid-19th century must be viewed in a very nuanced way as regards the Germans in Eastern Central Europe: Whilst in the Prussian territories the focus was on providing appropriate pastoral care for the Polish population, the German-speaking episcopate loyal to the Habsburgs in the Bohemian lands was very reluctant to join in the Czech/Slavic liturgical celebrations (particularly at Velehrad and in the veneration of Cyril and Methodius). In Prussia, the Church’s political balancing act culminated after 1871 in the Kulturkampf, which became a trial of strength between the monolithically consolidated Church and the liberal state: Numerous parishes and dioceses were left unfilled, pastoral care and the administration of the sacraments were restricted and strictly regulated by state laws. Only the unity of the Catholic community in those areas was able to prevent the complete withering away of church life. Ultramontanism and the internal church disputes following the First Vatican Council (1869–1870) further fuelled state repression in some places. In the Hungarian-speaking regions, as early as the first half of the 19th century, there was a process of Magyarisation, including within church life (language, etc.), and a sharpening of national distinctions, though without the emergence of a pronounced German identity. The Germans, most of whom were Catholic, lived in western andsouthern Hungary, in Croatia, Slavonia and Ofen-Pest.

The First World War led, particularly in the Prussian territories, to a socio-political rehabilitation of Catholics, who subsequently became a pillar of the state at the imperial level through the Catholic Centre Party. The outcome of the war – with Germany suffering major territorial losses in Eastern Central Europe, the political fragmentation of the map and the collapse of the social and political system – brought about what were arguably the greatest changes for Catholicism as a whole since the Reformation. During the referendum campaigns in the German border regions, the Church and Catholicism played a decisive political role. Despite the Reich’s financial weakness due to reparations and other factors, considerable funds were rapidly invested in the German diaspora – particularly in Catholic institutions such as schools, nurseries, etc. – with the aim of preventing assimilation and maintaining ties with Germany. For this form of revisionist policy, Catholicism appeared to the Berlin ministries to be a particularly stable and reliable partner, especially as efforts had been made since 1919, including at the level of concordats, to safeguard the Catholic German diaspora. Even the negotiations on the Reich Concordat in the 1920s were largely motivated by the desire to protect German-speaking Catholicism in East Central Europe. These treaties were made urgent by the realignment of church boundaries with the new political borders, the remuneration and training of the clergy, and the safeguarding of German minorities. As early as the first post-war years, a new diocesan structure was established for almost the entire East Central European border region, comprising a large number of new dioceses that largely corresponded to the wishes of the new states – particularly in the Baltic states. Here, the (re)establishment of the Diocese of Riga/Rīga led to a – albeit brief – resurgence of Catholicism, in which the Germans played hardly any part due to increasing emigration and assimilation. At any rate, the Catholic Germans in the eastern part of Latvia had successfully resisted Russification and conversion to Orthodoxy.

Far more influential were the German Catholics in Czechoslovakia, who found themselves in a secular and anti-Habsburg state after 1918. Their relative unity and diverse organisational structure endowed the German-speaking Catholic community there with the resilience to resist the Prague government’s policies, which were not particularly favourable towards Catholics (Hus celebrations accompanied by the severing of diplomatic relations with the Vatican), and gave it political clout (Farmers’ Association; Christian Social Party). It was not until the second half of the 1920s that the situation eased noticeably (two German ministers).

As was the case throughout the Reich (and in the Free City of Danzig, established in 1920, where 30 per cent of the population were Catholic), Catholicism was now radically and systematically suppressed in public life, and politically non-conformist clergy, teachers and activists, along with their media outlets, were eliminated. The Nazis generally regarded Catholicism as a stronghold of resistance: indeed, the formative influence of the Catholic system of societies and associations had, for more than two generations, fostered a close-knit unity between clergy and laity. In contrast, the not insignificant but highly heterogeneous group of Catholic Yugoslav Germans (particularly in Banat, Bačka and Baranya) had to find common ground with one another after 1918 (when this region was divided among several new states); for the individual, however, the choice between assimilation and dissimilation remained, particularly as they did not have their own secondary school until 1941. Yugoslavia’s surrender in 1941 briefly placed the German Catholics under new, ostensibly sovereign state entities. By 1944, some of them had been resettled to the Reich; of the remaining Germans, only a few managed to flee after 1945.

In the remaining areas, the war years increased the pressure on the Catholic German population, particularly through the closure of schools, the arrest of clergy, the tightening of language laws, and the strain on pastoral care caused by having to rely on temporary staff from the annexed Polish territories. It was not until 1944–45 that the region felt the full force of the world war, which culminated in flight and expulsion.

• Stella Alexander: Church and State in Yugoslavia since 1945. Cambridge 1979.
• France M. Dolinar: The Catholic Church in Yugoslavia: Past and Present. In: Walter Buchs (ed.): The Responsibility of Catholic Journalists towards the Church and Europe. Freiburg im Breisgau 1987, pp. 19–28.
• Erwin Gatz (ed.): The Church and Catholicism since 1945. Vol. 2: Central-Eastern, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Paderborn 1999.
• Jenö Gergely: Katolikus egyház, magyar társadalom 1890–1986 [The Catholic Church in Hungarian Society 1890–1986]. Budapest 1989.
• Jerzy Kłoczowski: Dzieje chrześcijaństwa polskiego [History of Polish Christianity]. Vol. 2. Paris 1991.
• Winfried König (ed.): The Legacy and Mission of the Silesian Church. 1,000 Years of the Diocese of Wrocław. Dülmen 2001.
• Bolesław Kumor (ed.): *Historia Kościoła w Polsce* [History of the Church in Poland]. Vol. 1–2. Poznań 1974–1979.
• Bolesław Kumor: Historia Kościoła [History of the Church]. Vol. 8: 1914–1992. Lublin 1995.
• Stefan Samerski: The Catholic Church in the Free City of Danzig 1920–1933. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 1991 (Bonner Beiträge zur Kirchengeschichte 17).
• Ibid.: East German Catholicism in the Spotlight. The German East caught between Church and State after the First World War. Bonn 1999 (Historical Research).
• Ibid.: Olomouc as a Hub for the Training of Priests in Eastern Central Europe? The Educational Patronage of the Olomouc Jesuits in the 16th to 18th Centuries. In: Joachim Bahlcke, Thomas Winkelbauer (eds.): School Foundations and the Financing of Studies. Educational Patronage in the Bohemian, Austrian and Hungarian Lands, 1500–1800. Vienna, Munich 2011 (Publications of the Institute for Austrian Historical Research 58), pp. 253–262.
• Ibid.: ‘More Papal than the Pope’? Prussia and the Jesuits after 1773. In: Bärbel Holtz (ed.): Crisis, Reforms and Culture. Prussia before and after the catastrophe of 1806. Berlin 2010 (Research in Brandenburg and Prussian History 11), pp. 47–64.
• Anton Schindling, Walter Ziegler (eds.): The Territories of the Empire in the Age of the Reformation and Confessionalisation: State and Denomination 1500–1650. Vol. 2: The North-East. Münster 1990 (Catholic Life and Church Reform in the Age of the Schism 50).
• Miklós Tomka: Religion and the Church in Hungary. Findings from sociological research on religion 1969–1988. Vienna 1990.
• Luciano Vaccaro (ed.): Storia religiosa dei popoli balcanici [Religious History of the Balkan Peoples]. Milan 1983.
• Reinhard Wittram (ed.): History of the Baltic Churches. Göttingen 1956.

• Faith in the Second World (Zurich 1973–2008), from 2011: Religion and Society in East and West (Zurich).
• Archive for Silesian Church History (Münster).
• Archives for the Church History of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia (Königstein/Ts.).

[1] Heinz Hürten: A Brief History of German Catholicism 1800–1960. Mainz 1986.

Stefan Samerski: Catholics (Roman Catholics). In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2014. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32723 (as at 24 November 2020).