John Conway on Bischof Clemens August Graf Von Galen: Akten, Briefe Und Predigten, 1933-1946

Friedrich Loeffler, ed.. Bischof Clemens August Graf von Galen: Akten, Briefe und Predigten, 1933-1946. Paderborn: Ferdinand SchÖ¶ningh Verlag, 1996. 1476 pp. DM 98,-, paper, ISBN 978-3-506-79840-4. Reviewed by John S. Conway Published on H-German (January, 1997) These two volumes are a second, revised and Bishop Galen is now best remembered for his enlarged edition of a work frst published in 1988 outspoken sermons of July and August 1941 de‐ (also in two volumes), and edited by the former nouncing the crimes of the Gestapo, especially the archivist of the Muenster diocese, Friedrich Loef‐ murder of thousands of German mentally handi‐ fler. The enlargement, in fact, consists only of capped patients in specially controlled mental twelve additional documents, amounting to forty- hospitals during the so-called euthanasia pro‐ two pages in all, none of which substantially gramme. These sermons were delivered at the changes the picture we already have. Although very moment when the Nazi course of military ag‐ admirably edited, as before, to the commendably gression was at its peak, and, if Joseph Goebbels high standards of the Catholic Commission for had had his way, would have led to the Bishop's Contemporary History, the cost of this work, de‐ being strung up on a lamp-post outside his own spite undoubted subsidies from the Catholic cathedral. He survived only because Hitler decid‐ Church in Germany, will make it unlikely to be a ed to delay vengeance until the war was won. It best-seller. But, presumably for the sake of com‐ was presumably this act of defiance that led Pope pleteness, it now appears a second time in order Pius XII to make Galen a Cardinal at his frst Con‐ to include a few more items that have turned up sistory after the war in late 1945--the frst time the since 1988, as well as to add an updated bibliogra‐ diocese of Muenster had been so honoured. Un‐ phy of the most recent publications relating to the fortunately, Galen died suddenly only a few weeks career of the subject. Given the enormous initial after returning from receiving his red hat in task of reconstructing this material, much of Rome. which was lost when the diocesan archive was al‐ Clemens August Graf von Galen came from a most totally destroyed by British bombing during highly aristocratic Westphalian family, which had the war, the editor's perseverance is to be com‐ been accustomed to holding high office in both mended. church and state. As such, Galen could not be de‐ H-Net Reviews scribed as having sympathies for the democratic rich heritage of Germany's saints and heroes of Weimar Republic, and was even more staunchly the past led him to susceptibility to the allure‐ opposed to the threat of communism. His disdain ments of other, more political, aspects of Nazism, for Adolf Hitler and his mob of rowdy thugs was such as the restoration of Germany's dignity and equally obvious, though in 1933, when the Nazis honour after the humiliation of the Versailles achieved power, Galen's antipathy was tempered Treaty. Hitler's promise to restore Germany's na‐ by the fact that a fellow Westphalian aristocrat, tional honor therefore met with his warm ap‐ Franz von Papen, was to become Vice-Chancellor. proval. Neither of them could foresee how rapidly Pa‐ One clear trend is evidenced from many of pen's influence was to be eroded. the internal documents covering his correspon‐ Galen was appointed bishop, at the age of dence with other members of the Catholic hierar‐ fifty-five, in September 1933 (which is where the chy. In defence of the Church's position, Galen documents in these volumes begin), and set him‐ found the conduct of his superiors, especially the self the task of building up his diocese, with the aged Presiding Bishop, Cardinal Bertram of Bres‐ result that Muenster became even more the heart‐ lau, to be far too reticent and diplomatic. He nev‐ land of "black reaction," as his Nazi opponents er shared the Cardinal's belief that the Nazi gov‐ viewed it. Nazi ideologues like Alfred Rosenberg ernment would willingly uphold the terms of the were determined to challenge this citadel, and 1933 Concordat if sufficiently lengthy remon‐ many of the documents provided here outline the strances were forwarded to Hitler's office. In‐ fierce controversies caused by Rosenberg's stead, Galen insisted, this kind of secret negotia‐ provocative appearance in Muenster in 1935. tion only baffled the ordinary Catholics suffering They also show how soon and how vigorously the from the innumerable pin-pricks of Nazi official‐ Nazis' campaign to dominate the public scene, es‐ dom, while unable to see that any improvements pecially all aspects of education, was launched, in were forthcoming. Galen wanted a much more the expectation that their frothy brew of ultra-na‐ forceful and public confrontation against these tionalist, racist, anti-communist and anti-clerical encroaching impertinences, and sought to rally rhetoric would capture the hearts and minds of the faithful of his diocese to be on their guard most Germans. Galen's untiring and energetic re‐ against all such attempts to strangle Church life sponses to this fagrant attack are here fully docu‐ and institutions. But his advice was not accepted mented. by Bertram, and every time he urged a stronger It is clear that Galen saw himself as the de‐ line to be taken, the Cardinal backed down. Clear‐ fender of traditional Catholic doctrine and of the ly Galen, who rather enjoyed the epithet of "The autonomy of the Church, which he mistakenly Lion of Muenster," was frustrated by such pusilla‐ thought had been safeguarded by the newly nimity, and even courted persecution in order to signed Concordat of July 1933. His stature as a defend his diocesan territory. But he was unsuc‐ Prince of the Church and his family background cessful in getting a more challenging line adopted. led him to tireless attempts to reject any interfer‐ When war broke out in 1939, Galen, like so ence by the Nazi upstarts seeking to control or many other German conservatives, was prepared limit the operations of the church. He was espe‐ to believe that Germany was only attempting to cially vigorous in upholding the heritage of the break the stranglehold imposed on her by encir‐ Christian past of Muenster and Westphalia cling foes, and was quite ready to endorse the war against the pseudo-pagan ideology of the Nazi ex‐ effort in religious terms, being anxious not to al‐ tremists. But at the same time this appeal to the low the Nazis to accuse Catholics of displaying 2 H-Net Reviews less fervour for the war effort than other mem‐ majesty of his office. In fact, the Nazis were taken bers of the community. But at the same time, he by surprise, and were unable to prevent the very was not at all prepared to allow wartime necessi‐ wide circulation of these outspoken denuncia‐ ty to be used as an excuse to cripple the Church tions of the regime, which were quickly spread by further curtailing its activities or associations, from hand to hand, and even appeared in other or commandeering its buildings. The confisca‐ parts of Europe, and also were used as very effec‐ tions of monasteries and nunneries, the closing of tive propaganda by the BBC. But, of course, Galen Church schools, and the refusal of paper supplies denied having any political intentions. He still ap‐ for church publications were, as we now know, all parently thought that the Nazis could be recalled part of the Nazis' deliberate plot to demolish the by fervent exhortations to uphold the concepts of Church's bastions, and it is clear that Galen was German law and traditional Christian moral val‐ very much aware of the damage being done. Still ues. he went on believing that such actions were just Courageous as these actions were in defence the work of underlings in the Nazi Party, and that of the Church's traditional concerns for its fock, it Hitler, had he known of them, would have cor‐ has to be noted that these documents contain not rected these excesses--again a very typical atti‐ a single instance of Galen's being ready to make tude found among German conservatives. similar protests against the even more heinous But by 1941 Galen had had enough. He decid‐ Nazi crimes against the Jews. Indeed it would ed to ignore the advice of his colleagues and to seem clear that Galen, like so many other German launch a very public demonstration in defence of conservatives, shared much of the prevalent anti- the rights of the Church. His feelings of outrage semitic attitudes of his day, especially the wide‐ were only strengthened by the growing number spread assumption that the Jews were powerfully of representations made to him by parishioners represented in the Communist leadership of the concerned about the fate of their relatives in men‐ Soviet Union. Consequently, his ardent support for tal hospitals, whose sudden and mysterious the Nazis' war of liberation against the "godless deaths shortly after being transferred in Gestapo- atheism" of the Bolsheviks, as expressed in a pas‐ organised buses from Church hospitals to those toral letter of September 1941, no doubt influ‐ run by the state, aroused waves of panic and enced him in remaining silent on the events of the alarm. Unfortunately these volumes do not give Holocaust. Such was the ambivalence, or the us any indication of the sources of information dilemma, of this section of the German populace.

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