Reichskonkordat: Difference between revisions

The Reichskonkordat is the concordat between the Holy See and the German Reich, signed in 1933. It is still valid today in Germany.

History

After the short lived leftist revolution of 1918 and the Weimar constitution of 1919 had ended the former relationship between state and churches in Germany ,the Holy See - represented by Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli - and politicians from the Catholic Centre Party, repeatedly pushed for a concordat with the new German Republic. On the level of the states, concordats were achieved with Bavaria (1924), Prussia (1929) and Baden (1932). At the national level, however ,negotiations failed for several reasons: the fragility of the national government , continuing strong suspicion against vatican involvment in Germany , and discord among the German bishops and between them and the Holy See. The questions of denominational schools and pastoral work in the armed forces hindered any agreement on the national level, despite talks even in the winter of 1932.

On 30 January, 1933 Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor in a coup d'etat.Further elections called by Hitler to provide him with a clear majority failed to do so , as Catholic , Communist and Socialist votes held firm on 5 March and left the Nazi alliance with the ultra-right Nationalists in slimmest majority . From this time Hitler contrived towards obtention of a two-thirds majority imposed Rule by chancellery Decree under the so called Enabling Act . This Act was a Hitler priority from 12 March . Meetings with Centre politicians towards accomodation were held through March , culminating 20 March - 22 March with agreement concerning retention of protections and rights for Catholic civil servants . At his cabinet meeting resolving to achieve this Act on 15 March , Hitler is recorded as being certain of Centre approval , such that he breezily declined suggestion towards further increased arrests, this time of socialist deputies .

On 23 March, 1933 his coalition government and he as chancellor was given legislative powers through the since infamous Enabling Act. The Reichstag passed this act with the votes of all rightist and nationalist parties, as well as the hitherto balancing Catholic Centre Party. The Social-Democrats refused and the Communists were subject to un-constitutional arrest , their numbers therefore unable to check this 2/3 stipulation as envisioned under the Weimar legislation allowing for such short-term draconian rule . Hitler exhbited sufficient softening of his Party's anti- christian line during a studied speech ,assuring Germans of his estimation of Christianity at the heart of the German folk . At the same period the hitherto strongly anti-Nazi posture of the German Catholic Hierarchy or Bishops ,was softened through Vatican change in policy favouring Hitlerism as bulwark against a possibly threatening leftist creeping Germany .

Some lack of clarity surrounds the position of the Centre chairman Ludwig Kaas( a position held since 1928 and the right-ward turn in the centre party . Since the 1940's comment has focused on this Monsignor or Prelate of the Catholic Church . Kaas either did or did not act as co-chairman with Adolf Hitler of daily meetings aimed towards a voting resolution in the Reichstag , held between 17 March and 22 March 1933 . Kaas is alleged to have had direct input into the Hitler speeches accomodating the Holy See at the 23 March Enabling Act vote . Kaas is alleged by Avro Manhattan and others to have played the significant role along with von Papen in the arrangements towards the Reichskonkordat . On the 24 March Kaas travelled to rome and was then hurriedly recalled on 31 March for a remarkable private meeting with Adolf Hitler of 2 April . On the 7 April Kaas met in Munich with von Papen . Papen it is known travelled to Rome under the subterfuge of a Sking holiday( but was un-masked by the Roman press) .

Hitler had sent this vice chancellor Franz von Papen, a high Catholic nobleman , recent Chancellor and former member of the Centre Party, to Rome to further negotiations about the Reichskonkordat. Von Papen had close relations with the vatican structures, with the Rhenisch-Westphalian Industrial Magnates who were bank-rolling Adolf Hitler ,and with Paul von Hindenburg , the increasingly senile WWI General now President . Ludwig Kaas was immediately deputed by the Holy See to actually undertake the drafting of the text and conditions of the Reichskonkordat , and continued to thereby play a crucial role in the proceedings towards its signature on 5 July . Kaas never again returned to Germany and , retained within the sovereign jurisdiction of the vatican , was un-available for interview at post-war trial, unlike Papen , who there spoke of him in connection with the Concordat .

With these negotiations, the Hitler government of Germany accepted the autonomy of the church in exchange for the withdrawal of clerics from the political field (articles 16 and 32) and the restriction of Catholic organisations. This also effected the dissolvement of the Centre Party, apparently as part of the negotiations which lasted until July . The Nazi government was motivated in silencing its' Catholic critics ,in under-mining popular distrust against the anti-church NSDAP manifesto and , crucially ,in gaining international recognition--the Reichskonkordat was their first bilateral treaty.

On the significance of the Reichskonkordat, Guenter Lewy, author of The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany, has written:

There is general agreement that the Concordat increased substantially the prestige of Hitler's regime around the world. As Cardinal Faulhaber put it in a sermon delivered in 1937: "At a time when the heads of the major nations in the world faced the new Germany with cool reserve and considerable suspicion, the Catholic Church, the greatest moral power on earth, through the Concordat expressed its confidence in the new German government. This was a deed of immeasurable significance for the reputation of the new government abroad."

Signature of the Reichskonkordat
Signature of the Reichskonkordat on 20 July 1933.
From left to right: German Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, representing Germany, Giuseppe Pizzardo, Cardinal Pacelli, Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, German ambassador Rudolf Buttmann

The Reichskonkordat was signed on July 20 1933, and ratified on September 10 1933.

The Concordat

The main points of the concordat are:

• The right to freedom of religion. (Article 1)
• The state concordats with Bavaria (1924), Prussia (1929), and Baden (1932) remain valid. (Article 2)
• Unhindered correspondence between the Holy See and German Catholics. (Article 4)
• The right of the church to collect church taxes. (Article 13)
• The oath of allegiance of the bishops: "(...) Ich schwöre und verspreche, die verfassungsmässig gebildete Regierung zu achten und von meinem Klerus achten zu lassen (...)" ("I swear and vow to honor the constitutional government and to make my clergy honor it") (Article 16)
• State services to the church can be abolished only in mutual agreement. (Article 18)
• Catholic religion is taught in school (article 21) and teachers for Catholic religion can be employed only with the approval of the bishop (article 22).
• Protection of Catholic organizations and freedom of religious practice. (Article 31)
• Clerics may not be members of or be active for political parties. (Article 32)

A secret annex relieved clerics from military duty in the case that mandatory military service should be reinstated. (Germany was not allowed to have mandatory military service by the Treaty of Versailles).

When the Nazi government violated the concordat (in particular article 31), bishops and the papcy protested against these violations. Protests culminated in the papal encyclical "Mit brennender Sorge" ("With Deep Anxiety") of 1937 of Pope Pius XI.

After World War II

At the Nuremburg Trials the prosecution adopted the view that the Concordat with (Nazi) Germany was a maneuver intended to deceive .

After World War II, some challenged the validity of the Reichskonkordat but on 26 March 1957 the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (Bundesverfassungsgericht) finally decided that the concordat was still valid. However, in the field of school education the court allowed the individual states to deviate from the concordat's provisions. According to the Basic Law, schools are the domain of the states and the concordat signed without the states' participation could not bind them in this field.

Critics assert that the concordat undermined the separation of church and state. In reply to that, it should be noted that the Weimar constitution (whose regulations have been included into today's Basic Law) does not speak of a "separation" but rather rules out any state religion while protecting religious freedom, religious holidays and leaving open the possibility of cooperation.

See also

• The articles on Pope Pius XII and Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber have additional information on the Reichskonkordat and role of Roman Catholic leaders in its conclusion.

External links

• CATHOLIC LIBRARY: Concordat with the German Reich (1933)
• Text of the Reichskonkordat (in German)
• German Historic Museum: Das Reichskonkordat (in German)

• Mit brennender Sorge — the encyclical of Pope Pius XI from March 14, 1937 (in English).