German Nationalism and Religious Conflict: Culture, Ideology, Politics, 1870-1914

Helmut Walser Smith

Published by Princeton University Press 1995

German Nationalism and Religious Conflict

Culture, Ideology, Politics, 1870-1914

Helmut Walser Smith

Volume 286 in the series Princeton Legacy Library

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400863891

Overview
Contents

About this book

The German Empire of 1871, although unified politically, remained deeply divided along religious lines. In German Nationalism and Religious Conflict, Helmut Walser Smith offers the first social, cultural, and political history of this division. He argues that Protestants and Catholics lived in different worlds, separated by an "invisible boundary" of culture, defined as a community of meaning.

As these worlds came into contact, they also came into conflict. Smith explores the local as well as the national dimensions of this conflict, illuminating for the first time the history of the Protestant League as well as the dilemmas involved in Catholic integration into a national culture defined primarily by Protestantism.

The author places religious conflict within the wider context of nation-building and nationalism. The ongoing conflict, conditioned by a long history of mutual intolerance, was an integral part of the jagged and complex process by which Germany became a modern, secular, increasingly integrated nation. Consequently, religious conflict also influenced the construction of German national identity and the expression of German nationalism. Smith contends that in this religiously divided society, German nationalism did not simply smooth over tensions between two religious groups, but rather provided them with a new vocabulary for articulating their differences. Nationalism, therefore, served as much to divide as to unite German society.

Originally published in 1995.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Reviews

Smith describes a familiar narrative in a provocative and novel way. . . . Fruitfully using works in cultural studies, as well as the recent historiography of the politics of religion, Smith presents a finely textured account of Catholic-Protestant difference.

"Fluent, full of spark and verve, and very enjoyable to read. Historians and political scientists concerned with modern Europe generally, historians and sociologists of religion, those interested in nationalism and state formation—this book has something to offer them all."—David Blackburn, Harvard University

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Figures and Tables Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Notes on Usage and Translation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE: CULTURE, IDEOLOGY, SOCIETY
1. The Kulturkampf and German National Identity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
2. Visions of the Nation: The Ideology of Religious Conflict Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
3. Religious Conflict and Social Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
PART TWO: POLITICS
4. The Politics of Nationalism and Religious Conflict, 1897-1906 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
5. The Politics of Nationalism and Religious Conflict, 1907-14 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
PART THREE: RELIGIOUS AND NATIONALITY CONFLICT IN THE BORDERLANDS OF THE IMAGINED COMMUNITY
6. Protestants, Catholics, and Poles: Religious and Nationality Conflicts in the Empire's Ethnically Mixed Areas, 1897-1914 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
7. Los von Rom: Religious Conflict and the Quest for a Spiritual Pan-Germany Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267

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