Mark E. Ruff

“The Battle for the Catholic Past” historicizes the debates about the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church in Germany and National Socialism. It explains how competing networks of church defenders and critics sought to use the media, the resources of political parties, and the largesse of the national state to achieve larger political, religious, and ideological goals. It argues that the controversies over the church’s relationship to National Socialism were surrogates for larger conflicts over how the church was to position itself in modern society—in politics, international relations, the media and, more broadly, in the public sphere.