Dialogue as a Strategy of Struggle : Religious Politics in East Germany, 1957–1968
Faculty/Professorship: | Modern and Contemporary History |
Author(s): | Tóth, Heléna |
Title of the Journal: | Contemporary European History |
ISSN: | 0960-7773 |
Publisher Information: | Cambridge [u.a.] : Cambridge Univ. Press |
Year of publication: | 2020 |
Volume: | 29 |
Issue: | Special Issue 2 |
Pages: | 171-186 |
Language(s): | English |
DOI: | 10.1017/S0960777320000065 |
Abstract: | This article argues that the topos of dialogue between Christians and Marxists fulfilled a key role in the creation and maintenance of power relations in religious politics in East Germany. Three case studies illustrate the topos of dialogue as a strategy of struggle: 1. the campaign against ‘revisionism’ and ‘politicised religion’; 2. the church policy strategy of ‘differentiation’; 3. the critique of the phenomena commonly associated with the Christian–Marxist dialogue outside East Germany in the mid-1960s. These instances of socialist religious politics, while having their own dynamics, were closely related through specific actors and argumentative strategies. |
GND Keywords: | Deutschland (DDR); Christentum; Religionspolitik; Geschichte 1957–1968 |
Keywords: | history, religion, East Germany |
DDC Classification: | 320 Political Science |
RVK Classification: | MS 6750 |
Peer Reviewed: | Ja |
International Distribution: | Ja |
Type: | Article |
URI: | https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/49970 |
Release Date: | 8. June 2021 |

originated at the
University of Bamberg
University of Bamberg