Catholicism and the Great War: Religion and Everyday Life in Germany and Austria-Hungary, 1914-1922

304 Pages·2015·5.209 MB·English

by  Patrick Houlihan

Catholicism and the Great War
ThistransnationalcomparativehistoryofCatholiceverydayreligionin
Germany and Austria-Hungary during the Great War transforms our
understanding of the war’s cultural legacy. Challenging master narra-
tivesofsecularizationandmodernism,HoulihanrevealsthatCatholics
from the losing powers had personal and collective religious experi-
encesthatrevisethedecline-and-fallstoriesofChurchandstateduring
wartime. Focusing on private theologies and lived religion, Houlihan
explores how believers adjusted to industrial warfare. Giving voice to
previouslymarginalizedhistoricalactors,includingsoldiersandwomen
andchildrenonthehomefront,hecreatesafamilyhistoryofCatholic
religion, supplementing studies of the clergy and bishops. His find-
ings shed new light on the diversity of faith in this period and how
specifically Catholic forms of belief and practice enabled people from
the losing powers to cope with the war much more successfully than
previousculturalhistorieshaveledustobelieve.
patrick j. houlihan receivedhisPhDinHistoryfromtheUniver-
sityofChicagoin2011.HeisAssistantDirectorofStudentPreparation
intheCareerAdvancementOfficeattheUniversityofChicago,where
hehasalsotaughtintheHistoryDepartment.
StudiesintheSocialandCulturalHistoryofModernWarfare
GeneralEditor
JayWinter,YaleUniversity
AdvisoryEditors
DavidBlight,YaleUniversity
RichardBosworth,UniversityofWesternAustralia
PeterFritzsche,UniversityofIllinois,Urbana-Champaign
CarolGluck,ColumbiaUniversity
BenedictKiernan,YaleUniversity
AntoineProst,Universite´deParis-Sorbonne
RobertWohl,UniversityofCalifornia,LosAngeles
Inrecentyearsthefieldofmodernhistoryhasbeenenrichedbytheexplorationof
twoparallelhistories.Thesearethesocialandculturalhistoryofarmedconflict,
andtheimpactofmilitaryeventsonsocialandculturalhistory.
StudiesintheSocialandCulturalHistoryofModernWarfarepresentsthefruitsof
thisgrowingareaofresearch,reflectingboththecolonizationofmilitaryhistory
by cultural historians and the reciprocal interest of military historians in social
andculturalhistory,tothebenefitofboth.Theseriesoffersthelatestscholarship
inEuropeanandnon-Europeaneventsfromthe1850stothepresentday.
This is book 42 in the series, and a full list of titles in the series can be found at:
www.cambridge.org/modernwarfare
Catholicism and the Great War
Religion and Everyday Life in Germany and
Austria-Hungary, 1914–1922
Patrick J. Houlihan
UniversityofChicago
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
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ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107035140
(cid:2)C PatrickJ.Houlihan2015
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexceptionandtothe
provisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,noreproductionofanypart
maytakeplacewithoutthewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2015
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Houlihan,PatrickJ.,1980–
CatholicismandtheGreatWar:religionandeverydaylifeinGermanyand
Austria-Hungary,1914–1922/PatrickJ.Houlihan,UniversityofChicago.
pages cm.–(Studiesinthesocialandculturalhistoryofmodernwarfare;41)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-107-03514-0(alk.paper)
1.CatholicChurch–Germany–History–20thcentury. 2.CatholicChurch–
Austria–History–20thcentury. 3.CatholicChurch–Hungary–History–
20thcentury. I.Title.
BX1536.H68 2015
282(cid:3).4309041–dc23 2015003499
ISBN978-1-107-03514-0Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
To Bettina, Elisabeth, and Alexander
“Ifwarisanactofforce,theemotionscannotfailtobeinvolved.”
–KarlvonClausewitz,OnWar,translatedandedited
byMichaelHowardandPeterParet(Princeton,NJ:
PrincetonUniversityPress,1976[1832]),76
“Thewarisbeingconductednotonlywithgunsandcannons
butalsowithweaponsofpietyandprayer.”
–SvenHedin,EinVolkinWaffen(Leipzig:F.A.
Brockhaus,1915),461
Contents
Listoffigures page viii
Acknowledgments ix
Noteonthetext xii
Listofabbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1 CatholicismontheeveoftheGreatWarinGermany
andAustria-Hungary 20
2 Theologyandcatastrophe 50
3 Thelimitsofreligiousauthority:militarychaplaincy
andtheboundsofclericalism 78
4 Faithinthetrenches:Catholicbattlefieldpietyduring
theGreatWar 117
5 Theunquiethomefront 153
6 Avoiceinthewilderness:thepapacy 186
7 Memory,mourning,andtheCatholicwayofwar 215
Conclusion 254
Sources 266
Index 285
vii
Figures
1 Honve´dChapel(Lipusch) page 61
2 Massinthetrenches(Lipusch) 95
3 Fieldchapel,LIR13(Lipusch) 100
4 Trenchgrotto(BfZ) 129
5 Christandthedyingsoldier(Rudl) 135
6 Field-altarMadonna(Lipusch) 136
7 Femalemourners,AllSouls’Day1916(BfZ) 169
8 Caritashospitalnetwork(BfZ) 181
9 DestroyedchurchinBiglia(Lipusch) 193
10 Bricolagegrave,St.Barbara(Lipusch) 229
11 Snowstormburial(Lipusch) 231
12 Churchservice,WeimarRepublic(BfZ) 261
SOURCES
Bibliothekfu¨rZeitgeschichte(Stuttgart),Ktn.214.
Lipusch, Viktor, ed. O¨sterreich-Ungarns katholische Milita¨rseelsorge im Weltkriege.
Vienna:Verlagfu¨rMilita¨r-undFachliteraturAmonFranzGo¨th,1938.
Rudl,Siegmund.Kriegsvaterunser:AndenkenandenWeltkriegfu¨ralleMitka¨mpfer
undihreAngeho¨rigen.Prague:BonifatiaVerlag,1917.
viii