Evening star., 1933-07-03
~r..h- - th. A.sociated press
Hitler's "Kulturkampf."

Hitler's "Kulturkampf."
Following the Franco-Prussian War,
Durope's attention was concentrated on
Prince Bismarck's "Kulturkampf" (cul-
tural struggle) against the Catholic
Church. The Iron Chancellor demanded
that appointments to the hierarchy IN
Germany should be controlled by the
state. The Vatican bitterly resented
this interference with the papal pre-
roeative, and for nearly a decade there
was q virtual state OF war between
Berlin and the Holy See.
The contest ended in Rome's favor.
Despite Bismarck's repeated insistence
that I'VE shall not go to Canossa"-a
metaphor dating back to the medieval
occasion when another German ruler,
vorsted in a conflict with the Pope,
eventually wended his way to him, an
object suppliant for peace-Bismarck
did 60 to Canossa, and abapdoned the
"Kulturkampf." The result was the
birth OF the German Catholic Center"
party, destined to remain a political
thorn in the side of all Berlin govern
snents to this day.
Now Adolf Hitler, the pinchbeck Bis
uArck, has embarked upon another
kulturkampf. The NaN autocrat Is
attempting to cover vastly more ter
ritory than his great predecessor ever
essayed, for Hitler would dominate all
the creeds-Jewish, Protestant and
Catholic.
The Reich's 800, 900 Jews have been
crushed by barbaric prosecutions. Not
so easy, Of course, is the suppression Of
$4,000, 900 Protestants who belong to
the Lutheran Evangelical Church. for
merly the Prussian state church." and
which Herr Hitler would now bring
under Nad political subjection. He
would deny the right Of its twenty nine
constituent groups to name respected
Clergyman and humanitarian, DR.. Fried
rich Won Bodelschwingh as their rank
ing bishop. and Is trying to foist upon
them Nad Observation-Disclosures, Dr..
Won Mueller. It Is the same DR..
Won Mueller who has Just been vio-
lently disavowed as author Of report
that Hitler Is preparing to renounce
Catholicism and join the reorganized,
Nad-ruled new" Professionalism, and
In addition, to urge other German
Catholics to follow him into 1t. Hitler
denies any such plans. DR.. Won Muel-
ler's stock as prospective secular leader
Of Nad Protestantism may not survive
this amazing episode, which seems to
indict him for pernicious zeal.
Meantime the Hitler dictatorship on
Saturday closed all business Offices of
Prussian Catholic societies regarded as
political organizations. This action fol-
lows the recent breaking up by the Nazi
authorities of great Catholic conven-
tion at Munich and the maltreatment
Of priests, including q ban on services
which Cardinal Faulhaber, eminent
Bavarian prelate, attempted to hold on
the same occasion.
That the Vatican will not stand with
folded arms in the presence of Hitlers
threat to German Catholics seems a
foregone conclusion. Also there are
some 25000,0O0 German Catholics to
reckon with. One of them is Col. Won
Papen, Hitlers vice chancellor, who
ironically is at this moment in Vatican
City to negotiate a German Catholic
concordat 1t is one thing to trample
down the cultural existence Of 100000
Jews. 1t is decidedly something else
again to grind the faces of quarter of
. hundred million "Aryan" citizens, who
are represented by potent political Or
ganization of their own.
President Won Hindenburg has emerged
from the citadel of impotence. which he
has been so strangely content to inhabit
since the Hitler tyranny set in, long
enough to protest vehemently, as a
"God-fearing Protestant and Reich
President" against Mani interference
with the Lutheran Church. 1t remains
to be seen whether the Hindenburg
plea will suffice to cure Hitler Of the
midsummer madness of his drive against
the churches before he, like the Bis
marck he 50 feebly initiates, finds 1t
necessary to go to Canossa" and con-
3esG sssu NaM inability to stifle free
DOM Of religious conscience in the
name Of the "totality" state which Hit
lsr would erect on the ruins of German
democracy.