Making friends in the GDR - Dutch and East German Catholics in contact, 1980 - 1990

Abstract

This thesis surveyes the contacts between Catholics in the Netherlands and in East Germany. After introductions to (a) the methodology, (b) the historical context of the Cold War in Europe, and (c) the Roman Catholic 'milieu' in the Netherlands and in East Germany, it discusses three different groups of Dutch Catholics who were in contact with Catholics in the GDR: the peace movement Pax Christi, the Dutch members of the Berliner Konferenz (most importantly Karl Derksen and José Höhne-Sparborth), and groups of students/youths without any direct political aims. The thesis compares the ways in which these groups addressed the problems faced by the Catholics in Eastern Germany, and concludes that the differences in approach might have been very different, but that their ideas about the future of the GDR were not. Furthermore, it detects that the differences between the progressive Catholics in the Netherlands and the conservative Catholics in the GDR formed an obstruction to mutual understanding which was more important than the political differences. Besides secondary literature, this thesis is based on archival sources from the Pax Christi NL archives (including the personal archives of Jan ter Laak), contemporary periodicals (Pax Christi Kommunikatieblad and De Bazuin), and interviews with people who were involved in the Dutch-German contacts.