Akten zur preussischen Kirchenpolitik in den Bistümern Gnesen-Posen, Kulm und Ermland,1885-1914 by Erwin GatzReview by: Richard BlankeThe American Historical Review, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Jun., 1978), p. 746Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1861928 .

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746 Reviews of Books

say on the specific characteristics of German na- tionalism is well done, but out of place since it makes few explicit references to German Jewry.

MICHAEL A. MEYER

Hebrew Union College

ERWIN GATZ, compiler. Akten zurpreussischen Kirchen- politik in den Bistulmern Gnesen-Posen, Kulm und Erm- land, i885-I9I4. (Veroffentlichungen der Kommis- sion fur Zeitgeschichte. Series A: Sources, number 21.) Mainz: Matthias-Grunewald-Verlag. I977. Pp. XCV, 283.

This volume in the series of publications by the Institut fJr Zeitgeschichte contains 143 documents from the holdings of the Politisches Archiv des Aus- wartigen Amtes in Bonn. They begin in I885, when the Kulturkampf was winding down in most of Prus- sia. In these several dioceses, however, the struggle continued unabated until World War I, except that, as these documents make clear, it was a matter of nationalist more than Church-state is- sues. In fact, this collection might more properly be titled Polenpolitik than Kirchenpolitik.

Erwin Gatz, of the Campo Santo Teutonico in Rome, where he is also director of the Roman Institute of the Gorres Society, has edited and presented these documents in exemplary fashion. There is an extensive introduction, annotating the documents and providing an overview of Prussian Polish policy during these years on the basis of the German-language literature. An informative bio- graphical sketch is provided for each personality mentioned. A short statement of the contents pre- cedes each document. The marginalia, often so difficult to decipher and attribute, are included as well.

Most of these documents, 75 percent or more, deal with the Poznanian diocese (Poznan- Gniezno), home of the archbishop and of most of the nationally-conscious Prussian Poles; the rest deal with the West Prussian Bishopric of Kulm and the East Prussian Ermland diocese. They con- sist mostly of correspondence between Berlin and the provinces or Berlin and Rome. The chief item of business is the appointment of new archbishops and other high officials. Thus they cluster around the deaths of Poznanian archbishops in I886, I890, and I906. They also reflect the determination of the Prussian government to have a German arch- bishop in Poznan, which it achieved only once, in I886-90, with Julius Dinder. This appointment proved disappointing; Dinder was either unable or unwilling to govern his archdiocese much differ- ently than a Pole would have done. Nonetheless,

the government pursued its goal, allowing the arch- bishop's chair to remain vacant for eight years after Archbishop Stablewski's death in I906, until World War I compelled measures to reinforce the loyalty of its Polish-speaking citizens. The reopen- ing of seminaries after the Kulturkampf, problems of religious instruction in the public schools, and the attitude of Church leaders to the growing national struggle in the "eastern marches" are other issues upon which these documents shed light.

One should not expect to find major surprises in this collection, primarily because the holdings of the Politisches Archiv have long been easily acces- sible to historians. But they do provide much use- ful information for the specialist and create or reinforce a number of impressions, most of them not very flattering to top officials of the Prussian government. Prussian ministers like Alfred von Gossler and Konrad Studt emerge here as petty, aggressive nationalists. More surprising is the im- pression these documents give of Cardinal Kopp of Breslau: a servile instrument of the government to which he clearly owed his high offices, his loyalty more to the state than to his fellow churchmen, especially if they were Polish. His submissions to Berlin are scarcely distinguishable from those of subaltern state officials. The government obviously sought obedient tools for top Church positions and was less interested in ability or outstanding priestly qualities. Even Germans of high ability were held back because they refused to endorse government policy toward the Poles. To their credit, most German clerics seem to have resisted the lure of higher office in return for doing this, so that the difficulty of finding "suitable" German candidates is a recurrent theme of these docu- ments.

In sum, though it deals with a fairly narrow subject, this is a volume that all universities with graduate programs in Central European or Church history will want to have.

RICHARD BLANKE

University of Maine, Orono

RUTH LINK-SALINGER [HYMAN] . Gustav Landauer: Phi- losopher of Utopia. With a bibliography edited by ARTHUR HYMAN. Indianapolis: Hackett. 1977. Pp. X, 171- $17-50-

Despite her evident industry in hunting down new sources and her even more obvious love for her subject matter, Ruth Link-Salinger (Hyman) has written a truly dreadful little book. She has chosen a subject who in many ways is an attractive figure,

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