Volk, Ludwig: Das Reichskonkordat vom 20. Juli 1933. Von den Ansätzen in der Weimarer Republik bis zur Ratifizierung am 10. September 1933, Mainz 1972

Ludwig Volk: Das Reichskonkordat vom 20. Juli 1933. Von den Ansätzen in der Weimarer Republik bis zur Ratifizierung am 10. September 1933.

The publication of state and church records concerning the negotiations that led to the 1933 Reich Concordat has enabled historians to recreate the treaty’s controversial prehistory from the perspective not only of one but of both sides. This first comprehensive study – highly detailed, densely researched, and critically engaged with competing historiographical interpretations – examines the trends and factors that impacted on the Reich Concordat. Volk begins with an overview of the treaty’s prehistory in the Weimar Republic and then carefully analyzes the transformed power constellations in the field of cultural politics following Hitler’s accession to the chancellorship on 30 January 1933. As Volk unravels the intricate net of events, it becomes clear how, under the impact of the »second wave of revolution«, the Vatican’s room for maneuver shrunk significantly. Seeing no alternatives and pressed to act in a difficult situation, Rome seized the chance to achieve contractual containment of Hitler’s claims to full power in order to spare German Catholics a second »Kulturkampf«.