Excerpt from German Culture Catholicism and the World War: A Defense Against the Book La Guerre Allemande Et Le Catholicisme The French Catholics, when they declared literary war on Germany, found the English definition of, and anathema against, German culture to their likino Aside from every other consideration, this is but natural: for it has ever been the proud boast of Frenchmen that la grande nation is setting the pace for civilization. And thus the general staff of The Catholic Committee for French Propaganda Abroad set to work to systematize the accusations against Germany and scientifically to trace the brutal forces that so long could beguile the civilized nations under the mask of culture, through the successive stages to their very origin. That which staggered mankind when the German armies rushed victori ously through Belgium and Northern France, is merely the final result of the evolution of German thought applied to practical deeds. German Protestantism is the very negation of Christianity, of Christian civiliza tion, and of all it implies. Even Luther's Protestantism which still showed some traces of Christian ideas, is a thing of the past; what we see revealed in Belgium and France, 15 the retrogression from Protest autism to genuine paganism. Germanic paganism was only temporarily subdued by Christianity; the old giant, of whom Ge'rres wrote, arose from the grave beneath the rock, to terrify the meek, peaceful, unsuspecting Christian nations. Or is it Heine who heralded the mighty giant's re-materialization, or K ant, or Nietzsche, or Treitschke, or Bernhardi, or, perhaps, - the Ber liner Blatt? At any rate, some German has at some time written some thing sin ilar and thus laid the foundation, on which the scions of the once truly great and admirable science and scholarly erudition of France built their torture-chamber, in which Germany's honor and good name and German Kultur are pilloried and racked and stamped with the stigmaof pagan vandalism. And this wrenched and blood-stained object of hor ror and woe is then exhibited by the French executioners to the wonder ing neutrals, while the chorus of the Comite catholique shouts its Sic semper tyrannis! And Msgr. Baudrillart, M. Goyau, M. Gaudeau and the other heroes of the tragedy announce to the international audience: Civilization is avenged. German culture received its just reward. Listen ye, of what it has been guilty: It sought not only to overthrow the kingdom of God and extinguish the stars of heaven (as our illus trious Viviani once claimed he did I), but also to bar the progress of all civilization. The splendor of the luminous world-capital on the Seine was to be immersed in the darkness of desolation and oblivion; dense forests, as they covered the hunting - grounds of the forebears of the Ger man vandals, were to shroud the hills and vales of sunny France and of every other civilized country (serbia, Montenegro, Japan and Russia not excluded) the elk and the aurochs were to graze on the boulevards of Paris; and as the Cimbri and Teutones crossed the Alps, so the Ger mans of today would, if victorious, cross the oceans and bring ruin and devastation to every land on the globe. But, fortunately, France and her noble allies (and the black and brown and yellow legions of honor from Africa, Asia and Australia) have unfurled the banner of civiliza tion and humanity and democracy, and the labarum of Catholicism; and German culture and the German people, not excepting those who con tinue to call themselves Catholics in spite of being relegated by us with the rest of their tribe to the oak - forests of Wotan, Odin, Thor, are humiliated to the dust. - although only as far as the success of our liter ary warfare is concerned. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

German Catholicism at War explores the mentalities and experiences of German Catholics during the Second World War. Taking the German Home Front, and most specifically, the Rhineland and Westphalia, as its core focus German Catholicism at War examines Catholics' responses to developments in the war, their complex relationships with the Nazi regime, and their religious practices. Drawing on a wide range of source materials stretching from personal letters and diaries to pastoral letters and Gestapo reports, Thomas Brodie breaks new ground in our understanding of the Catholic community in Germany during the Second World War.

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