COMMENTARY: In the former East Germany, no place for God

c. 1996 Religion News Service (Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.) DRESDEN, Germany _ God may be alive and well on the banks of the Rhine, […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.)


DRESDEN, Germany _ God may be alive and well on the banks of the Rhine, but not here on the banks of the Elbe. Dresden is a scruffy, smoke-scorched, down-at-the-heels city, most of whose citizens are atheists. Some of Dresden’s former beauty, destroyed by massive bombing in World War II, has been restored. But even the restorations were turned coal black by pollution in an uncaring Socialist regime.

Far worse is the fact that after a half-century of Communist rule, the former German Democratic Republic has succeeded in driving out God. Today, 47 percent of the general population are hardcore atheists. The numbers increase to 60 percent among those 35 years old and younger. These are people who are firmly convinced that God does not exist and that there is no hope of life after death.

Five years after the unification of Germany, there is little sign here of the religious revival that has occurred in ex-Socialist countries like Russia and Bulgaria. It is too early to say that the New States of the German Federal Republic, as East Germany is now called, will always be godless. But if there is a drift back toward theism, it looks as if it will be a slow one.

Atheism in the former East Germany seems even grimmer when placed in context with the rest of the world. Only 7 percent of West Germans are hardcore atheists, according to current research. In the United States, only 1 percent describe themselves as atheists; 7 percent of Britons, 10 percent of the Norwegians and 12 percent of the Dutch are atheists. In the former Socialist countries, 16 percent of Slovenes, 15 percent of Russians, 11 percent of Hungarians and 1 percent of Poles don’t believe in God.

These data are based on representative national samples collected by the International Social Survey Program in the early 1990s and analyzed by Wolfgang Jagodzinksi of the University of Cologne and myself.

The campaign against religion in the former East Germany was subtle and sophisticated. Few were killed, not many sent to prison. Rather, the state intervened in the socialization process in the schools, in the mass media, in popular culture and in organized youth groups, effectively canceling out family attempts to transmit religious faith.

The decision to become an atheist is made surprisingly early in life in all countries _ often before a child enters the teens. Sensing this, the East German Communists concentrated on the very young as their targets _ with substantial success. In effect, they precluded the possibility of a mature decision about religion.

It was not the conflict between science and religion that caused the triumph of atheism in East Germany. Rather, it was a state-administered brainwash. Godlessness prevailed not because history was on its side but because young people were given little chance to think for themselves.


Why was German Socialism so much more effective in crushing religion than Russian socialism? Nazi religious oppression before 1945 helped prepare the ground. But other explanations one hears include the weakness of the Lutheran Church to stand up to government power (those who were raised in Catholic families, some contend, were only half as likely to become atheists as those raised in Lutheran families).

Other factors include the greater efficiency in German Socialism than in Russian Socialism. The Russians, it turns out, were not very good at doing anything, whereas the Germans built a relatively successful economy. Much of that economy has fallen apart. The East Germans were better than the Russians at manufacturing products that didn’t quickly break down, but their autos, for example, could not compete with products from Western Europe or North America. Pollution and atheism seem to be all that remains.

One concludes that under certain circumstances and with enough ruthless will, a government can virtually crush religion, at least for a time. How permanent such a destruction of religion might be remains to be seen. However, the very low levels of hardcore atheism in the rest of Europe and in the other once Socialist countries would suggest that atheism is hardly the coming fashion in religion and that God is alive and well on the banks of the Rhine.

But believing in God is not enough. Though other parts of Europe have lower levels of atheism, those who profess belief in God do not necessarily practice their faith with fervor.

The low levels of religious practice in Western Europe would appear to be the result not of secularization, but of incompetence. Organized religions here are often subsidized by the government. And they strike as lazy monopolies _ not much interested in their people as long as the government picks up the tab for clerical salaries and other ecclesiastical expenses.

JL END GREELEY

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