Two political developments in Germany in 1968-9 altered the German-American church relationship. First, the policy of Ostpolitik initiated by the newly elected social-liberal coalition in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) ushered in an era of détente in East-West relations. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) responded by forcing the organizational division between the East and West German churches, with more success in the case of the Evangelical Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, or EKD) than in the case of the Catholic Church. Second, the domestic upheaval in 1968 and the changes attendant to modernization engendered an internal debate in West German society that inevitably affected and politicized the churches; only later in the 1980s did such politicization affect GDR churches. This chapter describes and analyzes the effects of these two developments on the German-American church relationship, arguing that they brought about changes in the churches' priorities, the distribution of power, and indeed the very actors involved in the relationship, as manifested in the dynamics of the latter half of the Cold War.

VOLKSKIRCHEN-free churches

One constant throughout the Cold War was the asymmetry between the structures of German and American churches. The dominant churches in Germany, Catholic and Evangelical- Lutheran, are national churches (Volkskirchen) that claim a historical identification with the nation-state, possess an extensive administrative apparatus and network of social services, and enjoy certain economic and legal privileges despite the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. As a result, the EKD in particular accommodates very disparate groups, including Lutheran and Reformed confessions and pietistic and liberal theological groups. By contrast, American churches are “free churches,” which are often identified with a particular national-ethnic group, are characterized by limited administration and relatively strong parish governance, and enjoy few public privileges.