Search results for ""author lauren faulkner rossi""

Between 1939 and 1945 more than 17,000 Catholic German priests and seminarians were conscripted into Hitler’s Wehrmacht. Men who had devoted their lives to God found themselves advancing the cause of an abhorrent regime. Lauren Faulkner Rossi draws on personal correspondence, official military reports, memoirs, and interviews to present a detailed picture of Catholic priests who served faithfully in the German armed forces in the Second World War. Most of them failed to see the bitter irony of their predicament.Wehrmacht Priests plumbs the moral justifications of men who were committed to their religious vocation as well as to the cause of German nationalism. In their wartime and postwar writings, these soldiers often stated frankly that they went to war willingly, because it was their spiritual duty to care for their countrymen in uniform. But while some priests became military chaplains, carrying out work consistent with their religious training, most served in medical roles or, in the case of seminarians, in general infantry. Their convictions about their duty only strengthened as Germany waged an increasingly desperate battle against the Soviet Union, which they believed was an existential threat to the Catholic Church and German civilization.Wehrmacht Priests unpacks the complex relationship between the Catholic Church and the Nazi regime, including the Church’s fierce but futile attempts to preserve its independence under Hitler’s dictatorship, its accommodations with the Nazis regarding spiritual care in the military, and the shortcomings of Catholic doctrine in the face of total war and genocide.

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A HISTORY OF MODERN GERMANY A History of Modern Germany provides a comprehensive account of the social, political, and economic history of Germany from 1800 to the present. Written in an engaging and accessible narrative style, this popular textbook offers an expansive view of the nation’s complex and fragmented past, tracing the development of the German national consciousness through Napoleonic rule, the unification of Germany, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, post-war division, the collapse of Communism, reunification, and the first two decades of the 21st century. Throughout the text, the authors discuss the tensions prompted by structural changes within Germany, long-term shifts in demographics, social and economic reforms, and more. Now in its third edition, A History of Modern Germany offers richer coverage of German cultural history, the German Democratic Republic, modernization, class, religion, and gender. Updated chapters explore continuity in imperial projects from Bismarck to Hitler, memory and commemoration since 1945, the distinct but intertwined histories of the two Germanys between 1949 and 1989, and the experience of diversity after the Second World into the post-unification era. A History of Modern Germany: 1800 to the Present, Third Edition is an excellent textbook for undergraduate students taking courses in modern German history or modern European history as well as general readers with an interest in the subject.

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