Debating Cultural Values: West German Women, Catholicism, and Post-1945 Civil Society

Most studies about the post-1945 era portray the Catholic Church as an institution unable to adjust to a modernizing world. The clergy struggled with the changed gender roles and popular culture of the period. When viewed from the perspective of the laity, however, the image of the Catholic community becomes more dynamic. Catholic women embraced the democratic culture of the early Federal Republic. They did not oppose modernity. Rather, they used open debate to shape it in the image of their own religious values. This paper explores articles and letters to the editor of Frau und Mutter, the journal of the Catholic Women’s and Mothers’ Associations, to assess how Catholic women reconciled their religious values to their everyday experience in the post-1945 world through democratic discourse. It focuses on debates about birth control, family size, child rearing, mothers working outside the home, and domestic partnership. The essay argues that in disagreements that emerged between lay leaders, clergy, and congregations, a fresh arena of discourse and debate opened in the Catholic community that contributed to the reconstruction of civil society in the Federal Republic of Germany.