The emergence of a Roman Catholic middle class in nineteenth century Germany: Catholic associations in the Prussian Rhine Province, 1837-1876

Between the Cologne Incident of 1837 and the Kulturkampf, middle-class laymen and women began to assert their interests within Germany's Catholic milieu. Their primary vehicle of influence was the voluntary association (Vereine). Beginning in the Vormarz, adherents of the Ultramontane movement organized charitable associations, orphanages, and newspapers. These Catholic Vereine were able to move onto the national stage in 1848 with the founding of the Catholic Association of Germany and expanded rapidly in the 1850s and 1860s. By the founding of the Second Empire and the Center Party, the Catholic associational network had spread into every corner of Germany.; This dissertation concentrates on the Prussian Rhine Province, the birthplace of political Catholicism and center of many leading Catholic Vereine. By examining the Catholic milieu in leading cities of the Rhine Province, this study reveals the complexity of the Ultramontane movement and its relationship to the Rhenish Burgertum. It uncovers close links between the various ultramontane cells in different cities and the relationship of prominent Catholic burghers to local clergymen. The dissertation also examines the tensions experienced by liberal Catholic laymen prior to the first Vatican Council.; In conclusion, the dissertation suggests that the Catholic Burgertum can be divided into three groups by 1876: Adherents of the Ultramontane movement; liberal Catholics temporarily silenced by the Kulturkampf; and dissident "Old Catholics". The middle class is defined broadly to include shopkeepers and master artisans (Kleinburgertum) as well as the university-educated elites and wealthy industrialists. The study focuses contemporary analysis of the Burgertum on the religious and cultural milieu of German Catholicism, suggesting that present notions of secularization and the public sphere overlook the impact of religion upon the middle class.