Session Information
17 SES 14, Challenging Democracy Education as a Political Tool in the Conflict between Democracy and Totalitarianism, 1900-2000
Symposium
Contribution
This paper focuses on the changing relationship between Catholic educational discourse and National Socialism in the context of World War II. During the 1930s, Europe saw the emergence of fascism and National Socialism. Initially, some of these authoritarian ideas were applauded by both secular and denominational educational authorities. As Depaepe has pointed out, “sympathies for the German people, their moral standards, religion and art held a great attraction for many Catholic pedagogues”. Also, in the 1930s, disillusion with parliamentary democracy arose in Catholic milieus. As a result, sympathy for certain aspects of authoritarianism were based on the idea that these regimes could break down the Belgian pre-war liberal democratic constellation and enable the re-establishment of a “New Catholic Occident”. At the beginning of the 1940s, several European countries were attacked and subsequently occupied by a German government, which considered education an important means of gaining public acceptance. Because of the cultural and political German supremacy, Catholic hopes for a “New Occident” soon swung into disappointment. As a result, after the occupation, the trauma of war and the burden of collaboration would result in a renewed attention for democratic educational principals and a starting point for the reform of Catholic schools.
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