"The conflict between organized religion and the emergence of modernist thought is not new. This study particularizes one important chapter in that conflict: the disparity between the Catholic cultural movement and its secular counterpart in Germany during the period of the Kulterkampf and the years preceding the ascent of the Nazi party. At a time when certain religious sects are animating world-wide disturbance, this account of another cultural struggle based on differing religious perceptions is remarkably pertinent." —R. Kathleen Molz, Columbia University “This meticulously researched volume, rooted in studies across an impressive range of ecclesiastical and municipal archives, focuses principally on Catholic responses to the challenge of cultural modernism in Wilhelmine and Weimar Germany. Professor Dalton deals with all the major genres of intellectual and cultural activity which carried this specific denominational stamp, and which therefore stood in contrast not only to the majority culture with its Protestant and nationalist tenor but also to the rival minority culture being developed by the socialists. . . . Overall, this copiously referenced monography constitutes a very worthwhile study.” —History “Her book breaks ground in assessing the role of culture in the German Catholic milieu, exposes the internal problems behind the long-term failure of the confessional cultural movement, and lays a strong foundation for future research that would link this important topic to broader themes of modern German history.” —The Catholic Historical Review “In recent years, the study of German Catholicism has turned increasingly from the political sphere to the realm of culture. Margaret Stieg Dalton continues this trend in her examination of Catholic cultural production in Imperial and Weimar Germany. The book provides a wide-ranging, at times near-encyclopedic, compendium of Catholic activities, organizations, and opinions in a variety of cultural fields.” —Journal of Modern History “Dalton has recreated meticulously the debates that shaped Catholic artistic attitudes and activity and the cultural policies that helped to preserve identity at a time when the Catholic church was losing ground to modern rationalism, secularism, and materialism.” —Central European History "Drawing on mostly printed material, Dalton has much to say about the Catholic cultural agenda, the clergy and laymen who provided intellectual leadership, their debates over goals and aims and the network of organizations that nurtured Catholic cultural ambitions." —Journal of Ecclesiastical History "Margaret Stieg Dalton's penetrating examination of German Catholic culture from the Kulturkampf to the rise of National Socialism engages the reader on several levels at the same time. With its 73 pages of notes and 54 pages of bibliography, it documents the history of an era with a thoroughness that would delight the professional historian and student of the era. At the same time, the study moves beyond its carefully defined boundaries to provide a challenging exercise in analogy: How does the German experience translate into other countries and other periods, even the present?" —Archivum Historicum S. I. "Margaret Stieg Dalton has produced an excellent survey of German Catholic culture in the years of the second Reich and the Weimar Republic. . . . She combines detailed archival research with an impressive command of the scholarly literature in the field of German Catholicism and German culture. Her use of the literature in a number of subfields demonstrates the great care with which this study is produced. . . ." —History: Reviews of New Books "One of the great advances of this study is the author's ability to marshal an enormous amount of this otherwise inaccessible information into a coherent narrative and present it to an English-speaking audience. . . . Her book will go a long way in illuminating the Valkskultur of Weimar Germany up to the tragic precipice of Hitler's thuggish rise to prominence." —Catholic Library World "This well-written book illuminates neglected topics within the larger framework of late 19th-and early-20th-century German culture. . . ." —Choice