Christian Democracy and the Fall of Communism

The role of Christian Democracy in the collapse of the Communist Bloc

Debates on the role of Christian Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe too often remain strongly tied to national historiographies. With the edited collection the contributing authors aim to reconstruct Christian Democracy’s role in the fall of Communism from a bird's-eye perspective by covering the entire region and by taking “third-way” options in the broader political imaginary of late-Cold War Europe into account. The book’s twelve chapters present the most recent insights on this topic and connect scholarship on the Iron Curtain’s collapse with scholarship on political Catholicism.

Christian Democracy and the Fall of Communism offers the reader a two-fold perspective. The first approach examines the efforts undertaken by Western European actors who wanted to foster or support Christian Democratic initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe. The second approach is devoted to the (re-)emergence of homegrown Christian Democratic formations in the 1980s and 1990s. One of the volume’s seminal contributions lies in its documentation of the decisive role that Christian Democracy played in supporting the political and anti-political forces that engineered the collapse of Communism from within between 1989 and 1991.

Contributors: Andrea Brait (University of Innsbruck), Alexander Brakel (Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Israel), Ladislav Cabada (Metropolitan University Prague), Giovanni Mario Ceci (Università degli Studi Roma Tre / IES-Rome), Kim Christiaens (KU Leuven), Michael Gehler (University of Hildesheim), Thomas Gronier (UMR SIRICE), Piotr H. Kosicki (University of Maryland), Sławomir Łukasiewicz (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin), Anton Pelinka (Central European University in Budapest), Johannes Schönner (Karl von Vogelsang Institute), Artūras Svarauskas (Lithuanian University of Educational Science), Helmut Wohnout (Austrian Federal Chancellery / Karl von Vogelsang Institute)

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

"Christian Democracy and the Fall of Communism" was edited by Michael Gehler, Piotr H. Kosicki and Helmut Wohnout.

Michael Gehler is Head of the Institute of History and Jean Monnet Chair for Modern and Contemporary History of Germany and Europe and European Integration at the University of Hildesheim and Professor at Andrássy University Budapest.

Piotr H. Kosicki is associate professor of history at the University of Maryland.

Helmut Wohnout is department head in the Austrian Federal Chancellery, and since 1993, director of the Karl von Vogelsang Institute Vienna.

Yes, "Christian Democracy and the Fall of Communism" is part of the "Civitas. Studies in Christian Democracy" series. It's book 1 in the series.

As one of the fundamental families of political modernity, Christian Democracy has played an essential part in many areas of contemporary history. The CIVITAS series publishes innovative studies dealing with the history and politics of Christian Democracy in a European and global context and, by doing so, wishes to foster international research and access to sources and to situate Christian Democracy in broader twentieth-century histories. The series is an initiative of CIVITAS – Forum of Archives and Research on Christian Democracy, which was founded by the Istituto Luigi Sturzo (Rome); KADOC Documentation and Research Centre on Religion, Culture and Society (Leuven) and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. (Sankt Augustin) in 2013 and serves as a platform for both research and archival institutions and individual archivists and researchers.

The series welcomes academic monographs, edited volumes, and annotated editions of sources that deal with specific topics related to the history and politics of Christian Democracy. In addition to assessment by the Scientific Committee of CIVITAS-FARCD, each volume is submitted to double-blind review.

Editorial Board/Scientific Committee of Civitas

Renato Moro
Michael Borchard
Kim Christiaens
Michael Gehler
Wolfram Kaiser
Piotr Kosicki
Andrea Maria Locatelli
Helmut Wohnout
Steven Van Hecke
Hans Krabbendam
Guido Formigoni
Peter Heyrman
Paolo Acanfora
Matthias Opperman

Editorial contact

Peter Heyrman, KADOC, KU Leuven

Proposals

Proposals and enquiries can be sent to Peter Heyrman.

Please make use of the submission form to present your manuscript or proposal to our board.
Authors interested in Open Access can consult the available funding options.

Links & Resources

Yes, "Christian Democracy and the Fall of Communism" is published Open Access. It is available under a BY-NC-ND license.

Foreword Renato Moro
Acknowledgments Michael Gehler, Piotr H. Kosicki and Helmut Wohnout
Introduction Michael Gehler
SECTION I: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY IN THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM: INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND THE GROUNDWORK FOR 1989 1 The Failure of a Third Way: The World Confederation of Labor and the Globalization of Solidarność during the 1980s Kim Christiaens 2 The CSCE Vienna Follow-up Meeting and Alois Mock, 1986–1989 Andrea Brait and Michael Gehler 3 “Helping Hands” across the Fence: The Stance of the European Democrat Union toward Developments behind the Iron Curtain Michael Gehler and Johannes Schönner
SECTION II: FROM WEST TO EAST: CROSS-IRON CURTAIN MOVEMENT-BUILDING EFFORTS 4 The Community of Taizé and the Revolutions in Europe in 1989 Thomas Gronier 5 “To restore dignity to the people in the communist dictatorships”: ÖVP Contacts with the Political Opposition in Central and Eastern Europe until 1989–1990 Helmut Wohnout 6 Finding Partners in the East: Helmut Kohl and the Fledgling Center-Right in Central and Eastern Europe Alexander Brakel 7 The Italian Christian Democratic Party Confronts the Revolutions of 1989 Giovanni Mario Ceci

SECTION III: MADE BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN: HOMEGROWN CATHOLIC POLITICS AND THE RISE AND FALL OF CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY IN EASTERN EUROPE 8 The Christian Democrat Who Wasn’t: Tadeusz Mazowiecki and the End of Catholic Politics in Poland Piotr H. Kosicki 9 Hungary: A Decisive Transition – But a Revolution? Anton Pelinka 10 Among the Hussites, Communists, and Neo-liberals: Christian Democratic Political Actors in Communist Czechoslovakia and the Democratic Transition Ladislav Cabada 11 The Restoration of Christian Democracy in Lithuania, 1989–1990: Continuities and Ruptures Artūras Svarauskas 12 Abandoned Patterns: 1989 and the Discontinuation of Cold War Cooperation among Emigré Central and Eastern European Christian Democrats Sławomir Łukasiewicz
Conclusion: Beyond 1989: The Disappointed Hopes of Christian Democracy in Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe Piotr H. Kosicki
List of Abbreviations Bibliography List of Contributors Index of Persons Colophon