Editing East Germany (section)

==== State atheism ====
{{Further|State atheism|Irreligion in Germany}}

When it first came to power, the Communist Party asserted the compatibility of Christianity and Marxism–Leninism and sought Christian participation in the building of socialism. At first, the promotion of [[Marxist–Leninist atheism]] received little official attention. In the mid-1950s, as the Cold War heated up, atheism became a topic of major interest for the state, in both domestic and foreign contexts. University chairs and departments devoted to the study of scientific atheism were founded and much literature (scholarly and popular) on the subject was produced. This activity subsided in the late 1960s amid perceptions that it had started to become counterproductive. Official and scholarly attention to atheism renewed beginning in 1973, though this time with more emphasis on scholarship and on the training of cadres than on propaganda. Throughout, the attention paid to atheism in East Germany was never intended to jeopardise the cooperation that was desired from those East Germans who were religious.<ref>Fulbrook, ''The Limits Of Totalitarianism: God, State and Society in the GDR'' {{ISBN?}} {{page?|date=September 2024}}</ref>