Deggendorf, and the Long History of Its Destructive Myth

Posted August 31, 2017

External Article: The Public Medievalist

Richard Utz, professor and chair in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Institute of Technology, wrote the August 31 article “Deggendorf, and the Long History of Its Destructive Myth” that appeared in The Public Medievalist. The School of Literature, Media, and Communication is a unit in the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. 

Excerpt:

In 1968, the Bishop of Regensburg, Rudolf Graber, made a momentous decision. He found himself in the position to shape the future of the College of Catholic Theology at the newly founded University of Regensburg, in southeastern Germany. As one of his decisions, he changed the plan to create a professorship in Judaic Studies; instead, he created one in Dogmatic Theology. The call to fill this professorship was accepted by a brilliant theologian from the University of Tübingen: Joseph Ratzinger. Ratzinger would then become first Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the successor to the Roman Inquisition, in 1982. And, of course, he would become Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. However, Graber’s decision to change the professorship’s focus from Judaic Studies to Dogmatic Theology may also have had another, less-well-known consequence.

For the full article on “Deggendorf, and the Long History of Its Destructive Myth,” visit The Public Medievalist’s website.