Reports sent by the Apostolic Nuncio Cesare Orsenigo from Germany between 1930 and 1939
In collaboration with the Kommission für Zeitgeschichte Bonn and the Archivio Segreto Vaticano directed by Thomas Brechenmacher
The digital edition of the reports sent by the Apostolic Nuncio Cesare Orsenigo from Germany between 1930 and 1939, edited by Thomas Brechenmacher, has been online since 2009. It is an editorial project carried out by DHI Roma in cooperation with the Kommission für Zeitgeschichte of Bonn and the Vatican Secret Archives. For the first time, the intention is to publish, if possible, the whole corpus of the Nuncio's reports sent in the 1930s from Berlin, accompanied by a scientific commentary in German. They constitute one of the most important documentary collections concerning the Papacy and the Catholic Church’s relationship with National Socialism. Up until the release of the Vatican files from Pope Pius' XI pontificate (1922-1939), in 2003, only a few fragments of Orsenigo's reports were known. The publication of these texts will increase the level of knowledge on political and idealistic relations between the Catholic Church and the National Socialist regime in many respects.
The edition currently includes (August 2015) the reports sent in 1933 and 1934 (until 5 September). Among the approximately 340 documents, alongside the Nuncio's reports, are also numerous instructions from the Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli addressed to the Nuncio of Berlin and other previously unknown related documents taken from the Vatican Secretariat of State Archives. Over the next few years, the edition will gradually be expanded and completed.
