John S. wrote: "It seems to point to an actual, formal conversion..." I doubt it. For several reasons: EJ had, particularly in his later years, a deep respect for any kind of religion, as e.g. documented in #2 of DIE SCHERE, recently published here. He neither embraced expressly nor rejected any religion. He was on remarkably good terms, rather intimate than merely respectful, with his neighbours in the village of Wilflingen (which is small enough that everybody regards everybody else there as his neighbour) and its Honoratioren, including the clergy. His diaries of the seventies and eighties reflect this relationship. So EJ (and his family) had no reason to reject neither a Christian burial nor the local customary rite which happens to be Catholic. However, a formal conversion, as John has it in mind, would have required prior formal instruction by a priest. Moreover, the fait accompli would have to be documented in the parish records. (Even the fiscal authorities would have to be notified since in Germany the Kirchensteuer is collected and disbursed to the respective major Churches by the Finanzamt, and the individual tax payer has to indicate which Church is to benefit from his payment). All those formal activities could hardly have gone unnoticed by the outside world. But let us assume the alleged conversion would have consisted in the wish of the dying Protestant to receive the last rites (Letzte Ölung) out of the hands of a Catholic priest. I doubt that a Church granting such a wish and being in dire need of any kind of support and particularly the support of a VIP of the secular realm could keep quiet about it. Let us even go farther and assume that EJ did convert in one way or another but got his wish granted that his act be not made public. I cannot find anything in EJ's character as I perceive it in his life and his writings that would make seem the possibility of such a manoeuvre plausible. To be frank, I personally would find it less intriguing but rather perplexing, even disgusting. The Anarch who passed through the institutions of this world ever eager to preserve his inner freedom should finally have succumbed to THAT institution and even be ashamed of it? Probably the best proof for John's surmise being a mere rumour is the present "chapter in the history of media relations and the inner workings of journalism" in Germany. One of the most widely used epithets for EJ in the obituaries was 'controversial' (umstritten). Any scrap of a fact which might prove the basis of a news scoop like the conversion to Catholicism of one of Germany's prominent ideological scapegoats would have triggered a cacophony of glee, scorn and schadenfreude in the media. So far, all has been quiet on that front. Let sleeping dogs lie.
Günter Rebing
