Open Air Mass in Munich (1958) After the collapse of the Third Reich, Germany experienced a brief but intensive phase of religious renewal and an accompanying turn toward Christianity. In West Germany, the Catholic Church played an important public role in the immediate postwar period because it seemed to have been less corrupted by National Socialism than other religious and cultural entities. This photo shows Cardinal Joseph Wendel celebrating a pontifical mass on Marienplatz in Munich. Photo by Felicitas Timpe.