Summary: The Author situates the present Church-State relationship in Germany and Austria within the broader context of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, on the one hand, and the still evolving political culture of these post-War German-speaking nations in the European Union, on the other. He precedes the examination of these particular settings of Church-State relations with a review of the doctrines on the relationship between the temporal and the spiritual powers through the centuries. Ultimately, he concludes, the present-day relationship in Germany and Austria – and more widely, in the European Union – is reflective of the teachings of the Council, and may become even more so, having overcome and set aside the hostility so characteristic of the nineteenth century.