Memories of our time in the GDR
up until the Reunification

Gottfried Paul, 2006

In the GDR, in addition to the traditional Catholic and Protestant (Lutheran) churches, there were also state-registered Free (Evangelical) Churches such as the Evangelical-Methodist Church, the Moravian Church, the Evangelical Free Church, the Baptists, and the Pentecostal (ELIM) congregations. There were also the Seventh-Day-Adventists, the Mormons, and the New Apostolic Church. No additional congregations were supposed to be registered during the GDR. The Jehovah’s Witnesses were forbidden, but they were pretty much left in peace to pursue their activities anyway.

Spiritually-awakened centers, including Protestant brother- and sisterhoods, were located in Bräunsdorf, Großhartmannsdorf, Slate, the Schniewindhaus in Schönebeck and other places throughout the country. They were places for contemplation and reflection. In the same way, Pastor Paul Toaspern helped to bring spiritual awakening inside the Lutheran state church and led conferences in Berlin.

In the 1970’s and 80’s, charismatic house groups began to develop inside the state Lutheran churches as well as in the free churches. They were either tolerated or supported by the pastors of the congregations. The goal of these groups was spiritual awakening in the churches. A few of these groups were excommunicated from their churches, usually over the issue of believers’ baptism, which was opposed by the congregations under the Augsburg Confession. In the 1980’s the number of believers’ baptisms rose and therefore caused the conflict to increase within the churches. Many who left their churches over this issue ended up in the ELIM congregations or founded new churches. By the beginning of the 1980’s this movement of forming new independent churches and house groups was in full swing. Most operated “underground” and did not seek official recognition from the state. These new congregations were seen by the existing churches as a threat or as schisms and were therefore either ignored or fought against. I also heard of a raid by state officials at one of the free churches that resulted in the seizure of their meeting rooms.

There were close relationships amongst the spiritually-awakened Christians in the GDR. Information flowed through an unorganized, unofficial network. Two brothers, Werner Morgenstern and Eckhard Neumann (in Berlin), served in apostolic ministry in this movement. Eckhard Neumann worked together with Pastor Klaus-Dieter Lüdtke (from Deetz) under the covering of the state Lutheran church. Beginning in 1984, they yearly held one or two 3-month discipleship schools. Then starting in 1988 they organized a Faith Conference in Berlin. Around 3,000 Christians from various denominations came together, some from existing churches and others from independent groups. Procuring accommodations was often a problem at these conferences, but resourceful people for example one time fried hamburgers for two consecutive nights at a conference, and all had enough to eat! I see that this was actually a spiritual preparation time for the political reunification that was to come.

Through the discipleship school and traveling ministry of Eckhard Neumann and pastor Klaus-Dieter Lüdtke, as well as the work of Werner Morgenstern, pastor Paul Toaspern and others, the charismatic awakening was spread throughout the country. At the conferences, assemblies and retreats, relationships were built and contacts outside of Germany established. The Christians from “outside” brought many Christian books with them to the GDR. These were thoroughly read and circulated. One had the impression that interested persons in East Germany often were better informed about current spiritual movements than were their counterparts in West Germany.

We began to establish contacts in the countries of Eastern Europe, where we were actually allowed to travel, including in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. In these countries we could organize seminars, outreaches, and church retreats with Christians from the west and would not be under as much governmental scrutiny as if we had held them in East Germany.

Shortly before the political reunification of Germany, at the end of the 1980’s, the spiritual openness of the people was the greatest. After reunification in 1990, many Christians were hopeful that a great awakening could come amongst the people of the former GDR. Many new congregations were founded at the beginning of the 1990’s, most of which were formed from house groups or from congregations that had formerly operated underground. However, after the reunification, materialism and everyday cares consumed many people, filling in part the vacuum left by the fall of Communism. Their interest in spiritual things was left behind. A new challenge for Christians was how to properly handle the sudden abundance of opportunities for Christian conferences, new books, trips, mission work, etc. With time people found and are finding their place in the new society. They also are living out their faith in many ways which were not allowed or possible during the communist rule.

There were longings and visions that were fulfilled with Germany’s reunification. During the darkest days of the GDR, for example, awakened children and youth in Herrnhut envisioned that a huge stadium might one day be filled with not only a soccer game but with Christians gathered together in a big arena to worship God. When we were invited to the Jesus Day in Berlin and experienced how many Christians were in the Olympic Stadium simply to praise God, we were totally moved. Reunification also brought the chance to at last be able to go into missions and to enter into the call of God which had been laid on the hearts of individual Christians during the GDR times.