3 - 2001

Germany churches - 10 years united

The Bridge across all Germany held firm

Ten years ago the Protestant Churches of Germany were re-united

by Hans Hafenbrack

The reunification of Germany began with the dramatic events of the autumn of 1989. The ending of rule by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the East also made it possible to end the separation of the churches in 1991.

Ten years ago, after long delays, German Protestants finally achieved their own reunification. Almost nine months after Germany was reunified as a state, on 27 June 1991 in Coburg, the first Synod in thirty years to represent all the German churches was convened.

The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the no longer existent German Democratic Republic (DDR) finally closed a chapter of church history, which had begun in 1969, when the churches under the SED government were forced to form the Federation in the DDR. There was no atmosphere of joy in the historic Church of St. Maurice in Coburg, in Franken (southeast Germany). The new fellowship of churches was sealed with a symbolic handshake between EKD Council President Martin Kruse and the last President of the Federation’s Synod, Rosemarie Cynkiewicz. The EKD could now again count all 24 regional churches (Landeskirchen), with over 18,000 local congregations and 29.2 million parishioners, in its membership.

Reunification of the Protestant church followed a different and longer path from that of the state. The reason for this was understandable. The SED government had completely collapsed. It had left behind nothing, which was considered worth keeping. However, the Protestant church was not among the losers when the Berlin Wall fell. The church was the only institution in the DDR, which had been able to escape the all-controlling centralism of the SED government.

Looking back, the irony is apparent. The SED destroyed the all-German EKD, but allowed the "church under socialism” a certain grade of independence, and thereby came to grief in the autumn of 1989 when the "candlelight revolution” was organised by an opposition, which met in church buildings. The non-violent spirit consciously nourished within church walls proved stronger than the might of the Wall-builders. And this was not the only contribution of the Protestant church to German unity.

The phase during which the Protestant church was divided already had a significance for the political history of divided Germany, which should not be underestimated. The churches were separated only as legal and organisational entities. There was no theological or ideological division among them, to the contrary. The Federation and the EKD professed openly their "particular spiritual fellowship” with one another. They established a dense network of partnerships among all the regional and local churches, forming a durable bridge between the two German states. This bridge was not only the means of transferring thousands of millions in aid, but also provided important pillars of support for policies of peace and detente. There were reasons for the hesitation of many East German church representatives ten years ago. Martin Ziegler, director of the Federation’s secretariat, said at the last Synod meeting of the Federation: "We are getting unity, and that is good. We are grateful for that. But we are getting unity without change, and that leaves us with disturbing questions.”

Many people feared having the Federation simply "annexed” by the EKD, following the example of the government. They did not want to give up what they had learned from their years as a minority church in an atheist state, to trade it in for the blessings of church tax support, religious instruction in schools and military chaplaincies. Ten years on, however, Jürgen Schmude, who was unanimously elected President by the delegates from both East and West Germany, may have been proved right. At the re-unifying Synod in Coburg, Schmude said, "That rift, which some people see between Christians from East and West – there’s no sign of it here.”

Hans Hafenbrack was, until his retirement, editor-in-chief of the Evangelical Press Service (epd), the leading Protestant news agency in Germany. This article was published by epd on 25 June 2001.