3 - 2001

German churches - 10 years united

Church Unity in the Wake of Political Reunification

A commentary by an East German journalist

by Hans-Jürgen Röder

The tenth anniversary of the churches’ reuniting is an occasion for a critical reappraisal by a leading Protestant journalist in the eastern states (Länder) of the Federal Republic. He makes it clear that there are problems not only in the East German churches, but that those in the West also need to change their thinking.

Spontaneous action is not one of the outstanding characteristics of the Christian churches in Germany. Certainly changes take time, as much for clarifying one’s position on substantive matters as for changing structures. Thus it was all the more astonishing that in January 1990, in the midst of the great upheavals following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the leaders of the Protestant churches in East and West met in Loccum, Lower Saxony (north Germany), to come to agreement on re-uniting the churches under the EKD umbrella.

This hasty summit met with coolness and scepticism in the East German churches especially. The most committed Christians in the country particularly felt they had no time or energy to devote to church structures in the face of all the political, economic and social problems. Moreover, not a few of these persons were already speaking out against an uncritical take-over of the West German scheme of things.

The controversy was especially related to three points: the re-introduction of religious instruction in schools, contracts for military chaplaincies and the church tax system. In the next few months these were the topics, which dominated the discussion of re-joining the EKD for the eight churches, which had been constituted together as East German churches in Eisenach in 1948. To the urging of the West Germans that they re-join, these partner churches east of the Elbe River replied that they would like to bring their experience during the decades of separation with them into the reunified EKD.

But this met with as little interest in the West as had the policies of the East in the reunification of the state. So the church reunification, which was solemnly consummated at the end of June 1991 in the Frankish city of Coburg, also ended up as a mere annexation. The churches had taken nine months longer than the politicians but, like the politicians, they had simply put off a large part of the problems. The basic issue was, and remains to this day, the fact that within the West German churches there was little interest in questioning their own positions. Church taxes, military chaplaincies and religious instruction in schools were, after all, firmly anchored in the structures of their society, so that Westerners – apart from minorities – did not see any urgent reason to change things.

No solutions are in sight, for the continuing financial problems. The extremely meagre church tax receipts in the East, together with over DM 300 million, which the Protestant churches in the West make available annually, are enough to finance the most necessary tasks of the churches in the East. However, the consolidation of finances, which was hoped for based on a rapid increase in church memberships after reunification, is still out of reach.

The reason is that the East German churches did not really voluntarily adopt the church tax system in use in the West (in which citizens enrolled with the authorities as church members have the church tax withheld from their salaries) – and along with it, financial obligations, which they will not be able to fulfil by themselves in the foreseeable future. Some of these considerations were behind the conviction expressed by the Bishop of Saxony, Volker Kreß, that it is urgently necessary for church salaries to be at comparable levels in East and West, but that this could only be achieved if the West lowers its pretensions.

This demand is certainly not new, but it still falls on deaf ears in the West. Moreover, it has long been clear that financial belt-tightening is on its way for churches in the West as well. The same goes for pastoral care of soldiers. Here too there is criticism of existing practice, in West Germany too – reason enough to ask whether the time has not come for incisive changes like those of ten years ago, rather than making available practices which everyone takes for granted.

Furthermore, the churches have not yet taken up the call to ensure equality in standards of living between East and West. If the current situation continues, the same thing could happen in East German churches, which has long been going on in the society; staff with good qualifications will migrate to the West.

The author of this article is editor-in-chief of epd-East. He was formerly a correspondent for the Evangelical Press Service in the DDR. The abridged article appeared in the ecumenical journal Publik-Forum, Zeitung kritischer Christen, Oberursel, No. 13/2001.