"War in the trenches"? To what extent were Church and State opposed in the GDR?

What, then, was the attitude of the SED to the Church during the early years of socialist rule in the DDR? According to John Conway, the “doctrinaire Marxists” of the SED “made no secret of their hostility to the churches”. This manifested itself during the early years of SED rule as “[s]evere restrictions were placed upon the church's witness and outreach.” To be sure, some of these restrictions may not have been specifically aimed at the church – for example, “the obligation to report [to the authorities] all gatherings of people not coming together exclusively for the purpose of worship” applied to secular organizations just as much as to the church. However, the more controversial state policies over education were widely seen as an attack on Christianity – Koch writes about the “antichristlichen Tendenz” of SED policy in connection with the Jugendweihe. This was a secular coming-of-age ceremony, launched in 1954. Although some elements in the church were opposed to the ceremony itself, which contained a commitment to socialism, the main controversy revolved around the ten hours of preparation involved which were “markedly atheistic” in character, involving textbooks with chapter headings such as “There is no room for God in the universe”. Religious education in schools was also “effectively banned” and a “wissenschaftlichen atheistischen Weltanschaaung” promoted in schools and colleges. Until 1969, then, the church maintained that its young people should not participate in the Jugendweihe, and refused confirmation to those that did. This probably contributed to feelings on increasing polarization between Christianity and socialism felt by some in the church during the 1950’s and 60’s.

The SED, too, was drawn to take action against the churches of the EKD in the DDR after the all-German body voted to provide military chaplains to the West German forces in 1957. There was pressure from the SED for the churches in the DDR to disassociate themselves from the so-called ‘NATO church’ of the EKD, from whom much of their funding derived. In view of the political tensions of the Cold War, this seems understandable, and led to an increasing hostility in the stand-off between the church and the state. The metaphor of “trench warfare” seems appropriate here, as the SED were unable to force a disassociation with the EKD, and refused the church’s offer to make parity by providing pastors to the East German military.

Increasing polarisation was not the only option, however. Many church leaders recognized the danger of reacting to the SED’s treatment of the churches in a way that constituted “inner emigration” and so distanced themselves from the outright denunciation of everything socialist that characterized some Western theologies of politics at the time. This movement called instead for a “Kirche im Sozialismus” which would play a role in the society of the DDR, while maintaining ideological independence from the State. The Swiss theologian Karl Barth, perhaps more associated with the Kirchenkampf in the Nazi period, together with the East German pastor Johannes Hamel were early advocates of this approach in their 1959 work “How to Serve God in a Marxist Land”. Seeking to establish a meaningful role for the Church within East German society, they were prepared to work within the socialist structure and avoided the “doctrinaire anti-Communism” of some church thinkers. The aims and justification of this were summed up by seminary principal Heino Falke thus: “We cannot accept withdrawal from the secular world into sacred isolation. Were we to settle for that … [w]e would be conceding that man's political maturity depends on his liberation from Christ rather than on being liberated by Christ.” In other words, the church was not prepared to yield to the Marxist-Leninist Weltanschauung, but was to play a distinctive role in the society of the DDR. This approach began to gain an ascendancy among church leaders in the late 1960’s, so that a dialogue between the church and SED began to open in 1969. Under the terms of the agreements reached in 1969, the BEK was formed to represent the protestant churches in the DDR, and a degree of recognition was granted the churches by the state, which accepted the basic existence of these religious organizations. The SED even used the network of the churches to provide essential welfare and healthcare services. Recognition of these services, in particular, led to the 1978 Church-State agreement which guaranteed a certain degree of autonomy to the Church.

However, the “trench warfare” metaphor again seems apt, as this seems to have been accepted by the SED as expedient rather than desirable. As late as 1983 a Stasi official could still maintain “[r]eligion is and remains a type of bourgeois ideology and is incompatible with Marxism-Leninism. At this particular time such an assessment cannot be the subject of public discussion but it must always determine the political … conception”, clearly demonstrating an ideological opposition that remained unameliorated by the change in the approach of the Church to play a role within socialism. The Stasi also engaged in “extensive infiltration” of the churches, recruiting informers and ‘unofficial collaborators’ (Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter) to provide information on church affairs, or even ‘guide’ synod decisions. Likewise, the churches retained their doctrinal distinctiveness and their representation of “an alternative Weltanschauung” and “countervalues”, although their congregations were severely reduced by the secularization of the DDR.

In conclusion, I would agree with Althausen’s depiction of the relationship between Church and State in the DDR as “war in the trenches”. Neither side could reach an authentic compromise with the other on ideological grounds, but for political and pragmatic reasons neither could they maintain complete separation. The church could not go into “internal exile” without renouncing a key part of its mission to witness to society; neither could the SED eliminate a deeply-rooted institution so quickly, or do without the welfare services provided by the Church. Communism and Christianity made for uneasy bedfellows in the DDR, but the example is an instructive one for political theology, even if the SED state has now collapsed and the East German church is now decidedly a minority group.

(1,635 words)

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Bibliography

Allinson, Mark, ‘The Failed Experiment: East German Communism” in Mary Fulbrook (ed.), German History since 1800 (London, 1997), 391-410.

Althausen, Johannes, ‘The Churches In The GDR Between Accommodation And Resistance’, <www.georgefox.edu/academics/undergrad/departments/soc-swk/ree/ALTHAUSE.doc>, accessed 21-11-2007.

Barth, Karl and Johannes Hamel, How to Serve God in a Marxist Land (New York, 1959).

Childs, David (ed.), Honecker’s Germany (London, 1985).

Conway, John S., ‘Kirche im Sozialismus: East German Protestantism's Political and Theological Witness, 1945-1990’, Religion in Eastern Europe, 13:4 (1993), 1-21.

Dennis, Mike, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic 1945-1990 (Harlow, 2000).

Fulbrook, Mary, The People’s State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker (London, 2005).

Hamel, Johannes, A Christian in East Germany (London, 1960).

Koch, Hans-Gerhard, Neue Erde ohne Himmel: Der Kampf des Atheismus gegen das Christentum in der »DDR« (Stuttgart, 1963).

Ozment, Stephen, A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People (New York, 2004).

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