1.3c What was the role of the Protestant Church in the GDR?

Question 1

Of the 17 million population, how many people belonged to the Protestant Church?

Answer 1

15 million

Question 2

What event happened in 1954 to create tension between the SED and the Protestant Church?

Answer 2

Arguments over the religious curriculum and Jugendweihe

Question 3

What was Jugendweihe?

Answer 3

An initiation ritual for a child to enter a Marxist Atheist world

Question 4

Why were the SED opposed to the Junge Gemeiden?

Answer 4

Seen as having counter Communist ideals

Question 5

What wad the Junge Gemeiden?

Answer 5

Young Congregation of the Church

Question 6

When did the State outlaw the work of student Pastors?

Answer 6

1952

Question 7

What did the SED do against the Junge Gemeiden in 1953?

Answer 7

A concerted Propaganda attack on the Junge Gemeiden

Question 8

What did the SED accuse all members of the Junge Gemeiden of?

Answer 8

Being part of the Western terrorist organisation BDJ

Question 9

People taking Jugendweihe:
1954 - ___%
late 1960s - ___%

Answer 9

People taking Jugendweihe:
1954 - 17.7%
late 1960s - 90%

Question 10

Why was legislation against the Junge Gemeiden overturned?

Answer 10

Because of the 1953 June Uprising

Question 11

What was the general trend of Ulbricht’s attitude towards the Protestant Church in the 1960s?

Answer 11

He softened his rhetoric

Question 12

What organisation was created in 1960 to coordinate the work of the Church under the control of the SED?

Answer 12

State Secretariat for Church Questions

Question 13

In what year did the Church split from the West?

Answer 13

1969

Question 14

What good things did the Church do in the GDR?

Answer 14

Ran 50 hospitals

Built centres for orphans

Question 15

How did FRG Church subsidies help the GDR?

Answer 15

It provided some money for the restoration of historical Church buidings

Question 16

How did the Church benefit the SED in the 1970s?

Answer 16

Played a role in gaining the GDR its UN status

Question 17

Why did the viewpoint of the Church change in the 1970s?

Answer 17

There was new generations of Church leaders coming through who were more open to the idea of the SED in permanent control of the GDR

Question 18

What did Pastor Oskar Brusewitz do in 1976?

Answer 18

Publicly set himself on fire in symbolism that the Church and State represented the conflict between God and Marx

Question 19

How did the Church benefit GDR society throughout the 1970s?

Answer 19

Worked alongside people outside of Society like alcoholics and homosexuals

Question 20

What accord was passed in 1978 concerning the Church and State?

Answer 20

An accord that recognised the need to work together but that the Church was below the State and not alongside it

Question 21

What did the Stasi do regarding the Church in 1978?

Answer 21

Placed agents within the leadership of the Church

Question 22

What kind of things did the SED cautiously agree to discuss with the Church?

Answer 22

Single topics like the environment