Christian Science in East Germany

Christian Science in East Germany PDF Author: Gregory W. Sandford
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781484989838
Category : Christian Science
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Christian Science as a religious denomination was banned and persecuted under the Nazis, reinstated under the Soviet Military Administration in eastern Germany after World War II, and then once again forbidden to organize by the new East German state (German Democratic Republic, or GDR) in 1951. Reasons for this decision were first the alleged danger to public health posed by its spiritual healing activities and second its close American connections. Over the following decades, despite persecution by the East German secret police ("Stasi"), small groups of Christian Scientists continued to meet in private homes, disguising their religious gatherings as birthday parties or similar social events. They also found various ways to smuggle in Christian Science literature they needed for informal religious services and to carry on spiritual healing. There were occasional arrests, interrogations, and even rare prosecutions, but these isolated underground activities went on without serious interruption. Efforts by East German Christian Scientists to get the 1951 decision reversed, supported from a distance by the Mother Church in Boston, were repeatedly rebuffed during the 1960s and '70s. Official attitudes began to moderate in the mid-1980s, however, as a result of the evolving international climate, personnel changes in the State Secretariat for Church Affairs, the growth of dissident activities within mainstream GDR churches, and the intercession of the U.S. Embassy in East Berlin. Parallel with more conciliatory policies toward other religious minorities such as Mormons and Jews, GDR authorities came to see Christian Scientists as an inoffensive minority whose toleration might actually improve East Germany's image. With the active support of the Ministry for State Security, they were granted special permission to receive religious literature from Boston in 1985. Later, a week before the Berlin Wall opened in 1989, Christian Science was officially recognized as a legal denomination-the only such recognition ever formally granted by the GDR government to a new religious organization. The concessions made to Christian Science illustrate the degree to which the GDR in its final days was willing to compromise ideology in hopes of gaining stability and legitimacy. Seen objectively, it seems inconsistent for a regime committed to an atheist philosophy to accept spiritual healing as a safe alternative to medicine. The decision to recognize Christian Science appears to have been influenced not only by political considerations, however, but also by the positive impression made by the character and quiet determination of the Christian Scientists themselves. In that respect, the tiny community of Christian Scientists made their own contribution to East Germany's "gentle revolution."

Christian Science in East Germany

Christian Science in East Germany PDF Author: Gregory W. Sandford
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781484989838
Category : Christian Science
Languages : en
Pages : 132

Get Book Here

Book Description
Christian Science as a religious denomination was banned and persecuted under the Nazis, reinstated under the Soviet Military Administration in eastern Germany after World War II, and then once again forbidden to organize by the new East German state (German Democratic Republic, or GDR) in 1951. Reasons for this decision were first the alleged danger to public health posed by its spiritual healing activities and second its close American connections. Over the following decades, despite persecution by the East German secret police ("Stasi"), small groups of Christian Scientists continued to meet in private homes, disguising their religious gatherings as birthday parties or similar social events. They also found various ways to smuggle in Christian Science literature they needed for informal religious services and to carry on spiritual healing. There were occasional arrests, interrogations, and even rare prosecutions, but these isolated underground activities went on without serious interruption. Efforts by East German Christian Scientists to get the 1951 decision reversed, supported from a distance by the Mother Church in Boston, were repeatedly rebuffed during the 1960s and '70s. Official attitudes began to moderate in the mid-1980s, however, as a result of the evolving international climate, personnel changes in the State Secretariat for Church Affairs, the growth of dissident activities within mainstream GDR churches, and the intercession of the U.S. Embassy in East Berlin. Parallel with more conciliatory policies toward other religious minorities such as Mormons and Jews, GDR authorities came to see Christian Scientists as an inoffensive minority whose toleration might actually improve East Germany's image. With the active support of the Ministry for State Security, they were granted special permission to receive religious literature from Boston in 1985. Later, a week before the Berlin Wall opened in 1989, Christian Science was officially recognized as a legal denomination-the only such recognition ever formally granted by the GDR government to a new religious organization. The concessions made to Christian Science illustrate the degree to which the GDR in its final days was willing to compromise ideology in hopes of gaining stability and legitimacy. Seen objectively, it seems inconsistent for a regime committed to an atheist philosophy to accept spiritual healing as a safe alternative to medicine. The decision to recognize Christian Science appears to have been influenced not only by political considerations, however, but also by the positive impression made by the character and quiet determination of the Christian Scientists themselves. In that respect, the tiny community of Christian Scientists made their own contribution to East Germany's "gentle revolution."

The Christian Science Journal

The Christian Science Journal PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Christian Science
Languages : en
Pages : 902

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Violations of the Helsinki Accords, East Germany

Violations of the Helsinki Accords, East Germany PDF Author: Daphne Eviatar
Publisher: Human Rights Watch
ISBN: 9780938579809
Category : Civil rights
Languages : en
Pages : 58

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Born in the GDR

Born in the GDR PDF Author: Hester Vaizey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198718748
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
The real life stories of eight East Germans caught up in the dramatic transition from Communism to Capitalism by the fall of the Berlin Wall - and what they feel about life after the Wall.

Africa

Africa PDF Author: Air University (U.S.). Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 70

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East Germany and Detente

East Germany and Detente PDF Author: A. James McAdams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521268354
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
This study demonstrates the changing historical significance of the idea of detente and how non-superpower states can create opportunity out of initially adverse circumstances.

Power and the People

Power and the People PDF Author: Eleonore C. M. Breuning
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719070693
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
A comparative study of early post-1945 Central Europe on both sides of the Iron Curtain which puts the people back into Cold War history

Forty Autumns

Forty Autumns PDF Author: Nina Willner
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062410334
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family—of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty years, and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Forty Autumns makes visceral the pain and longing of one family forced to live apart in a world divided by two. At twenty, Hanna escaped from East to West Germany. But the price of freedom—leaving behind her parents, eight siblings, and family home—was heartbreaking. Uprooted, Hanna eventually moved to America, where she settled down with her husband and had children of her own. Growing up near Washington, D.C., Hanna’s daughter, Nina Willner became the first female Army Intelligence Officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Though only a few miles separated American Nina and her German relatives—grandmother Oma, Aunt Heidi, and cousin, Cordula, a member of the East German Olympic training team—a bitter political war kept them apart. In Forty Autumns, Nina recounts her family’s story—five ordinary lives buffeted by circumstances beyond their control. She takes us deep into the tumultuous and terrifying world of East Germany under Communist rule, revealing both the cruel reality her relatives endured and her own experiences as an intelligence officer, running secret operations behind the Berlin Wall that put her life at risk. A personal look at a tenuous era that divided a city and a nation, and continues to haunt us, Forty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and love—of five women whose spirits could not be broken, and who fought to preserve what matters most: family. Forty Autumns is illustrated with dozens of black-and-white and color photographs.

Airman

Airman PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 574

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Nth Country Threat Analysis

Nth Country Threat Analysis PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nuclear nonproliferation
Languages : en
Pages : 876

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