Berlin-Central German Conference

The Berlin-Central German Conference can be traced back to 1901 and went through several reorganizations. Its most recent reorganization happened in 2007.¹

Territory and Statistics

The territory of the Berlin-Central Conference includes the German capital Berlin (3.7 million inhabitants) and the federal states of Brandenburg (2.49 million inhabitants), Saxony-Anhalt (2.24 million inhabitants), Saxony (4.08 million inhabitants), and Thuringia (2.16 million inhabitants). As of, there were a total of 7,049 members of the Berlin-Central Conference (among 14.67 million inhabitants) in 149 local Adventist congregations. This area lies in the central and eastern parts of the Federal Republic of Germany. Due to the changing environment in Germany, the strong growth of the Adventist Church prior to World War I and in the interwar period, and the reunification in 1989/1990 as well as migration in the last decades, there have been many changes also in the organization of the Church. To understand them, a brief look at history is necessary.

The beginnings of the in fell into the time of the German Empire Chancellor Otto v. Bismarck. With the election of the Prussian King as German Emperor Wilhelm I on January 18, 1871, the numerous German principalities and kingdoms were united into a nation state. The kingdoms, principalities, and duchies remained within their borders at first, but they lost their sovereignty under constitutional law. The empire ended with the defeat in World War I (1914–1918).

In Germany, the unstable period of the “Weimar Republic” (1918–1933) was followed with the “Third Reich,” the rule of the National Socialists under Adolf Hitler (1933–1945). After the end of the Second World War (1939–1945), the eastern provinces of Germany (East Prussia, Pomerania, and Silesia) were assigned to the Poland and Soviet Union. More than 8 million Germans were expelled from there. Berlin and large parts of urban Germany were destroyed. Consequently, was divided. The central and the eastern parts of Germany became the Soviet zone, the west was divided into the American, British, and French zone, and the capital Berlin, which was located in the eastern part, was divided into four sectors (1945–1948).

In 1949, the three western occupation zones became the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and West Berlin. The Russian zone became the German Democratic Republic (GDR) with (East) as the capital of the GDR. In the western states, the was recognized as a legal corporation. In 1961, the GDR intensified the division of Germany by building the Berlin Wall.

In 1990, Germany was reunited, and Berlin became the new capital. In the east and in the middle of the new Federal Republic of Germany, the states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, and Thuringia were newly founded. The Seventh-day Adventist denomination then also received its legal recognition as a religions corporation within these new federal states.

The years of Communist rule in Eastern Germany left their mark. While in 1949 90 percent of the population still belonged to a Christian church, in 1990 it was only 25 percent. A 2012 study by the came to the conclusion that nowhere else in the world do so few people believe in God as in Eastern Germany. A total of 52 percent of those questioned said they had no connection to any religion.²

In the first years after German unification, living conditions in the eastern states were worse than in western Germany. This led to many people migrating to the western states. In the area covered by the Berlin-Central Conference, the population declined from 16.62 million in 1988 to 14.67 million in 2015, the number of Adventist churches shrank from 284 to 149, and the number of church members from 9,238 to 7,049.

Origin of the Seventh-day Adventist Work in the Territory

The work of the Seventh-day Adventists in Berlin began in 1891 by Adventist itinerant preacher Gerhard Perk (1859–1930),³ a close associate of Ludwig R. Conradi. Through colporteur work, he found a Baptist family in central Berlin who accepted the Sabbath as the biblical day of rest. On May 17, 1893, the first two persons were baptized by Conradi at Lake Plötzensee. On April 21, 1894, another seven people were baptized in the Spree River, and the first Adventist congregation with 11 members was founded in Berlin-Moabit (Berlin Central). In 1897, there were already four churches with 217 members in Berlin.

In 1901, the East German Conference was organized. In 1904, it had 1,170 members in 26 congregations. In Potsdam, the capital of today’s Federal State of Brandenburg, the Adventist Church was established at the end of 1904 with 12 members.⁴ Wilhelm Prillwitz had given the first lectures in 1903. The Adventist Church in Cottbus, the largest city in Lower Lusatia, was founded in 1903 after Conradi had given Bible lessons there in 1902. In the city of Brandenburg an der Havel, the former capital of Brandenburg, the Adventist Church was founded in April 1906 after a group had already formed in 1905 through the work of colporteur Ella Bähre and lectures by Emil Frauchiger and Otto Schwenecke.

In today’s Saxony-Anhalt, the proclamation of the Advent message began through lectures by Reinhold Gustav Klingbeil. Like Ludwig R. Conradi, he had emigrated to the United States as a young man. In 1894, Klingbeil returned to his hometown of Magdeburg, at that time the capital of the Prussian province Saxony and today the capital of the federal state Saxony-Anhalt. As a result of his lectures, the first people were baptized on February 3 and on March 16, 1895. The second baptism followed on February 3 and on March 16, 1895, when a congregation of 24 members was organized.⁵ In 1897, the Adventist Church in Magdeburg already had 46 members.⁶

In the city of Halle an der Saale, H. G. Krumm started his work in 1895. Krumm was supported by the two female colporteurs: Charlotte Gronert and Bertha Schuklat. At the beginning of 1896, Conradi held lectures there. On February 19, 1897, Conradi baptized 12 people, and on February 20, an Adventist Church was established in Halle.

The Advent congregation in Burg (the district town of the county where the Missionary Seminary in Friedensau, founded in 1899, is located) was founded in 1902 by the first director of Friedensau, Otto Lüpke. In 1901, Conradi and Georg W. Schuberth had given lectures there. In what was then the municipality of Anhalt, preaching began with the travel preacher August Rockel, who in 1906 moved from Bochum in Westphalia to Dessau, the capital and residence of the municipality. Rockel was supported by Colporteur Else von Oppeln. On March 21, 1907, the first baptism took place, and in 1908, an Adventist congregation in Dessau was founded with twelve members.

In the Kingdom of Saxony, the Advent message was first preached by Gerhard Perk, who started giving evangelistic lectures in Chemnitz in the west of Saxony in 1898. Already in the following year, he was able to baptize 26 people. On April 29, 1899, the Adventist Church of Chemnitz was founded. Conradi reported in 1897 about a visit to Colporteur Bertha Schuklat in Dresden, the capital of the Kingdom of Saxony, today the capital of the federal state. On May 21, 1900, Conradi baptized two women there. Perk then founded the first Adventist Church in Dresden (Altstadt) in 1901, which had 12 church members.

The Adventist Church in Leipzig, the largest city in the country, was established on April 4, 1900, with 17 church members. In 1901, Adventist Max Kober moved from Göttingen to Görlitz in Upper Lusatia in the east of Saxony. Through his work and lectures by Johann G. Obländer, the first Advent congregation was formed in 1904. In 1911, the congregation already had 65 members. On April 9, 1904, the Advent Church in Meissen was organized. In Zwickau, in the south-west of Saxony, the Church was founded on May 4, 1909, with 14 members. In 1951/1952, the two Saxon conferences together had 146 congregations with 7,671 members. At that time in the state of Saxony, there was the highest density of Adventist congregations in all Germany.

In the federal state of Thuringia, the Advent message was proclaimed from 1901 onwards. On September 25, 1901, H. Schmitz was sent from Friedensau to the state capital of Erfurt. Already on November 25, 1901, Schmitz had baptized two persons. In 1902, the Adventist Church in Erfurt was established. Under the leadership of Hermann Behr, who came to Erfurt in 1903, the Church grew rapidly. By 1907, it already had 80 members. Behr also began to work in Weimar in 1906. In 1907, the Adventist Church in Weimar was founded with 13 members.

Organizational History of the Conference

On July 23, 1901, the East German Conference was formed, organized by the East German Union which was organized in the same year. This conference consisted of the imperial capital Berlin, the Prussian provinces of Brandenburg, Pomerania, Silesia, East and West Prussia, and the Kingdom of Saxony. Thus, it included essential parts of today’s Berlin-Central Conference. However, the former German eastern territories (Pomerania, Silesia, East and West Prussia) no longer belong to it. The SDA Yearbook of 1904 counts 1,170 members in 26 congregations for the East German Conference.

In 1903, the municipalities of the provinces of East and West Prussia were separated from the East German Conference and organized as the Prussian Conference (from 1912 East Prussian Conference) with headquarters in Königsberg (today Kaliningrad, Russia). It existed until 1945. In 1938, there were 1,981 members in 63 congregations with a population of about 2.4 million.

In 1907, a separate conference was organized for the congregations of the province of Silesia: the Silesian Conference, with its headquarters in Breslau (today Wrocław, Poland). It existed until 1945. In 1938, there were 2,030 in 54 congregations with a population of about 3.7 million.

In 1908, a separate Saxon Conference was formed for the Kingdom of Saxony. From 1909 to 1919, the municipalities in and around Berlin were organized as a separate district, which was directly subordinated to the East German Conference. The congregations in and around the Friedensau Mission School (in today’s federal state of Saxony-Anhalt), which was founded in 1899, also belonged to this district.

In 1909, the Central German Conference was formed. It included the Prussian province of Saxony (excluding the area around Friedensau), the principalities of Anhalt and Brunswick, the south of the province of Hanover, and the province of Thuringia.

In 1911, the East German Conference was renamed the Oder Conference. It now only included the Prussian provinces of Pomerania and Brandenburg (excluding the area of the Berlin district assigned to the East German Union) and the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Stettin, and Stralsund. Of these, only Bradenburg still belongs to the Berlin-Central German Conference today.

In 1912, Thuringia was assigned to the West German Union, and from 1916 to 1934, the first Thuringian Conference existed within this Union.

In 1920, the area in the east and in the middle of Germany was largely reorganized. The congregations in Greater Berlin were combined to form the Berlin Conference. The Central German Conference became the newly formed Brandenburg Conference. It included the districts of Potsdam and Frankfurt/Oder, the Prussian province of Saxony (including Friedensau), and the Free State of Anhalt. The Saxon Conference in the Free State of Saxony (formerly the Kingdom of Saxony) was divided into the Northeast Saxon Conference (the districts of Bautzen, Dresden, and Leipzig, based in Dresden) and the West Saxon Conference (the districts of Chemnitz and Zwickau, based in Chemnitz). The Oder Conference was renamed the Pomeranian Conference (based in ). It also included only the congregations in the province of Pomerania. It existed until 1945. In 1938, there were 1,804 members in 69 congregations with a population of about 2.5 million.

In 1928, the northern part of the former Central German Conference (the district of Mecklenburg-Strelitz) was assigned to the Hansa Conference, which belonged to the West German Union.

In 1929, the Brandenburg Conference was renamed the Märkisch-Niederschlesische Conference with headquarters in Görlitz. In 1942, it became the Märkisch-Lausitzer Conference.

In 1934, the West German Union organized again to the Central German Conference, with seat in Braunschweig. To it, the provinces Hannover and Saxony, as well as the territories of Anhalt and Thuringia, belonged. It existed until 1946.

In 1948, the division of Germany into the “East Zone” (Soviet zone) and the “West Zone” (American, British, and French zones) forced organizational changes according to the new borders. In the newly formed provinces of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, the East German Union organized the Saxony-Anhalt Conference (based in Halle) and the Thuringia Conference (based in Erfurt). The Mecklenburg Conference (based in ) was now also part of the East German Conference again.

In 1949, the division of Germany was deepened by the foundation of two states: the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in the west and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the east. For external communication, the latter was referred to as the “Seventh-day Adventist Church in the GDR” while internally it was called East German Union, and it was based in West Berlin.

In 1954, due to political circumstances, the Berlin Conference had to be divided into the Berlin-East and Berlin-West conferences.

In 1961, the construction of the Berlin Wall forced the establishment of an office for the “The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the GDR” in Berlin-Schöneweide (East Berlin). However, the headquarters of the East German Union remained in for the time being.

In 1967, the East German Union became the “Union of Seventh-day Adventists in the GDR,” with headquarters in East Berlin. The West Berlin Conference was assigned to the West German Union.

In 1969, the East Berlin Conference and the Märkisch-Lausitzer Conference were merged to form the Berlin-Märkische Conference (based in East Berlin).

In 1990, Germany was reunited, and the “Union of Seventh-day Adventists in the GDR” became the East German Union again. Within this Union, the Saxony-Anhalt Conference and the Thuringian Conference were soon merged to form the Saxony-Anhalt-Thuringia Conference (based in Erfurt) as was the North-East Saxony Conference with the West Saxony Conference to form the Saxony Conference (based in Dresden).

In 1992, the East and West German unions were united to form the North German Union. The West Berlin and Berlin-Mark conferences were merged to form the Berlin-Brandenburg Conference, and the Mecklenburg Conference was integrated into the Hansa Conference.

In 1999, the Saxony-Anhalt-Thuringia and Saxony conferences were merged to form again a Central German Conference with headquarters in Dresden.

In 2007, the Berlin-Brandenburg Conference and the Central German Conference were merged to form today’s Berlin-Central German Conference with headquarters at Koblenzer Straße 3 in Berlin.⁷ Since 2021, the interim headquarters has been at Hausstockweg 26 in Berlin due to construction work.⁸

List of Presidents

East German Conference (1901‒1911; Berlin was part of this Conference until 1909): Johann Pieper (1901‒1902), Emil Frauchiger (1902‒1907), Georg W. Schubert (1907‒1911).

Oder Conference (1911‒1920): Otto Schwennecke (1911‒1912), Johannes Seefried (1912‒1920).

Berlin (1909‒1920, separate district of the East German Union): Heinrich F. Schuberth.

Berlin Conference (1920‒1954): Wilhelm Hoffmann (1920‒1928), Paul Stöcker (1928‒1934), Gustav Mai (1935‒1949), Alfred Bürger (1949‒1954).

East Berlin Conference (1954‒1971): Kurt Danke (1954‒1960), Ewald Oestreich (1960‒1966), Rudolf Helm (1966‒1971).

Berlin March Conference (1969‒1992): Johannes Köhler (1969‒1975), Egon Hennig (1975‒1985), Helmut Knoll (1985‒1992).

West-Berlin Conference (1954‒1992): Georg Rönisch (1954‒1963), Heinz Vogel (1963‒1970), Heinz Morenings (1970‒1978), Reinhard Engel (1978‒1985), Gerd Eiteneier (1985‒1987), Waldemar Blume (1987‒1992).

Berlin-Brandenburg Conference (1992‒2007): Waldemar Blume (1992‒1995), Gerd Eiteneier (1995‒2003), Thomas Marschner (2003‒2007).

Central German Conference (1909‒1920; 1934‒1946 and 1999‒2007): Wilhelm Prillwitz (1909‒1912), Leopold Mathe (1912‒1920). Wilhelm Althoff (1934‒1946). Hartwig Lüpke (1999‒2003), Johannes Scheel (2003‒2007).

Brandenburg Conference (1920‒1929): Robert Lusky (1920‒1924), Friedrich Götting (1924‒1929).

Märkisch-Niederschlesische-Vereinigung/March Lusatian Conference (1929‒1969): Hugo Glass (1929‒1935), Paul Horn (1935‒1939); Otto Haase (1939‒1949), Otto Bahr (1949‒1955), Rudolf Helm (1955‒1958), Erwin Binanzer (1958‒1961), Kurt Schieber (1961‒1969).

Saxon Conference (1908‒1920 and 1990‒1999): Kurt Sinz (1908‒1910), Leopold Mathe (1910‒1912), Georg W. Schubert (1912‒1914), Paul Drinhaus (1914‒1920). Hartmut Sensenschmidt (1990‒1994), Hartwig Lüpke (1994‒1999).

North-East Saxony Conference (1920‒1990): Paul Stöcker (1920‒1923), Bruno Ohme (1923‒1926), Adolf Müller (1926‒1932), Michael Budnick (1932‒1936), Heinrich Brinkmann (1936‒1949), Friedrich Hambrock (1949‒1954), Karl Wagner (1954‒1958), Rudolf Helm (1958‒1966), Bruno Schulz (1966‒1969), Erwin Binanzer (1969‒1978), Claus Hölzel (1978‒1990).

West Saxony Conference (1920‒1990): Paul Horn (1920‒1924), A.O. Janert (1924‒1928), Ernst L. Bahr (1928‒1934), Friedrich Hambrock (1934‒1949), Heinrich Brinkmann (1949‒1955), Otto Bahr (1955‒1966), Ewald Oestreich (1966‒1976), Lothar Reiche (1976‒1982), Felix Schönfeld (1982‒1990).

Saxony-Anhalt Conference (1948‒1990): Richard Dangschat (1949‒1950), Karl Wagner (1950‒1954), Walter Eberhardt (1954‒1961), Erwin Binanzer (1961‒1969), Reinhold Paul (1969‒1978), Werner Schulz (1978‒1987), Klaus Tilgner (1987‒1990).

Thuringian Conference (1916‒1934 and 1947‒1990): Kurt Sinz (1916‒1924), W. Schäfer (1924‒1928), Hans Fenner (1928‒1931), Georg Dürolf (1931‒1933), Albert Prieser (1933‒1934), Ludwig Krug (1947‒1954), Otto Haase (1954‒1958), Josef Schor (1958‒1964), Egon Hennig (1964‒1968), Manfred Böttcher (1968‒1970), Claus Hölzel (1970‒1978), Wilfried Gäbel (1978‒1990).

Saxony-Anhalt/Thuringia Conference (1990‒1999): Klaus Tilgner (1990‒1999).

Berlin-Central German Conference (from 2007): Johannes Scheel (2007‒2015), Gunnar Scholz (from 2015).

Sources

Böttcher, Manfred. Die Adventgemeinde in der DDR – Eine Gratwanderung von 1949 bis 1990. Lüneburg: Advent-Verlag, 2007.

Böttcher, Manfred. Wagnis des Glaubens. Dialog und Zeugnis der Adventgemeinden in der DDR. Hannover: Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten, Norddeutscher Verband, 2001.

Festschrift der Adventgemeinde Potsdam 1904‒2004. Ed. Michael Grebe. N.p.: Gemeinschaft der S.T. Adventisten, 2004.

Festschrift zur 100-Jahrfeier der Adventgemeinde Magdeburg. Ed. M. Bäse, W. Stanischewski, and Festkomitee. Magdeburg: Gemeinschaft der S.T. Adventisten in Sachsen-Anhalt, 1995.

Festschrift zum hundertjährigen Bestehen der Adventgemeinde Görlitz, 1904‒2004. Görlitz: Adventgemeinde Görlitz, 2004.

Heinz, Daniel. “Großer Glaube, kleine Schritte: Zur Geschichte der protestantischen Freikirchen in Dessau, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Adventgemeinde (1908‒2008).” Dessauer Kalender 2009, Stadtarchiv Dessau-Rosslau, 2009.

Heinz, Daniel. “Wiederkunftshoffnung und Weltmission: Streiflichter aus der Geschichte der Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten in Berlin.” In Mit uns hat der Glaube nicht angefangen. Ed. Ökumenischer Rat Berlin-Brandenburg. Berlin: WDL-Verlag, 2001.

Heinz, Daniel, and Werner Lange, editors. Adventhoffnung für Deutschland: Die Mission der Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten von Conradi bis heute. Lüneburg: Advent-Verlag, 2014.

Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten: Chronik, Vom Beginn in Deutschland bis zur Gegenwart 1875 – 2004. Hamburg. Gemeinschaft der Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten in Deutschland, 2004.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association. Various years. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Vollrath, Hermann. “Rückschau auf ein halbes Jahrhundert.” Adventbote 1, 1950 [11‒12: Berlin 1900], Adventbote 5, 1950 [74‒76: Berlin 1901‒1910], Adventbote 16, 1950 [250‒253: Berlin 1911‒1921], Adventbote 19, 1950 [298‒301: Berlin 1921‒1930], Adventbote 21, 1950 [330‒333: Berlin 1931‒1940].

Zionswächter, Januar 1896‒February 1909.

Notes

1. This article was translated from German by Chigemezi N. Wogu.↩

2. International Social Survey Program (ISSP) Religion Studies, cf. https://www.norc.org/PDFs/Beliefs_about_God_Report.pdf, accessed October 15, 2021.↩

3. Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten Chronik: Vom Beginn in Deutschland bis zur Gegenwart, 1875‒2004 (Hamburg: Gemeinschaft der Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten in Deutschland, 2004), 13.↩

4. Festschrift der Adventgemeinde Potsdam 1904‒2004, Gemeinschaft der Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten, August 2004.↩

5. See article: Chigemezi Wogu, “Klingbeil, Reinhold Gustav, (1868‒1928),” in Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=1I7S&highlight=Klingbeil; Adventgemeinde Magdeburg, “Chronik der Adventgemeinde Magdeburg,” n.d., accessed March 1, 2020, http://www.sta-magdeburg.de/chronik.↩

6. M. Bäse, W. Stanischewski, and Festkomitee, eds., Festschrift zur 100-Jahrfeier der Adventgemeinde Magdeburg (Magdeburg: Gemeinschaft der Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten in Sachsen-Anhalt, 1995).↩

7. See “Berlin-Central German Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed April 1, 2020, https://www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=13809.↩

8. Cf. https://bmv.adventisten.de/nuetzlich/kontakt/, accessed October 28, 2021.↩