JPRS ID: 10598 EAST EUROPE REPORT POLITICAL, SOCIOLOGICAL AND MILITARY AFFAIRS

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• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: November 1, 2016
• Sequence Number: 44
• Content Type: REPORTS

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J~R~~i L/10598
1a J~une 198~
E~st E u ro. ~ Re o~t
~ p
_ P~IITICAI, SOCIOLOGICAL AND MILITARY AFFAIRS
-
f FOUn 9/82) ~
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JPRS L/10598
18 June 1982
EAST EUROPE REPORT
POLITICAL, $OCIOLQGICAL AND MILITARY AFFAIRS
(~'OUO 9/82)
CONTENTS
GERMAN DEMOCRATIC R~PUBLIC
7
Church Seen Gaining 'Self-Awareness~ Through Peace Movement
(Dieter Bub; STF~tN, 15 Apr 82) 1
POLANeb
Wroclaw Underground Response to Maxtial I,aw Reported 5
(THE SUNDAY TIl~IES, 21 Feb 82)
Radio Luxembourg Envoy Reports Poland Visit
(Olivier Mazerolle; LE POINT, 1-7 Mar 82) 8
- a - [III - EE - 63 FOUO]
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i
t
GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
~
~
l ~
,
CHURCH SEEN GAINING 'SELF-AWARENESS' THROUGH PEACE MOVEMENT
; Hamburg STERN in German Vol 35 No 16, 15 Apr 82 pp 2l~0,242, 21~4
_i
[Article by Dieter Bub: "GDR: The Cross With Peace--WiT.h the Church's
Support a Broad Peace Movement Is Being Formed in the SID Stat:.--Par':y
Leadership and State Security Service Intend to Suppress the D~sarmament
Initiative"]
[Text] On Easter Saturday, thousands of young Christians prayed f or peace
in Ber~.in and Potsdam. On 13 February, the anniversary of the destruction of
Dresden, 5,000 young people met at a peace.forum in Dresden's Church of the
Cross. In Halle, 500 members of the Young Christians Movement marched through
~ the city in silence after a church service. 1,000 GDR citizens have so far
1 signed the "Ber~in Disarmament Appeal" of Pastor Rainer F.ppelmann: in the
GDR too, a peace movement is forming--to the annoyanc.e of the party and
~ closely watched by police and the State Security Serv~+ce.
As early as 1965 the GDR bishops stated that refusal of military service--a
, punishable action in the GDR--or the alternative service in ihe construction
units of the National People's Army (NVA) are more in keeping with the "peace
commitment of the church" than service with arms. One of these "construction
soldiers" was Rainer Eppelmann, the GDR peace pastor. After learning the
~ masons trade, Eppelmann was drafted in 1966 and was s~ortly af terwards
sentenced to 8 months in prison for refus~Lng to obey orders. At that time
_ he decided to study theology. In 1975 he became pastor of the Good Sama.ritan
Parish in Berlin-Friedrichshain.
Ever since 1979 Pastor Eppelmann has been organizing youth church services
that were first attended by 250 people and now d~aw from 4,Oa0 to 5,000
young people from all over the GDR. In songs, sermons and discussions the
participants deal with topics that are taboo in the GDR: the Soviet invasion
of Aibhanistan, e.g. was used to discuss the question of how the super powers
enaanger pea~e. In the fall of last year, the strongly committed pastor~-
published the "Berlin Appeal." In it Eppelmann pleads for a z.one free from
; nuclear weapons in Europe, the "withdrawal of occupation forces f rom the GDR ~
~ and FRG" and the "neutralization of Germany."
But these demands oriented oa the GDR supported 1957 pla^ _f the then Polish
foreign minister Adam Rapacki today seem dangerous to the SED leadership. In
1
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a telegram to the party basi~ organizations Erich Honecker called the Berlin
pastor an enemy of the state. Rainer i.ppelmann was arreste~, interrogated
for 2 days and released only after intervention by the church leadership.
' The first signers of the appeal wexe likewise summoned to the State Security
' . Service and thei?- apartments were searched. But t~e shock effect fa~.led to
materialize. Up to now, 1,000 GDR citizens have signed the appeal. Their
number is growing each day.
. The political commitment of. the $erlin pastor is suspect not only to th~ SED
but also to many GDR church conservatives who, especially in Saxany and
Thuringia, had avoided conflict and made compromises with the party leader-
_ sh ip. In the church of Berlin-Brandenburg, too, Rainer Eppelmann at f irst
found more opponents than friends, in spite of the fact that he does not want
to be a dissident and spokesman of a new GDR Qpposition movenent. He does not
want the role of either the GDR critic Robert Havemann or of an underground
church leader of rebellious GDR youths. If he lived in the FRG, he would have
been among the opponen~s of nuclear power at Brokdorf and Wyhl, and one of
the peace demonstrators in Bonn last Octobex.
Rainer Eppelmann has become the symbol of a new generation of pastors, vicars
and pari.sh workers. They are the spokesmen for a Young Christians Movement
that is looking for a new orientation in socialist society.
To this movement belongs also Guenter Wonneberger, pastor of Dresden's
- Weinberg Church. In the fall of 1980, his Young Christians Moyement caused
a stir with its demand for a special social service program (SOFD). The '
~ Evangelical Lufiheran Church of Saxony and its Bishop Jehannes Hempel tri~d to
keep the explosive document out of circulation. But it was passed from
parish to parish and became known to the public at the Dresden Ecumenical
Conference last summer. During the following months, church leaders and
District Synods received 500 letters from groups and individuals who were
likewise In favor of a~..rogram for military service outside the Na*_ional
Pe~ple's Army.
But par~~}~ and government leaders brusquely rejected the demand for a social
peace service program. Werner Walde, first secretary of the Cottbus Bezirk
management, called the wishes of the SOFD followers "dangerous to peace" and
"ho~tile to the constitution." And Erich Honecker stated that alternate
military service has long been possible in the NVA construction units.
Nevertheless, th~ Dresden initiative for a peace service program had its
effects. When on 13 FQbruary 5,000 persons from all over the country met at
the first peace forum of the GDR, nany of them wore headbands with the slogan
~ "Make Peaca Without ~rms." And on their coats tney had sewn patches with
the slogan "Swords Into Plowshares." 'ihis d3.sarmament slogar_ comes from the
Old Testament book of the Prophet Micah.
_ Klaus Gysi, state secretary for church affairs, was annoyed to notice at a
dance in Thuringia that these patc~es have meanwhile become "a regular
f sahion." Gysi requested that the church leader~hip prevent production,
2
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distribution and use of these patches. Gysi was afraid that peace initiatives
disturb public order. Ttiey s~;ggest that the state has an insufficient com-
; mitment to peace. The GDR leadership, however, will not allow any limitation
of military power and its treaty obligations.
In about the same way as in the FRG, the GDR government directed a campaign
i against the supporters of the peace movement. Radio GDR called them "blind,
deaf and hypocritical." The official FDJ newspaper JUNGE WELT [Young World]
called the goal to make peace without arms a suicidal illusion in view of
the aggressive aims of imperialism." In the GDR DEUTSCHE LEHRERZEITUNG
[German Teachers' Journal] writer Wolfgang Tilgner spoke out in favor of
military strength and agains�c disarmament: "Doesn't the formula 'Make Peace
~ Without Arms' transform itself, as if at the hands of magicians, into man's
~ totdl capitulation before the very real--because they are armed to the
teeth--forces of evil?"
~ In a speech bPfore the ~Volkskammer, Defense Minister Hoffmann explained the
new and more stringent military service law by saying that the GDR needs
both swords and plowshares. And an SED propaganda campaign f or the National
People's Army is directed specifically against the peace movement: "Peace
must be defended--peace must be armed!"
At the same time, the government exerts massive pressure against young people
wearing the patch "Sword~ Into Plowshares." In businesses, schools and
universities it is forbidden to wear peace symbols. In the streets, police
force pede5trians to remove peace patches from ~ackets and overcoats. In
Rudolstadt young people were beaten up in the streets by officials--~ust
. because they wore the peace symbol. Student~ who did not remove the patches
; were expelled from schools and uni.versities.
I
The Protestant Church reacted to this massive pressure by the government with
unusual severity. A decision of the Mecklenburg Church states: "Orders �
against wearing this symbol of world-wide peace commitment destroy confidence
and do a disservice to internal peace." Especially older church members are
invited to b ecome witnesses themselves and show their commitment to peace in
public.
The Thuringia Evangelical Lutheran Church Synod says in a letter to the
' parishes: "Attacks against this symbol do not hit individual young people
alone but the entire church. The church stands beside the young people
wearing this symbol."
The 1'rotestant Church in the GDR, which a year ago was still hesitant and
indecisive, has found new self-awareness and a new political challenge through
ttie members of the Young Christians Movement. A statement by the GDR Feder-