Freedom and control in the unified Germany: governmental approaches to alternative religions since 1989

Sociology of Religion, Fall, 2003 by Hubert Seiwert

Until 1989, East Germany, that is, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was part of the socialist world system and under Soviet control. Unlike other East European countries, however, the end of communist rule in East Germany did not bring about a long and tentative search for new modes of church-state relations or a new policy in response to a rapidly changing religious landscape. The process of unification of the two German states did not leave much room for experiments. It led to an almost complete transfer of the West German legal system to East Germany. After a very short period in 1990 there were few options for new institutional arrangements for religions that differed from what had been already established in West Germany.

While the legal position of religions in East Germany could be changed and adapted to the Western legal system by a mere stroke of the pen--the Unification Treaty--the actual role of religions remained significantly different. Half a century of communist religious policy had left a legacy that was not easily obliterated. Most conspicuous were the differences in church membership rates. While in West Germany church membership in 1990 was about 85 percent, in East Germany it was only 30 percent (Pollack 2000:19). Since both parts of Germany had started with a roughly equal membership of more than 90 percent in 1949, this shows the impact of the Communist religious policy. Over fifty years, the churches in East Germany had lost two thirds of their members, and those declaring themselves to be Christians had become a minority in the country of Luther (Schmidt and Wohlrab-Sahr 2003).

It should be observed that such a marked drop in church membership is exceptional when compared to most other East European states under communist rule. Similar rates are found only in Russia, Estonia and the Czech Republic, while in countries like Hungary, Romania, or Bulgaria religious affiliation was still above 90 percent after fifty years of Communism (Pollack 1998:18, table 7). This shows the intensity and, of course, the success of the religious repression and anti-religious propaganda of the GDR government.

Since the political unification in 1990, Germany is a religiously divided country. In the West, the overwhelming majority of the population are members of either the Catholic or the Protestant Churches, and the Churches are rich and influential institutions. In the East, however, the large majority does not confess any religion, and the influence of the Christian Churches is low. It does not look as though this situation will change in the near future, as in both parts of Germany the churches are continuing to lose members.

Not only is church membership low in East Germany, but by 1991 less than 20 percent of the population said they believed in God, compared to almost 50 percent in West Germany. It can, therefore, be said that East Germany is to a high degree deChristianized. It is against this background that, shortly after the breakdown of communist rule, some so-called experts started to ring alarm bells by predicting the invasion of new religious movements, sects and cults into East Germany (e.g. Gandow 1990; for a sociological analysis see Usarski 1999). The line of thought was simple and at first sight convincing. It was assumed that communist ideology, having lost its plausibility, had thereby left an ideological vacuum; and, it was argued, since rapid social change would produce insecurity, many East Germans would turn to alternative ideologies. Given the weak position of traditional Christianity, this would be an ideal seedbed for new religious movements spreading into East Germany. Indeed, after the end of communist rule many minority religions and new religious movements were eager to send missionaries to the former socialist countries, including East Germany. At the same time the West European anti-cult movement extended its activities to these eastern countries in an attempt to counter the expansion of sects and cults.

While religions newly arrived from the West had at least some initial success in some post-communist countries, in East Germany they completely failed. The Fast German population proved to be remarkably resistant to new religions, and converts numbered at best in the tens. This, however, was ignored by anti-cult lobbyists who continued their warnings against the invasion of the East by sects and cults. This may have been one of the reasons why anti-cult lobbying was amazingly successful in the first half of the 1990s. Once the idea of the dangers imposed by sects and cults had been taken up by the media, the theme became a matter of increasing public concern. The original concern (that is, the invasion of East Germany) soon dropped into the background and was replaced by the Church of Scientology. By the middle of the 1990s, the anti-cult climate had gained a dynamism that almost turned into a hysteria Of collective fear. Scientology was perceived as a serious threat to internal security and as a weird but powerful organization that turned its victims into remote-controlled zombies. And, along with Scientology, all other sects and cults came to be regarded as dangerous groups luring their victims into psychological dependency and exploiting them financially.