Reunion In Berlin

More than 200,000 people streamed into Berlin last week from all over Germany to attend a five-day Kirchentag (church day) assembly of the German Evangelical (Protestant) Church. It was the first large-scale meeting of East and West Germans since the Russians divided the country.

At huge outdoor rallies, with the slogan Wir Sind Dock Brueder (despite everything, we are brothers), the pilgrims listened to sermons. The tone, on the surface, was nonpolitical. This was in keeping with German Protestantism's policy toward Communism: don't seek martyrdom; outwardly obey the authorities; maintain the church organization in the hope of a new day.

Yet politics simply would not stay out of sight. Pilgrims from the East Zone, plodding in faded clothes and ersatz shoes, gaped at the evidences of prosperity in West Berlin.

At mass rallies--one in Berlin's Soviet sector, three in the West--the East German pilgrims heard religious words with political accents.

P: Said Dr. Reinold von Thadden-Trieglaff, president of the Kirchentag: "We do not want to hide the fact that the difficulties of conscience of those who are not allowed to proclaim their faith in full freedom weigh heavily upon us." P: Said Pastor Martin Niemboeller, pointedly: "We must not extend brotherhood only to those with the point of view we like, but to all. We must understand even hardened criminals."

P:Said a Kirchentag resolution: "Our children ... do not belong ... to the state first."

P:Said Berlin's bearded Bishop Otto Dibelius, who has been more outspokenly anti-Communist than other German Protestant churchmen: "We especially pray for our imprisoned brothers & sisters here and out in the wide world."

The Communists sanctioned the meeting of the East and West Germans--"Germans at one table," was their slogan--in the hope of promoting themselves as the champions of German unity. East German President Wilhelm Pieck in person attended the opening session in East Berlin's graceful Gothic Marienkirche (he tried to slip in through the center portal usually reserved for brides, bishops and, in the old days, the Kaiser, but was hurriedly eased over to a side door).

But by & large, the Communist intention failed. East Germany's Protestants are back in their Soviet prison this week with an eye & earful of democracy, a feeling of solidarity with their Western brethren--and, probably, not a little envy of their freedom.

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