Bruce W. Hall and Dr. Douglas F. Tobler, History
In November 1968, Elder Thomas S. Monson, a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader, promised LDS members in then Communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) that “every blessing any member of the Church enjoys in any other country will be yours.” 1 This included the blessings of a temple, an important part of LDS worship. Many Latter-day Saints in the GDR regarded this as a prophecy, which at the time, seemed unlikely. The irreligious Communist government of the GDR had a long record of hostility toward organized religion. Few Latter-day Saints were allowed to travel outside of the GDR to attend temples in Switzerland and elsewhere, and even fewer could afford to do so. Seventeen years later, this same Thomas S. Monson returned to participate in the dedication of a Mormon temple in the city of Freiberg in the GDR.2
The significance of the temple in the GDR was more than just religious. Communist law had prohibited the purchase and subsequent development of private property, a traditional pre-requisite for most temples around the world. Yet, that law was bent to accommodate the desires of the LDS Church. Other favorable government decisions followed. Quality materials and skilled workmen were made available. Germans, both Mormons and non-Mormons in both the GDR and across the wall in West Germany, including the West German press, watched this development curiously and wondered what was happening.
The Office of Research and Creative Activities grant has allowed me to explore in depth the events surrounding the GDR government’s decision to allow the LDS Church to build a temple in their country. I was able to obtain transcripts of interviews with Gunther Behncke, secretary to the minister of Religion of the GDR, and Henry Burkhardt, a longtime East German member called by LDS leaders to work with the GDR government. I was also able to use information from a paper given by James H. Backman, a BYU Law professor and European Area Counsel for the LDS Church from 1982-1984. I do regret that most official GDR government documents concerning the matter are not yet available to the public; it is possible, even likely, that they would present an even clearer picture of the decision to build the temple.
According to Henry Burkhardt, the idea of building a temple in East Germany was conceived by GDR officials themselves. Burkhardt was considered the responsible leader of the LDS Church in the GDR, since the Communist officials refused to recognize those in Salt Lake City. In 1979, East German members submitted an extraordinary number of petitions to visit the Swiss temple. Burkhardt was summoned to meet with the Minister of Interior and told to have his members stop submitting requests to visit the temple in Switzerland, because that would never be allowed. The officials ended the meeting by posing a question to Burkhardt: “Why doesn’t the LDS Church just build a temple here?”3 Burkhardt was aghast.
This idea was a Godsend to the members in the GDR. The LDS Church leaders did have several concerns about building a Temple in East Germany. The main concern focused on a GDR policy which granted members of the Staatssicherheitdienst or Stasi (East German Secret Police) access to all buildings in the GDR, public or private. Because of the sacred nature of LDS temples, leaders of the Church were unwilling to build under this stipulation. When Burkhardt brought it to the government’s attention, they responded by saying they had no problem with staying out of the temple; they even went so far as to say, “we don’t care what your members do in there anyway.”4 Burkhardt, in light of his longtime experience with the GDR government’s previous actions and policies, was overwhelmingly surprised.
With agreement on this fundamental issue, the approval and construction of the temple proceeded relatively unhindered. The Secretary for the Minister of Religion, Gunther Behncke, described in an interview the relationship between the government and the LDS Church at the time. He said government officials were impressed with the Mormons for several reasons: their doctrine obligated them to be productive members of society and community, which they were; they posed no threat whatsoever to the government; they had the lowest divorce rate among any group in the GDR (which had the highest rate in the world at the time); and they did not smoke or drink alcohol, tea or coffee (the GDR was also at the time the largest importer of coffee in the world). Because they were so impressed, Behncke says their government’s decision to allow the members to have a temple was not difficult.5
Mr. Behncke was also very candid and somewhat cynical in his interview concerning the subject of money. He said another major reason the LDS Church was allowed to build a temple was because they would be paying in valuta marks, the term used by the government to designate hard (Western) currency, which had a much higher value than the East German mark used by the general population. The building of the Temple was coordinated together with a plan to build a series of new meeting-houses in the GDR, all to be paid in these same valuta marks. He said concerning government policy at that time, “if the Church pays in dollars or West German money, then everything gets approved! (Sie bezahlt es mit Westgeld oder Dollar, dann wird alles genehmigt!)” The temple and chapels provided the government with over 32 million valuta marks.6
The laws concerning the purchase of land appeared to be another major obstacle, yet they were easily circumvented by the government. James H. Backman, legal counsel for the LDS Church at the time of negotiations, presented a picture of exactly how land was obtained for the temple and other meeting-houses in the GDR. If the government owned the proposed land, they could sell it to the Church. However, each city “was prohibited by law to dispose of properties they owned, but could exchange for an equal-sized parcel. The city could not diminish the stock of properties it owned. Yet it was permissible for the city to exchange a parcel within the city boundaries for one even hundreds of miles away.” This was highly irregular, but done nevertheless to accommodate the LDS Church.
There is much more interesting and significant information associated with the Freiberg East Germany Temple. It is sufficient to say here that the prophecy given by Thomas S. Monson in April 1975, even before the fall of the wall, was miraculously fulfilled. The East German Temple stood as a beacon behind the Iron Curtain to all members of the LDS faith. It was, in their mind, a physical manifestation of the power of God, and his special awareness of them. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to study its history, and hope to make more information available in future publications.
References
- Thomas S. Monson, Faith Rewarded: a Personal Account of Prophetic Promises to the East German Saints, Deseret Book Co. Salt Lake City,
- Utah, 1996, p 5.
- Thomas S. Monson, General Conference Report, May, 1989, p. 52.
- Henry Burkhardt Oral History, interviewed by Matthew Heiss, 1993, p.9-16, The James Moyle Oral History Program, Archives Division,
- Historical Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt lake City, Utah.
Burkhardt interview, p lO. - Gunther Karl Otto Behncke Oral History, interviewed by Matthew Heiss, 1993, p.10-12, The James Moyle Oral History Program,
- Archives Division, Historical Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.
- Behncke interview, p 11.; Stiftung Archiv der Parteien undmassenorganisationen der DDR im Bunde, Selected documents 1954-1988,
microfilm, archives, Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. - James H.Backman, Legal Background of the Two German Temples, Mormon History Association Twenty-Second Annual Meeting, Oxford, 7
Liverpool and London, England, July 5-13, 1987, photocopy, used by permission.