Eppelmann: Most definitely it did not always act properly. The Protestant church is greatly committed to advocating the principle that councils can err, too. And surely that applies not only to Catholic councils, but to Protestant ones as well. I would like to answer the question first from human experience in general. Of course, I have to say that even the leadership of the Protestant church in the GDR made mistakes, because, for example, despite the separation of state and church – a principle recognized by both state and church – we had a whole series of privileges that other organizations did not. We could ring bells – perhaps that’s still relatively minor – we had the possibility of obtaining money through kindred spirits in the Federal Republic (that is from Protestant Christians in the Federal Republic) in order to rebuild churches, to establish charitable institutions and hospitals, or upgrade their equipment. We were human beings, who – at least those of us in leadership positions – were able to leave the GDR on official trips at a time when it was impossible for others. There were church leaders who had permanent visas. Thus they were able to travel to the West practically at any time.
Understandably enough, the church was always tempted to preserve these privileges for itself, not to risk them, not to lose them. If you then consider the most important privilege, that under the GDR’s regulatory code on events, the church was the only organization that was not required to give notice of its religious services ahead of time – this was one reason why the abundance of peace groups in the GDR gathered under the roof of the Protestant church – then it is very, very understandable to me that we were repeatedly under pressure in that regard: let us preserve or even expand the few free spaces that we have. This effort, which I supported, of expanding free spaces, preserving them, was not just for the official church, but for the 5-6 million Christians, and also, to a growing extent, for others, too. But by now I can no longer escape the impression (and a look into my own files or those of others attests to this) that in the effort – supported by me – to preserve and expand free spaces, some individuals repeatedly left inconvenient speakers or admonishers, and demonstrators, too, out in the cold, so to speak, or even betrayed them.
[ . . . ]
Deutschlandfunk: You once said that all citizens of the GDR were whores in some way or another, that all of you allowed yourselves to be used by the SED state. Was it impossible to stay politically-morally clean in the GDR under the conditions of real Socialism?
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