GERMANY—By Richard Walker

GERMANY---By Richard Walker GERMANY
by Richard Walker

There is only one reason why there are men and women who have gone out from American Brethren, and who are preaching and teaching the gospel in Germany, Italy, France, Africa, and Japan, or wherever it may be. It is because we read in our Bibles, “Go teach all nations.” When we read a thing like this, our going and preaching is not purely an optional matter. It is not dependent upon many things which we often consider. It is not dependent upon our state of health, our financial security, or upon the sentiments of our loved ones. But there is laid upon us the necessity to preach the gospel of our Savior to every nation in the world. My wife and I had the privilege to live and work in Heidelberg, Germany. Heidelberg is located on the Neckar river, just as it flows from the hills of the Odenwald on to the Rhine plain. It is nestled beautifully against the hills. There is a famous old castle there, where Martin Luther was wined and dined, on the occasion of his disputation in Heidelberg.

If you were to go along the main street leading north from town, along the Bergstrasse, you would pass a lovely little church building on the left. A sign out front says, “Gemeinde Christi.” The church meets there. Before this building was built, the church met in a beerhall. This was not a proper place, but nothing better could be found. You can imagine our joy when, a year and a half ago, we were able to meet in this new building. In Heidelberg, several meetings have been held. Fred Casmir held the first one. As a result of this meeting, a man has become a member of the church, who for twenty years played the organ for the Evangelical church. Dieter Fritsche and Dieter Alten have also held us good meetings. Last spring Otis Gatewood held us a good meeting, and in September Roy Palmer was with us in a meeting. All in all, about 75 people have been baptized in Heidelberg, and 50 are faithful. Several have fallen by the wayside, some ha^e passed on, and some have moved to Canada. Betty Roemer teaches thirty-five children each Saturday afternoon in Heidelberg. There is also a class of about twenty young people. Delmar Bunn and his wife are working in Heidelberg now, along with Klaus Gobbels.

One of our German members was formerly a train conductor. He was riding on a train, fourteen days before the war came to a close. It was torn apart by airplane fire. Many people on the train were killed and this brother lost his right arm. He said tell the brethren in America, “I have no resentment about the war, or about the loss of an arm. I look forward to the time when there will be peace among the nations in Jesus Christ.”
Klaus Gobbels said tell the American brethren, “The German brethren are not ungrateful that the brethren in America have made it possible for there to be churches in Germany.”

The American congregation in Heidelberg began, a year ago, a program of preaching to some of the surrounding towns. The town of Eberbach was first selected. What would you do if you were faced with preaching in a town where you knew no one, and no one knew you? How would you begin? We rented a hall put an advertisement in the paper and hoped that someone would come. Several people did come to the initial service in Eberbach, and after a year five people have been baptized.

Another place we preached was in Bruchsal, to the south of Heidelberg. After the service here, two ladies said, “You preach what we believe.” I supposed that my German was so poor that they had not understood me. A week later, after the second service in Bruchsal, these two ladies still maintained that we preached what they already believed. We found that a small group was meeting in their homes. They told us about Albert Pfitzenmeier, an old German farmer, who began the work in Bruchsal. It seems that Albert Pfitzenmeier was wounded during the first world war. He had to lie in bed for many months. During this time he began to read his Bible. He learned to love the Bible. He read it all during the 1920’s and the 1930’s. In 1936, a wandering German evangelist came through the little town where he lives. There are many wandering evangelists in Germany. This evangelist preached the gospel plan of salvation. When Albert Pfitzenmeier heard it, he recognized that here was what he had been reading in his Bible all along. So he and his wife, along with some of their friends, went out at midnight and were baptized in a muddy stream. They felt they had to do it at night out of fear of the people. A group has continued to meet in Albert Pfitzenmeier’s front room to the present time. He brought together the group in Bruchsal, and a group in Karlesruhe, which worships with the brethren where Reiner Kallus preaches.

Dieter Alten, who was here in the states, is in Mann-heim, Germany. I wish you could see Dieter getting on his motorcycle and going across Germany in all kinds of weather to preach. Dieter has done some very effective meeting work. He held a meeting last summer in Hindley, England. A new building is nearing completion in Mannheim, constructed by the Charlotte Avenue church in Nashville.

Fred Casmir, who was also in the states, is in Hep- penheim, Germany. It has been very difficult working there, due to the Catholic influence. But, of late, this work has made good progress. Recently, there were over 70 different people attending the various Bible classes and services which Fred holds. A few weeks ago, a lady drove up in front of the church building in Heppenheim and asked to see Herr Casmir. She told him that her husband owned a factory, and had built a church building for some of his employees. She wanted Fred to come and give them instruction on how to set up a New Testament church. Fred went to their services. He baptized some of them. He persuaded them to partake of the Lord’s Supper regularly, and to give up instrumental music. One young man in this group plans to preach the gospel.

Another of the young men who studied here in the states is Hans Novak. He and his wife spent a year working in Stuttgart, but they were persuaded by brethren stationed in the US Army near Kaiserlau- tern to come and work with them. The first group which met in the French Zone was in Pirmasens, where M-Sgt. Jim Capps gathered a few soldiers together. They persuaded Dieter Gobel to come hold his first gospel meeting. All arrangements were made and literature was passed around Pirmasens announcing the meeting. And only one or two came to church. But one night a whole crowd came. It was a little church group. They liked what Dieter preached and decided to come back the next night. But this time they brought their fiddles, guitars, mandolins, and everything else which one could use to make a joyful noise to the Lord. Of course, the brethren could not let them use these things. They went off in a huff. But some of them are meeting with the church in Pirmasens now. This little work in Pirmasens was a real test of faith. It looked like it could not continue. Many brethren assisted in that work. Even Dr. Schug frequently rode the German trains down to Pirmasens from Frankfurt, preached, and arrived late at night back in Frankfurt. After Jim Capps was transferred by the army, George Daniel was there a while and carried on that work.

There are now five congregations of varying sizes in Frankfurt. The Bornheim congregation is the oldest in Frankfurt and has some very capable German leaders in it. Dieter Fritsche preaches in Bornheim. Otis Gatewood is working with the Bokenheim congregation. Dr. Howard L. Schug and Hugh Mingle spend part of them time working with this congregation. This is one of the fastest growing congregations in Germany. Roy Palmer works with the Nie- derrad and Saxenhausen congregations. The Saxen-hausen church has also been growing well lately. It is one of the newest congregations in Frankturt. Dieter Fritsche preaches for a little group in Offenbach, a large industrial section of greater Frankfurt. Irene Johnson and Georgia Carver teach children m the Bokenheim

There a number of young German preachers who have not had the opportunity to visit the USA. They are all gaining experience daily and developing into good preachers. Rudy Walzebuch is in Stuttgart, working alongside of John Hadley. Klaus Gobbelo is in Heidelberg, working with Delmar Bunn. Lucian Botcher is in Hanau, working with Bob Helston. Gunther Rochtroh is in Wiesbaden, working with Loyd Collier. Ludwig Hopfl and Otto Miller are working in Munich.

Behind the “iron curtain” there is a congregation in Leipzig, Germany. Ulrich Steiniger, who learned the truth in Africa from George Hook, was used of the Lord to bring this little group together. There are about a dozen members in Leipzig. They meet secretly in their homes. Brother Ste'iniger has now returned to Africa and is working with Eldred Echols in Port Elizabeth.

Munich has two congregations. Ted and Jack Nadeau are working with them in the “down-town” congregation. Bob Hare and Gottfried Reichel preach for the Munich-Laim congregation. Brother Hare also preaches in Salzburg Austria. He drives a hundred miles to preach every Sunday, in addition to his work in Munich. Ted Nadeau carries on preaching work in Augsburg, in addition to his other duties.

One of the newest works in Germany is in Hamburg. A year ago Dieter and Margaret Gobel moved to Hamburg. A nice hall has been rented for services and a good nucleus has been brought together. There are about two dozen members of the church in Hamburg. Don Finto and Weldon Bennett and their families have moved there. They are carrying on an aggressive program.

We feel that the Lord has blessed the work in Germany. There are now about twenty-two congregations of German brethren, and around twenty little soldier congregations. Thirteen German men are preaching full time, and several others are preparing themselves to preach. Much has been accomplished, and there is much more to be done. My wife and I are planning to go into Berlin when we return to Germany. There is no congregation in Berlin. There is one member there. He is Dieter Abendroth, who visited in Granite, Oklahoma and was baptized by E. E. Mitchel. Brother Abendroth teaches in the public schools in Berlin. The Herring Avenue congregation in Waco, Texas is undertaking to send us to Berlin.

Otis Gatewood and I were in Berlin a few months ago. There are 3,000,000 people there. We saw wide streets with street-cars and double-decker buses. We found many large sections where one sees no scars left by the war. We saw one street, where for thirty-six blocks there are nothing but retail stores. One can buy fur coats, suits, shoes, jewelry, groceries, fruits from Southern Europe, furniture, radios, ice boxes, T V sets, and automobiles. The people in West Berlin come and go as they choose. They have the right of assembly and freedom of speech. There is every indication that this would be a receptive field.

Berlin might be the gateway to East Germany. Americans cannot go into Russian held territory, but many devious ways can be found to make contacts over there. We stood by a bridge which spans a river that separates the Rusian sector from the American sector of Berlin. Within 10 minutes we counted 200 people who went back and forth. They were not being stopped. We asked a West Berlin policeman if these people were in danger going back and forth. He said they were not as long as they did not try to take something with them. If they carry packages they will be stopped. He said that most of the people hide what they want to take in their clothing. We asked this policeman if we could stand at the crossing point and pass out tracts to the people going into the Russian sector. He said we could, but suggested that we go around the corner so the people would have time to hide them in their pockets. We asked him if we could put up a tent for a meeting near the border and if people would come over to attend. He said he thought they might come over, since many people do come to West Berlin on Sunday just to go to church. He suggested, however, that we go a few blocks back away from the border to put up the tent. Where the likelihood would be lessened that people who come over would be spotted by spies from the East. It could be dangerous for people from East Berlin to have very much to do with Americans.

Churches in Berlin might be a stepping stone to the future. One of these days that old “iron curtain” is going to go rolling back. How fine it would be if, when it rolls back, brethren could go from Berlin to all parts of East Germany, and possibly to the countries East of Germany.

There are many opportunities now in Europe and in many places in the world. The large industrial cities of the Ruhr Valley are virgin territory for the church. Bremen and Bremerhaven have no churches. There ought to be congregations in Denmark, and Scandinavia. There are many places in southern Germany where there are no congregations. Two young men are returning this year to Switzerland to preach in their native city of Zurich. There ought to be congregations in Basel, Lucerne, and Geneva and other places in Switzerland. There are no preachers in Austria. The opportunities now in Austria equal those in Germany. I believe a way could be found to preach in Greece. The church of God people have built a building in Athens, Greece, and have, they say, people hanging from the rafters. Salonika, on the north shore of Greece, has around a million people. I believe that someone could collect the names of people in Greece known to brethren in the states and visit these people speaking to sizable crowds every night, perhaps through an interpreter.

There has never been a time since the first century that equals our day ’in opportunities abroad. American ideas, ideals, products, and army personnel are scattered everywhere. May God give the church the courage and strength to go in through the doors which he has opened.