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The German Democratic Republic, 1949–90

The SED and the Protestant church

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 2

Overview

Recall questions on the church as the one institution outside SED control, the Jugendweihe, the 1978 agreement, and how it sheltered opposition.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

What was the position of the Protestant Church in the GDR?

Key term

What was the Jugendweihe?

Key term

What was the 1978 church-state agreement?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How did the state treat the Protestant Church?

    Model answer

    It first repressed the Church, then established a church-state dialogue.

  2. 2

    What was the position of the Protestant Church in the GDR?

    Model answer

    The only substantial institution outside SED control, tolerated because suppressing it would have been costly, and increasingly a shelter for dissent.

  3. 3

    How did the state attack religious practice?

    Model answer

    By restricting religious education, penalising churchgoing families in schooling and careers, and promoting the Jugendweihe against confirmation.

  4. 4

    What was the Jugendweihe?

    Model answer

    The secular coming-of-age ceremony at fourteen involving a pledge of loyalty to socialism, which the churches initially opposed and most families eventually accepted.

  5. 5

    What was the 1978 church-state agreement?

    Model answer

    Honecker's understanding allowing the church space to operate, including access to media and construction, in return for loyalty to the state.

  6. 6

    What was meant by the church within socialism?

    Model answer

    The formula by which the Protestant Church accepted the socialist state rather than opposing it, buying room for its own life and, unintentionally, for dissent.

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AThe government admitted 96 dead and 333 wounded.
BOther estimates run to several hundred dead.
COpponents claimed thousands.

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