The dictatorial measures directed against us soon became known and, although the press was issued no invitation, numerous reporters showed up to write sensational stories about the Communists’ attempts to keep the Witnesses from getting to Berlin. On Saturday evening the branch overseer, Erich Frost, read a resolution to the assembled thousands, and it was reported on that same evening over RIAS, the American radio station in Berlin. Brother Frost outlined their courageous stand with the words: “Is Bolshevism better than other systems? Do the Communists believe they must finish what Hitler started? We are just as unafraid of the Communists as we were of the Nazis!”

The resolution passed at the Berlin district assembly included a sharp protest against the undemocratic and unconstitutional bans and the limitation of religious services in Saxony and the confiscation of rooms used for such. This resolution was sent with an accompanying letter, dated August 3, to the top Soviet military administration of Germany in Berlin. Copies were also sent to 4,176 prominent public officials or those having to do with daily newspapers, radio stations, news agencies, and so forth, both in Berlin and in West and East Germany. So everyone’s attention was called to the Communists’ drive and to the steadfastness of true Christians.

Lothar Wagner was one of the brothers who was sentenced to a long prison term in 1950. He vividly describes how he was able to maintain his integrity during seven years of solitary confinement:

“August 30, 1950, I was arrested in Plau, Mecklenburg, and on October 4, 1950, sentenced to fifteen years in a penitentiary by the high court of the DDR in Berlin. Due to the unrest in Hungary in 1956 the sentence was reduced to ten years.

“These ten years (and six weeks of detention pending investigation, which were not deducted from the sentence) I spent in the penitentiary in Brandenburg-Görden. There I was released on October 3, 1960.

“During this time I spent seven years in solitary confinement. In the first three years the only contact I had with the outside world was one letter, the size of a half sheet of typing paper, consisting of fifteen lines, which I was allowed to write and receive each month​—depending on whether the contents were approved by the police or not. Until 1958 work was considered a privilege​—therefore I was not allowed to work. From 1958 it was considered a punishment​—then I had to work.

“When one is in solitary confinement for so many years there is one main enemy, among many other vexations, against which one has to fight​—the time. Time has to be conquered.

“I solved this problem of time in the following manner: Unity strengthens, this is also true of time. If the entire period of imprisonment totaling fifteen years is considered in one unit, one is nearly crushed by this volume of time, because it is simply beyond our imagination and this immense span of time confronts one like a monster. One has to try to gain the upper hand and make time submissive. When rulers of this world try to rule a large number of people they cannot master, they often follow the principle: divide and rule!

“With regard to time I applied this principle; I divided the time. I reckoned not with years or months, yes, not even with weeks or days, but, rather, at the most, with hours. In the morning at say 7:00 o’clock I didn’t ask myself: What shall I do today? but, What shall I do until 9:00 o’clock?

“Suddenly everything looked different. One or two hours were not fear inspiring, I could easily keep the upper hand that long. But there was still another problem: With what should one fill out the time? Paper and pencil could not be obtained. The only real occupation was keeping the cell clean and eating. Even if one did both of these thoroughly and as slowly as possible still one could not fill out the entire day with them. Naturally all branches of Theocratic service, from personal study to international conventions, house-to-house service to public lectures, were shared in to the extent possible in thoughts. But despite everything there were often one or two hours of the day where there was nothing to do, and these were the most dangerous because, due to carelessness, despondency or dejection one could easily demolish all that one had laboriously built up the entire day.

“One day I discovered a ‘clock,’ which was a help to me for many years, in applying this dangerous, unproductive time in a useful way. I discovered that there were still two hours until dinner time. I walked back and forth in my cell, five steps forward and five steps back and while doing so I sang Kingdom songs. When I finished the 30th song the door opened and dinner was served. I had concentrated on the text of the songs and did not even notice that time had slipped by. That was a discovery that saved me from experiencing monotony and dejection for many years. For several weeks I concentrated on completing my storehouse of Kingdom songs. When I did not know the text exactly I simply made up one or two stanzas. I used melodies of worldly songs that I liked to make Kingdom songs by thinking up a theocratic text. Thus I finally had 100 Kingdom songs in my collection, all numbered, which I could sing. One song lasted exactly four minutes, so I could figure out exactly how many songs I had to sing to span a certain amount of time. Throughout the years I sang at least two hours daily, that would be thirty Kingdom songs. I thus once had the possibility to sing the whole day from morning until evening when I didn’t feel like doing anything else. What an abundance of encouraging and upbuilding thoughts our Kingdom songs contain! When one uses the text of each song as an outline one can easily make a talk from each song​—a further possibility to fill out time without suffering spiritually. One can truly say our Kingdom songs are food at the proper time.

“I am very thankful to Jehovah that with the help of his spirit I was able to remain spiritually strong these ten years of being cut off from his organization. I would like to encourage everyone to show proper appreciation for all spiritual food that is given us since we do not know just how it will be of value to us at some time. If we regularly consume the spiritual food at the proper time, it will help us in times of special difficulties, in which we stand alone, to put our trust in Jehovah and endure steadfast on his side.”

From September 1, 1955, to August 31, 1961, the Society maintained a beautiful branch office in West Berlin, which made it possible to give better attention to the special circumstances of this divided city. It also proved to be a good arrangement to have close organizational ties between West Berlin and East Germany.

These ties between Jehovah’s witnesses living in East Germany and East Berlin and the West were adversely affected by a turn of events in 1961 over which the Witnesses personally had no control. Shortly after the war, an ever-growing stream of refugees left East Germany and went to West Berlin and West Germany, generally out of dissatisfaction with the regime’s policies. Since the East German authorities did not permit their citizens to travel out of the country, they crossed the “green border” secretly as refugees. The authorities tried to counteract this flow of refugees by increasing border controls, checking persons in trains and on the streets as well as through stricter laws against “fleeing the republic.” A comparatively convenient way to cross into the West was through the Eastern sector of Berlin. By the first half of 1961 the flow of refugees had increased to 20,000 persons a month; in July it surpassed 30,000. A total of more than three million residents, one sixth of the total population, had left their property and possessions in East Germany and fled as refugees to West Berlin and West Germany.

To prevent a further deserting of their territory the Communist authorities took rigorous action. Early on the morning of August 13, 1961, they began to build a wall of cement and barbed wire, with a leveled-off “death strip” and automatic alarm systems and guards, ready to shoot, along the 50-kilometer-long border between the Eastern and Western sectors of the city as well as along the 120-kilometer-long border between the three Western sectors and East Germany. This tightened the noose around West Berlin and suddenly stopped the heavy traffic that, despite controls, was still moving between the two sections of the city. Jehovah’s witnesses living in East Germany could no longer obtain literature by traveling to West Berlin or Communicate with the branch office there, nor could they attend assemblies held in West Germany.

Of course, obtaining literature had not been easy even before. Taking literature into eastern Germany was prohibited by the Communist authorities, and was therefore punishable. When the Society’s Biblical literature was found on brothers during checks made at the border, they had to reckon with long prison terms. Such trips, therefore, required strong faith and a complete trust in Jehovah.

From the start of persecution in 1950 until the “Berlin Wall” was built in 1961, East German authorities arrested 2,897 of Jehovah’s witnesses; 2,202 of them, including 674 sisters, were haled before courts and sentenced to a total of 12,013 years in prison or an average of five and a half years apiece. During their imprisonment thirty-seven brothers and thirteen sisters died due to maltreatment, sickness, malnutrition and old age. Twelve brothers were originally sentenced to life imprisonment, but this was later reduced to fifteen years.

The East German brothers quickly adjusted to the new situation brought about by the “Berlin Wall.” Other means were employed to supply them with the necessary spiritual food and they continued their Christian ministry with great zeal. Obviously the Communist authorities had not expected this. They tried to infiltrate the organization with spies who visited persons known to be Jehovah’s witnesses and claimed they were brothers sent by the Society to help adjust the work to the changed circumstances. But the brothers were well trained; they immediately recognized the individuals as spies.

In the course of the years the number of brothers arrested and sentenced dropped sharply. Only fifteen new arrests of Jehovah’s witnesses occurred in 1963 and nine in 1964, whereas during the same two years ninety-six and forty-eight brothers were released after long prison terms. In the summer of 1964 four brothers who had been imprisoned for many years had an unexpected surprise. Originally sentenced to life imprisonment, they were suddenly released and sent to West Germany. They arrived just in time for an assembly. They felt they were dreaming. Just a few days before, they had been in the bleak penitentiaries of East Germany where one only dreamed of being able to assemble with the brothers in freedom. And now they were experiencing the sudden fulfillment of this desire hidden in their hearts. Two of the brothers, Friedrich Adler and Wilhelm Engel, were members of the Bethel family in Magdeburg. Friedrich Adler was arrested and imprisoned in 1950, two months before the work was banned, whereas Wilhelm Engel was one of those arrested when Bethel was seized on August 30, 1950. Brother Engel was turned over to the Red Cross on the Berlin Sector border due to his poor health. He was immediately taken to a hospital where he died a few weeks later. These brothers had already been in prison up to nine years under Hitler’s regime and had thus endured all together twenty-three years’ imprisonment because of their faith. Friedrich Adler again took up Bethel service, this time in Wiesbaden. He was able to look back over a long and eventful life in full-time service, having already served back in the 1920’s as a pilgrim brother. Weakened by his long imprisonment, he ended his earthly course in December 1970.

In November 1964 the Communist Authorities delivered the brothers in East Germany a new blow. Military conscription had been introduced for all citizens some time previous to this. The young brothers had refused military service, but they were generally handled with consideration and their attitude was respected. But now suddenly, under cover of early morning darkness, 142 brothers were arrested. This unexpected change in the handling of their cases constituted a test of faith for these young brothers. They were put into a work camp. First, an attempt was made to get them to work as “construction soldiers,” a type of substitute military service, but this they unitedly refused. Despite punishment they remained steadfast, and such coercion attempts were dropped. They had to perform hard work in railroad construction, working from four in the morning until nine at night. When not working they received instruction intended to convince them that the responsible men among Jehovah’s witnesses were Western agents. Most of the young brothers had become acquainted with the truth after the work had already been banned and the authorities were astounded that they would find young people fearlessly standing up for the principles of true Christianity despite the massive indoctrination of youths with Communistic, atheistic ideas.

During 1965 the watching and molesting of our brothers by spies and secret agents of the ministry for state security increased sharply. Many homes were searched, brothers were stopped on the streets and interrogated. Secret bugging systems were installed in automobiles and homes, yes, even in the brothers’ bedrooms. The authorities endeavored to give the brothers the impression that every move they made was known to the authorities.

Of course, the authorities were successful in gleaning many a detail by “listening” to the guileless conversations of the brothers. When hearings were conducted the secret police tried to make it appear that the information they had gathered about the work had been received from the “capitalistic world,” thus inferring a certain thoughtlessness among the brothers there. They were thereby trying to sow seeds of doubt and mistrust concerning the Governing Body and the brothers in the Society’s offices. But the brothers did not let themselves be disturbed by this and, in the course of time, they began to realize ever better how tight the spy net was that had been drawn around them.

This became especially apparent when one November day in 1965, early in the morning, the homes of brothers all over the country were occupied by groups of eight officers and searched for several hours. Fifteen brothers who were considered “ringleaders” were arrested and kept in jail for between nine and thirteen months until they were charged and brought up for trial. In 1966 they received sentences of up to twelve years, the average being more than seven years.

While these brothers were being treated like desperate criminals, the secret police were hunting down others who had been preaching the good news and gathering together to worship Jehovah in small groups just as the brothers sentenced had been doing. They made them the offer that if they would file a report on their activity and submit the names of those participating in the ministry​—this for the purpose of state security—​they could continue to meet together in small groups, have their Bible literature and keep in touch with their brothers in other countries. But the brothers rejected the authorities’ insincere offer. One of the officers moaned: “We thought that we had taken away your leaders, but now we have only succeeded in losing sight of your work.”

In the course of 1969, after approximately four years of imprisonment, fourteen of the fifteen brothers arrested in the 1965 campaign were suddenly released. The majority were sent to West Germany. The last one of the group was arbitrarily kept in prison for another year, until September 1970.