Conventions of Jehovah’s Witnesses were held in major cities across Eastern Europe during the summer of 1990. The Olympia Stadium in what was then West Berlin was the site of one convention attended by Witnesses from many nations, including eastern Germany. It is estimated that of the 44,532 in attendance, some 30,000 were from eastern Germany. The newspaper Berliner Morgenpost reported that 1,017 new Witnesses were baptized in the Olympic swimming pool, using total immersion in water, the method by which “the participants closely stick to the pattern of the primitive Christians.”

For the 1990 “Pure Language” Conventions, over 17,000 delegates from the Soviet Union attended the Russian sessions in Warsaw in representation of all the Witnesses spread throughout the Soviet Union. They look forward to the day when it will be possible to hold conventions in the Soviet Union.

District conventions with the worldwide theme for 1990 of “Pure Language” were held in the cities of Brasov and Cluj-Napoca. The program was presented in Romanian and Hungarian. Over 36,000 were present, and 1,445 were baptized.

In nearby Bulgaria, where the Eastern Orthodox religion predominates, the Witnesses do not yet have legal recognition but are renting rooms for their congregation meetings. Over two hundred traveled down to Salonika, Greece, for the “Pure Language” Convention held in Bulgarian and Greek.

To cover the major regions of the country, “Pure Language” Conventions were held in Pecs, Miskolc, Debrecen, and Budapest. Some 2,000 who spoke Hungarian came from Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. To underline the international unity of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a group of 700 visiting delegates attended from Finland. The total attendance in Hungary was 21,568, including upwards of 2,000 Romanian delegates.

A convention was held in Prague in August 1990, with an attendance of 23,876, and 1,824 were baptized. To make the stadium presentable for the convention, over 9,500 Witnesses voluntarily spent over 58,000 hours in cleaning and painting. A representative of Czechoslovak TV commented: “We have visited many social events, but we admire your organization here in the stadium. We can hardly believe that you are organizing such a gathering for the first time.” A visitor said: “I admire the spiritual atmosphere, cordial relations, and love among your brothers. I came as a friend; I leave as an even greater one.”

[Box on page 8, 9]

Religious Freedom At Last!

The following are comments by Witnesses from former East Germany who attended the “Pure Language” Convention in Berlin, July 1990.

“My name is Lydia. I am eight years old, and I come from the GDR [German Democratic Republic]. I am very happy to be attending this district convention because a year ago, the borders were not open. We had to celebrate the Memorial secretly. This time free! When everyone starts singing, the tears come. I am so excited I will just have to tell about it at school!”

“We are filled with gratefulness and appreciation for being Jehovah’s guests here in Berlin amid an international brotherhood.”​—Bernd.

“That GDR brothers were also on the program points up a special aspect: Jehovah trains and qualifies his people even when they are under ban.”​—Gottfried.

“The applause and the singing showed that everyone was happy. It was a roaring sound that inwardly swept a person off his feet. How Jehovah must have rejoiced!”​—Egon.

“After my baptism some of the brothers asked if the water had been very cold. I could only answer that I didn’t know. The blessing of Jehovah was so warm that I hardly noticed the temperature of the water.”​—Heidrun.

“The atmosphere in the dormitory accommodations was indescribable! From Denmark, Mozambique, England, California, southern Germany, Spain, GDR​—all of us sang together, all of us were speaking the ‘pure language.’”​—Jutta.

“We always related to our children the memories of the 1958 and 1960 Berlin conventions, the last we were able to attend. But what we now experienced surpassed all our memories and expectations.”​—Wolfgang.

“What impressed us most was when thousands stood up to sing and praise Jehovah, especially during the closing song and prayer. We could no longer hold back our tears.”​—Monika and Reinhard.

[Pictures on page 9]

Convention activities: (from lower left, clockwise) presenting new brochure in Warsaw; Hungarian and Romanian platforms, Budapest; taking notes, Berlin; preconvention stadium facelift, Prague

[Pictures on page 10]

Convention activities: (from left, clockwise) baptism, Romania; stadium, Prague; family with “Mankind’s Search for God” book in Berlin; speaker in Budapest; examining the Bible in Poland