Plans for even larger conventions in Poland were under way when, on May 12, 1989, the government granted legal recognition to Jehovah’s Witnesses as a religious association.

More of Eastern Europe Opens Its Doors

Hungary granted legal status to Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1989. What was then the German Democratic Republic (GDR) removed its 40-year ban on the Witnesses in 1990, just four months after demolition of the Berlin Wall began. The following month the Christian Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Romania was officially recognized by the new Romanian government. In 1991 the Ministry of Justice in Moscow declared that the Charter of the “Religious Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the U.S.S.R.” was officially registered. That same year legal recognition was granted to the work of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Bulgaria. During 1992, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Albania were granted legal status.