Memorable Events in Germany

Startling events in the GDR (German Democratic Republic) in 1989 led to the fall of a seemingly unconquerable regime. Legal status was granted to Jehovah’s Witnesses on March 14, 1990, ending a 40-year ban on their activities.

During the ban, individuals had volunteered to carry literature over the border into the GDR. Each took great risks to serve others spiritually. One such brother was now on the dispatch team at Bautzen, serving his brothers under very different circumstances. Tears came to his eyes as he stood dwarfed by tons of the very same kind of literature that he had carried in piecemeal. Others recalled the bitter persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The prison at Bautzen, where many had been incarcerated, is within view of the building where the brothers were now freely distributing Christian literature.