A Time for Rejoicing in the Balkans

It was 1922. A meeting by the Earnest Bible Students, as Jehovah’s Witnesses were then known, was being held in Innsbruck, Austria. In the audience was Franz Brand, a young man from Apatin in Vojvodina, Serbia. The moment the speaker mentioned God’s name, Jehovah, a mob started booing, making it impossible for him to continue, and the meeting was broken up. Yet, what Franz heard made a deep impression on him, and he took up the preaching of the Kingdom good news. These were the humble beginnings of exciting spiritual growth in one of the Balkan countries.

Spiritual Growth in the Balkans

Franz Brand was excited about the new truths he had heard and decided that he must spread the good news. He found work as a barber in Maribor, a city in Slovenia near the border of Austria, and started to preach to his customers, who usually sat and listened quietly as they were being shaved. As a result of his efforts, there came to be a small group of Kingdom proclaimers in Maribor in the late 1920’s. Bible talks were given in a restaurant, which was later appropriately named Novi svet (New World) Seafood Restaurant.