East Germany was under communist reign until 1989, the year of the fall of the Berlin wall. Under communism, people lived in religious oppression and atheism spread rapidly. In contrast to atheism in the West, where people decide to become atheists, people in East Germany as in the rest of Eastern Europe are simply born atheists. They have never heard about God. Some statistics estimate the percentage of atheism on East Germany to be over 88% - making it the most atheistic region in the world.
Communist oppression as well as the currently high unemployment rate has left many hopeless and addicted to alcohol. Christian values have declined. Racism is widespread as well as immorality. The value of marriage has been diminished; many couples simply live together and have children without getting married. With parents skipping the covenant promise of marriage, a high number of children and youth are left with unmarried parents, single parents, and/or revolving father figures.
After East and West Germany reunited, believers seized the opportunity to preach the gospel. Some evangelical churches have already been established in all of East Germany’s major cities. However, there are wide areas of the land without any evangelical presence.
Germany’s state church is also represented in both East and West Germany. State churches are either Roman Catholic or a form of Lutheran - the vast majority of these churches are nominal in their beliefs, not adhering to the basic truths of the gospel message.
Evangelical churches have found a great openness to the gospel among the youth especially. This coincides with Josiah Venture’s experience in other Central and Eastern European countries. During our time in Germany, we also found out that there is no formal youth ministry education in Germany - neither in universities, nor among churches. Hearing about Josiah Venture, the pastors and leaders we spoke to where highly interested in youth ministry training.
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