Religious, nonreligious, and faith-based activism in the rebuilding of the Garrison Church in Potsdam

ABSTRACT

The aim of this contribution is to further understanding of how religious materiality becomes a focus of activism. Religion is present in a variety of ways in a secularised public space, and various people focus their activism around this presence – there are those who identify themselves as believers, those for whom religion is a part of cultural heritage, as well as those for whom religious materiality is mostly about aesthetics and cultural pleasures. In order to show a range of possible argumentations and motivations, I analyse just one event in a very complex story of the reconstruction of the tower of the Garrison Church in Potsdam, looking at various activist groups that took part in it. All these groups focus their activism around the rebuilding of a church – an ostensibly religious building – which is among the most prominent, but also the most controversial projects of this kind in contemporary Germany. This contribution brings into focus those elements of this long-term and unfinished debate that shed light on our understanding of religion-centred activism and proposes a differentiation between nonreligious and faith-based activism, as forms of religious activism.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious activism
• nonreligious activism
• faith-based activism
• Germany
• Garrison Church
• reconstruction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The research for this contribution was funded by grant 2019/33/B/HS3/02136 of the National Science Centre in Poland. The evaluation process included a consideration of ethical issues related to the project and the project has been approved. All materials included in this contribution are freely available in the public domain. Research is conducted using standard anthropological methods such as participant observation, interviewing, observation during public events, and digital ethnography.

2. The most important websites containing relevant materials include: https://garnisonkirche-potsdam.de, http://lernort-garnisonkirche.de/, https://ohnegarnisonkirche.wordpress.com/, and http://potsdam-stadtfueralle.de/, https://www.christen-brauchen-keine-garnisonkirche.de/erklaerung.html, accessed 04 March 2021.

3. https://www.potsdam.de/sites/default/files/documents/statistischer_jahresbericht_2019_landeshauptstadt_potsdam.pdf_online_0.pdf, accessed 02 March 2021.

4. https://www.ekd.de/ekd_de/ds_doc/Ber_Kirchenmitglieder_2020.pdf.

5. Stephen Brown, ‘“Säkulare Realität” Ostdeutschlands ist neue Herausforderung für reformatorische Tradition’, Ökumenischer Rat der Kirchen, 30 May 2016. Available at: https://www.oikoumene.org/de/news/east-germanys-secular-reality-a-new-challenge-to-reformation-tradition.

6. Menschen haben vergessen, dass sie Gott vergessen haben.

7. Martin Kugler ‘Menschen haben vergessen, dass sie Gott vergessen haben‘ Die Presse 18 November 2008. Available at https://www.diepresse.com/431291/bdquomenschen-haben-vergessen-dass-sie-gott-vergessen-habenldquo; Karin Vorländer ‘Schon vergessen, dass sie Gott vergessen haben?‘ Public Forum 23 June 2000. Available at: https://www.publik-forum.de/Publik-Forum-12-2000/schon-vergessen-dass-sie-gott-vergessen-haben.

8. https://www.ekd.de/faltblaetter-kirchen-und-kapellen-44500.htm.

9. See e.g. https://transara.de/, accessed 18 February 2022.

10. By that time, it was already clear that reconstruction would start from the church tower. This was probably a result of one strategy of argumentation, which underlined that the rebuilding is necessary to restore a city skyline marked by three characteristic church towers.

11. https://garnisonkirche-potsdam.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Website/Dokument/Ueber_uns/Nutzungskonzept_1__2001.pdf, accessed 02 March 2021.

12. https://garnisonkirche-potsdam.de/en/the-project/guiding-idea/, accessed 02 March 2021.

13. This community is part of the network of the Cross of Nails Centres, devoted to reconciliation work: https://nagelkreuz.org/portfolio-item/potsdam-garnisonskirche, accessed 02 March 2021.

14. Mike Schubert became mayor of Potsdam at the end of November 2018, taking over from Jann Jacobs, who served at this post between 2002 and 2018.

15. The recording of this City Council Hearing is available at https://www.potsdam.de/video-des-livestreams-der-ausserordentlichen-sitzung-des-hauptausschusses-zum-anhoerungsverfahren, accessed on 26 February 2021.

16. There were at least 60 churches demolished in the GDR at roughly the same time as the Garrison Church: Arnold Bartezky, ‘Kirchenabrisse in der DDR – Motive, Umstände, Folgen’, presentation in the Nagelkreuzkappelle in Potsdam, 17 September 2020.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Centre in Poland under Grant Opus 2019/33/B/HS3/02136.

Notes on contributors

Agnieszka Halemba

Agnieszka Halemba is a social anthropologist focusing on the study of religion with long-term fieldwork in Siberia, Transcarpathian Ukraine, and Eastern Germany. At present she leads the Anthropology Undisciplined Research Unit at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and teaches at the University of Potsdam in Germany. She has authored two ethnography-based monographs: The Telengits of Southern Siberia: Landscape, Religion and Knowledge in Motion (Routledge 2006) and Negotiating Marian Apparitions: The Politics of Religion in Transcarpathian Ukraine (CEU Press 2015).