Reflections on Democracy and Freedom

I have often wondered why we do not learn from our history. That is, until I realized that many people do not know our history. Even as a person who has lived more than 75 years on this earth, there are lots of things I do not know, just because I was not an eyewitness. I didn’t experience it myself. That is why we need monuments and museums and information that transmits to succeeding generations what it was like to live in a past era.

We need information now more than ever. The last survivors of the Shoah are old and will soon be gone. We need to hear and know their stories. The generation born after the fall of communism needs to hear what life was like for people who lived without freedom. The same could be applied to the whole world with its various experiences of suppression and discrimination.

Looking from my perspective in Western Europe, particularly in Germany, it is good to know that our constitution, our Grundgesetz, is based on democracy and equality. No matter what political parties make up the government, that is one thing that the parliament agrees on. The “never again” to anti-semitism is echoed again and again. However, the surge in extremism is a source of concern to all responsible people. That is one reason why it is so important to transmit to the population a sound knowledge of history and information about how democracy works.

Last week we had the opportunity to join a group on a trip to Berlin for political information. We visited the Reichstag (the seat of the parliament), the Jewish Museum, the Topography of Terror (the documentation center for crimes of the Nazi regime), memorials of the Berlin Wall, and the Stasi prison (East German secret Police). These left impressions that are hard to digest, but it is good to get first-hand information.

Not having lived in Berlin, whether east or west, the division of the city (and of course, the isolation of the German Democratic Republic - GDR) is something I have heard and read about but not experienced. I had seen the wall and we even once visited East Germany and faced the harassment at the border. But still, our visit to the ‘Tränenpalast’ (Palace of Tears) at the former border crossing at the Friedrichstrasse train station, made a deep impact on me. It helped me catch a glimpse of the emotional side of living under a dictatorship in a country without freedom.

After the uprising on June 17, 1953, repressed by Soviet tanks and the arrest of thousands of demonstrators, many East Germans sought to leave the country. The government tried to stop the mass migration to West Germany. During its existence from 1949 to 1990, the GDR population fell from 18.79 million people to around 16.43 million people despite the high birth rate in the GDR. With thousands crossing over to West Berlin each week, closing the border and building a wall, starting on August 13, 1961, seemed to be the only way to keep the nation from bleeding out.

While the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was founded in 1948 with democratic principles, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), founded in 1949, was democratic only in name and intended to be a communist bulwark in the time of the Cold War. The older generation still remembers what it was like to live in that restrictive community. It was a dictatorship hiding behind a farce of democracy, with a one-party system and threats and retribution to any opposition. Political prisoners could also be stripped of their citizenship, expelled and exchanged for Western currencies.

I hardly dare to suggest the comparison that comes to mind when I think of the world church I belong to. Maybe you will find similarities by yourself. The leadership is proud of the increasing numbers in the “population” with thousands if not millions of accessions through baptism each year. But at the same time, the statistics show a constant bleeding of members leaving the church. Instead of considering why people are leaving, the church is tightening its rule over its membership.

Learning from our history, we could see that the church in its early development used to be much more open and egalitarian. Unity in Diversity was possible. Today, the church is ruled by fear. Fear that everything will fall apart if freedom of thought and change is permitted.

The church structure is a sham democracy with hierarchical tendencies, and if we are to believe the address of the president at Annual Council (2023), it is divinely inspired. Opposition is not welcome, in fact, leaders who do not agree 100% with the leader, are encouraged to resign. If we look back at the efforts to enforce compliance, we can see how manipulative the leadership has become. We still do not see what steps are going to be taken based on new policies. It is no wonder that many are leaving the organized church. Staying might be a better solution if there were any hope of change coming.

Today the Nobel Peace Prize is being awarded to Narges Mohammadi in absentia. Her motto is: ‘Woman – Life –Freedom’. She says from her Iranian prison, “I gave up everything for my commitment.” She has fought for change in her country all her life. She is not the only one subjected to imprisonment in various countries for their commitment to freedom and democracy. We could learn a lot from political and social activists in the world who fight for change.