Roland Geipel

Roland Geipel (born April 15, 1939 in Werdau , Saxony) is a retired Protestant pastor in Gera ( Thuringia ). He was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for his civil and social commitment, especially in the former GDR . In 2019 he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Gera.

As a longtime organizer of prayers for peace and an independent from state control youth and social work in Thuringia created Geipel during the communist era freedom for religious and social dialogue, in which before the turn of 1989, opposition to the political regime in East Berlin and the Stasi surveillance of large parts of the population could form. Geipel was also involved in the work of the disabled, the preservation of creation and culture; and, especially after reunification, in initiatives to come to terms with the totalitarian past in Thuringia as well as internal German understanding and integration.

life and work

After finishing school, Geipel completed an apprenticeship as a motor vehicle mechanic. Sporty and musically gifted and a fan of the bebop and rock and roll music, which was officially suspected in the GDR at the time , he experienced first conflicts with the state security during his apprenticeship. In 1957 he went on vacation to Mainz and decided to leave the GDR. He fled to West Germany via West Berlin and soon after took a job as a car mechanic at Volkswagen . In 1964/65, Geipel acquired the technical college entrance qualification in a one-year vocational training period . During this time he dealt intensively with the life and work of Friedrich von Bodelschwingh . He did an old-language Abitur at the Ketteler-Kolleg Mainz and made the decision to study theology . On a visit to the GDR in 1965 he met his future wife Susanne; because of her he moved back to the GDR in 1969.

Since his return to the GDR, Geipel has been under constant surveillance, and since the 1980s has also been at the center of " disruptive measures " by the Ministry for State Security . After internment in the Saasa reception center, Geipel initially found work in the Gera motor vehicle repair shop. Since September 1969 he studied Protestant theology in Jena and completed his vicariate in Gera- Debschwitz . He was in alternating use ("Springer") in the church community and youth work, u. a. used in Halle-Neustadt . In 1976 he was ordained a pastor. From 1977 the parish began working in the new development area Gera-Lusan (with two other villages), one of the largest new development areas in the GDR.

The intensive engagement in the areas of religion, politics and art belong together for Geipel. It developed in its organization of the young community and the open youth work in Gera-Lusan since the end of the seventies; the planning and commissioning of the modern community center, which was inaugurated there in 1980; in the testing of modern forms of worship such as ventilation and environmental services and in the (co-) organization of poetry readings and concerts by critical and persecuted artists in the GDR (including Reiner Kunze , Stephan Krawczyk , Bettina Wegner , Freya Klier ). In addition, Geipel was involved in the work of the disabled, u. a. organizing mobility and travel for the disabled. Geipel also accompanied conscientious objectors ('construction soldiers') and young people in the GDR who were excluded as “anti-social”. His support from young intellectuals ( Ulrike Lorenz , Frank Rüdiger) and artists, u. a. From among the regime-critical conscientious objectors, environmentalists and the Gera puppet theater ( Michael Beleites , Karsten Dümmel , Jan Engel, Frank Karbstein, Kathrin Zimmer), he gained important allies in the commitment to demilitarization and an open society.

His church, social and civil rights engagement brought Geipel into constant conflict with the state authorities of the GDR; As a role model and advocate, he enabled or made it easier for dissidents, critical artists and many religious and religious seekers to survive in the atheistic GDR. Shortly before the upheaval in 1989, seven Stasi employees were assigned to Geipel. In 1988 an operational identity check (OPK) against Geipel was set up, which meant practically permanent surveillance. His Stasi files under the code name “Freiraum” show that the closest colleagues and superiors in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia , including a superintendent and a senior church councilor , were informal employees of the state security.

The peace prayers, which have been held regularly during and outside the church's peace decade in Geipel since 1980, often turned into public peace demonstrations in autumn 1989 that were opposed by the state. Geipel's support for the bearers and distributors of the pacifist sword-to-ploughshare symbol caused quite a stir in the final phase of the Cold War . The symbol was based on a monument designed by the Russian artist Yevgeny Viktorovich Vuchetich , which the Soviet Union had donated to the United Nations in 1959 and erected in front of its headquarters in New York . Geipel took part organisationally and moderated in numerous vigils and protest marches against the "armed peace policy" propagated by the GDR government. In his commitment to disadvantaged or persecuted members of religious communities as well as to peace, freedom of expression and freedom of movement, Geipel invoked the rights that the GDR government and the like. a. in Chapter VII ("Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief") of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (1973) in Helsinki , but often not in everyday practice was ready to implement.

Accompanied by candles of hope, songs, as well as biblical and poetic texts, the Gera peace rallies organized by Geipel became a mass movement and in 1989 culminated in the demonstrations leading to a peaceful revolution in the GDR. With great personal courage, Geipel committed himself in 1989 to the peaceful disarmament and dissolution of the units of the state security and district administration in Gera. At risk of death, Geipel prevented the storm of the Gera Stasi headquarters by angry protesters. Together with other peaceful civil rights activists such as Michael Beleites , he succeeded in confiscating extensive Stasi files before they were destroyed, and in disposing of weapons and ammunition from 22 armories.

From the winter of 1989 and in the following years, Geipel campaigned for constitutional reforms and restructuring in Gera and the emerging Free State of Thuringia . a. through his participation as a church representative in the Gera Citizens Committee . In 1994 he was promoted to the rank of pastor and deputy superintendent . In 2004 he retired and was awarded the “Silver Simson” from the city of Gera. After his retirement, Geipel became involved as a board member and sponsor of the Amthordpassgang Memorial and advocates for endangered historical buildings, among others. a. for village churches near Gera. He is also connected to the Evangelical Working Group for East-West Issues, whose peace and understanding work continued after 1989, especially in the German-Polish dialogue. In 2009, Federal President Horst Köhler presented him with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany . On the 30th anniversary of the reunification in the GDR, he was honored in November 2019 with the honorary citizenship of the city of Gera.

literature

• Udo Scheer: The principle of hope: Roland Geipel, pastor and civil rights activist. Amthord passage memorial, Gera 2013.