Alternative Strategies in East and West?: The German Churches’ Responses to the Programme to Combat Racism in the 1970s

This article describes church reactions in the two German states in the 1970s to the Programme to Combat Racism of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The decision of the WCC in 1970 to support liberation movements in Southern Africa provoked a conflict between the WCC and the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) in West Germany. The Protestant Churches in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) supported the programme. The EKD sought to develop an alternative strategy based on talks with firms investing in South Africa and support for exclusively nonviolent organizations. The article describes this alternative strategy and its failure. The article reviews the analyses of ecumenist Ernst Lange (1927–74). It comments on South Africa’s transition to democracy and contemporary challenges in the light of the WCC 11th Assembly theme.