Growing up the Soviet-sponsored socialist dictatorship, Angela Kasner faced the extra difficulties of being a Jesus follower under an explicitly atheistic government.
People of faith faced a complex and changing situation in East Germany. At times, the persecution was severe and direct: those who spoke about Jesus or read the New Testament were harassed and jailed.
At other times, the government attempted to present itself as tolerant. Jesus followers were allowed to gather for discussion, prayer, worship, and sermons. But they paid a price even during the lenient phases: they were held to menial places of employment, lower wages, and usually denied a chance to study at the university.
Even at the best of times, Jesus followers were subjected to constant surveillance by the Stasi, the East German secret police. Stasi is short for Staatssicherheit, meaning ‘state security.’ The full official name of the spy agency was Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, abbreviated MfS.
Angela’s father was a pastor, and was allowed to speak to groups during the lenient phases. But he was always subject to the pressure of the government, which proclaimed atheism as the official belief of the nation. Historian Stefan Kornelius writes:
Young Angela Kasner’s world was quite straightforward. It consisted of her mother, father, brother and sister, the Waldhof and its various businesses, and the road outside. Sometimes Angela crossed the road to go to the nearby shop and wait for her father, who was usually out and about. “I didn’t venture any farther,” she said. As a little girl she didn’t go to a creche or kindergarten, and was afraid of horses – these are Angela Merkel’s earliest memories. The Waldhof, a complex of residential and farm buildings, storehouses and workshops, was like an island in the idyllic little town of Templin. In 1957 her father, Horst Kasner, was asked to set up a college for Church administration, later known as the Pastoral College, and act as its head teacher. Curates and pastors would visit the Waldhof for several weeks to train or attend seminars on preaching. The Waldhof was an important institution for the Protestant Church in the State of Berlin-Brandenburg – it could be claimed that every pastor in the Church at the time would have been taught by Horst Kasner at some point in his life.
Angela decided that she would work against the official policies of the government, but quietly. She was determined that her personal faith would not prevent her from studying at the university.
She had declined to take part in the Jugendweihe - the communist party’s official ‘coming of age’ ceremony for young people - and instead sought the rite of confirmation among her fellow believers. At school, although she was not a vocal revolutionary, she did make comments which could be interpreted as being critical of the government; the university initially denied her admission for this reason.
Using her personal networks and those of her father, using her determination, and using her skills at negotiating and persuading, she managed to gain admission to the University of Leipzig in 1973.
At the Universität Leipzig, Angela Merkel (she had married by this time) became fluent in the Russian language, but her major fields of study were chemistry and physics. She earned her doctorate in these fields.
Her desire for freedom manifested itself in her desire to travel. Citizens of the Soviet-dominated ‘satellite’ countries were allowed to journey only to a small and specific set of destinations, and then only under close supervision and under certain conditions.
Even under those conditions, however, Angela Merkel wanted to see as much of the world as she could. Historians Alan Crawford and Tony Czuczka write:
As a young woman, Angela Kasner would set out from East Berlin each summer on a pilgrimage to the furthermost reaches of where it was permitted to go. While others left to tend the fruit trees and berry bushes of their countryside dachas, Angela traveled south through Dresden, where the wartime remains of the Baroque Frauenkirche were visible from the railway station, on to the faded capital of the Czechoslovak Republic, where the Prague Spring had long since reverted to winter. From there, she went to Bratislava on the Danube river, which formed the border with Austria and the unattainable West, then on to Budapest, where she occasionally mingled with the few Western visitors who visited; some told her the city’s parliament building and river setting reminded them of far-off London.
Sometimes, those who have always had much liberty love it the least, because they haven’t experienced life without it.
And sometimes, those who’ve had the least liberty love it the most.
Having inherited both faith and courage from her parents, Angela Merkel gained admission to the university when circumstances suggested that she’d spend her life doing menial labor; she travelled as far as possible, stretching the narrow confines which the socialist dictatorship sought to impose upon her.
At that time, she was a scientist, spending her days with chemistry and physics. She did not like the harsh rule of communists, but was also not a revolutionary, and did not plan the end of Soviet-style socialism.
She did not know, and nobody else knew, that within a few years, the oppressive government would topple, and that she would eventually become the leader of a new and free Germany.
