ABSTRACT
In the years since 1989, the Protestant Church in East Germany has undergone—one might say suffered—a peculiar transformation in the eyes of the public. Celebrated at first as "the mother of the Revolution', it is now accused of having been a 'pillar of the system'. Those in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) who actively professed the Protestant faith find the situation absurd. In 1989, the Protestant Church in the East had neither a program for reshaping the GDR nor one for German unification. It did, however, much to the annoyance of the Socialist Unity Party, maintain its particular sense of community with the churches in the Federal Republic. The unification of Germany, a union of two most unequal partners, has brought momentous change to the East. The Protestant Church itself had difficulty adjusting to reunification. In some areas, the Church was convinced that it was superior to its counterpart in the West.