Here are some excerpts from an article that appeared in the June 1973 issue of the German women's magazine "Brigitte".  The two brothers in the article were good friends of mine from "Nolli". Please note the following minor inaccuracies in the article: Volkhard is spelled with a "d", not a "t". Also, Volkhard Spitzer does not speak with a typical "southern" German accent as the reporter contends, nor does he call himself "Reverend Spitzer".

DAUGHTERS AND SONS - A Brigitte series by Helga Leeb

(Translation by Bill Price)

D. and M. pray, read their Bibles every day, and seek to convert others.  They are convinced that their faith has made a change for the better in their lives.  D., who belongs to the Jesus People, says:

"Since becoming a Christian I don't beat up my brother any more"

... D., 17, a high school student,... has been with the Jesus people for two years now, a movement of young Christians that came to Germany from America in 1971 and which first found most of its adherents in Berlin...

...We are sitting in the room that D. shares with his brother. Over his bed hangs a cross and some posters which read "Jesus lives! God loves you! Wanted: Jesus of Nazareth!" Next to the door on a kind of desk lies an large open Bible. The rest is typical teenage paraphernalia: piles of records, books, messes, and a guitar. D. is telling me about his conversion. Through a jungle of tangled hair and beard he peers at me with a serious look and patiently answers my questions, almost giving the impression of someone trying to explain a mathematical problem to a helplessly ungifted individual. "It was in February, 1971. At the time I was 15 years old. A new girl had come into our class, and we hit it off really well. One day at school she told me that she had given her life to Jesus and that she had been completely changed. She used to be into a lot of drugs, hashish, trips, and stuff like that. Ever since she became a Christian she stopped taking drugs. Then she told me a lot of things about Christ. Like you can receive him into your life and that Christ changes you. My relationship to God up to that point had been something like this: I always kind of knew that there was a God, and whenever I was afraid I would pray to him every now and then. But God really revealed himself to me through this girl. I knew that it was right, just like she had told me. And then I started going to Nolli."

By "Nolli" the Berlin Jesus people mean a prayer room at Nollendorfplatz where a young preacher with a southern accent has been holding church services in his "Pentecostal church."  His name is Volkhart Spitzer; he calls himself Reverend Spitzer and since 1971 he has been gathering a following of young people who were spontaneously converted to Christ, some of whom had abandoned hashish and LSD and instead got "high on Jesus". In any case this is how it was described by skeptical observers of the Berlin Jesus movement. Reverend Spitzer also organized the first mass baptisms of young converts at the Havel River. Today he is still regarded as a friend and mentor by the Jesus People. The predominantly elderly ladies with their hats and bags who attend the Sunday and Wednesday afternoon church services have long since accustomed themselves to the presence of these serious young people with their biblical beards and hairstyles.

D. describes his first visit to Nolli as follows: "It was on a Saturday. That's when they always have the youth meetings. There were about eight or nine guys and girls there besides me, and Volker (as the young Jesus-people call Reverend Spitzer) told us about Christ and he said that whoever wanted to give his life to Jesus should go down on his knees and pray. So I did it. I didn't feel anything afterwards, but was just aware that I had taken a conscious step. I told myself: God, I really want to, and I honestly wanted to. On the way home I thought: Man, have I really been converted? What's the matter, you don't feel anything! Then I came home. I used to have the habit of beating up on my brother for any little trivial thing. That evening he came to me and told me what he had been doing. Then I noticed that I suddenly had a completely different relationship with M., and that I didn't feel any aggression towards him any more. I then realized that I really had experienced God. From that day on I never felt like hitting my brother again."

... D. goes to Nolli up to four times a week and listens with ever increasing enthusiasm to Reverend Spitzers's story of how he was healed from polio, or to guest speakers who have experienced similar miracles...

...D., his brother M., and his girl friend L. are core members of the Berlin Jesus people. While driving him to the Gedächtniskirche I asked D. how many there are altogether, ... D. hesitates. There are only about 15 or 20 young Christians who attend the Nolli youth meetings regularly. In 1971 Reverend Spitzer baptized 70 converts in the Havel River, and this year there were about 30, including D.s brother M. Two years ago Volkhart Spitzer contended in an interview that the Jesus people in Berlin would inundate all of Germany. In the meantime there actually are small groups of Christian youth in several cities, who mostly look after drug addicts in communal homes. But in Berlin it rather appears that the Jesus movement is dying out. The "One Way" tea-house, in which not only young drug addicts found refuge, conversion, and free tea and sandwiches, was shut down for weeks. "For rennovation", said D. "Because not enough people were interested, only bums and drifters", said a friend, who himself was once with the Jesus People but then afterwards fell away...

Back to Nolli