(Ernst Georg) Siegfried Schmutzler (14 March 1915 – 11 October 2003) was a German

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

. Schmutzler was also a political activist who campaigned against the Single-

Party dictatorship A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...

of the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

. He hit the headlines as a victim of one of the

show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so th ...

s that proliferated in East Germany during the 1950s.

Life

Schmutzler began university-level study of

Pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

and

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

in 1933 before becoming, in 1939, a Primary school teacher. In 1941, Schmutzler was conscripted into the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

and was deployed in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. During this time, he was involved in anti-partisan operations. He was captured, and remained a prisoner of war until February 1946. Schmutzler began to study

Theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, concluding these studies in 1951.G.-S. Schmutzler: ''Gegen den Strom.'' S. 56. During this time he was also, in 1946/47, a local councilor in

Markranstädt Markranstädt () is a town in the Leipzig district, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated 11 km southwest of the city of Leipzig and has close to 15,000 inhabitants. Geography Location Markranstädt is located about south-west of Leipzig ci ...

, a small town a short distance outside

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. From 1954 till 1957 he was the pastor to the

community at St. Peter's on the south side of

, and also Student Pastor for the city's evangelical student community. In this capacity he was highly critical of the prevailing official ideology in what had, by now, become a Soviet sponsored one-

. On 5 April 1957 officers of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) arrested Schmutzler in Leipzig, at his apartment in the Alfred Kästner StreetAlfred-Kästner-Straße 11, Leipzig After less than eight months of investigative detention he faced trial: he was found guilty of "incitement to boycott" (''"Boykotthetze"'') and was sentenced to a further five years imprisonment. In the event he was released on 18 February 1961, having spent the intervening period in the prison at

Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies forces first ...

. The trial was recorded by the authorities and given wide publicity, which was a feature of

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

s during the 1950s. A couple of weeks after the trial's conclusion, extracts from the judge's questioning of Schmutzler appeared in

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

's widely respected (and widely read) news magazine. As Spiegel freely admitted, its record of the trial transcript was selective, and highlighted only the most "loaded" moments of the interrogation conducted on behalf of the East German Communist authorities. The transcript publication nevertheless gave to many of those who might have preferred not to know of the matter, a timely insight into the contemporary show-trial culture operating across the internal political (and subsequently physical) frontier that since 1949 had divided the two Germanys. From 1961 Schmutzler was the pastor at St. James's church in nearby

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

. Starting in the middle of 1968, Dr. Schmutzler also lectured on both philosophy and on Education at the

Theological Seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

. He retired in 1981 from his Dresden pastorate, and was able to relocate to

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

. In November 1989 the

breach Breach, Breached, or The Breach may refer to: Places * Breach, Kent, United Kingdom * Breach, West Sussex, United Kingdom * ''The Breach'', Great South Bay in the State of New York People * Breach (DJ), an Electronic/House music act * Miroslava ...

by protestors of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

, and the subsequent discovery that Soviet troops had received no instructions to suppress the rising tide of street protest by force, triggered a succession of events that led to the demise of the

as a stand-alone state and, formally in October 1990,

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

. Siegfried Schmutzler was formally rehabilitated, politically, on 9 July 1991. In 1996 he was honoured with the national

Order of Merit The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by K ...

and on 17 September 1997 the city council awarded him one of the first Honour Medals of the City of Leipzig. Shortly after he died, at the age of 88, the city council passed a resolution, on 18 November 2004, to rename a street in the Gohlis-South district as "Schmutzlerstraße" (''"Schmutzler Street"'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmutzler, Siegfried 1915 births 2003 deaths German Army personnel of World War II 20th-century German Lutheran clergy Victims of human rights abuses Clergy from Leipzig Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany East German dissidents Prisoners and detainees of East Germany German prisoners of war in World War II