Mayor
Politician, Business Leader

The Honorable Eckhard Naumann

Born in Wittenberg in 1947, Eckhard Naumann was poised to experience dramatic change in his home and his nation. The joint occupation of American and Russian troops in this small town 80 miles south of Berlin was soon to give way to sole Russian occupation and the creation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

With the formation of the GDR, the very town where Martin Luther had nailed his 95 theses to the door of the university church was now part of an officially atheist state. Once known for its culture of learning and its free exchange of religious ideas, Wittenberg was bereft of religious and intellectual freedom. In the decades following the war, the tangible treasures of Wittenberg also fell into disrepair. The East German state had no interest in maintaining and fostering interest in Luther’s town. In order to prevent the town from becoming a pilgrimage site, visitors were allowed to tour the city by day and for the most part were not allowed to stay over night. In 1983, the 500th anniversary of Luther’s birth, the government seriously considered razing the entire town. In the end, however, the GDR decided to preserve Wittenberg with an emphasis on Luther’s statements about loyalty to the temporal powers.

Despite these forces against faith and education, Eckhard Naumann flourished. He trained to be a chemical specialist and engineer and worked as a software developer for Stickstoffwerk Piesteritz, a state-owned chemical company and the major industry in Wittenberg.

What might have been a long career in computer software and industrial management took an unexpected turn in 1989-1990. The fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989 changed life in eastern Germany forever. The peaceful revolution, which the Germans call die Wende, i.e., "the turn," ushered in a political, social, and economic transformation. In 1990, Naumann became Wittenberg’s first democratically elected mayor since 1944. In 1994 he was re-elected to a seven-year term with 68% of the vote.

As mayor, Naumann has played a leading role in creating historic change in his hometown and his nation. The challenges he has faced are daunting: how does a democratically elected mayor lead a society that had not known democracy, freedom of religion, or freedom of speech for more than five decades? When Naumann assumed office, an entire generation familiar with these values had passed away, and he faced the task of rebuilding Wittenberg politically, economically, spiritually, and physically. Even today, less than a quarter of the population routinely attends church, and many of Wittenberg’s citizens know less about the religious, cultural, and historical importance of their town than do Christians living thousands of miles away.

Naumann has responded to these challenges with enthusiasm. He helped to establish the Leucorea Foundation in 1994 to reinvigorate Wittenberg’s University and its academic life. Students are now returning to the campus, and historic buildings are being beautifully restored. With the participation of students from Lutheran colleges in the United States, academic ties between Wittenberg and the United States are growing.

Mayor Naumann has also worked to strengthen the ties between Wittenberg and American Lutherans. He has supported a program that brings American Lutheran pastors to Wittenberg to preach at the City Church and Castle University Church. He was also instrumental in helping the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America establish a Center for Continuing Education at Wittenberg. The center provides opportunities for American Lutherans and Lutherans from around the world to explore their heritage through study tours, sabbaticals and research opportunities for professors, and special programs for college and university students.

The mayor’s work to enhance Wittenberg’s spiritual life and to highlight the city’s central role in the history of the Lutheran church has received much criticism in a town that remains approximately 80% atheist. Mayor Naumann’s work is therefore a powerful witness in Wittenberg and in Germany as a whole. Undaunted, he continues in faith to rebuild Luther’s city, both physically and spiritually.