As this new movement continued to spread throughout most parishes and parish associations, opponents of the movement soon began to organize as well.

This movement did not originate from a German, Lutheran-influenced, and theologically accepted institution, but was a somewhat strange new beginning on the other side of the world, in the United States—a country considered underdeveloped at the time (keyword: Wild West). It came from a democracy—and, what’s more, from the lowest social classes. And even worse: the leader was a Black man, a one-eyed man who had lost his eye in a smallpox epidemic, the son of slaves. And that was supposed to be something that came from God?

All of this seemed absurd. It was completely at odds with the way of thinking in the German Empire. Black people were those whom one evangelized, but certainly not accepted as spiritual leaders. This new direction was absolutely “un-German.”

On September 15, 1909, some of the opponents convened a conference in Berlin, which was attended by 60 men. A committee drafted a written statement outlining the views of those present regarding what they considered to be a troubling development. The outcome of these deliberations was presented as the so-called “Berlin Declaration” and signed by 56 of those present.

These 56 Christians did not represent a cross-section of the spiritual leadership or even the Body of Christ in Germany. They merely signed a private statement as private individuals.