Emil Fuchs (theologian)

[1] A religious socialist, Fuchs was one of the first Lutheran pastors to join the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

On 9 February 1961 Fuchs was member of a Christian commission that was charged with discussing the issues of state and church with the GDR leader Walter Ulbricht.

Since then Emil Fuchs engaged for normalisation of relations between the state and church in East Germany.

Though a loyal GDR supporter Fuchs occasionally opposed the party line: he was against the persecution of the Young Congregations (Junge Gemeinden) in 1950s and when conscription was introduced in East Germany, he managed to persuade the communist leadership to allow an alternative for armed service.

Men who refused usual service in the army could accordingly serve as 'construction soldiers', who, as evident from the term, did mostly construction tasks.