Oskar Brüsewitz

He was critical of the East German Communist regime imposed by the Soviet Union after the war and symbolic acts of protest, including the installation of a cross of neon lamps at his church, brought him to the attention of the authorities.

In his suicide note he wrote of a "feigned deep peace, which had also intruded Christianity" in East Germany while in truth there was "a mighty war between light and darkness" ("zwischen Licht und Finsternis ein mächtiger Krieg").

On August 31 Neues Deutschland, the official newspaper of the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED), printed an article entitled "Du sollst nicht falsch Zeugnis reden" "You shall not bear false witness" which asserted that self-immolation was the action of a sick, crazy man.

Bishop Dehmke called his death an "act of desperation" in protest against the repressive nature of the Communist regime and the collaboration of church members who had grown too close to the state.

[5] To mark the 30th anniversary of his death, Neues Deutschland wrote an apology for the article they had carried at the time, admitting that the piece had been "slanderous" and not written by their journalists, but by an office of the Central Committee of the SED.