Congregation Worships in the Words of Its Ancestors

From the outside, the new modern-style church--an eye-catching collection of interlocking circular structures--gives little hint of the congregation’s long history in Los Angeles or its uniqueness among churches in the United States.

But walk into the First German United Methodist Church and there are signs everywhere--from the nearly 100-year-old stained glass windows that cover three walls of an otherwise modern church to the 12-member choir singing German hymns from the altar.

On Sunday, anywhere from 50 to 80 people fill the small church to hear pastor Thomas Hildebrandt give services almost entirely in German--a tradition, unique among United Methodist churches in the United States, that has spanned nearly 125 years, since German immigrants flocked to church in downtown Los Angeles to pray in their native tongue.

When its turn-of-the-century church was demolished in 1988 for redevelopment in downtown Los Angeles, the small congregation struggled to maintain its identity in a borrowed church in Eagle Rock. After years of searching for a new home, church leaders bought a vacant lot in Glendale, where they built a new church with proceeds from the downtown land sale.

First German’s original church, built in 1910 on Olive Street, two doors down from the Biltmore Hotel, is now the site of a glistening skyscraper. Its new church, a two-story structure in northeast Glendale, opened its doors in August 1997 to old and new members.

Despite the new surroundings, members say the church remains a monument to their rich German heritage. Besides the traditional German liturgy, three magnificent stained glass windows from the old church were incorporated into the new church’s design. Old pews, the altar and baptismal are being reused, and the concrete cornerstone of the 1910 church is on display.

“When you come inside and see the stained glass, it feels like home,” said Marie Lorenz, 90, a church member since 1929, when she arrived at age 19 in the United States.

Although German immigration slowed decades ago, First German church remains a gathering place for elderly immigrants and their families, new immigrants and others who share the German language, and German visitors.

In the Los Angeles area, there are 50,000 Germans and 200,000 Americans of German descent, said George Goesele, a lifelong member and chairman of the church’s Board of Trustees.

But the novelty of the German-language church also presents a challenge for today’s congregation: Many second- and third-generation German-Americans don’t speak the language of their forebears, and are unable to understand the German church service.

In recent years, the congregation has had to import its pastors, including Hildebrandt, who moved here from Germany two years ago with his wife and three daughters.

When First German was downtown, the church became known for its lunchtime organ concerts.

Likewise, the new church is trying to attract new members and visitors with such cultural events as an upcoming accordion orchestra concert. It also has a Web site.

Despite the cultural component, the church’s primary purpose is “to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ but in the German language,” said Goesele, whose 98-year-old mother, Esther Goesele, is the church’s oldest member.

She and others in her generation, such as Lorenz, and their families, remain the heart of the German church, but they have been joined over the years by new immigrants and others who want to worship in the German language.

Lorenz came to the United States at the church’s invitation, with others from Zschorlau, her hometown in eastern Germany. After World War I, First German church offered to sponsor Germans who wanted to come to America to find a better life, she said.

For the new immigrants, the church “was like a second home,” said Lorenz, the last surviving member of the Zschorlau group.

“I was brought up that every Sunday, it was Sunday school and church,” she said. “That was part of our life and it was beautiful.”

Lorenz raised her two sons in the church, where she sang in the choir for nearly 70 years.

Her son, Walter Lorenz, 69, said he, like many in his generation, stopped attending First German after he married, because his wife didn’t understand German.

Still, their daughter, Denise Lorenz, 34, has fond memories of the First German church, but returns only for special occasions. She, too, doesn’t speak German.

And yet the Lorenz family tradition continues. Besides her two sons, four of Marie Lorenz’s grandchildren and five great-grandchildren were baptized there.

But not all of the church’s members have strong German roots.

Jo Kimbell, 82, has been a church member since 1982, but isn’t of German descent.

She said she likes the people and the small-church atmosphere. Kimbell, a transplanted Midwesterner, speaks the language, but acknowledged “My German isn’t all that good.”

Others migrated to the United States through Germany.

Samson Alemayehu is Ethiopian and studied in Germany before moving to Los Angeles. And Shalah Mousavi and her husband, Kazen, are Persian but lived in Germany for many years. Their children, Matthew, 17, and Mitra, 15, were born in Germany and, perhaps, represent the next generation of churchgoers. Mitra sings in the choir and Matthew attends services.

Choir director Christoph Bull is German. He came to the United States to attend school and has stayed. He has worked with larger churches but likes First German’s small congregation.

Like earlier immigrants, Bull has found a community at the church.

“A lot of us have the same situation,” he said. “We love it here but we miss home.”