Situated at the northern tip of the Unteruckersee Lake, the city of Prenzlau is located about thirty-three miles southwest of Stettin and one hour by rail northeast of Berlin. When World War II approached, the city was home to about 23,000 residents and a small branch of Latter-day Saints.

The Prenzlau Branch held its meetings in rented rooms at Steinstrasse 415 on the main floor of the first Hinterhaus. As of this writing, there were no eyewitnesses available to describe the setting. A list of meetinghouse addresses for the East German Mission compiled on January 31, 1943, shows that the address had changed to Vicentstrasse 267. Again, there is no available description of the rooms.

The history of the East German Mission includes the following three entries regarding the branch in Prenzlau:

Saturday, 19 March 1938: Fifty-one persons attended a program in Prenzlau, commemorating the organization of the Relief Society.[2]

Wednesday, 16 November 1938: A meeting was held with Pres. Rees and the German and American missionaries of the Stargard and Prenzlau Branches; 146 members and friends were in attendance.[3]

Sunday, 11 December 1938: A branch conference was held, including a genealogy lecture by district president Erich Berndt; attendance was five adults and sixty-two children.[4]

Smaller branches in the East German Mission were usually visited by members of the district presidency and by traveling elders. There is every reason to believe that Prenzlau was not neglected. It is also very probable that some of the members regularly took the short train ride to Stettin to attend semiannual district conferences during the war.

The Prenzlau Branch survived World War II. No members are known to have lost their lives during the war.

Notes

[1] Presiding Bishopric, “Financial, Statistical, and Historical Reports of Wards, Stakes, and Missions, 1884–1955,” CR 4 12, 257.

[2] East German Mission Quarterly Reports, 1938, no. 14, East German Mission History.

[3] Ibid., no. 47.

[4] Ibid., no. 49.