Our European Annual Meetings by Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 4, 1913

Our European Annual Meetings

By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

ON July 8, I sailed from New York on the "Crown Prinz Cecilie" of the North German Lloyd, to attend the summer meetings in Europe. Our passenger list numbered about 1,500 and the crew 700, making 2,200 souls on board. The furnaces consumed 750 tons of coal a day, in supplying power required to transport this fair-sized town across the ocean at the rate of twenty-three miles an hour. The sea was like a mill-pond all the way. This, with the excellent service on board, made the voyage a very pleasant one.

Our Hamburg Headquarters

As I was to be in Hamburg but one night on my way to the East German Union conference, I telegraphed an appointment for a meeting in the chapel that evening. This gave me an opportunity to meet the workers in the offices and a number of the brethren and sisters living in Hamburg. It was a pleasure to meet Brother and Sister Conradi and their large force of associate workers in the various offices at the headquarters of the European Division Conference.

Our Hamburg publishing house has grown to large proportions. It now represents an investment of about $210,000, with liabilities of only $40,000, and these are fully covered by legacies. Last year's gains were about $24,000. Here books, pamphlets, tracts, and periodicals are printed in twenty different languages. At the present time twenty papers are published for the different nationalities of Europe. The German paper, Herold der Wahrheit, has the largest circulation. It is issued fortnightly, with an average circulation of 110,000. The value of the literature sent out from the Hamburg office during the past fiscal year amounted to about $250,000. For the carrying forward of this work, the office employs one hundred persons.

At this headquarters is a branch of the health-food factory at Friedensau. The sales from this branch last year reached the astonishing sum of $80,000. This line of work has become so large that the brethren have decided to move the main factory from Friedensau to Hamburg. A large block of ground has been purchased in a good location and the factory building is now being erected. When completed, the plant will cost about $100,000. This new location will make it possible not only to carry on this department of work to much better advantage, but also greatly to enlarge the enterprise, which already yields substantial help financially to the general work.

At the Hamburg headquarters are located the offices of the European Division Conference and the treasurers of the three union conferences in Germany, also the Danube Union. Here all the accounts are kept, disbursements made, and statistics prepared. Altogether, there are at present one hundred and twenty persons employed at this headquarters. This includes the employees in the publishing house. As I visited the different parts of the factory and the various offices, and saw this large, busy, devoted band of workers, I was deeply impressed with the marvelous progress this movement of the third angel's message is making in this part of the world. It is the growth of the cause in only a section of Europe that calls for these institutions, with their many facilities and the labor of this staff of workers. In other sections are located the headquarters of union conferences, carrying on similar work.

The East German Union Conference

In company with Brother and Sister Conradi, and Brother L. J. Spicer, Elder Conradi's secretary, I came to Friedensau, to attend the quadrennial session of the East German Union Conference. This union represents the eastern part of Germany and has its headquarters at Berlin. It has six local conferences, two mission fields, and territory known as the East German Union District. In this union district are located the headquarters of the union conference, and the various institutions at Friedensau. The population of this union is about 34,000,000. The statistics report a membership of 6,200, with 108 conference laborers. The tithe for 1912 amounted to $103,764, and the offerings to missions reached $24,000.

Nearly 2,000 of the brethren and sisters of this conference came from different parts of this union to attend the Friedensau meeting, which was held July 16-26. These large camp-meetings held at Friedensau each summer are occasions of great encouragement and blessing to our people in Germany. Here they meet for Bible study, for counsel and planning regarding the work to be done, and for renewing their consecration to the Lord. Once each day during the meeting that has just closed, all the conference workers present gathered in the chapel of the college for Bible study, these meetings were conducted by Elder Conradi and the writer. It was a great pleasure to counsel with these workers regarding plans of labor, and to join them in the consecration of our lives to the Lord for better and more efficient service.

The reports presented by the different workers and the managers of the various institutions were very encouraging. Advancement is being made all along the line. Elder H. F. Schuberth was re-elected president of the union.

One of the best and most impressive meetings of the conference was the farewell given to a number of the workers, who had accepted the call to foreign fields. Brother and Sister O. Staubert were to go to Persia to join Brother F. F. Oster; Brother and Sister J. Erzberger, Jr., were appointed to Beirut; Brother P. Bridde was to go to Constantinople; and Brother D. Delhove was assigned to the Kongo. All hearts were touched as these dear workers bore their farewell testimonies to fellow workers, brethren and sisters, relatives, and their native land. Surely this cause must go forward in triumph as long as our people maintain this spirit of consecration to the world-wide work.

A. G. DANIELLS.