13 Twenty-Five Years a Branch President in Neubrandenburg

Conditions were bad when Brother Otto Krakow (born in 1910) returned from Stettin at the end of the war to his hometown of Neubrandenburg, where his mother was still living. He came, supported on crutches, to get his family to safety. Just as everything else was in a state of destruction and disorder, so was the Church in Neubrandenburg. The branch no longer existed; no responsible brethren were left. One man, who had once held a responsible position, had turned away from the Church and saw meaning in life only in collecting bread to survive. So it was not surprising that when Brother Ranglack of the mission presidency arrived in Neubrandenburg, he approached Brother Krakow and offered him financial help to alleviate his material needs. The answer Brother Krakow gave to this offer is typical of him: “You cannot help us with money. You can help us only by sending us missionaries.”

The first missionaries soon arrived; among them, arriving on foot, was Brother Krause from Wolgast. Brother Krakow took him and others in and fed them. They held cottage meetings and, later, sacrament meetings in a public trade school.

The Church acquired its first rented rooms on Pfaffen Street. Brother Krakow was among the brethren who repaired and beautified the rooms so they would be appropriate for the meetings of the Church. When the branch president, Brother Roloff, married and moved to Cottbus in 1951, Brother Krakow replaced him—for the next twenty-five years.

Otto Krakow. Courtesy Manfred Schütze.

He experienced many highs and lows in these years. He was, in his direct, honest, and humble way, a good leader, an example, and a blessing to all the people. The fact that the members of the Neubrandenburg Branch were able to acquire and remodel their own branch house in such a time is one of his great accomplishments. He insists he only allowed his Heavenly Father to lead him in all of his decisions.

When the Church was informed by the owners, a tailors’ guild, that they would have to vacate the rented rooms on Pfaffen Street, Brother Krakow arranged for the Church to buy a neighboring building. This called for courage! Builders pointed out to him the dilapidated condition of the building in general. In particular, instead of collecting the rainwater, the valley tins and rain gutters dropped it through the many holes in the roof. The building had been part of a carriage house, where wagons were stored. It was next door to the quarters for the servants and attached to a splendid house at the front. There was even a smithy’s forge in the building.

“We are not afraid of work,” was the branch president’s curt answer. So all of the branch members went to work, and help arrived from others. Brother Brokatzki, a carpenter from the Werdau Branch, came and put the roof in order. Brother Pawlowski from Schwerin, a skilled bricklayer, and Brother Krause alternated between Prenzlau and Neubrandenburg to provide the necessary building materials. “We had good support from the authorities in getting the building material,” Brother Krakow remembers with gratitude. “No problems.”

In 1967 the first meetings were held in a part of the building.
In 1970 they moved into the chapel area. The rooms were needed; the branch had grown. Brother Krakow remembers many great events that took place in those rooms in the following years. One of these was the visit of a General Authority, Elder Theodore M. Burton, who came at Easter in 1972 to dedicate the property. Another was a concert by the Mission Youth Choir in August 1972. There were over one hundred people present. In the years that followed, many district meetings and other special meetings were held there. The branch house was always the center of Church activity for the members of the branch.

Branch house in Neubrandenburg, a former theater. Many members came to the conference there by bicycle from 60 to 80 kilometers (37 to 50 miles) away. Courtesy Edith Krause.

When Brother Krakow was released in 1976 and turned his calling over to a younger brother, he turned over a solid branch with good leadership, young couples, and very active members with a strong spirit.

When asked what the most painful experience was during his calling, he quickly mentions the death of his wife.

You can imagine how I felt sitting up there on the podium, shaking, after my wife died suddenly of cancer in 1973. I was finished. My wife had been the strength of our faith, stronger than I. She is the one who had often encouraged me. For example, my clerk, Brother Roloff, died and I had to also take care of the reports in the evenings. Many a night I sat there until my wife came and said, “Come on, sweetheart. Come to bed. Things will look better in the morning. Just get your rest first.”

Brother Krakow tells about his humble origins and his conversion:

I am a simple man; only went to grammar school. I was the son of a widow with four children, of which I was the oldest. No one to help me with my school work. And if I can do anything today then I have to say that everything, even my speaking (I learned only a low dialect at home), I have learned in the Church; everything has come from my activity in the Church.

I was baptized by a missionary, Wendel G. Allen, on December 27, 1927, here in Neubrandenburg in the Tollense Lake. My mother was somewhat opposed to it. Later I became the Sunday School secretary. One day she found my record books and a few tithing receipts. She threw everything in the stove, which made me so mad that I spit at her. At that she threw me out; my violin, my accordion, and my books came flying out after me.

But later we made up. When she was seventy-eight years old, I baptized her, and she brought me great joy when she said, “If only all my kids had been like you.” That’s something I will never forget. But I had long since forgiven her. Just imagine, I’ve been a member for so long, sixty years—but I’ll never be perfect. No matter how old we get, as old as the stones, we will never understand everything. The Gospel is so rich, we can never comprehend it all.

During my last visit, I saw a freshly renovated classroom and saw how neatly it had been papered. A brother next to me said, “Yes, Brother Krakow did that recently.” He still comes, Sunday after Sunday with his Trabant [a small, East German automobile], as he lovingly calls his bicycle.