Bruno Groening Lecture - October 6, 1958
YouTube Playlist
Bruno Groening Lecture - October 6, 1958 (CD 1, Part A)
Content:
In this lecture Bruno Gröning and some friends refer about their experiences after WW II and how BG went into prison with his soldier comrades, how he was released and started again to help his fellow human beings.
Be attentive to emergencies and difficulties of others in order to then switch to active help. But only those who help without self-interest also open themselves to God’s help. A moving call for more attention, helpfulness and unconditional active charity.
Lecture in CD form available at Bruno-groening-stiftung.org
https://bgs-shop-2021.min-dev.de/Nun-meine-lieben-Freunde-eine-Frage-Sind-auch-Sie-dabei
Track 1 - Recording of the song: So take my hands and lead me...
Track 2 - Recording of the song: Holy Holy Holy
Track 3 - German original text from tape
Bruno Groening Lecture 6th October 1959
3rd track:
Speaker Hermann Kastorf:
Today is October 6th, 1958. My dear friends, I am particularly pleased that you have appeared here in large numbers again today. Had we already had the Hamelese community here in Springe and afterwards I got the idea and said to myself: It is not right, many of the Hamelese community cannot hear Bruno Groening. And so this time we got the idea and said: Two days for the Hamelens community. And, my dear friends, I am so grateful that you have come in so many numbers. A sign that you are in all loyalty to Bruno Gröning.
You see, my dear friends, I have always known: The Hamelens community in particular was close to my heart. Please, my dear friends, don’t get it wrong! I cannot say that often enough and I said once at school in Hameln: I will always try, as far as I am able, to bring Bruno Gröning closer to you. And, my dear friends, this is such a rewarding task for me, you don’t believe it. You see, on Friday the house full of people, on Saturday the house full of people, on Sunday the house full of people and again today. My dear friends, is there anything better than that?
You see, our friend Bruno Groening is here for the last time today, that is for the time being. Today is the last day, then he leaves again because he will be called again elsewhere. You then go home and, my dear friends, tomorrow my house will be empty. And I have to say we will regret it. But, my dear friends, our house is not empty after all. I know that Bruno Groening is always with us. I have the conviction, my dear friends, and I cannot express this conviction enough, because I know that Bruno Groening is my constant companion and, my dear friends, that is how it should and should be for everyone . We all know that Bruno Gröning was always happy to come here in the northern area, and we were all always grateful, grateful to the extent that we always came to him in large numbers and we liked to hear him. My dear friends, there should be a lot more. But I am convinced, my dear friends, that it may have been a good thing for the time being, that there haven’t been that many, because the core that we have formed had to be good. And, my dear friends, that was also Bruno Gröning’s great concern: the core, the foundation for his work must be good. Because if the foundation as such is not good for his work, my dear friends, it would be as if we had built on sand, that must not be. We will make sure and we will help Bruno with this foundation for the new club, that this right mix comes about, that the right hardness comes about, that we find the foundation, my dear friends, which cannot be wiped away again .
Track 4 - German original text from tape
Bruno Groening Lecture Oct. 6, 1958, Track 4
CD 1, Track 4:
Speaker Hermann Kastorf
You will also have found out in your community that the Groening Bund as such was dissolved at the last general meeting …
My dear friends, we now have the new association at the same time, and I would like to ask all of you, as soon as you are somehow approached, to prove your loyalty to the new club. My dear friends, I would like to ask all of you, without any grumbling, to join the cause. Otherwise you would not be convinced of Bruno Groening. And, my dear friends, he has come so often and he has stood by us so often and he has always brought us the beautiful and the goodness, my dear friends, and he will continue to do so. And you see, we have a duty to stand by our dear friend Bruno honestly, in all truth, with all firmness. And so I believe, my dear friends, that we can provide Bruno Groening with a certain amount of help in his work.
I said, it’s the last time he’s here today. There are people waiting for him again. And you see, my dear friends, that’s why I’m not sad that he’s going away, because I know that these days he’s been here, when he’s given us everything he could. And, my dear friends, we want to be grateful for this, to be grateful in all times and to be faithful to Bruno Gröning. And then I know that with a certain respect for one another we will become a conspiratorial community, a conspiratorial family. And when we are ready, my dear friends, that we have achieved this, then I will be happy, then I will know that I, too, have contributed a very certain part, if only so little, because you all know how It was difficult for Bruno Groening when he heard that he was no longer allowed to come to your school1. But that too will one day be eliminated, and I, we will work to ensure that the way for Hameln is cleared for him again and then he will be with you in Hameln again.
My dear friends, I don’t want to bore you now. I have another friend here and he would like to say a few words to you and that is our friend “(Erhard) Zieger” from Berlin. We actually had so much joy these days. We had visitors from Berlin, we had visitors from Nordenham, even a family across the big pond, a woman from Buenos Aires (Argentinia). My dear friends, it was so nice for us that we said to ourselves: Is there anything better than telling these people who Bruno Groening is?
Who is Bruno Groening? And you see, my dear friends, I have the conviction that these people went home satisfied. They will think about it and one day they will reappear in our community. And then you will be grateful to our Lord God that you too see Bruno Groening as your great friend and guide.
I would now like to ask my dear friend Erhard Zieger to tell us a few words and I believe that he has something on his mind that he no longer wants to take with him to Berlin. Please, my dear friend Erhard, a few words for the community!
Track 5 - German original text from tape
Bruno Groening Lecture, October 6, CD 1, Track 5
Speaker: Erhard Zieger
Dear friend Hermann, I thank you for your sincere, loving words.
Dear friends, what is Bruno Groening for us and what are we for him? It is against me to say even a word after this wonderful sacred and blessed music that we were just allowed to hear. Yet I sincerely want to say a few words to you.
What is Bruno Groening for us? A gossip, a charlatan, a show-off – aren’t you saying anything? An agitator of the masses, a seducer – anything else? Does anyone have old newspapers? Otherwise, drive to Plochingen and have a look at the pile that is piled a meter high with this dirt and grime. I don’t have the expressions for it.
But I want to tell you what Bruno Groening is to us. And even at the risk of boring some, I want to give you my little example. I always bring my example first. I could give many examples. I want to make it short.
I’ve tried this and that, swallowed that pill, taken every remedy and this and that, like many of you. Nothing new, it didn’t help. X doctors, x homeopaths checked – result zero. But that could no longer be operated on me. The organ cannot be operated on. And one day I discovered a sensible paper in the sea of newspapers in Berlin’s dirty papers, it seemed to me: “Das Neue Blatt” (The New Page). Dr. Horst Mann gave a factual report about Bruno Groening. I read that through, a little sceptically, but at least. That seemed the right thing to do. The feeling, the inner voice, told me: You have to pursue things, and now right away.
I called Plochingen, the office, and was told that I could listen to him here in Springe. And I drove here to Springe. That was a little over a year ago: July 5, 1957, Deisterpforte. A lecture, four to five hours, in front of 400 people. And in the first second of this lecture, the first second, a divine calm filled me that I was not allowed to feel within me for many years. Yes, dear friends, is it imagination, suggestion, hypnosis?
Track 6 - German original text from tape
Bruno Groening Lecture October 6, 1958, CD 1, Track 6
Speaker: Erhard Zieger
During the break in this lecture he was assaulted, our poorest friend, even during the break – in those five minutes when he wanted to get some fresh air and be quiet. Of course me too. Stupidity and yet deception! I asked him: How is it in Berlin with a community? “Dear friend, for this come here tomorrow morning. We can talk about it at 8:00 am, not now. “
I appeared and we were together for several hours. We talked about a lot, I heard a lot. And we agreed to meet again in three days in Schleswig-Holstein in a small village near Schleswig. I went there too, first back to Berlin and fetched my mother. I hope I will not go into too much detail if I give you a very small example now: When I left Springe for Berlin, he said to me: “But don’t drive your little Goggomobil so fast, no more than seventy, eighty (hours per km)! And don’t look at the clock all the time. You have time! “
When I drove from Berlin to Schleswig-Holstein, I didn’t listen to this advice, didn’t keep it in me, but drove too fast, over a hundred (kmh). It was very hot, the pistons burned tight, as can happen. So I hadn’t listen and now had the damage. I had to wait about an hour and a half, let it cool down and then slowly drive on. And when I came to Schleswig-Holstein, to Fahrdorf near Schleswig, someone was standing in the door waiting for me, even though no appointment had been given. And when I told him this and that happened to me, he replied: “Yes, dear friend, why don’t you listen to me? I told you not to drive so fast. “
And then I heard the second lecture there in the little town near Schleswig. Then I received the power. Why did I receive it now? Why did I suddenly have these warm and cold waves rippling through my body? Why did I suddenly feel good? Why did I suddenly feel that there in this organ that was once afflicted by an evil something was attacking, something was working, namely the good that brought all evil to dissolve? Why all of this Suggestion, hypnosis, imagination? You know it yourself, dear friends.
I opened my heart and soul and received divine truth through our friend. And that had the effect that the divine could move into me, no different.
And another small example on the side. Through this body, in which something was now working – the regulation, the changeover – I had the wish, and it was similar to my mother’s, to be able to suck at least one candy so that a good taste stays in the mouth. We had a great desire, be it just a little piece of chocolate or something. And at the end of the lecture we went to the little house where our friend Bruno lived for the day. And who was standing or who was sitting in his car in front of the front door and offered us a bunch of grapes? Our friend Bruno: “Oh, wouldn’t you like to try a grape?” My mother and I just looked at each other and didn’t say anything more.
And the next evening I met the third lecture in Rendsburg. There was no longer any regulation in me, everything was gone and it stayed away.
What is Bruno Groening for us? Dear friends, you all know. We just can’t remember what it is to us often enough. He is nothing else than the transmitter of divine truth, which may fill us all, through which we may all experience salvation. And what are we to him? Sometimes little fools who babble something and put our big friend in danger, such as: ‘He laid his hand on me. He made everything perfect.’ Nonsense! Let’s testify to the truth! Let us be confessors of the truth, confessors of the divine word that is given to us here, through which we open ourselves up and receive what is good. We receive the good immediately by opening the heart and soul. So let’s be his friends and helpers! If we call ourselves friends, we also have to be helpers and finally confess that, and nothing but the pure truth.
I said it yesterday or the day before yesterday: 2,000 years ago there was someone who said: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” And this, our friend (Bruno), is his disciple. These words that we receive here are the way, the truth and the life for us. And what is truth? I also said it: God. Life is God too. God is everything and in everything and through everything. God is eternal love and he extends his loving hand to us through his blessed friend Bruno Groening. Let us receive it and never let it go again. So take my hands and lead me to my blissful end and for ever! Amen.
Track 7 – German original text from tape:
Bruno Groening is speaking!
Bruno Groening Lecture – Oct. 6, 1958 – Track 7
Speaker: Bruno Groening
Bruno Gröning: Dear friend Zieger, I would like to give you a little recognition for your community from our friend Hermann Kastorf, which he himself worked with love.
Joachim Erhard Zieger: Thank you, dear Bruno.
Bruno Gröning: I wish you the best of luck and blessings in your development work in the community in Berlin. Berlin, which was probably the capital of Germany, was divided into four parts by the war. Today you can say that Berlin is a village. And we, friends, are rebuilding Berlin to what it was, even without party politics. As you know, friends, we do not engage in party politics. We don’t ask people about their denomination or nation. What the enemy side dismantled here and what the enemy side did not intend to divide here, but also put into practice here, that’s what you are here for. I just want to be your helper so that you, our friends, our neighbors in Berlin, can once again be freed from what you are not yet able to get an idea of here in West Germany today.
I know that I have not something, but a real thing to contribute to the fact that not just one nation, but all nations can live freely and will live as freely as God has determined for them freedom on this earth of his own.
I don’t want to make a big note of the fact that even clergymen from the East …, from the East sector of Berlin and also from the West sectors of Berlin, asked me to come over,
the church is at my disposal and the way is clear, and they know that not only can I help, but that I will help. And that is also my answer: not the words, but always the deed.
I know, dear friend Zieger, that it is not an easy task, but it is also not a difficult task.
With God’s help everything is possible, because nothing is impossible for God. And I’m always there. We’re only together for a short time today. May God give in, that we can meet again for a moment tomorrow morning before I leave.
But from here I want to send warm greetings to all my friends in Berlin, including those from East Berlin and the Eastern Sector. I always stand by those who want the good, who affirm the good and who are ready to take in the good.
Joachim Erhard Zieger: Thank you, dear Bruno. I know that I am no longer alone and that we are all no longer alone over there.
Bruno Gröning: I’ll be ther