CHURCH IN GERMANY TO BE CLOSED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 103, 25 January 1935, Page 11

CHURCH IN GERMANY TO BE CLOSED

Sect Established by Faith Healer MANY THOUSANDS OF FOLLOWERS By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Received January 24, 5.5 p.m.) London, January 24. The Berlin correspondent of "The Times” says that the secret police ordered an amazing figure in Joseph 'Weissenberg, octogenarian and faith healer, to close the “Evangelican Johan, nean Church,” the property of which has been confiscated. Weissenberg was a builder’s labourer. When- he founded the Weissenberg sect and proclaimed his own divinity it -attracted scores of thousands of followers, and successfully fought many lawsuits arising from faith healing, which consisted of prayer and the application of a soft cheese called quark to the seat of the sickness. Followers subscribed millions of marks with which Weissenberg built a settlement, “Peacetown,” including a temple in which members of the congregation acted as mediums, voicing from spirits, including those of Luther and Bismarck, proclamations that •’Weissenberg came to earth as Elijah, Moses or John the Baptist. Recently the spirit of Frederick the Great said through a medium: “The Holy Ghost is now known by the earthly name of Johannes Weissenberg.”