Günter Holwas war der Gründer/Initiator der DDR Bluesmesse.
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A blues mass is a church service with blues music. This type of service played a special role in the resistance of young people against the GDR regime. The blues masses took place regularly in the Samaritan Church in Berlin-Friedrichshain, later also in the Church of the Resurrection and finally on the grounds of the Church of the Redeemer in Berlin-Rummelsburg. The first blues fair on June 1, 1979 attracted 250 participants. The majority of them had never entered a church before. The number of participants later rose to 7,000 (June 24, 1983) and was an expression of youth protest and youth culture in the GDR. By the fall of 1986, a total of 20 events had taken place.
The blues masses were initiated by Günter Holly Holwas, who won over the pastor of the Samaritan community, Rainer Eppelmann, to this idea. Eppelmann, the district youth pastor at the time during the Berlin-Friedrichshain war, however, insisted that the events be held in a framework similar to a church service. In addition to the music, Rainer Eppelmann and Pastor Heinz-Otto Seidenseil read out Bible texts, e.g. B. on the subject of swords to ploughshares and there were also small poems or sketches performed, which mostly had politically non-conformist content. The state leadership tried to ban the events because, in their opinion, they were not religious services and therefore required a special permit.
