Friedensstadt was founded in 1920 by Joseph Weissenberg (founder of St.Johns Church) to serve three important tasks: be a place and also a model for the potential of

Living

Working

Healing

It was meant to be a refuge for people in need, where they can live and grow. This became vital and viable in the times of economic crisis and Friedensstadt was one of the positive models of the time.

No wonder it was stopped when Nazis came to power and made it a military compound. In a visit to a nearby airport Adolf Hitler is said to have brusquely turned his back on the sight when his aides showed him the skyline of Friedensstadt. Joseph Weissenberg was frequently turned in jail and eventually in exile where he died in 1941. but his followers managed to maintain his idea.

The Soviet army occupied Friedensstadt and did not give it back to its original owners and builders. The refusal of the Johannische Church to exert pressure eventually also led to lasting friendship between Soviet officers and the church which led to the fact that today a russian groups of this church exists.

In 1994 the long oddyssey ended and the meanwhile considerably grown military area (with lots of decaying buildings) was given back to the church.