The German Mission Foundation was founded by returned German missionaries in 2000 because of an admonishment from their former mission president, Orville Gunther to, “Continue to find ways to serve the members in Germany”.

Now, in its third decade, the German Mission foundation (see germanmissionfoundation.org) has supported a variety of initiatives advancing President Gunther’s admonition.

Since its founding, it has sponsored a German mission reunion, in the spring, just before General Conference. It has featured a variety of experts and General Authorities at these reunions.

In the spring of 2009, Elder Robert C. Oaks, who was serving as the European Area President, was the foundation’s featured guest. In his remarks, Elder Oaks, told attendees about the gathering of over 330 stories of German saints who survived World War II. Elder Dieter S. Uchtdorf had contacted the Central European headquarters of the Church where Elder Oaks was serving as Europe Area President. Elder Uchtdorf requested support of a Germany initiative collecting oral histories of wartime saints before they passed away.

Elder Oaks asked Brother Lynn Hansen and his wife Faith to serve a combined mission as temple workers in the Frankfurt temple and to collect oral histories throughout Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. A limited number of two volume sets were printed. All were in German.

At the conclusion of the meeting, board members told Elder Oaks the Foundation would be interested in placing those stories on a German website, momonengeschichte.de (mormonhistory.de) that the Foundation had created. He was supportive of this suggestion and indicated he would let the board know how to proceed.

Working through the Church Intellectual Properties department, the foundation secured permission from then, Church Historian, Marlin K. Jensen on May 10, 2011.

Before posting the content, stories were proofed and any content that might be objectionable, personal or too sensitive to place in a public setting was removed.

Several members of the board visited the Hansens in their home in West Haven, Utah on March 27, 2012. They were very gracious and supportive of what the foundation was doing.
Shortly after that visit, Brother Hansen indicated that he had translated 43 of the stories from German into English and asked if the foundation could help with its publication. Working with BYU Studies this book was published in 2012. The Hansen’s attended the next reunion and signed many copies.

On April 18, 2012, President Uchtdorf met with board members in his office to express his appreciation for the foundation’s support of German speaking saints. One of the gifts given President Uchtdorf was a signed copy of this book. President Uchtdorf opened the book to the contents page, ran his finger slowly over each name, then looked up at those in attendance with tears brimming his eyes stated, “I know all of these people, and their stories”.

The German Mission Foundation is proud to play a small role in preserving the inspirational stories of German saints, most of whom are no longer alive.