History Company Prayer

In February 1978, an annual meeting (‘Silent Weekend for Men’) took place during the carnival season at ‘Bernhäuser Forst’, at which the three Daimler employees Dr. Ing. Peter Philipp (at that time assistant to the board for public relations), Christoph Burckhardt and Hans Grefe participated. Inspired by a lecture given by Brother Matthäus of the ‘Brotherhood of Christ Community Selbitz’, these three pietistic men employed at the Untertürkheim site decided to meet once a week for spiritual reflection before starting work. As a guide for their meetings, they used the ‘Daily Watchwords of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine’ which consist of a collection of short biblical texts from the Old and New Testament and are still being published until today.

At the initiative of the Executive Assistant Dr. Peter Philipp, the first prayer meeting took place after Easter 1979 in the early morning at the Untertürkheim plant in the anteroom of the board for public relations, which was still vacant at this time of the day. The prayer times in the anteroom were not ideal, because they were often disturbed by incoming telephone calls. Since Dr. Philipp in addition did not want to expose to the reproach of a lack of separation between private and business activities, the group was looking for an alternative place of prayer. The suggestion of Hans Grefe to use the Catholic Church of St. John in Untertürkheim could not be implemented, since, contrary to some information, the door of the church was never open at the early hours of the day.

In the mid-1970s, approximately 70-80 apprentice trainers were employed in Sindelfingen (first in building 30, later in building 11). Amazingly, there were 8-10 believing Christians, all of whom came from evangelical congregations (Regional Church, Brüderbund, Hahn Community, Aidlinger Kreis, Baptists, Adventists and Methodists). Apparently, the head of department had deliberately hired people with a Christian background.

So it happened that at the same time as the activities in Untertürkheim, but completely independently of one another, a prayer initiative was also started in Sindelfingen Plant 50. From April 1979, 5-6 of the faithful trainers made it a habit to pray regularly for the concerns of the company. Since they did not want to meet secretly, they informed their department head who provided them with a room. Over time, more men and single women from the office area joined the prayer group. They met every Wednesday during lunch break. The men prayed primarily for their business concerns. Every now and then they also asked their boss about current prayer requests, which they then brought to God.

The group got on very well. Despite different church affiliations and characteristics, they had unity in prayer because they concentrated on the one thing, namely the belief in Jesus Christ. The friendly relationship between them was so good that the group sometimes even went on weekend events together.

Due to elimination programs, the men of this group gradually retired. As a result, the company prayer group dissolved around 2009. However, due to their good relationship with each other, the men still come together every quarter for mutual exchange and prayer. Every year on January 6th, they also meet for celebrating a service, singing and going for a walk.

In search of an alternative locality for prayer in Untertürkheim, Christoph Burckhardt made the ingenious proposal to use his camper van MB 206 D (picture shows its wedding decorations), which had recently been approved for 8 seats, as an alternative meeting point.

This proposal had been accepted. From the beginning of 1980 Christoph Burckhardt parked his MB 206 D once a week at 6:45 in the morning in the Kappelbergstraße directly beneath the Catholic Church in order to meet for a devotion. Then each of the participants went to work at the site in Untertürkheim, which was only a few hundred meters away from the place of prayer. The prayer bus was a regular meeting place for at least half a year.

As the MB bus became too small for all the people who prayed, a request was sent to the father of the YMCA association house, Adolf Graf (also Daimler employee and resident at the YMCA house in Untertürkheim) by means of mediation of the YMCA member Walter Zaiss in summer 1980. The inquiry was whether a small group of Daimler employees could obtain the permission to meet in a room of the YMCA association house for a weekly prayer meeting. In coordination with the former YMCA board director Martin Bofinger, the approval could be given. (YMCA stands for ‘Young Men’s Christian Association’.)

From 1980 to 1994 every Monday morning between 6:50 and 7:30 am, about 8 people were gathered in spiritual reflection under the word of God and in prayer before they went to their working places. Adolf Graf joined them spontaneously.

The participants belonged to different areas – the headquarters, the Untertürkheim plant and the testing department:

Shortly afterwards, Dr. Harry Tröster and Hans Pracht joined the prayer circle. Over time, the number of participants continued to increase. In total, 28 people took part on a permanent or occasion basis. A community was created which had developed a strengthening unity in faith. The informal ‚Du‘ instead of the formal ‚Sie‘ (German ‚you‘) soon came naturally, which was far from being common at that time.

At the end of November 1994, only the three friends Christoph Burckhardt, Adolf Graf and Hans Pracht met at the YMCA house. The blessed time of prayer circles at the YMCA in Untertürkheim came to an end, but the prayers continued at other locations!

Note by Dirk Baader:
Around the years 1984 and 1985, Dirk Baader, Christoph Burckhardt, Ekhard Moosbrugger, Dr. Harry Tröster and Dr. Günther Zoll also met at times on the second floor of the Untertürkheim plant’s training workshop. At that time, the training workshop had a separate entrance directly to the right in front of the ‘Cannstatter Tor’.

After his first four years as a research assistant at an institute of the University of Karlsruhe, Dr. Helmut Keller joined the passenger car testing department V1ZK of the then Daimler-Benz AG on January 1, 1987. This department was part of the organizational unit V1Z in Untertürkheim, but was accommodated in the Terrot building in Waiblingen, Heerstraße 100, due to the lack of space. After two years, Helmut Keller got to know the Christians Martin Moser, Frank-Werner Mohn and Reinhold Schneckenburger, who interestingly worked in the same main department. Thus, it was easy for him to talk to these colleagues about Christian values and, after a certain period of getting to know each other, have prayer communities in which they brought their business as well as private concerns to God in prayer.

In mid-1990, the Waiblingen department (in the meantime, EP/ FGEV) moved into the former AEG building in Oberesslingen, Sirnau Bridge. There, the circle grew by another three participants. Dr. Harry Tröster rejoined the circle after he had been a part of the group at the YMCA. For nine years they met for prayer once a week during lunch break at Martin Moser’s office.

In July 1999 the complete department moved to the recently completed Mercedes Technology Center (MTC) in Sindelfingen, where Helmut Keller continued the weekly prayer group meetings (see section ‘Prayer circles in Sindelfingen – plant 59’).

Dr. Josef Kurz, manager ‚Consolidated Statement‘ in the finance unit, had made it a habit to skip lunch one day a week and pray and read the Bible or a Christian script instead. He lifts his eyes off the book, glancing at his neighbors reading. Oops! The other man reads a booklet on which the word ‚biblestudy‘ is printed. ‚Interesting reading‘, are the first words. A lively discussion with the other man, Günter Kroll, manager ‚After Sales Commercial Vehicles‘, reveals that both have the desire to pray regularly with other colleagues who are believers in Jesus at the Möhringen site.

A few days later, the two men meet with Walter Bauer and Dr. Peter Philipp at his office (which had been moved from Untertürkheim to Möhringen in the meantime) for their first meeting, a prayer meeting that would be working for decades is born.

Within years and decades, further participants came and left – be it because they moved to another location for professional reasons or because their working hours or priorities had changed or because they had reached retirement age. Most of the time, this prayer meeting was held in the morning from 7:00 to 8:00. Despite several obstacles, there could always be found a room to meet for prayer.

Sometimes Günter Kroll brought his guitar to start the prayer time with praise. This was also the case when the former President of the Palestinian Territories, Jassir Arafat, who had worked his way up to be a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, visited Daimler (DaimlerChrysler). That morning Günter squeezed his big guitar case through the turnstile in Möhringen. The security man at the gate looked at it but not too closely and didn’t react although a powerful weapon was stored in that case: the guitar to support those who pray. When the helicopter finally landed with Arafat, the time of prayer was already over, but the meeting with the Daimler Board of Management had been spiritually prepared. The result: the financing of a kindergarten at the Gaza Strip.

Martin Strauß (Dipl.-Kaufmann in the IT area) confessed his Christian faith during his whole working life. It was important to him that people get to know Jesus Christ and may be saved. From 1992 he also participated in the prayer group at Möhringen.

In 2004 he initiated an Alpha course (Christian foundation course) in the cafeteria in Möhringen. This course taking place at the end of the working day was attended by three people from his immediate professional environment.

After two colleagues had found to the faith in Jesus Christ, Martin Strauß arranged a Christian faith course called ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ from October 2006 to June 2007. The objective was to encourage and strengthen the faith of the newly converted participants. The course took place weekly or fortnightly at the end of the working day in his room in Möhringen. The 40 units of the eponymous book by Rick Warren served as the basis for the course.

From mid-2007 to mid-2011, Martin Strauß worked at the Esslingen-Pliensauvorstadt site in the ‘Roser’ building, where he started a prayer group (see section ‘Prayer groups in Esslingen-Pliensauvorstadt’).  In mid-2011, he returned to the Möhringen site. There, in the first half of 2013, he offered a basic faith course on a biweekly basis. This course titled ‘Spur 8 – Entdeckungen im Land des Glaubens’ was attended by four to five non-church-oriented people. The course took place after work from 5 to 6 pm in a meeting room.

From September 2013 to April 2014, Martin Strauß offered a second basic faith course ‘Spur 8’ (see http://www.online-glauben.de/de/) in Möhringen.

This course, which also took place biweekly at the end of the working day, was attended by three interested persons. Martin continued this course until the end of April 2014, although he had already completed the active phase of his partial retirement at the end of January 2014.

One participant provided the following feedback:

“I got a glimpse of the bible and again found access to the theme of ‘God and the Bible‘. The highlight was the story of the lost son. I got a better understanding of biblical topics. I also read the Bible again and can understand better how things relate. I thought the seminar was very good.“

Through his courses and testimonies of his Christian faith, over the years Martin Strauß has been in friendly contact with many colleagues. From the mid-nineties (usually on a weekly basis over about 10 years) he sent a so-called ‘Occasional Mail’ to those who were interested. It contained interesting short stories (for example by Axel Kühner), watchwords (also with short explanations), good Christian quotes and poems, prayers, psalms and tips (references to Christian books, broadcasters (ERF), holiday courses, etc.). On birthdays he also sent personal biblical words of blessing or presented a good Christian book.

Since 2004, Martin Strauß also provides some of his colleagues with sermons that he gives as a predicant on a voluntary basis in his church. This is gladly accepted until today.

By the end of July 2007, Günter Kroll finished his active time at Daimler and went into an early retirement. He handed the responsibility of the prayer circle over to his faithful friend and brother Josef Kurz. But as an early bird, Günter Kroll took a few more years to attend the morning prayer. There, he often provided relevant information about the company extracted from several newspapers. That way all participants were well prepared for prayer.

In mide-2015 Josef Kurz retired, too. As a result, the Friday morning group dissolved soon after. However, Markus Kleppe, Manager ‚Risk Management Treasury‘, integrated the particpants into his Tuesday prayer group taking place during lunchtime (see section after next).

Connected to the early morning prayer group of Möhringen, the engineer, Daniela S. should be praised for beeing faithful to the early prayers since the foundation of that circle until its dissolution. Living in Stuttgart-Ost she rode her bicycle every Friday morning at 6:00 up the steep hill to the Möhringen site, to take part in prayer at 7:00 and then continued to travel to work in Sindelfingen. She did this in spite of cold wind and bad weather – even in winter! After the dissolving of the Möhringen morning prayer, Daniela S. joined a prayer circle in Sindelfingen.

In January 2009, Markus Kleppe, Manager ‚Risk Management Treasury‘, had already founded a second prayer group in Möhringen immediately after his return from Brussels as an expat. This group meets every Tuesday at lunchtime until today. After the retirement of Josef Kurz in mid-2015, the participants of the Friday morning circle joined this new group. So the Friday morning circle desolved completely after the summer break of 2015.

Mid-2018 Markus Kleppe was was transferred to Stuttgart Vaihingen. Therefore he had to hand over the lead of the Tuesday midday circle, which had experienced great growth in recent years. The sucessor of Markus Kleppe’s group is Carsten Becher, manager ‚Tender Management‘. Very satisfying is the fact that already in automn 2018, Markus Kleppe could install a new prayer group at his new location in Vaihingen.

In February 2021 Carsten Bechers department moved to Vaihingen, Am Wallgraben 114, Office V, with the consequence that also his prayer group moved to his new location and the prayer group in Epplestraße 225 was dissolved. Due to Corona, the prayer circle currently takes place virtually.

Regardless of the Friday morning and the Tuesday midday prayer group, there exists a third prayer group in Möhringen since 2009. This group is led by Iris Marques and meets every Monday during lunch time in the branch office in Vaihinger Street 131, building Häussler Atlanta.

With the outbreak of the Corona pandemic starting in spring 2020, the participants of the Möhringen prayer circle led by Iris Marques could only meet virtually for prayer. From time to time Thomas Failenschmid also assisted in leading the circle. In March 2022 Iris Marques and Thomas Failenschmid moved to Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Fasanenweg 15 -17, building Vertex.

In December 2018 Ellen Christen, working at the Stuttgart-Fasanenhof site (municipality Möhringen), was approached by a colleague about the Christian faith. The two agreed to meet for mutual exchange and prayer in the New Year. Independent of this conversation, in January 2019, another Christian colleague joined Ellen. Through the website ‘Christians at Daimler’ he had found out that she was looking for fellow persons of prayer in order to initiate a prayer group at her site. In the same month, the three met for lunch together. They decided to meet regularly whenever possible to pray together at their location at Schelmenwasenstraße 39.

In the beginning of 2019 this group came up with the idea to install prayer groups across different Daimler locations, in which Christians of the same subject areas are summarized. These groups could exchange views and prayer requests for example via a Threema group and pray together for subjects relating their special working field.

During the Corona pandemic, the prayer group at Schelmenwasen disbanded. Ellen Christen then joined Carsten Becher’s prayer group, which she had already attended during the time when it was still led by Markus Kleppe.

Over the years the prayer for the company and the people working there rested increasingly on the heart of Günter Kroll. And so it happened that he gave up his house church in mid-1992 and called up a company prayer circle at his home (additionally to his prayer group in the company). For many years about 6 – 8 Daimler Christians from different Daimler prayer groups met there every other month.

There was a time of worship, a time of gratitude for all the positive things and a time of intercession for the company, the Management Board members and the employees. Usually, in addition to that there was celebrated the Lord’s supper. In contrast to the meetings in the business premises, the more private surroundings allowed it to praise and worship in a musical way. After the spiritual program there was time to sit together, having dinner and exchanging thoughts with each other.

Such company-related prayer meetings outside the company are taking place until the present day, however, since 2013 at another location.

Completely independent of the activities in the Untertürkheim YMCA house, in the Möhringen headquarters, in Waiblingen and in Oberesslingen, in autumn 1992, some Christians from the Untertürkheim plant took the initiative to point to a Christian community outside working hours by advertising this in the company’s own educational program. This led to the fact that further Christians came forward to participate. At the beginning of 1993, the first prayer circle was founded in office facilities of the site in Untertürkheim. This circle met weekly for more than 30 years, starting before working hours at 6:45, under the leadership of Ekkehard K. and Wilfried O. in building 136. The colleagues Christoph Burckhardt and Hans Pracht of the former YMCA prayer circle joined the group after their circle was dissolved. Other persons who had beed previously attending the YMCA meetings were also present there. Adolf Graf, who had meanwhile taken early retirement, did not carry out this change.

Due to the move of Ekkehard K. into the passive phase of partial retirement, the prayer group dissolved at the end of June 2023. Wilfried O. joined another prayer group in Untertürkheim.

The prayer circle in Untertürkheim in building 119, level 1, already exists approximately since 2005. It meets once a week before working hours and was originally founded by Johannes Diessner und Michael Rohmann, who at the time of foundation were working as departmental colleagues in the Electric/Electronic development of the Truck sector. In 2008 Michael Rohmann moved to the Mercedes Technology Center (MTC) in Sindelfingen. After in December 2017 Johannes Diessner left the Truck sector, too, and moved to the VAN area, Philipp Schäuble (Quality Management in the Truck sector) briefly took charge of the circle. However, in February 2018 Philipp Schäuble also changed and moved to Böblingen for a certain period. Since that time, this circle is resting.

In 2008 Andreas M. initiated a prayer circle in building 120/3. However, this circle existed only until 2010.

Chantalle Wagne was a faithful member of a prayer circle in Möhringen until mid-2013. In 2013, she took over the new ‘Personnel Planning & Reporting’ function in the Human Resources Management, which required a move from Möhringen to Untertürkheim. In the immediate vicinity of her new location she could only find a prayer group that met in the early morning from 6:00 am to 7:15 am. Since this time was not suitable for her, she decided to initiate another prayer group in Untertürkheim at noon as soon as she was familiar with her new role.

This new prayer circle was first held on August 6, 2013. Since then, it has been attended weekly by 8 to 14 participants. The possibility of a recurring booking of a meeting room in the premises of the Works Council greatly simplified the organization.

Chantalle shared the following encouraging incident from her prayer circle:
“In addition to many answers to prayers in business-related concerns, recoveries from illnesses and also in family matters, I can report on a project that had to be stopped because nobody knew how to get further (details of the project not intended for publication). Two members of the prayer group were involved in this project and brought the request into the prayer circle. We prayed for a few weeks for this issue until one day the solution to the problems appeared to one of the colleagues involved in a nightly dream. He was shown by the Lord exactly how to proceed. The colleague reported on this in the prayer circle before he submitted the solution to his supervisor. However, he didn’t know whether he should inform his supervisor about the fact that the solution was not from him but rather from the Lord in a dream. I encouraged him to inform his boss about the background and he did so. His rather skeptical superior allowed the solution to be tried out since there was no other options left for him. Implemented exactly as shown in the dream, the solution worked out well, i.e. the problems encountered were all solved. The solution even got patented. The colleague has since been able and allowed to report to many people about it.”

Chantalle Wagne led this prayer circle until shortly before she left the company on March 31, 2021. In February 2021, there was a baton handover to Gudrun Böhringer from the Controlling area, who shares the leadership with Hans-Martin Schimpf from the Production Planning. Both were previously longstanding members of Chantalle’s circle.

In mid-2015, Benjamin Orschel founded a prayer circle in the VAN area in Untertürkheim, after he had moved from Sindelfingen to Untertürkheim. This circle meets biweekly until today in the lunch break. Previously, Benjamin Orschel had worked in Sindelfingen where he also led a prayer circle. However, already in 2007 he handed over the leadership of this circle to Dr. Johannes Weiss (see section ‘Prayer circles in Sindelfingen – Plant 59’).

Volker von Rad worked as an engineer for the development of air conditioning systems for passenger cars at the Mercedes Technology Center (MTC) in Sindelfingen until 2016, where he took part regularly in the prayer circle in building 50/1. In 2016, he moved to the Truck sector in Untertürkheim, where he was again responsible for the development of air conditioning systems, but for trucks. In 2016, together with David Hewitt (Transport Logistics at the Untertürkheim plant), who also came from Sindelfingen in 2012 and led a prayer circle there on the Sindelfingen production site (see below), he initiated another prayer circle in building 119 in level 4. Unlike the other prayer circle in building 119 (see above), this circle meets during lunch break.

Volker von Rad left the company at the end of 2017, whereupon David Hewitt and Jürgen Pfrommer (Testing and Materials Technology) took over the management. From summer to the end of 2018, the circle rested, as Jürgen Pfrommer had to undertake many business trips to Hungary. Since early 2019, the circle meets again weekly at lunchtime. Due to a change of location of David Hewitt and lack of availability of Jürgen Pfrommer, from April 2019 the circle was managed by Matthias Hahn. Since the revival of this group, it enjoyed further growth.

Matthias Hahn was employed by the company AKKA, but during this phase he worked for Daimler as a temporary employee. In mid-2020, his temporary employment contract was changed into a work contract, which is why he transferred the leadership of the circle to Felix Reisgys in June.

Johannes Diessner, who moved to the VAN area in December 2017, joined the already existing prayer circle of Benjamin Orschel there. This circle experienced a fairly strong inflow since mid-2018. When in the beginning of 2019 the number of participants had grown to about 10 participants, Benjamin Orschel suggested in February 2019, to divide the group into two parts. Johannes Diessner, who had led a prayer circle in the Truck sector until November 2017, accepted this proposal. Thus it was that in March 2019 another prayer circle in the VAN area was initiated under the direction of Johannes Diessner. This circle meets every 14 days in the morning before starting work.

In November 2020, the battery development area – and with it the members of the prayer group located there – moved from Nabern to Untertürkheim (see ‘Prayer circle in Nabern’). Thus, since December 2020, there has been another prayer group in Untertürkheim, which continues to be led by Dr. Michael Speidel. Unless the meetings are virtual, the prayer group meets in building 122/1.

On the initiative and organization of Felix Reisgys, another prayer circle was launched in Untertürkheim on 24.11.2024, shortly after the 18th Christian Meeting. It takes place virtually via MS Teams on Friday mornings at 7:45 a.m. before work. The reason for this was that some colleagues were unable to attend the Wednesday lunchtime circle.

According to Felix, there were already four participants at the first meeting.

Around the year 1998 there was a group of Christians in the building 46 of the production plant in Sindelfingen (plant 50), who met regularly during the breaks. There was a lot of prayer for each other. All this had been initiated by Sonja K., a burning Christian lady, who testified everywhere to Jesus. Some people decided to live with Jesus there. Helmut Essig also joined these Christians, who were of different ecclesiastical origin.

During these meetings Helmut Essig met his colleague Fritz Hartleb. Around the year 1999, these two men decided to regularly pray for the company and its employees by walking across the factory premises between the production halls during their lunch break. Sonja K. left the company around this time.

In 2004, David Hewitt, together with Christoph Meier, took over the direction of this open-air prayer circle and coordinated the weekly meetings for eight years.

When David Hewitt moved to Untertürkheim in 2012, the management went to Christoph Eisele (Asset Accounting), who coordinated this circle for another 6 years. Since Christoph Eisele’s workplace was relocated to Schlosshofstraße in October 2018, Helmut Essig has been responsible for the open-air prayer group since that time.

Over the years, new people kept coming and praying for the company and the people working in it. It is very encouraging to see in retrospect what God has done great.

Helmut Essig retired on November 30, 2022. In his farewell message he wrote: ‘Especially valuable are the relationships with Christians at Daimler over all these years. It is so precious to pray together and to stand up for so many things in prayer. The company prayer is a wonderful thing.’

Hans Schaaser (Industrial Mechanic in Car Production) was a loyal prayer for the company during its various stations in production plant 50 – from 2007 to early 2012 in building 9, then until March 2017 in building 2 and finally until the end of July 2018 in building 8. While he still had a few followers in building 9, he was mostly alone in the buildings 2 and 8. As he informed in an email from November 2014, he prayed alone whenever it suited him in time. In August 2018, Hans Schaaser entered the passive phase of his partial retirement.

The weekly prayer circle at Fronäckerstraße 40, Haus Beuttler, has existed since the end of 2008. The occasion for the founding of the prayer circle was the 3rd Daimler Christian Meeting in November 2008, at which Walter Weber met his colleague Marcel N., who is also a devout Christian. Together with him, he agreed to found the prayer circle in the Fronäckerstraße, as there did not yet exist a circle at this site of plant 50.

At the end of September 2023, Walter’s department moved to Herrenberger Strasse 110 in Böblingen, where the prayer group continues to take place (see section ‘Prayer circles in Böblingen’). As the participants mostly meet online, the move is only of a formal nature.

„We are experiencing a lot of prayer hearings. So we have e.g. already experienced spontaneous healings of back pain or headaches that have not come back since then. Another prayer hearing was that the constant bullying that a son of a prayer circle member experienced through his classmates literally stopped overnight. Our biggest prayer hearing was the cancer cure of the father of a prayer colleague.

We often experienced that prayers were answered on the same day that we brought the request to God. God hears prayer!

The main challenge, in my view, is that everyone in the prayer circle maintains his relationship with God and does not allow negative experiences or problems to take him away from God. Supporting each other on this point is very important to us.”

From 2009 to July 2016, there was also a prayer circle in Building 7/1 of plant 50, which was coordinated by Thomas K. and met over noon. In the absence of available participants, however, this took place only sporadically.

During the 14th Daimler Christian Meeting in November 2019, David Kallfass, working in building 551/1 (Tübinger Allee, Tor 80), met Marco Alber, a colleague who works at the same location. Marco’s suggestion to found a prayer group there was very much welcomed by David. So on January 20, 2020, they started their first prayer meeting in Tübinger Allee. As David reported, their circle is expected to grow even more.

In the middle of 1999, the pre-development department ‘System Development Driving Functions’, where Dr. Helmut Keller was at the time head of the team for ‘Control Systems Design’, moved from Oberesslingen to the recently completed Mercedes Technology Center (MTC) in Sindelfingen. Since all participants of the Oberesslingen prayer circle moved at the same time, the prayer meetings could initially be continued there with the same team. The members pray for company-relevant concerns and meet every Monday during the lunch break to the present day. They use a meeting room of the building 50/1 which is unoccupied during this time of day.

Gradually, many more departments from various locations in Stuttgart and surroundings moved to the newly built Mercedes Technology Center (MTC) in Sindelfingen. So it happened that Helmut Keller met many other Christians from neighboring departments and areas, whom he invited to the weekly prayer rounds. As a result, the number of prayer participants increased.

Since there were some participants who preferred a prayer time in the morning before work began, Helmut Keller founded an additional early prayer circle in 2004, which meets every Thursday at 7:00 am in building 50/1 in the same meeting room as the Monday circle.

Both, the Monday and the Thursday prayer group, were headed by Helmut Keller until the end of his active time at Daimler in August 2017. Due to the many positive experiences over the years and the impressing answers to prayer that the participants were able to witness there, it was easy to find suitable successors, who took over the lead of the two groups with joy and plenty of initiative. Thus, since September 2017, the Monday group has been passed on by Hannes Ackermann and the Thursday group by Reiner Maul. In particular, the Monday circle enjoyed lively participation at times and continued to grow in the time before Corona.

On October 1, 2022, Hannes Ackermann moved to the VAN division. Since then, the Monday circle has been coordinated by Marcel Mast.

The Sindelfingen prayer circle in building 26 of the Mercedes Technology Center (MTC) was already initiated around the year 2002 by Meike Sondermeyer (Acoustics Engineer in Car Development). In autumn 2004, Benjamin Orschel (then a member of the Develop Junior Group) took over the lead of this circle. In 2007, the management then went over to Dr. Johannes Weiss (NVH calculation in Car Development), since Benjamin Orschel at that time focused more on volunteer services in his church. Until the outbreak of Corona, people met weekly during lunch break in a meeting room at level 0 of building 26. During the Corona Crisis and in the period after, people met virtually via MS Teams.

Benjamin Orschel was still a participant in this circle until 2015. In 2015, he moved to Untertürkheim in the VAN area, where he founded another prayer circle shortly thereafter (see section ‘Prayer circles in Untertürkheim’).

Rüdiger Steinberg (at that time team leader of ‘Overall Vehicle Concept C-class’) has long been concerned about giving space to God and Christian values in his working environment. Therefore, in the beginning of 2005, he founded a prayer circle in level 4 of building 26. The fact that another prayer circle took place in the same building on the same day of the week – and also at the same time of day – became known only in 2006 on the occasion of the first Daimler Christian Meeting, where all existing Daimler prayer groups were presented. After a subsequent exchange with Benjamin Orschel, the then leader of the parallel prayer circle, they decided to keep the place and time of the two prayer circles as they were. Therefore, for many years there were two prayer circles in building 26, which took place on the same day of the week during the lunch break. With the outbreak of Corona, they were forced to organize the prayer circles via virtual meetings from the home office.

At the end of November 2021, Rüdiger Steinberg moved into passive semi-retirement. The participants of his circle joined the prayer circle led by Johannes Weiss, which took place at the same time (see previous section).

In 2008, Michael Rohmann (responsible for the development of starter-generator lines in the Passenger Car Development), who together with Johannes Diessner initiated the Untertürkheim prayer circle in building 119 around 2005 (see section ‘Prayer circles in Untertürkheim’), moved from the commercial vehicle sector in Untertürkheim to the Mercedes Technology Center (MTC) in Sindelfingen. As his new team included two other faithful colleagues (Raphael O. and Jan S.), in 2010 he started another prayer circle in building 20/1 of the MTC in Sindelfingen. Triggered by a prayer flyer circulating in the company, over ten people soon met at the weekly prayer meetings during lunch break. Due to restructurings and terminations of internships, diploma theses and student research projects, the group of participants shrank considerably from the beginning of 2019. By February 2023, the circle consisted of only two to three participants, which is why Michael Rohmann disbanded the group and joined a prayer circle in building 50/1 in September 2023.

In October 2018, the working place of Christoph Eisele was moved into the project center for ‘Buildings and Interior Construction’ of the plant 59. This required a relocation from plant 50 to Schosshofstraße. Interestingly, there, he received a seating position next to a colleague who is at the same time a pastor on a voluntary basis in Rastatt. Together with another colleage, whom Christoph Eisele knows from his church, they met there for regular prayer from the end of 2018 until July 2022. During the Corona pandemic, the prayer meetings took place virtually.

At 66 years of age and nearly 49 years with the ‘good star’, Christoph Eisele said goodbye to his well-deserved retirement in July 2022. In addition to his many tasks in plant accounting, his mandate as union shop steward and as a member of the shop stewards’ committee, he led various prayer groups in plants 50 and 59 for many years. As he announced at his farewell, he wants to continue praying for the company and possibly join a retiree prayer group.

Even after Christoph’s departure, the two prayer group members Alessandro L. R. and Levi D. continue to meet for prayer. Alessandro agreed to take over the lead from Christoph Eisele. He is looking forward to more fellow prayers.

In February 2019, Daniel Bachmann from the Powertrain area shared the news that he and three other colleagues meet for weekly prayer in building 12. Thus, another prayer group existed in the ‘Mercedes Technology Center (MTC)’ in Sindelfingen.

Miriam S. (formerly Miriam H.) from the field of telematics has an interest in praying especially for her project, her team and her department. In February 2019, together with a colleague, she started to pray regularly for their specific concerns. They first met on the 10th floor of building 50/1.

In June 2019 Miriam moved into a buliding on Kolumbusstraße. Thus, there is also a prayer circle at this location, which, however, primarily focuses on the project- and department-specific concerns.

Marcel Mast, who has been a faithful participant of the Monday prayer circle in building 50/1 since 2017, decided in May 2020 to intensify the company prayer, as he became aware of the importance of prayer and also recognised the willingness of many participants. Therefore, for a certain period of time, starting in June 2020, the participants of the Monday prayer circle met not only on Mondays, but also on Wednesdays and Fridays under the leadership of Marcel Mast. During the Corona phase, however, these meetings did not take place on site in building 50/1, but virtually via MS Teams.

In order to better address the needs of young colleagues – especially when working part-time and/or with children – Johannes Weiss founded another prayer circle in December 2021. Since many young colleagues are already fully occupied with family tasks before they start work and are already on their way to daycare or similar at the classic prayer circle time of 12 o’clock, the time was set at 8:30 o’clock. And since most of them work in home offices and organize their own working hours, participation at this early hour is not a problem. The prayer time is of course excluded from the reported working time.

Several young participants reported back that they are very happy to have found a prayer circle with younger people. It is a prayer requestthat more prayer circles for younger people will emerge. It is absolutely understandable that a young professional does not necessarily have the same concerns as an older colleague.

Anyone interested is welcome to participate in this prayer circle that takes place in MS teams (please send an email to info@christentreffen.de).

Frank Alexander Ihle, who led a prayer group in Vaihingen until March 2023 (see section ‘Prayer circles in Stuttgart-Vaihingen’) moved to the Sindelfingen location, Kolumbusstraße 19, in April 2023. He would like to continue his prayer group there. Interested Christians are welcome to join him.

Hans-Georg Osswald joined Daimler in 2000 in the area ‘Global Service & Parts’ in Esslingen-Brühl, Palmenwaldstraße. Even then, some Daimler employees and colleagues from service companies met there every now and again to pray – either in a basement of the underground car park or in a workshop room. One day in 2000, Hans-Georg Osswald discovered a Christian (Kawohl) calendar on a colleague’s desk. He asked this colleague if there was a prayer circle in Esslingen-Brühl. The colleague affirmed and named him a few colleagues from the neighboring department, who would also take part in the prayer circle from time to time and to whom he would like to approach. Then he became a member of this prayer circle in Brühl and was grateful to have found brothers and sisters in faith at his location on the spot.

This prayer circle was at that time a relatively loose union. Many participants were often temporarily unable to attend and therefore took part only sporadically. So it happened that the prayer circle took place less and less over time. Around 2003, the members agreed to stop the prayer circle due to the many failures and the increasingly sparse participation.

Around the year 2006, a new Daimler employee joined the department ‘After-Sales Diagnostics’ for passenger cars at Brühl. Since she was a dedicated Christian she inquired about a local prayer circle, and in 2007 she called the ‘decommissioned’ prayer circle back to life – using the catchy acronym ‘BAG’, which stands for ‘Bibel – Austausch – Gebet’ (Bible – Exchange – Prayer).

When this colleague changed to Research & Development some time later (about 2007/2008), the question of the successor had to be clarified. The team leader of Hans-Georg Osswald, who was also a Christian and often participated in the prayer circle, asked Hans-Georg Osswald whether he would take over the role of head or organizer of the BAG meetings. Since then, this circle has been coordinated by him. Every week, Hans-Georg Osswald invites to the BAG prayer meetings by e-mail. As an entry into the prayer meetings usually a devotion for the day is shared, for example from https://unsertaeglichbrot.org/, https://www.gute-saat.de/ or http://faithfood.ch/.

At the beginning of 2009, the various departments of GSP/TD were cumulated in the Smart area at the Böblingen site. Thus, a large part of the Brühl prayer circle moved to Böblingen. The other part of the prayer circle remained in Brühl. Dieter Backhaus (Education System) took over the leadership until his entry into the passive part-time phase of partial retirement in December 2012. Thereafter, the circle was continued by Claudia D. for about one more year. Due to a change of job, however, this residual circle dissolved in 2013, while the circle moved to Böblingen meets weekly in the Smart area until today.

Since May 2002, some believing Daimler employees at the Hedelfingen plant have been meeting during breaks to talk about their common faith and their experiences with Jesus in the workplace, to read the Bible and to pray. In January 2019, Markus Schmid, industrial mechanic in gearbox assembly, gave a brief review of his experience so far:

“In May 2002, I had a work colleague who was very open to the Christian faith. He was very interested and listened well when I told him of Jesus in the pauses. He was very much attached to computer games and pornographic films, but he wanted to get to know God better and get rid of his vices. We met regularly during the breaks to talk about the Christian faith.

One day we went from the workshop to the basement during a break and discovered a small metal staircase in the pleasantly warm cellar corridors. This staircase (see photo) became a regular break point from this day on. We sat there talking to each other, reading the Bible and praying together. These were the beginnings of our prayer circle in Hedelfingen.

A little later we discovered that not far from this staircase was a door to a corridor, at the end of which there was a ‘small stadium’, an open space that went down from three sides like a tribune. There we could sit much more comfortably than on the metal staircase in the basement corridor.

Later we brought carpets and artificial flowers to make the room a little more attractive. On the bare wall, we painted a cross and wrote Bible verses. We also published tracts and hung a sign saying ‘Daimler Church’.

Many of my colleagues knew that I am a self-confessed Christian and so it happened not infrequently that they taught me more Christians – often with the words: ‘There is still a saint like you’. Our group in the underground continued to grow. We met during the break of the morning shift from 12:35 – 1:05 pm as well as in the breaks of the late shift from 5:45 – 6:15 pm and from 9:30 – 9:45 pm.

In part, faithful working students also took part in the break-time meetings (see photo below).

About 2004/2005 I noticed another colleague at the sink, because he always beamed at me so friendly. I watched him for some time and thought to myself, ‘Either this colleague is “interested in me” or he is a Christian.’ The latter was true. After a short while, I realized that he, too, was a devout Christian. A close friendship developed with this colleague. Except during business break times, we often met at 5:00 am in the morning before the morning shift, to start the day with a morning prayer walk in the wild on the fields. Then we drove to work together.

When I talked to another colleague in the bathroom when washing my hands, he said: ‘My grandma said everyone had to wear his cross’. When I answered, ‘For me the cross bore another,’ he said, ‘Oh, you are one of those, too!’ So we both recognized that we were followers of Jesus.

Interestingly, even a Muslim colleague once provided me a colleague who believed in Jesus and worked with him on the same shift. Since the Muslim colleague knew about my faith, he referred to his colleagues to me with the words, ‘This is also someone like you’. Also to this colleague a close friendship developed.

In oder to make my colleagues aware of the faith, I always wore T-shirts with challenging inscriptions, such as ‘Last Exit before Hell’, ‘Without Jesus – lived in vain’ or ‘I will not die, just move’. These T-shirts were often the occasion for in-depth religious discussions.

Our meetings in the basement of the plant in Hedelfingen took place over eight years from May 2002 to August 2010. For a while, we even met several times a day, each in the breaks. However, on August 31, 2010, the following occurred: At the door to our ‘Underground Stadium’, a sign hung warning that for safety reasons it was not allowed to stay in the basement for longer. It would be a supply channel, which may be entered only with a gas detector. It could be health or even life-threatening pollutants in this supply channel.

My friendly team leader had initiated this and also openly talked to me about it.

I understood that this was no excuse to keep us from our meetings. This retired team leader lives in the same village as me. I still visit him and his wife regularly today.

Because of the cellar room ban, we did not give up our prayer meetings. Soon after completing the meetings in the basement, a devout master gave us permission to use a meeting room during the breaks. We were able to use this room between 2012 and 2015 after all for about 3-4 years. Because this room nowadays is occupied by other means, we are currently looking for another room. Until then, we pray where it smells of oil and the machines hum.”

Also in Mettingen one meets to the regular company prayer already since 2007. The impetus for the weekly meetings was the following:

In 2007 Gotthardt Lesch (Quality Planning) had a meeting with a colleague named Wolfgang S. from the pre-planning. In the course of their conversation, they found that they are both Christians and interested in regular prayers in the company. Wolfgang S. was acquainted with another Christian named Norbert Lorenz from the competition analysis and so it happened that the three colleagues met for the first time on 15 March 2007 to a common prayer. Since then, they meet each Thursday over lunch break in a meeting room in the Mettingen plant.

Gotthardt Lesch headed the Mettinger prayer circle for 13 years. Due to his age-related retirement on August 1, 2020, he handed the management over to his loyal colleague Norbert Lorenz in mid-February 2020.

Due to the dissolution of his field of work, Norbert Lorenz had to hand over the leadership of the Mettingen prayer group in mid-October 2020. Rainer Hackstein took over in October 2020. But he, too, was only able to lead the circle temporarily, as he 11 months later moved into the passive phase of partial retirement. Since September 2021, Thomas Latzel has therefore been responsible for the Mettingen prayer circle.

A member of the prayer circle in Mettingen reports about the following event from the year 2018:

“During the lunch break on a Thursday when we wanted to meet for prayer, we did not have a key to our prayer room and so we prayed in front of this room. An external logistics employee, an American, came up to us and was interested in what we were doing out front. We told him that we would pray for our employer, on which he also revealed as a Christian. Unfortunately, we never met him again afterwards.”

In 2007, Martin S. moved from Möhringen, where he was offering Alpha and Basic Faith courses, to Esslingen in the Roser building. There he founded a prayer circle, which met once a week at 8:00 am with three to four participants.

In mid-2011 Martin S. moved back to his original location Möhringen. The prayer circle in the Roser building was then continued for a few months by Petra H., but dissolved in late 2011, when she was transferred to Vaihingen.

Since 2017, Yahkub Bugday, then an external management consultant at Daimler, is leading a prayer circle in the Roser building in Esslingen-Pliensauvorstadt, which was leased by Daimler until 2018. After the lease expiring of the building, some of the participants moved to other locations. Nevertheless, Yahkub Bugday (now with Daimler employment contract) meets with another colleague for weekly prayer to this day. Other Christians at his location are cordially invited to join the circle.

In 2006 Andrea Riecker (sales employee) initiated a prayer circle in Böblingen-Hulb at Dornierstraße 7 (AEG building). She led this group until she left the company (then DaimlerChrysler AG) in July 2007 and emigrated to Canada for family reasons. For a short time Kerstin S. was her successor. For lack of participants, however, this circle dissolved in 2008.

The prayer circle in the Smart area in Böblingen was initiated by Dr. Siegmar Haasis, then head of department for ‘Computer Aided Design & Manufacturing’ and ‘Virtual Reality’ within Mercedes-Benz Cars. In 2010 Siegmar Haasis moved as ‘CIO Overseas & Greater China’ to Asia for three years (first Singapore, then Beijing). Stefan Jantner (Global Services & Parts) took over the direction of this prayer circle until he also moved to Malaysia as an expat in November 2014. He has been back at his old location since the end of 2018, However, since in the meanwhile the former participants in this prayer circle have been transferred to other locations (Atrium Böblingen or MTC Sindelfingen), there is a lack of participants, which is why this prayer circle has been resting since 2014.

Worth mentioning is the fact that Siegmar Haasis founded the ‚Hope Group’ in Beijing in early 2013. Details can be found in the section ‘Hope Group in Beijing’.

Until the middle of 2008 Martin Moser and Reinhold Schneckenburger (Advanced Development within the area ‘Brake, Assistance and Suspension Systems’) were faithful participants of the prayer circle in the MTC, building 50/1. In September 2008, they moved to Böblingen as members of the Pre-Development department at Hanns-Klemm-Straße 45. Because they did not want to give up the weekly corporate prayer at their new location, they initiated their own new prayer circle. This circle existed until Martin Moser was transferred back to the MTC in May 2017 in the department ‘Parking and Camera Systems’.

The following anecdote can be found in this prayer circle:

“The neighbor team had a trainee from South Korea. He could speak some German and good English, but he could only pray in his mother tongue. The jump from English to Korean has always been a bit funny, of course we have understood nothing. But through the Spirit of God we still shared in his prayer.”

At the beginning of 2009, the various departments of GSP/TD at the Esslingen-Brühl site were cumulated in the Smart area in Böblingen. As a result, a large part of the prayer circle led by Hans-Georg Osswald moved to Böblingen.

The search for a suitable meeting room at the new location in Böblingen was not easy, but even then the group was allowed to experience God’s help. For many months, the circle was allowed to use a small meeting room in the executive suite near the divisional director.

To this day, the prayer circle in the Smart area meets at lunchtime. As an entry into the prayer meetings usually a devotion for the day is shared, for example from https://unsertaeglichbrot.org/, https://www.gute-saat.de/ or http://faithfood.ch/.

There is the following story about the formation of the prayer circle at Schickardstraße 30:

Since about 2004 Rüdiger Nannt has been accompanied by Natalie M. in his purchasing activities. Around the year 2010, Natalie moved into the strategy area within the purchasing department. One day they made an appointment to have lunch and, quite by chance (there is no coincidence with God), they came to the theme of ‘Faith in Jesus Christ’. Since both had just come to faith, they decided to start a prayer circle. So it came in 2011 to the prayer circle at Schickardstraße 30.

In August 2018 Rüdiger Nannt moved to the Mercedes-Benz production plant East London in South Africa. For a short time the direction of the prayer circle in the Schickardstraße went to Philipp Schäuble, However, at the end of September he changed back to Untertürkheim. Therefore, since October 2018 the circle is headed by Daniela Vallipuram.

During the 7th Daimler Christian Meeting on November 10, 2012, Dr. Peyman Merat (Head of Integrated Product Assurance) and Andreas Walter (Change Management Monitor), who both worked in the atrium in Böblingen, Hanns-Klemm-Straße 5, came across ‘by coincidence’. When they met again shortly thereafter in the atrium, they decided to start a prayer circle there. This prayer circle has existed since the end of 2012 to the present day. It was first led by Peyman Merat and from 2014 by Andreas Walter. In 2016 they made the following notice on the bulletin board:

At the end of 2022, the lease of the “Atrium” building at Hanns-Klemm-Straße 5 in Böblingen expired after a 10-year term. Most of the colleagues employed there moved to the “Smart-Areal” (Leibnizstraße 2 in Böblingen). It was therefore obvious to merge the prayer group in the Böblingen atrium with the prayer group in the Smart-Areal. The leader of the prayer group in the Smart-Areal is still Hans-Georg Osswald.

At the end of September 2023, Walter Weber, who had been leading a prayer group at Fronäckerstraße 40 in Sindelfingen since the end of 2008 (see section ‘Prayer circles in Sindelfingen – Plant 50’), moved to Herrenberger Straße 110 in Böblingen. He continues to run his prayer circle there. As the participants mostly meet online, the move is only of a formal nature.

The prayer circle in the Mercedes-Benz Logistics Center Reutlingen was initiated in 2009 by Markus Weikert. At this point, he did not know that there were other prayer groups at Daimler. This he did not learn until some time later, when told him by a colleague from Sindelfingen.

Markus Weikert has already received numerous answers to prayer. About the following event he informed by mail:

“My colleague’s son was hospitalized with facial paralysis. The colleague (father of the child) called desperately to me because nobody knew how it would go on with the child. I said to him, ‘Come on, we pray at our workplace – or better yet – we visit him in the hospital and pray there.’ He agreed.

Arriving at the hospital, the colleague opened the door to the hospital room, but immediately closed it again, because the night before two Muslim children were hospitalized in the room, whose mothers were sitting by the bed. Finally he went in and asked his son, ‘Shall Markus pray for you?’ The boy said yes. I called out loud to Jesus and asked for full restoration of the son. After that we went back to work. After about an hour, the son called and said, ‘I’m going to be released from the hospital.’ ”

Dr. Michael Speidel formerly worked in Nabern (near Kirchheim unter Teck) in the field of battery simulation. During his vacation in spring 2019, it became important to him to pray for the company. On May 10, 2019, he discovered in the Daimler internal intranet on some information about the ‘Christians at Daimler’ network and the existing prayer circles at Daimler. He then contacted the network to find out more. Although a few more Christians were employed at the Nabern site, there was no company prayer group yet. That’s why Helmut Keller motivated him to start a prayer circle there as well.

Michael contacted the local Christians. At the end of May 2019 he announced that a small circle of five colleagues had decided to establish a prayer circle at their location. Since then, this group has met once a week on a Monday evening after work in a meeting room outside the main company premises in Nabern.

In November 2020, the entire battery development area – and thus also the members of the prayer group led by Michael Speidel – moved from Nabern to Untertürkheim (see ‘Prayer circles in Untertürkheim’).

The motivation to set up a prayer circle in Bremen had been brought by Wolfgang Marquaß, team leader ‘Tool Introduction and Testing Technology’, from the Hamburg plant in 2008. Already around the year 1998 there existed a small prayer circle, consisting of an E2 leader, two other colleagues and himself. His desire was to take this important mission with him to his new place of work.

He got in touch with other Christians because his then landlord in Bremen, who was a faithful man of prayer in his church, asked in a church service whether there were church members who work for Daimler and would be interested in a prayer circle. As a result, the first contacts were made at the Bremen plant in 2010.

From the 2nd or 3rd hand, Wolfgang Marquaß learned that around the year 2010 there must have been one or more other prayer groups at the Bremen plant that regularly met in the production as shift prayer groups. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to establish direct contact with the colleagues of these circles.

In October 2018 Wolfgang Marquaß changed the job within the production equipment in a related field of responsibility. Since then, they have been meeting in a room assigned to his team.

On March 1, 2023, Wolfgang Marquaß switched from active to passive semi-retirement. As early as November 2022, he therefore handed over the leadership of the Bremen prayer group to his colleague Markus Häveker. Thus, the prayers at the Bremen plant could continue seamlessly.

According to a statement by Wolfgang Marquaß in January 2019, it is very encouraging for the prayer group that a faithful participant named Axel G. still regularly participates in the company prayer circle, although he is already in semi-retirement for almost three years and has a journey of 50 km to the plant. Asked to Axel G. what was the reason for him to take the long route to the weekly corporate prayer circles, he replied: “I believe God is paying great attention to these little prayer rounds because they do what he wants. The bible says, ‘All your worries throw on him, because he cares for you.’ And another thing is very important to me: When it comes to admiring one or the other, that’s just our Lord Jesus, because he is and was very patient with me. He has often carried me through and he has given me great pleasure by entrusting my wife Angelika to me.”

Already in 2014, Pia W., then Sales Truck / Marketing, met regularly with other Christians in Vaihingen to pray. In 2015, she moved to China, whereupon the circle dissolved.

In the middle of 2018 the workplace of Markus Kleppe was relocated from Möhringen to Vaihingen, Industriestraße 21 (administrative building of KNV GmbH). As soon as he got a foothold there, he met other Christians. In the autumn of 2018 he was able to start a prayer circle at his new location.

At the end of September 2021, Markus Kleppe left Daimler to study theology and then enter full-time pastoral ministry. His prayer group in Vaihingen was continued by Frank Alexander Ihle – in Corona times mainly on a virtual basis. In April 2023 Frank moved to Kolumbusstrasse 19 in Sindelfingen.

Encouraged by the 14th Daimler-Christian meeting, Michael Max and his colleague Benjamin Bertow, both employed at Mercedes-Benz Tech Innovation (at that time Daimler TSS), asked their management in December 2019 whether they were allowed start a prayer group at their location in Vaihingen, Gropiusplatz 10. To their delight, this request was approved. Thus, since the beginning of 2020 there has been another prayer group in Vaihingen.

On January 1, 2023, Michael Max moved from Mercedes-Benz Tech Innovation to Daimler Truck. Benjamin Bertow would like to keep the prayer circle going. He is on the lookout for fellow prayers, as he often prayed with Michael alone in the past.

In February 2021 Carsten Becher’s department moved from Möhringen, Epplestraße 225, to Vaihingen, Am Wallgraben 114, Office V. His Möhringen prayer circle was thus relocated to the new place of work. During the Corona pandemic, this took place virtually.

The kick-off and the ultimate motivation for the foundation of the prayer circle at the Fellbach-Schmiden site were given by the Daimler Christian Meetings. That’s how the Daimler Christians working there started to meet regularly in the spring of 2015.

Message from Manfred Nachtrieb in January 2019:

“A big answer of prayer was the decision of our board of management in the summer of 2018 to let us be assigned as the remaining team of the car repair team (PWI) to the plant 10. About three years ago, the board decided to add all 350 PWI employees to the contracting departments.

This was partially implemented in the years 2017/2018 – except for the team in Schmiden, which should be added to the branch Württemberg.

We prayed about 3 years for the decision of the continuance of our team in plant 10. And so it came. God has prepared people from the works council to stand up for us and be has given the insight to the decision makers. All about 60 employees working here in Schmiden are totally relieved and can confidently look to the future now. Thank God!”

In his time as Senior Expert (vulgo: Space Cowboy) on the Pragsattel (Stuttgart-Feuerbach) Dr. Josef Kurz, who led one of the prayer groups in Möhringen from mid-2007 to mid-2015 (see ‘Prayer Meetings in Möhringen’), had another role in the development of corporate prayer groups at Daimler. Together with Anette K., responsible for the reporting of Credit Risk Systems, he was able to found a prayer circle on Pragsattel in mid-2016.

Since the departure of Josef Kurz, this circle, which meets during the lunch break in the offices of the Mercedes-Benz Bank, is continued by Anette K. with interim management support of another colleague. Although the number of participants in this circle was subject to greater fluctuations due to job changes and as a result, the meetings in the past often failed, the prayer circle did not dissolve. Instead, the remaining members were praying for growth.

In 2018, this circle met temporarily in the nearby Gospel Forum in the Junghansstraße 7-9. The main reason for this was that the group could sing and play the guitar undisturbed which created a good atmosphere for prayer.

From August 2016 to January 2019, Thomas K. worked as a master at the Rastatt plant. There, in August 2016 he called another prayer circle to life, which met in a meeting container. Unfortunately, the group was not heavily frequented, which is why he completely disbanded after the return of Thomas K. to Sindelfingen.

However, there is hope that this prayer circle will come back to life in 2020. Dejan P., who is still working at the start-up factory in Sindelfingen until the end of 2019, will return to Rastatt in 2020 and would gladly take over the prayer circle there.

Since the 10th Daimler Christian Meeting in autumn 2015 with the theme ‘Open Your Mind and Your Heart’, the Daimler retiree Ekhard M. has been thinking of founding a pensioner prayer circle out of gratitude to his company. Among other things, he owes the company his monthly Daimler company pension. One year later, directly after the 11th Daimler Christian Meeting in 2016 with the inspiring lecture of Johannes Hartl (Prayer House Augsburg) and the topic ‘With the Lord under the Star’, he searched for allies who supported his project.

He received a pledge from three friendly pensioners, and in November 2016, the first Daimler-Pensioner prayer circle was founded.

Currently, the group of four is praying over a conference call. However, once the technical requirements are met with each of the participants, they intend to communicate in sound and picture via an Internet-based video conferencing system.

Gabriele O. prays daily before starting her work at her workplace. As soon as she locates other Christians near her, she would like to install a regular prayer circle.

In August 2018, Hans-Peter S. asked if there were more Christians at his site in Wangen because he intended to found a prayer group there around lunchtime. Gabriele O.’s prayer meetings before 7.00 a.m. were too early for him. Unfortunately, until his move to Untertürkheim in February 2020, no further men or women of prayer were found to accompany him in his project.

In Untertürkheim, Hans-Peter S. joined Johannes Diessner’s prayer group.

Since mid-2020, there has been a prayer group for executives in Sindelfingen that meets be-weekly on Fridays (at the moment via telephone conferences due to Corona). The prayer requests of the participants are primarily related to the challenges in their leadership function.  Interested leaders who would like to join this circle are welcome to contact us at info@christentreffen.de or approach Daniel Burk or Matthias Lilke directly. Since the meetings take place virtually, the participants are not limited to the Sindelfingen location. So executives from any other site can also join and are warmly welcome to do so.

An executive provided the following feedback:

“It is such a blessing that we as Christians can come before God even in the challenges of leadership positions. In my leadership position, I was able to experience God acting experientially despite difficult circumstances.”

After the expiration of his temporary employee leasing contract at Daimler (see section “Prayer Circles in Untertürkheim”), Matthias Hahn quickly came up with the idea of founding such a prayer circle at AKKA as well. Due to Corona, the first meetings were a little delayed, but in December 2020, three AKKA colleagues met for the first time in Untertürkheim to pray. Due to the restructuring, this circle even shrank in the beginning, but then also gained new prayers. At the end of April 2021, Matthias Hahn addressed an even wider circle of colleagues via the company’s internal ‘Social Intranet’. In the meantime, the circle includes employees from the Untertürkheim, Stuttgart-Sommerrain and Sindelfingen sites.

On January 1, 2022, Matthias Hahn received a permanent position at Daimler Truck in Untertürkheim and joined an Untertürkheim prayer group there. The leadership of the AKKA circle was taken over by one of his prayer circle participants.

Interested employees of AKKA who would like to join this circle are welcome to contact us at info@christentreffen.de or to contact Matthias Hahn. Since the meetings take place virtually, the participants are not limited to the Untertürkheim location, so AKKA employees from any other location can also participate. Anyone who is interested is very welcome.

Luciano Emidio, who moved from São Paulo (Brazil) to Leinfelden-Echterdingen in November 2020, informed at the beginning of 2022 that a prayer circle had been established at the Daimler Truck Campus in Leinfelden-Echterdingen on the initiative of his colleague Maria Jimena Romano. Since February 2022, the circle has been meeting bi-weekly at noon, with Maria Jimena and Luciano taking turns with the devotions.

In March 2022, Iris Marques and Thomas Failenschmid moved from Möhringen, Vaihinger Straße 131, to the Mercedes-Benz Truck Campus in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Fasanenweg 15-17. Since April 2022, they have coordinated their prayer circles from there.

Dr. Siegmar Haasis, who was CIO (Chief Information Officer) Overseas & Greater China with responsibility for 15 Asian markets located in Beijing from 2010 to 2013, wrote an e-mail to Helmut Keller in October 2012, in which he announced that he could not attend the traditional Daimler Christian Meeting this year. In this e-mail, he also conveyed the message that after intense prayer and encouraging discussions with international colleagues, he decided to form a Christian discussion and prayer circle in Beijing and hold regular Christian meetings.

In March 2013 the time had come. Siegmar Haasis and his assistant Christoph Wege founded the ‘Hope Group’, a diverse group of Christians from Asia, America and Europe. Since then, once a week at lunchtime, they meet in the Daimler Tower in Beijing for spiritual exchange, prayer and conversation.

In August 2013 Siegmar Haasis returned to Germany and Christoph Wege continued the prayer circle. Overall, Christoph Wege was responsible for the Hope Group for 4.5 years, until he left Beijing in late 2017 and moved to Legnica (Poland). Since December 2017, the group is headed by Xiaoyu Chen (Tony). It now consists of 9 people who prepare the weekly meetings and actively help to arrange the worship.

At the 12th Daimler Christian Meeting in November 2017, the Hope Group was live connected via Skype. Although it was already past midnight in China, the Chinese colleagues did not miss the opportunity to follow and even actively participate in the event. They addressed an encouraging greeting to the German participants and followed a large part of the multi-hour event live from Beijing.

In December 2018, Xiaoyu wrote:

“We have had a blessed year in which God has used our corporate prayer circle to consolidate our faith and even bring in some unbelievers. Recently, a woman who returned from Britain to Beijing a few years ago took part in our prayer circle. During her time in the UK, she had visited the church, but here in Beijing no more. After attending our prayer circle for a few Thursdays, she said that her relationship with God had been re-established and that she had come closer to him. Very enthusiastically, she told us one Thursday that one of her prayer requests had come true after we had prayed for her. In the meanwhile, she even went to the Sunday service, to which I invited her.”

On January 10, 2022, our faithful colleague and fellow believer Xiaoyu Chen (Tony) said goodbye to Daimler, which we deeply regret. It is all the more gratifying that he provided a seamless leadership transition. Since January, the Hope Group has been led by our colleague Leyu Zhang (Kelly).

At the MBUSI (Mercedes-Benz U.S. International) production site in Tuscaloosa (Alabama/USA), Plant 138, Joseph Cox started a Bible study group with a small group of interested Christian colleagues in 2008. The group met every Tuesday from 11 to 12 o’clock. Even when Joseph moved to another part of the plant in 2013, his group continued to meet every Friday from 10:30 to 10:50 at the wheel alignment station.

Also in his new work area Joseph Cox led a small group from 2013 until his retirement in September 2019 (see photo). Every Tuesday they met from 11:00 to 11:30 for Bible study and prayer – usually in the ‘Audit Garage’. If no free room was available, they gathered in close proximity to the assembly line and offered prayer to their colleagues.

David Reeves has been working at the Tuscaloosa plant of MBUSI (Alabama/USA) as an Assembly Process Engineer since 2008 and as an Assembly Group Leader. He was encouraged from his church, Church of the Highlands, Birmingham (Alabama), to lead men in developing their faith deeper with Christ simply wherever God would place him. So for him, it was natural to start at work.

In January 2014 he started leading a Men’s Small Group, similar to the Bible Study group of Joseph Cox, that met weekly during lunch breaks since 2013 (see above). There they studied different topics, usually focused on leadership skills that are based on Biblical lessons. They also had one or two semesters focused on being stronger Men of God. The group had varied in size, usually around 10 men.

Through an email campaign initiated by a former colleague, the men’s group also distributed important prayer requests throughout the organization. One focus of this email campaign was to pray for the management to be influenced by the Holy Spirit in making the best and wisest decisions possible. Quote from David: “We have seen change for the better here since we started the prayers, and we believe God has played a part in that.”

On the occasion of the Daimler Christian Meeting in 2017 David Reeves was hooked-up by a live-connection over the internet (see photo).

David Reeves spoke the following words to the German audience:
„I would like to encourage everyone in this Daimler Christian Meeting to keep their faith in Christ strong! Jesus desires a personal relationship with you, and your simple answer is just to live for Him. All of my joy comes from knowing Jesus – not from my job, not from my hobbies, or anything that the world offers. If I trust in this world, I know that I will be disappointed. I know that Jesus will never let me down and that I can place all trust in Him. Please live your faith out daily at work! The Lord will give you a positive spirit and joy that you have never experienced. Remember to follow what Colossians 3:23 says: ‚Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not human masters.‘ Bring glory to God by how you conduct yourself at work. I also encourage you to pray for your leaders. Our structure for each person here is to pray daily for his/her Manager (E4), Senior Manager (E3), Vice President (E2), and President (E1).“

To the question of what a testimony or an experience with the Men’s Group would be, David answered:
‘I would say the best testimony from leading my group is actually from myself: I have learned so much from the other men about being a better husband and father, when to put work behind my family (which is always tough for me), and deepening my faith with Jesus.’

In the year 2017 David Reeves was promoted to a manager of a new team called ‚Assembly Introduction‘.

After completing a two-year master’s degree alongside his job as an assembly supervisor, David Reeves left the company in September 2022 and moved into the biomedical field.

Since 2019, there has been another prayer group at Plant 138. The initiative was taken by Gary Daniel Smith, who has been employed at MBUSI for 25 years as a production process engineer in assembly and also holds the office of an ordained pastor at the ‘Refresh Family Church’. Along the way, he earned a degree in theology from Regent University.

Gary sends out a daily Bible passage, word of encouragement, prayer request, and prayer to all of his prayer group members at work. When he started this approach he wasn’t sure if it would be successful, but God has greatly blessed the initiative. In August 2020, Gary shared the info that his prayer group at Plant 138 had grown to 40 people.

In July 2021, Gary was honored as ‘Tuscaloosa’s Pastor of the week’ by the Christian radio station WTSK (Praise 93.3), primarily because he did great work during the Corona pandemic, conducting programs via Zoom video conferencing (see Tuscaloosa pastor of the week).

In 2016 Ilyas Yildz moved from Untertürkheim to the Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC) in Detroit, Michigan to work there as an expat for three years. He soon met fellow believers at his new location in Detroit. Since he knew the prayer circles from Stuttgart, he followed the German example and also founded a prayer circle in Detroit in 2016.

For more than two years, Dean Flower was a faithful prayer group participant there. Therefore, Ilyas transferred the guidance of the prayer circle to Dean, before returning to Germany in September 2018. Since then Dean invites to the weekly prayer rounds.

In May 2019, Dean Flower wrote: “Our small prayer group still meets weekly with folks from several groups: Engineering, Supplier Management, Quality, Lab.”

With great heart and loyalty, Dean Flower led the prayer group at Detroit Diesel Corporation in Detroit from September 2018 until mid-November 2022. On November 18, 2022, Dean had his last day of work at Daimler Truck and moved to Torc Robotics, an independent subsidiary of Daimler headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia. Fortunately, Dean named a willing successor before his departure. Since December 2022, John Gustafson has continued the well-attended Detroit prayer circle.

Joy Jacintha Selvaraj, a young Christian lady with Indian nationality, was working from February 2015 to April 2018 at Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation in Kanagawa, Japan, which is a part of Daimler Trucks. She was working initially in Human Resources and later in the Customer Services department. In January 2019 she gave a short review of her journey at Fuso:

“During one of my business trips to Stuttgart through the guidance from a mutual friend in Christ I was blessed with the opportunity to meet with Dr. Helmut Keller. I was introduced to ‘Christians at Daimler’ and very soon I was welcomed into a prayer group that was active at Untertürkheim. After I had returned back to Japan I was motivated to always be open and trust that God will lead me to more believers at Fuso with whom I can build a community to share prayer requests and also to pray for the company.

After I had returned from my business trip to Stuttgart in the year 2016 I met Anna, another Christian lady who had been working at Fuso longer than me. It was a blessing to know her as a colleague and sister in faith and to have fellowship with her whenever she returned to Tokyo after her frequent business trips to Taiwan.

I was really amazed when I was seeking to connect with more Christians at work God had shown me two other Christians who were from India and working in Tokyo and I was really happy to invite them to lunch/dinner fellowship after work.”

On the occasion of the 12th Daimler Christian Meeting in 2017 Joy Jacintha Selvaraj was hooked-up by a live-connection over the internet. She welcomed the German audience by sharing a short encouraging message (see photo).

By the end of April 2018 Joy Jacintha left Fuso. However, she still is very much connected with ‘Christians at Daimler’.

Through his cooperation with the Indian colleagues of MBRDI (Mercedes-Benz Research & Development India) in Bangalore, Eberhard B., a member of a Sindelfingen prayer circle, got to know the Indian Christian Liz Stanley. Impressed by her deep faith and the fact that even more Christians are employed at MBRDI in Bangalore, he told her about the existing prayer circles at Daimler and motivated her to start a prayer circle in Banaglore as well.

On December 15, 2017, he made the joyful announcement that Liz Stanley had founded a prayer group in Bangalore in early December 2017, in which they meet four of them. Since Eberhard B. was on site at MBRDI right at the time, he was able to witness the first meeting live. In the absence of a vacant meeting room, the Indian colleagues met in the anteroom of a staircase.

Since in November 2018 Liz was in Sindelfingen for three weeks, she was able to attend the 13th Daimler Christian Meeting in Weinstadt-Beutelsbach and make an active contribution there.

Liz Stanley led the prayer circle in Bangalore until February 2020. In September 2021, Victor Xavier took over the coordination of the circle.

Jacintha Nazareth, a young employee of Mercedes-Benz Bank in Stuttgart-Feuerbach of Indian origin, was a participant of the 14th Daimler Christian Meeting on November 16, 2019. Here she learned about the prayer group existing at Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India in Bangalore.

On November 26, Helmut Keller established contact between Liz Stanley (Bangalore), Joy Selvaraj (Chennai, formerly employed by Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corporation, Japan) and Jacintha Nazareth (Germany).

A first telephone exchange between the Indian colleagues then took place on February 11, 2020, and since that date, telephone exchanges have taken place every week, sharing current concerns and bringing them before God. Soon this prayer group, organized via telephone or Skype, had grown to include two more Indian Daimler colleagues from Bangalore and a colleague from Mercedes-Benz Taiwan in Taipei.

For the 15th Daimler Christian Meeting in 2020, Suchin Aranha, Liz Stanley, Sam Arnold, Jacintha Nazareth, and Joy Selvaraj created an encouraging short video clip that was played to attendees on site. In addition, the prayer group was connected live to the on-site participants via an internet connection.

The Asian prayer circle was coordinated and facilitated by Joy Selvaraj from Chennai until spring 2022. Since July 2022, she has been married and lives with her husband in Canada.

It has long been known that in the truck production area of Mercedes-Benz do Brasil (MBBRAS) in São Bernardo do Campo (São Paulo state) there were some groups of believing employees who meet during their breaks for regular prayer. Unfortunately, the network ‘Christians at Daimler’ did not have any contacts to these Christians until 2020.

Besides that, a few years earlier Christians from the senior management met for lunch with the aim of starting a prayer group. Although the project was approved by everyone involved, the idea could not be implemented successfully.

In May 2020, Chantalle Wagne drew attention to a believing colleague from MBBRAS named Luciano Emidio, whose contact she still had in her mailing list of the Untertürkheimer prayer groups. Luciano Emidio was employed at the Untertürkheim plant from April 2008 to November 2013 and regularly took part in a Untertürkheim prayer group on Tuesday mornings.

After contacting him again by email, on June 2, 2020 Luciano Emidio took the initiative to invite the known Christians to regular prayer meetings at his location. The response was positive. The first online prayer at MBBRAS took place on June 17, 2020 with participants from São Bernardo do Campo and Campinas. They meet on a weekly basis via phone or Skype.

Luciano led the prayer group in São Bernardo do Campo and Campinas until the end of September 2021. Since he moved to Leinfelden-Echterdingen (near Stuttgart) to Daimler Truck AG (unit Daimler Truck Overseas) in November 2021, he ceded the leadership to his colleague and brother in faith João Batista Silva dos Santos.

João Batista Silva dos Santos was strongly involved in the prayer group work from the beginning. Thus, at the end of 2021, in addition to the already existing Portuguese-speaking prayer group in São Paulo, he founded two Spanish-speaking prayer groups in Latin America – a prayer group in Mexico, consisting of members from Mexico City (Daimler Truck) and Toluca (Mercedes-Benz), and a prayer group in Bogotá (Daimler Truck Columbia) in Colombia. He accompanied all three groups in weekly online meetings.

As of July 1, 2022, João Batista transferred the leadership of the Brazilian prayer group, consisting of members from São Bernardo do Campo and Campinas, to Adriana Nomura (Senior Supplier Management Analyst – Methods & Processes) in order to devote more time to the Mexican prayer group.