Foundation and history
The founder was Dietrich Beckman, a successful sugar boiler who put up half the money required to buy the site and erect the church. Beckman's cousin, Gustav Anton Wachsel from Halberstadt, became the first pastor. At the time, the street was called "Little Ayliffe Street" and the area was called "Goodman's Fields". The name of the street changed to "Alie Street" about 1800. This area of Whitechapel had many sugar refiners of German descent in the nineteenth century and they constituted most of the congregation. From 1853 the churchyard and crypt were closed, and no longer accepted burials.
At its height, there were an estimated 16,000 German Lutherans in Whitechapel and the area was sometimes referred to as Little Germany. St George's Church is the last remaining physical evidence of this major wave of immigration into East London.
The last major influx of Germans to the area was in the 1930s, when, during the Nazi period, the pastor, Julius Rieger, set up a relief centre for Jewish refugees at St George's. The theologian and anti-Nazi activist Dietrich Bonhoeffer preached here for a brief period in 1935, following the destruction of his own St Paul's church nearby.
Current uses
The church is hired for organ recitals, filming, rehearsals and castings, concerts, occasional acts of worship by various congregations without their own church and for secular events, income from which helps to maintain the structure, as the church is not endowed. The vestry serves as an office of Historic Chapels Trust. The church Committee Room, named the Maezold Zimmer after a former pastor, is available for hire.
Couples eligible to be married in Tower Hamlets may have religious marriages here and ceremonies may be conducted in German, English or Latin.
An active committee of Friends of St George's put on public events at the church and welcome new members. The church is available for guided group visits by appointment and has regular open days throughout the year.
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