Atheists to save historic wooden German church plank by plank 1 published : 20 Dec 2020 at 12:45 1 People in the German town of Stiege plan to save a stave wooden church by moving it from the forest into town STIEGE (GERMANY) - Ask Hans Powalla if he is a believer and the immediate response is a firm "no". Yet he and other villagers in and around the German town of Stiege have embarked on the Herculean task of saving a picturesque church by moving it from the middle of a forest into the centre of town. Former electrician Powalla, 74, said they were driven by the "unique architecture of the building" and the "meaning that it gives to the region" in the Harz mountains.