In 1956 he joined the regime-directed Free German Youth aiming at a sporting career as a decathlete. But he was also to engage in the barely tolerated youth organisation of the East German Evangelical Church. Dutschke allowed that religion played an "important role" in his life: that he "incorporated" its "fantastical explanation of the nature of man and his possibilities" into his later political work.For me, the decisive question, from a real historical point of view, was always: What was Jesus actually doing there? How did he want to change his society and what means did he use? That has always been the crucial question for me. For me, the question of transcendence is also a question of real history, how is the existing society to be transcended, a new design for a future society, that is perhaps materialistic transcendence.It was in this religious milieu outside of approved party and state structures, that Dutschke developed the courage (at the cost of any of any prospect of further education) to refuse compulsory service in National People's Army and to encourage others to likewise resist conscription. Dutschke also cited the impact of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. Its mobilisation in workers' councils suggested to him a democratic socialism beyond the official line of the GDR’s governing Socialist Unity Party. In August 1961, Dutschke fled to the Marienfelde transit camp in West Berlin, just three days before the restrictions of Barbed Wire Sunday (that culminated in the building of the Berlin Wall) were introduced to prevent such movement from East Germany to West Germany.