 After the Gestapo closed that seminary in 1939 and restricted Schlink's speaking and public movement, Schlink began serving as a pastor to several "confessing" congregations in Hesse and Westphalia.These included the Marienkirche and St. Reinoldikirche in Dortmund and eventually the Neustädter Marienkirche in Bielefeld.During 1943 and 1944, he also traveled monthly to Strasbourg for two-week periods in which he taught practical theology to seminarians there.