{"id":4842,"date":"2009-11-06T16:12:13","date_gmt":"2009-11-06T21:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=4842"},"modified":"2013-05-10T15:26:54","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T19:26:54","slug":"november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/","title":{"rendered":" The Church and the Fall of the Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

DEBORAH POTTER<\/strong>, correspondent: St. Nikolai Evangelical Lutheran Church hasn\u2019t changed much since the sixteenth century. Bach once played the organ here, and the music is still a draw. But on this day the tourists have come to hear about the church\u2019s more recent history from the man who led it through a difficult time. Christian Fuhrer became pastor here in 1980, when the world outside the church was divided by the Cold War and Germany was split in two, most visibly by the wall the East German government built in Berlin in 1961. The Communist state was determined to keep more of its people from escaping to the free West. In the German Democratic Republic\u2014the GDR\u2014atheism was the norm. Churches like St. Nikolai were spied on, but stayed open.<\/p>\n

PASTOR CHRISTIAN FUHRER<\/strong> (in translation): In the GDR, the church provided the only free space. Everything that could not be discussed in public could be discussed in church, and in this way the church represented a unique spiritual and physical space in which people were free.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
\"post02\"
\nPastor Christian Fuhrer<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

POTTER<\/strong>: In the early eighties, Fuhrer began holding weekly prayers for peace. Every Monday, they recited the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. Few people came. But in the late eighties, as the Soviet Union opened up to the West, more East Germans began to demand change, including the right to leave, and in Leipzig they gathered at St. Nikolai, which proclaimed itself \u201copen for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

PR. FUHRER<\/strong> (in translation): The special experience that we had during the years of peace prayers and then with this massive number of non-Christians in the church, which was exceptional, was that they accepted the message of Jesus.<\/p>\n

POTTER<\/strong>: As a college student, Sylke Schumann was one of the hundreds and then thousands who joined the vigils in the sanctuary and marched in the streets holding candles.<\/p>\n

SYLKE SCHUMANN<\/strong>: Seeing all these people gather in this place and then from week to week and more and more people gathering, you had the feeling this time really the government had to listen to you.<\/p>\n

POTTER<\/strong>: In October 1989, on the 40th anniversary of the GDR, the government cracked down. Protestors in Leipzig were beaten and arrested. Two days later, St. Nikolai Church was full to overflowing for the weekly vigil. When it was over, 70,000 people marched through the city as armed soldiers looked on and did nothing.<\/p>\n

PR. FUHRER<\/strong> (in translation): In church people had learned to turn fear into courage, to overcome the fear and to hope, to have strength. They came to church and then started walking, and since they did not do anything violent, the police were not allowed to take action. They said, \u201cWe were ready for anything, except for candles and prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

SCHUMANN<\/strong>: I remember it was a cold evening, but you didn\u2019t feel cold, not just because you saw all the lights but also because you saw all these people, and it was, you know, it was really amazing to be a part of that, and you felt so full of energy and hope. For me, it still gives me the shivers thinking of that night. It was great.<\/p>\n

POTTER<\/strong>: Just one month after that massive demonstration, the wall between East and West here in Berlin came down. The church had sent a powerful message: the East German government no longer controlled its people.<\/p>\n

The joy and relief on that day 20 years ago became reality thanks in part to the effort of one tenacious pastor and what he describes as his firm faith in this teaching of Jesus:\u00a0 \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers.\u201d<\/p>\n

PR. FUHRER<\/strong> (in translation): If any event ever merited the description of \u201cmiracle\u201d that was it\u2014a revolution that succeeded, a revolution that grew out of the church. It is astonishing that God let us succeed with this revolution.<\/p>\n

POTTER<\/strong>: Fuhrer, who retired last year at age 65 as required by his church, has written a book about those historic days. St. Nikolai itself has gone back to being a parish church, its congregation not much larger than before. But Fuhrer says he didn\u2019t do what he did back then to draw people to the church. In his words, \u201cWe did it because the church has to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, I\u2019m Deborah Potter in Leipzig.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“If any event ever merited the description of miracle,” says the Rev. Christian Fuhrer, it was the 1989 revolution that reunited East and West Germany, “a revolution that grew out of the church.” More →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":16793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6569],"tags":[6750,6749,3737,3292,6763,4521,1852,985,6748],"class_list":["post-4842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videocast","tag-berlin-wall","tag-christian-fuhrer","tag-cold-war","tag-germany","tag-leipzig","tag-nonviolence","tag-peace","tag-prayer","tag-st-nikolai-evangelical-lutheran-church","topics-international","faith-christian"],"yoast_head":"\nNovember 6, 2009 ~ The Church and the Fall of the Wall | November 6, 2009 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""If any event ever merited the description of miracle," says the Rev. Christian Fuhrer, it was the 1989 revolution that reunited East and West Germany, "a revolution that grew out of the church."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"November 6, 2009 ~ The Church and the Fall of the Wall | November 6, 2009 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""If any event ever merited the description of miracle," says the Rev. Christian Fuhrer, it was the 1989 revolution that reunited East and West Germany, "a revolution that grew out of the church."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBS.ReligionEthics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-06T21:12:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-05-10T19:26:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/11\/thumbnail1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Yi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionEthics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ReligionEthics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Yi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Fred Yi\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0576fe5f06986bc0418635994a2bcd47\"},\"headline\":\"The Church and the Fall of the Wall\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-06T21:12:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-10T19:26:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/\"},\"wordCount\":734,\"commentCount\":3,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/11\/thumbnail1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Berlin Wall\",\"Christian Fuhrer\",\"Cold War\",\"Germany\",\"Leipzig\",\"Nonviolence\",\"peace\",\"Prayer\",\"St. Nikolai Evangelical Lutheran Church\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Videocast\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/\",\"name\":\"November 6, 2009 ~ The Church and the Fall of the Wall | November 6, 2009 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/11\/thumbnail1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-06T21:12:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-10T19:26:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0576fe5f06986bc0418635994a2bcd47\"},\"description\":\"\\\"If any event ever merited the description of miracle,\\\" says the Rev. Christian Fuhrer, it was the 1989 revolution that reunited East and West Germany, \\\"a revolution that grew out of the church.\\\"\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/11\/thumbnail1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/11\/thumbnail1.jpg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":100},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/\",\"name\":\"Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly\",\"description\":\"An examination of religion's role and the ethical dimensions behind top news headlines.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/search-results\/?q={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0576fe5f06986bc0418635994a2bcd47\",\"name\":\"Fred Yi\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/author\/yif\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"November 6, 2009 ~ The Church and the Fall of the Wall | November 6, 2009 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS","description":"\"If any event ever merited the description of miracle,\" says the Rev. Christian Fuhrer, it was the 1989 revolution that reunited East and West Germany, \"a revolution that grew out of the church.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"November 6, 2009 ~ The Church and the Fall of the Wall | November 6, 2009 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS","og_description":"\"If any event ever merited the description of miracle,\" says the Rev. Christian Fuhrer, it was the 1989 revolution that reunited East and West Germany, \"a revolution that grew out of the church.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/","og_site_name":"Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBS.ReligionEthics\/","article_published_time":"2009-11-06T21:12:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-05-10T19:26:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":200,"height":100,"url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/11\/thumbnail1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Fred Yi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionEthics","twitter_site":"@ReligionEthics","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Yi","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/"},"author":{"name":"Fred Yi","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0576fe5f06986bc0418635994a2bcd47"},"headline":"The Church and the Fall of the Wall","datePublished":"2009-11-06T21:12:13+00:00","dateModified":"2013-05-10T19:26:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/"},"wordCount":734,"commentCount":3,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/11\/thumbnail1.jpg","keywords":["Berlin Wall","Christian Fuhrer","Cold War","Germany","Leipzig","Nonviolence","peace","Prayer","St. Nikolai Evangelical Lutheran Church"],"articleSection":["Videocast"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/","name":"November 6, 2009 ~ The Church and the Fall of the Wall | November 6, 2009 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/11\/thumbnail1.jpg","datePublished":"2009-11-06T21:12:13+00:00","dateModified":"2013-05-10T19:26:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0576fe5f06986bc0418635994a2bcd47"},"description":"\"If any event ever merited the description of miracle,\" says the Rev. Christian Fuhrer, it was the 1989 revolution that reunited East and West Germany, \"a revolution that grew out of the church.\"","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/11\/06\/november-6-2009-the-church-and-the-fall-of-the-wall\/4842\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/11\/thumbnail1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2009\/11\/thumbnail1.jpg","width":200,"height":100},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/","name":"Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly","description":"An examination of religion's role and the ethical dimensions behind top news headlines.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/search-results\/?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0576fe5f06986bc0418635994a2bcd47","name":"Fred Yi","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/author\/yif\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}