Posted on Jul 22, 2016 in From PC's PC - Pastor Charlie's BLOG |
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
July 21, 2016
The day began with sunshine and blue skies. Breakfast outside in the courtyard of the hotel made for a lovely beginning to another great day in Germany.
After breakfast and packing up, it took some time to get everyone down to the lobby on the very small elevator. At 9:30 our bus arrived and our driver, Herbert, loaded us on board. Two more from our group arrived late in the previous evening, and now it was time to pick up the rest. Through text messages, we knew some of the group had arrived and others would soon be landing at the airport. By the grace of God, everyone was loaded on the bus by 11:15 and we were on our way.
Our tour guide also met us at the airport. His name is Sivlio, a native of Wittenberg, and we quickly became aware of his passion and knowledge and enthusiasm. He is a young man, in his 30s, who lived through the reunification of Germany and experienced it first-hand. He holds a doctorate in Reformation History, and he is a member of the City Church in Wittenberg. We are blessed to have him as our guide for the days to come.
We headed through the streets of Berlin to the Union Church. It was built in the 1800s. We arrived just in time for the noon devotion service, the had time to look around. Bombed during WWII, renovated from 1975 to 1993, it symbolizes the unification of Germany, serving all people.
There are so many places we saw, and my hundreds of pictures on my camera bear witness to that. So instead of trying to cover everything, let me mention four.
Union Church
1. Checkpoint Charlie – this spot at the place of the Berlin Wall. The wall snaked its way between East and West Berlin. Erected in 1961 to keep the East Germans from fleeing to West Germany. There are many scenes of violence and killing of those trying to flee. We heard of the uprising of the people in the late 1980’s who rose up to bring the wall down. Other figures, including President Ronald Reagan (“Tear down this wall.”), Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones played a part in this history.
Bruce Springsteen accepted an invitation in 1987 to sing in East Germany. This was in response to an April Fools joke played by a radio station in West Berlin who broadcast to all of Berlin that the Rolling Stones were going to playing a live concert on the top of the Springer Building near the wall. Thousands of young East Berliners came to see the concert that wasn’t. So the East German government thought it would be a great idea to invite some entertainers to East Berlin to appease the people. 500,000 people came to the Springsteen concert, where he sang, “Born in the USA.” I imagine that was not a song the government had hoped he would sing! The pump was primed for a change.
Checkpoint Charlie
2. Holocaust Memorial – this is actually entitled the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This memorial is made up of 2000 stone blocks that take up a city block. It is a maze that ebbs and flows with the ground. The person who designed it didn’t give much explanation for what the stones represent. He said each person will determine that on their own. For me, it reminded me of the gravestones on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. It is a very somber place.
Memorial to the Murdered Jews
3. The Brandenberg Gate – It is built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg. A gate that was a tax gate that the merchants would have to pay taxes on the goods being brought to town to sell. This gate built in the 1800s has Victoria, the Goddess of Victory riding a chariot into the center of the German Capital.
It was here that John F. Kennedy made his famous speech in 1963 – 2 years after the wall was erected. Kennedy made the powerful statement – “Ich bin ein Berliner!” Powerful but not the best German. He should have said, “Ich bin Berliner!” This means I am one of you. What he actually said has two meanings – I am from Berlin, OR I am a jelly donut. The people still remember that.
Brandenburg Gate
4. Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (pictured at top) -this was our last stop in Berlin. The original church on the site was built in the 1890s. It was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943. The present building, which consists of a church with an attached foyer and a separate bell tower with an attached chapel, was built between 1959 and 1963. The damaged spire of the old church has been retained and its ground floor has been made into a memorial hall.The octagonal structure looks very plain from the outside, but the inside blue walls with an incredible crucifix in the front and imposing organ in the rear make a powerful presence inside.
On the bus, our driver has stocked it with water, pop and beer. Yes, beer on the bus. Welcome to Germany. On to Wittenberg for the night. More about that tomorrow.
Peace,
Charlie
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