Monday, 09 November 2009
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The Berlin Wall, Still Standing in Spirit
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. On November 9, 1989, the masses living barricaded within the walls surrounding West Berlin tore down the wall, having heard on the news that East Germany would allow travel between East and West Germany. Although the physical wall is a seemingly distant memory—with the exception of a few remaining panels, the wall is virtually nonexistent, save for a line of cobblestone through a few city streets—Berlin pastor Christian Nowatzky told Christianity Today that an invisible wall still stands, separating those of differing political beliefs, cultural heritage, and faith. “You have a huge Christian scene in the U.S. where everybody's screaming about how we're losing ground,” Nowatzky told Christianity Today writer Sarah Pulliam Bailey. “Here, the church has been losing ground for decades and really lost the ground.”
Nowatzky experienced this shift in religious belief first-hand; he was eleven years old when the wall fell down and before that lived in communist-occupied East Germany. Christianity was, in Nowatzky's words, “decimated” by communism, which could be the reason why faith is so hard for Germans today.
He explains, “Germans are very skeptical towards a conclusive ideology, because they fell prey more than once, in succession: imperialism, National Socialism, communism in the 20th century. So if someone says, well, Christ is the answer for everything, it immediately creates big problems.”
It certainly doesn't help that some of the same cultural, political, and economical differences that existed between East and West Germany still exist today. According to a recent MSNBC article, “unemployment in the former East Germany is roughly double that in the former West, and for those who do have jobs, incomes are significantly lower.” Some people even still refer to themselves as East Germans or West Germans, or Wessis and Ossis.
Nowatzky clearly understands that these differences are hard to overcome, but he believes the church can be the middle ground that unites all Germans. He says, “We can really be cultural leaders in a diversified world and in the city of Berlin, where people long for a message that unites, yet without superficially brushing over real differences.”
What memories do you have, if any, of the fall of the Berlin wall? Do you believe that Germans can be united by Christianity despite the country's deep wounds?
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Comments (7)
Me being a Belgian, I do not see any reason why Germany can not get united again.
But in Belgium, 15 years later, we experienced the same thing:
One country, small by itself, tore in 2. The North, the Dutch, the south, the French.
I think unity does not need to come from the christians. A new generation that will intermingle with the other side, will define if a complete healing is possible or not.
For that the older generation needs to let go.
There are situations where old wounds heal with time.
hi ,And if you write poetry on your PC or even use or wear symbols that can
be construed under sweeping British laws as support of terrorism, you
can also get a long subsidised but unglamorous holiday. This is the
“free West” I’m talking about. What is interesting about the post-1989
world has not been freedom breaking out everywhere, but increasing
restrictions and surveillance. Some of them were already in place
before 9/11.attorney
In former West Germany, there has been, post-1989, a tendency to blame
poverty and social stresses on the costs of German re-unification.Moremony
There is a more positive side to this situation. Germany showed amazing resilience in that West Germany absorbed basically another nation of economically challenged people into it's economy and was able to greatly recover in a relatively short amount of time. We in the U.S. have problems with a relatively small percentage of illegal immigrants earning wages and taking advantage of government services. Imagine if we were to suddenly open our doors to say, 100 million new economically challenged people. Even in good economic times that would be rough. I also don't believe that Christianity presents the only way to true unity. Hitler tried to use that card once so I understand the skepticism of not only Germans.
On a side note. My wife and I used to hike in the Alps almost every week with a professor at the University of Munich. Peter Bartl (sp?) was an exceptional person, not only for his intelligence but for his warmth and humor. My wife had been a student of his. Years before the wall came down he rode his bicycle across a minefield to get to West Germany. It wasn't until years later when the wall came down that he could reunite with his mother.
i don't believe that anything can really be united by a religion that isn't united itself.
@TheSutraDude@xanga - The economic observation you made is interesting. The DMZ separating the north and south Koreas today is the last Cold War front remaining (at least the physical form of it). A few of my South Korean friends told me that they actually fear economic collapse (which would result if the two nations reunite), more than a second Korean war. The economic reason is the other reason (apart from the obvious political reason) why there hasn't been much real effort towards reconciliation.
That's interesting to hear and I can see that as a real concern for South Koreans. The impression I've gotten from South Koreans I've known and worked with is that they are very reliable, resourceful and good people but North Korea seems to be even more economically challenged than was East Germany under communist control.
On a side note, one of the sort of tongue in cheek fears was that a unified Germany would own the Olympics, a fear that came from combining the medals won by East and West Germany prior to the unification. I'm guessing the need to overcome the economic challenges of unification usurped any desire for Olympic dominance.
Btw, I tend to like your articles and insights.