Of course, there were many attempts to account for what had happened. Was this an appropriate conclusion to draw from this event? As an event, it was no doubt both contingent and basically inexplicable. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall, he considered all things to be possible. Some days later at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, I heard an American theologian remark that he had had his doubts about the second coming of Jesus Christ, but not anymore. Now the Wall had fallen the symbol of the Cold War had been removed. They were very concerned, particularly about the reaction of the government to the demonstrations and to the refugees trying to escape to West Germany via Czechoslovakia, Hungary and even Poland. In early October we had just visited friends in East Germany. After all, there had been brutal repression in Beijing some months earlier. Throughout the weeks before, many others and we had been afraid of political unrest and bloodshed. Then other guests of the house entered the room, embraced us, and congratulated Germany on such a miraculous event.
GOD OF WAR ISO GERMAN MOVIE
I assumed it was a new American movie and admired the excellent scenery in what I took to be a set. To my wife's and to my surprise we saw people cheering and waving flags while standing on the wall. In the late afternoon, by chance, I switched on the television set.
On November 09 1989, the day the Berlin Wall collapsed, I was in Princeton (US) as a guest lecturer. Introduction: Confronted with unexpected events The author situates this experience amidst the political and ideological movements shaping the binary notions 'East' and 'West'. It is presented from his perspective of being a German citizen, as well a member of the church in Germany.
This article is a narrative reflection of the author's perspective on the role of the Church in the unification process of Germany in the last part of the last decade. IIDepartment of Church History and Church Polity, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria, South Africa IEcumenical Institute, University of Bonn, Germany
Unification and peace: How were the German churches involved in the search for unity to overcome conflicts of the last decades of the last century?