“In various countries in central and eastern Europe the churches played an important role as a motor for change,” said Bishop Wolfgang Huber, who heads
the EKD, Germany’s biggest Protestant umbrella, in a foreword to a collection of Internet resources for worship and commemorative events.
In the former communist-ruled East Germany, “it was the Protestant church especially that prepared the way for freedom and unity,” said Huber, the Protestant bishop in the German capital, where the 96-mile fortified Berlin Wall divided the city’s western and eastern sectors from 1961 to 1989.
East Germany’s 1989 peaceful uprising has been dubbed a “Protestant revolution” because of the prominent role played by church members, and the street demonstrations that followed packed prayer meetings for peace and change.
Huber noted how church members had also taken an active role in the round tables that opened the way for democratic structures, and how in 1990 Christians had been lawmakers in the first freely-elected East German parliament, the Volkskammer, or “People’s Chamber.”
Three dates are highlighted for the commemorations, the Protestant news agency epd reported: October 9, 2009, which marks the 20th anniversary of a mass demonstration in the East German city of Leipzig that is seen as a turning point in the movement for democracy; November 9, 2009, the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall; and October 3, 2010, the anniversary of the unification of Germany in 1990.
The resources include suggestions for worship and commemorative events, as well as background information about the events of 1989.
