Tickets were booked months ago for entrance into the Reichstag, Berlin’s Parliament and seat of democracy. The building is an architectural wonder — steel and glass with the best use of natural resources depicting openness in design and structure. That openness is what the German Parliament is after and the whole place feels at peace. Quite a contrast from photos we’ve seen of Berlin in 1946.
On our way out we met Julia from Cologne who is Jewish and serves with Jews for Jesus. I asked her for a pamphlet and she says, “Do you know Jesus?”
“Yes,” I say. “I love Jesus!”
“Cool!” she says and hugs me tight. “Do you know any Jews?” I say I do and she says I should tell them about Juden fur Jesus, the German version of the ministry. She says she gets into trouble for telling Jewish people about the Messiah and we laugh because I say I believe her. We chat a bit and she send us off with “God bless you!”
On our way we hit some of the city’s top sights, visiting the Memorial to Murdered Jews of Europe — a haunting exhibit, and the Brandenburg Gate where East Berliners flooded through on November 9, 1989. Remember the newscasts?
I came across this United Nations prayer and thought it fit.
“Oh, Lord, our planet Earth is only a small star is space. It is our duty to transform it into a planet whose creatures are no longer tormented by war, hunger, and fear, no longer senselessly divided by race, colour, and ideology. Give us courage and strength to begin this task today so that our children and our children’s children shall one day carry the name of man with pride.” Amen.
Next we met Chris, who serves as a security guard at the American Embassy. He’s lived here all his adult life. We got talking about food — Gord asked about a recommendation for lunch — and he spoke in great detail about German meat. Actually, his daily trips to the butcher required him to speak German and that’s why he learned the language. He said, “Germans don’t have the same cuts of meat we do. I like good, slow cooked ribs that take all day to get right. You know the kind that fall off the bone. I like them fat at one end and small at the other. German ribs are perfect end-to-end and they BBQ them on these grills that are only this big, ” he makes a small box with his man-sized hands. His description of ribs and several other Indiana meat dishes have us salivating and ready for the Indian cuisine he refers us to just down the block, “right beside the Canadian Embassy. You should go down there and say hi to your folks.” So we do, but not before he shakes our hands and wishes us a great day. We told him if ever the security job doesn’t work out he could open a comedy club.
Today we caught an early train to Wittenberg, or Lutherland as some would have it. As you know, it’s ground zero for the Protestant movement. I’ve always thought it kind of weird to embrace a doctrine of faith that says what I’m not rather than what I am. I don’t really consider myself a Protestant. I don’t make a habit of protesting on issues of belief. Luther called himself a Reformer. It’s a better fit, I think. The other option is to call oneself a Christian, but we all know, that’s just plain loaded. But I digress.
Luther’s House (now a museum, of course) is a Luther scholar’s dream with original documents and art work following the process of Reformation. I can’t begin to go into the detail it deserves on my lowly blog, but I will say that only in the British National Library have I felt that overwhelmed with gratitude for people who take care of such precious sources of written words. We also visited Castle Church where Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door, as well as St. Mary’s Church — the seat of Reformation itself. It was enough to send chills down the spine of this budding theologian! The highlight for Gord was the train ride to and from Wittenberg, of course.
Since we’re staying in East Berlin we hadn’t spent much time in the west part of the city so that’s where we landed this afternoon. It’s a high-end, modern, shopping mecca that oozes Capitalism. I am happy to be settled in our Eastside apartment for the evening, with preparations for our long train ride to Amsterdam tomorrow. Our final day of touring is over, laundry is well underway, and we are readying ourselves for the journey home on Thursday.
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