The Cross Over Berlin
I traveled to Communist East Germany often and in July 1977 I brought a small group of American College students to meet with 40 Christian High School students. We spent three days with this group at a Christian music retreat in downtown East Berlin. Many of the East Germany students had never met someone from the United States before. They were curious about lifestyles, politics, and recent trends in Christian music. They were recording music for a half-hour radio program the Baptist church in East Germany had permission to broadcast on East Berlin Radio. Each day we spent part of the day in Bible studies and then several hours of rehearsing music and sometimes an outing in the afternoon.
The retreat was held in a Baptist church that also sponsored a senior citizen’s home. We took our meals in the cafeteria of this center. One custom we found very different from the United States in the cafeteria was the coin-operated drink-dispensing machine filled with beer. All the camp leadership and most of the students drank beer with their meal. A large percentage of the students also smoked. Drinking beer and smoking in a Baptist church building seemed strange to us, but many of these High School students had a strong personal relationship with the Lord. Over the three days we developed genuine bonds of friendship.
Our departure came all too soon. Several of the students joked that maybe someday when their teeth had fallen out and they walked with a cane the communist government might allow them to visit us in the West. As we prepared to leave, the students wanted to accompany us to Alexander Platz in the heart of East Berlin. They hoped to take us up into the communications tower to look over both sides of the wall. The communist government took great pride in this enormous structure that dominates the Berlin skyline. However, much to the consternation of the communist officials, a unique phenomenon became associated with the tower. Whenever sunlight hit the glass observation dome, it refracted into a perfect gleaming white cross, visible from the entire city.
The communist government spent vast sums of money trying to eradicate the cross by applying different tints to the windows. They also placed extensions on the window frames, but all their work only made the cross appear brighter. They had to accept the problem in the building's design and no amount of outward tinkering would affect it. Christians took great glee in pointing out that no matter how hard the communists tried to eradicate Christianity, by design, the cross of Christ would always shine through.
The wait to go up into the tower would be too long, so we just strolled around the square with the 30 students who came to see us off. Ready to leave we headed for our simple Volkswagen camper. The students wanted to have a look at the camper, so they tagged along. Its luxury and technology amazed them. I compared their reaction to the American students being invited into a music star’s touring bus. People in East Germany waited five years to purchase a Trabant car made from pressed fiberboard and powered by a two-stroke lawn mower engine.
To keep the people in East Germany from learning too much about the West, the communists discouraged meetings with Westerners who they considered suspicious. Any East Germany citizen having contact with a Westerner could be subject to questioning by the secret police. To protect the people we visited, and to come back multiple times, we tried to keep a low profile. We parked our camper on the edge of Alexander Platz, the showcase of the communist world, I intended to leave without a fuss. Our departure was anything but tranquil. The music students crowded around our vehicle and started singing in three- part harmony “God Be With You Until We Meet Again.” These poignant words caused tears to stream down our cheeks. The students’ act of courage touched me with their blatant disregard for official prohibitions against public assembly and the proclamation of religion, in such a prominent setting. As much as I appreciated the gesture, it worried me because I did not want problems with the police. We Americans were free to leave, but the East Germany students would remain imprisoned behind the border wall. There could be real consequences for their actions. I heave a sigh of relief when we pulled away without incident and headed to Checkpoint Charlie, the crossing point into the American Sector of West Berlin. The guards checked our passports, stamped our visas, searched the car, and raised the barricade allowing us to drive into freedom once again.
As soon as I found a place to park, we stopped and toured the little museum that highlights the many ways people have attempted to escape across the wall. We then walked to the viewing stand built for President Kennedy. This is where he looked over the wall to give his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in 1963. 14 years before John Kennedy had given his speech of solidarity, but the plight of the Berliners changed very little. We were moved by Peter Fechter’s memorial of a black cross with a crown of thorns made from barbed wire.
East Germany border guards shot Peter as he tried to flee communism and died a few inches from freedom. Tangled in barbed wire, his broken body dropped to the ground just on the other side of the wall where we now stood.
A well-dressed lady from West Berlin came up to us. With pent-up emotion she began telling me in German about the horrible atrocities the communist government continued to inflict on the people of East Berlin. I translated her impassioned speech for the interns. As we stood in this stark historic spot and looked back across the minefields, barbed wire, and tank traps, my heart ached. I realized that there were people we knew trapped on the other side. It had been less than an hour since we left our friends, but now we inhabited two divergent worlds. I wondered if some music students made it up into the communications tower and were now looking down on us. The sun broke out from behind a cloud and a gleaming white cross appeared on the side of the tower. There was hope in the cross.
On that day in 1977 never in my wildest imagination would I have believed that in just 11 years President Ronald Reagan would stand looking into East Berlin and cry out “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” And even more amazing, in only another year, Mr. Gorbachev would stand by as the people of Berlin, without bloodshed, tore down the wall. That began a series of events that brought the end to Communist rule. The yearning for freedom is a powerful political and Spiritual force. During my years working in Eastern Europe, I had the distinct sense that we were on the cutting edge of history. Hebrews 11:30 says: “By faith the walls of Jericho fell after the people marched around them.” Building walls are a stark reminder of gross inequities as they divide and separate without addressing the deep underling problems.
By faith, God has been in the business of tearing down walls and barriers for millenniums. We should never underestimate the power of faith and its far-reaching consequences. In the grim days of communist oppression we brought hope and encouragement to those who dared to dream they could change history.