Christian Berg, "Pilgrimage."

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    And when they
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    this is The World Refugee year and in connection with the world
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    refugee year the National Council of Churches is participating
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    through the Church World Service in work having to do with
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    relief,  with relief of refugees. Today we have
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    Dr. Berg Dr. Berg BERG the leader of the church
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    relief work organization here in West Germany. Here in West
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    Berlin I should say. But his clients, the people he looks out for, are
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    from East Germany. I was going to ask him a number of questions about his
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    work. And first of all Dr. Berg could you tell us what
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    is this organization at which you are the head.
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    Yes I should say our church organized relief work
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    since the end of the war, takes care for the
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    people in need and, in the same way, Christ who
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    strengthens the church after a terrible war to come
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    to a new life and to bear wittness. So
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    it's clear that West Berlin is an important
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    point because you can walk from here in the
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    same way to East and West Germany on both sides of
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    the Iron Curtain. We have the big task
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    to strengthen the church behind the Iron Curtain. You shouldn't
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    forget that this area is the origin country of the Reformation,
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    the heart of the Reformation. If I call the names of Wittenberg
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    and Eisenach was about Barak, Leipsig and Magdeburg
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    and other places and who where the Moravians had their
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    origin place. So you will understand what it
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    means that 50 millions of Protestants behind the Iron Curtin, in the today. Eastern Germany look for the help of their
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    brethren Firstly in western Germany but in the
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    whole ecumenical world.
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    And of course in the same way since the last
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    ten or 14 years West-Berlin has become an important
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    point for the whole refugee problem
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    what you mentioned in the beginning. Now what is the function of
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    the church? It is an evangelical Protestant church it is the Lutheran church, is it
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    not, that you belong to? That's
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    a complicated matter Sir and not easy to understand for an American.
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    Of course it's almost Lutheran, a Lutheran church,
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    but there are some Reformed congregations. And in
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    the whole we call it the Evangelical Church of Germany
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    divided in several regional churches.
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    And, what are their functions in connection with these refugees? How do you work as a
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    church body with these refugees and with the governments involved? zoneMay
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    I say some more words about the
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    origin of this tragedy. You know that 45- 46,
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    after the war
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    about 30 millions of people moved from the
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    eastern parts of Germany in the last
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    four zones. So, And West Germany came about
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    9 million refugees. And in the today eastern part of
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    Germany, the so-called German Democratic Republic of the east zone,
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    four and a quarter millions of refugees now four and a quarter million
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    refugees came into East Germany from other countries from East Prussia, Silesia,  East Pomerania, Bohemia and these countries
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    now in Czechoslovakia or Poland or what ever places
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    they are.
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    The rules are that was right after the war.
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    Yes but in the same time it began
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    the move of the population of today Eastern
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    Germany in western direction in the average
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    a quarter of million every year. So that's the eastern  zone of
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    Germany lost in the last 30 years
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    about three and a quarter million of refugees. three and a quarter million
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    refugees from East Germany to West Germany. And then there was before that about
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    9 million you say came to West Germany from other parts of Germany and Europe.
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    I see that now then. Now if we could get onto how about these
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    people who who who come across the border, who are they?
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    They are all different kinds and groups of
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    population.
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    Medical doctors, lawyers, teachers, peasants
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    factory owners and mainly young people.
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    So that's a percentage of the young population is
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    very very high. The reasons are very different.
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    Some is personal danger and difficulties in an
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    economical life. There are other reasons that the families don't see
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    a future for their young people if they are not aetheistic or
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    socialistic minded in the ideology in that
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    area. There are good reasons and
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    other reasons which we have to understand.
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    In any case for the church too, not only for the
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    people as a whole, it is a big problem and a
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    tragedy that hundreds of thousands
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    of people go away from our 8000
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    church congregations in the east zone and they lose very
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    often most valuable people for the work which the
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    congregation has to do in that area. I hope you will agree
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    with my my basic point that a Christian church
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    should be also in a communist ruled country that the witness of
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    our Lord Jesus Christ should be preached
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    and lived also in the circumstances which we
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    political spoken don't like as
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    people in a free country in a free country.
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    So the difficulties that these people confront in East Germany is a
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    challenge to the best elements in the Christian tradition. It
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    takes the pressure and troubles of that life to bring out the finest
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    Christian qualities.
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    I am glad that you asked so sir.
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    Because the main task in our work is to
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    strengthen that church in that
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    circumstances to help them to
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    hear the challenge of our Lord and to give that challenge to the
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    people in that area.
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    So we try to build a new churches
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    to train the young people for the service in the church to help the needy
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    people, the sick people, the old people, the children. We feed
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    them in years before.
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    In times of need with help
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    also and especially from your country, as we are very glad to
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    have friends since years and as a Lutheran and Reformed and
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    Presbyterian congregations and churches in your
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    country. But that all means that we where
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    we can try to hinder the people to flee and to stay
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    as Christians in that area where Martin Luther called it the real gospel on a biblical basis
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    as we
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    mean and we understand.
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    But how about these ones who have come across, who have not stayed for a
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    variety of reasons? For example, you mentioned I think earlier that some of them don't have any chance
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    at a higher education unless they accept the communist philosophy. Of course. You
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    know that is a fact.
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    The government of the German Federal Republic and its representatives here in West Berlin
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    take care by law for these people.
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    After some weeks in the refugee camp they have the chance to come to
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    West Germany and to find a new existence. If you
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    remember remember this number of more than 3
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    millions of refugees after the war then you will understand
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    that in West Germany there is a race between the coming refugees
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    and to find jobs and working places and to build
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    houses for these refugees. So that we have up to now a
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    situation that hundreds of thousands are still in camps.
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    But it's astonishing in how many
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    directions the government and community authorities
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    take care of these refugees. And, the Church and the
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    congregations have a lot to do with that, taking care
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    for the new families for the young people to
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    help them over that point  that they lost their home in East
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    Germany. I can understand that very well because we
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    are a big family and five of us brothers and
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    sisters are living in West Germany, three still in East Germany, and I
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    myself here on the border in that famous West Berlin.
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    So we understand these hundreds of thousands of
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    families which are divided in these both parts of
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    Germany with a very different way of life in their
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    whole understanding and ideology.
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    Well now you spoke of they are part of the German the West German government is playing in this. at Your
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    church relief organization doesn't, of course, handle all the refugees who come
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    across. How do how do they how do certain refugees come to be handled by you? How does that work
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    out?
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    You know that is the East German government
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    made a law last year forbidding any refuge.
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    It's a tremendous problem for the state of Mr. Ulbricht [Ulbricht, Walter, Prime Minister, 1950-1971] and Mr. Grotewohl [Grotewohl, Otto, Prime Minister, 1946-1950]
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    because it may be the only state in the world
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    with a declining instead of a growing population.
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    And since the refuge is strictly forbidden. The
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    bigger part of the refugee streams comes over West Berlin
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    as a point where they can reach
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    the so-called free world. The church
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    offers their help--relief work, pastoral
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    care. We send in refugee camps our
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    pastors preaching and calling the congregations
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    under the word of God during these
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    weeks four weeks eight weeks where they have
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    lost their home and don't know their new home in West Germany
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    or if they want to emigrate in Canada, or the United States, Australia or where
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    ever. So we try every refugee
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    to offer help and the assistance of that
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    church. And now, Doctor Berg, could
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    you tell us a little something about the attitude of these East
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    Germans as they come into West Germany. I know it must be difficult to generalize, but
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    could you give any idea of? Do most of them find that they settle down
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    here and find a place for themselves? Is there homesickness, disappointment? How
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    about the West Germans? How do they receive this continuing flow? Of
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    course, in one line it's
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    easier for these refugees compared
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    with refugees from Hungary or Czechoslovakia or wherever in the
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    world, because they come to brothers and sisters from one people, where the
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    same language and the same way of life is
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    still found.
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    So almost the people
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    which comes to West Germany find by and by walking places finds
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    their homes and so on.
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    On the other hand you shouldn't be astonished if the West
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    German population is longing for the
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    end of this continuing stream of
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    every year every month every week new coming
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    refugees in their area. Every day! every day
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    of course if the planes are going regularly from Berlin
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    and bring their burden to Kassel and Frankfurt and Stuttgart and Hamburg
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    to Munchen and Dusseldorf. And, it averages out at about
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    400 every day, does it not, Doctor Berg? I would
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    think so if you think
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    250000 people in the average and
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    you think that this year the number will be
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    declining.
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    So if we are number 1
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    50 to 200000 this year then you have
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    a number of 400 average every day.
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    Well now in this 400 a day that is pouring in now isn't a very
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    large proportion of that number. Doesn't it consist of East Germans who have
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    personal connections relatives friends with whom they are directly in touch? So they're
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    not just going into an unknown place unknown land.
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    Of course that's a different time as Switzerland was divided
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    in the 15th century from the so-called
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    reich in this time the German population
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    through the war and at times after that war
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    is mixed in the manifold
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    ways.
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    So think of my family if I wasn't hope
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    that one of my relatives would go any day to West Germany
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    the sister or brother in law would find his
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    relatives and his friends and it's always hundreds and thousands perhaps was a
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    bigger part of refugees.
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    But I think back on the point I stress as the
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    most important. We in the church think on these people
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    as a lose for their congregations in
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    the eastern part of Germany in couples. A loss to the congregation?
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    Of course there are people as laymen
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    working in the congregation
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    perhaps serving with the pastor in the
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    congregation. I think on my last visit in the United States I came to
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    a pastor in Iowa in a very rural congregation. And,
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    he told me that in the last year he lost about 50 members
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    of his congregation and 300 people going into the
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    suburbs of Chicago and Detroit.
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    And you know, the development in your country-- all the suburbs are growing and the
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    rural area declines in their population.
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    So your people in the United States may fear
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    with the pastor with a congregation with a church body in Leipsig or Dresden, if they hear
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    week by week. This family has gone.
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    This man has decided to leave
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    our city and our congregation and go to West Germany. It is a hard thing.
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    And we have to pray and to
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    think and to help that these congregations remain
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    really Christian congregations that they can give their witness
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    in a world which needs the message of our Lord as a
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    real redeemer of our world.
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    Well now, Dr. Berg,  how about the people in East Germany, either those who go or
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    stay. To what extent are they changed, influenced,
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    by the ideology by the political doctrines and
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    teachings of the communists? Are they making headway? The Communists with their doctrine, as
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    against the Christian doctrine, among the peoples of East Germany?
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    That's very hard to answer on that question. You have to think on
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    different points for that. And I would
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    remind you that this country your rich countries the
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    heart of the Protestant Germany has become in the last
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    century very weak in the church life. And, there are many people
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    officially depending and connected with the congregations
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    which is in their minds and in their spirits
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    very far away from the real sender of the Gospel
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    with people the permanent coming
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    communist ideology with all that what they offer
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    in the daily life.
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    So they have perhaps not so difficult to
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    win any  people for their thinking and their
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    ideology. So, be not astonished if I say say
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    it is a growing part of the population who goes to the
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    dedications of the communist ideology. A part who doesn't think that they lose
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    really if they are divided from the
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    Church and the young people. The
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    now situation and was now 13 years
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    young girl or boy three four years after
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    the time of Hitler was a very difficult time for the
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    church that knows earlier times. So
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    we have to look forward to new new forms
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    and new ways to preach the Gospel and to
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    fill in the hearts understanding of the Gospel a new
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    way.
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    Well now what happens to these refugees when they arrive in the West Zone?
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    How are they financed? How are they helped? How is it possible to carry all this burden?
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    West German government has a lot of laws
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    which offers help to different occupations of the people
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    the working people is offered a working place in the
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    industry. They get loans.
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    They get help for finding a house and home. The
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    young people are sponsored in with the things that
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    schools are some places if they learn something.
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    In any case it's astonishing what West Germany can do
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    and does and tries to do for the people of the same people
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    coming from behind the Iron Curtain.
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    How about help from outside? Well you know
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    very thankfully that the world outside especially our
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    brother churches all of these here are thinking
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    how to help these people in different ways.
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    Firstly we know that for people
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    from other countries.
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    But we are thankful for the different ways of help.
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    Thank you very much, Dr.
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    Berg

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