Fall of the Berlin Wall Vancouver

Blogger Elke November 12, 2019 3 min read

This is Part II to the story of the 30-Year Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. What has happened and what will happen in Vancouver. Most events I know about started on Saturday, November 9th, 2019, which is the exact day that the Berlin Wall opened to the public back in 1989. The full story is explained in an earlier blog post.

The Martin Luther Church had a German Church Service at 10 am on Saturday morning, while the St. Mark\’s Evangelical Lutheran Church had a Saturday afternoon movie night, showing the movie \”The Tunnel.\”

On Sunday, November 10th, the St. Mark\’s Church held a special service to commerate the 30-Year Anniversary of the Fall of the Wall. After the regular introduction of the sermon, the Consulate General of Germany, Dr. Klaus Schmidt addressed the crowd, sharing some of his insights of the fall of the Berlin wall, and also talking about the Anniversary of another event on November 9, 1938 known as Krsistallnacht.

From the History Website: On November 9 to November 10, 1938, in an incident known as “Kristallnacht”, Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, also called the “Night of Broken Glass,” some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps.

Pastor Hardo Ermisch preached about \”30 Jahre Friedliche Revolution\” (30 years peaceful revolution), while the scripture reading contained verses from Mathew 5, 1-12. These are verses also known as \”The Beatitudes\”

³“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
⁵Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
⁶Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
⁸Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
⁹Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

One thing that Konsul General Dr. Schmidt mentioned, was the fact that each year the German Post Office measures people\’s happiness by surveying around 5,000 people and publishing the results in a so-called \”Glücksatlas\”.

Noch nie war die Lebenszufriedenheit der Deutschen so hoch wie 2019. Sie liegt aktuell bei 7,14 Punkten auf einer Skala von 0 bis 10. This is talking about the fact that on a scale of one to ten, the Germans are at 7.14 this year, while last year, they were only at 7.05. Meanwhile, the Germans living in East Germany actually made it to 7.0 this year, which is the happiest they have been since the fall of the Berlin wall.

The happiest place in Germany is Schleswig Holstein, while the unhappiest place is Brandenburg. The second unhappiest place is Berlin, except for this week, when the streets were filled with parties! Here are some Vancouver events you can celebrate starting on Thursday, November 14, 2019.