Hans Simon was the Lutheran pastor of the Zionskirche. He wore a turtleneck jumper and always had a pipe in his hand. The Stasi spied on his every move.

“People know so little of the Bible that discipleship starts much further down the line”, says James Ros, leader of the church planting movement #EastGermanyBelieves. 

The future both of Germany and of the EU has no guarantee without a restored transatlantic relationship of trust and cooperation.

The inequality between East and West is still visible in issues such as migration and employment. “Christians need to get involved at all levels”, says Evi Rodemann of the Lausanne Movement Europe.

History was indeed written on that forest road thirty years ago.

Twenty-eight years without this terrible landmark of separation, family divisions, a country divided.

The secular 1970s did not prepare Europe well for the religious vitality that would become all too apparent during the late 1990s and onwards.