The 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is an opportunity to reflect on the remarkable upheavals in the Eastern Bloc, where atheist dictatorships fell one by one with virtually no bloodshed. So writes Samuel Samuel, Secretary General of the Danish European Mission, in Kristeligt Dagblad.
In East Germany, the prayer meetings at St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig ended up being a catalyst for major protests against the regime. On October 9, 1989, theUp to 70,000 people demonstrated after a prayer meeting.
Had the protesters thrown stones at the police, the regime could have responded brutally, but instead the protesters carried candles. The tanks retreated without firing a shot.
A member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Party of the GDR said: "We had everything planned. We were ready for everything - except prayers and candlelight."
