A Lot of Sad Things Happened in Germany... are you ready for that?

Our first week beginning our "two week class" schedule was a class called "Christian Worldview and Apologetics" taught by Dr. Sam Baker from Corban University, sponsor school of AMBEX.  In this class we studied some of the "major" religions and philosophies of the world, discussing their basic tenets, how they compare to Christianity, and how to reach followers of those religions with the gospel in a loving and caring way rather than with a harsh attitude. One of Dr. Baker’s frequent points was that in all interactions with people, we should approach them with the open hands of loving discussion, not the closed fists of argumentation. We seek to win them over with the love of Christ and logic of the truth, not beat them into submission and a false agreement with us. Our main textbooks included two small interview style books by Ravi Zacharias featuring conversations between the Krishna of Hinduism and Jesus of the Bible in one book and a conversation between Adolf Hitler and Jesus in the second. Both these books gave insightful thoughts into who these people were and how Jesus would have conversed with them in an effort to better understand their philosophy while showing His to be the only truth.  The other main textbook we used was by Nancy Pearcey called Total Truth and gave a wonderful basis to the entire class, giving the framework of the perfect Creation of the world, the sinful Fall, how it affects the world and the Redemption of the world which brings restoration and perfection to the world.  This framework gave us a a very thorough view through which to study and analyze different worldviews. The premise of this framework is that every worldview and religion has an explanation for how the world was created, how sin and evil came into it and how it can be fixed. Once a worldview is analyzed through that stratum, it can be compared easily to Christianity and the differences then examined and discussed.

At the end of this week we got to go on a weekend trip which included probably one of the hardest things we've ever experienced emotionally. The trip took us to Flossenburg Concentration Camp, the city of Weimar, and Buchenwald Concentration Camp (near Weimar). We started and ended our weekend with intense mornings visiting Flossenburg Concentration Camp first, then Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Flossenburg is where Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed just days before the camp was liberated by American forces. Though a comparatively "small" concentration camp,it was overwhelming in emotional feelings mostly consisting of thoughts of hate, anger, and extreme sadness. Buchenwald only continued these emotions and probably strengthened them, though at the time it just numbed us more.  The atrocities committed at these camps by men and women not too long ago in history against other men, women and children were sickening to hear about. It's hard to explain the hurt and agony we went through to others who have not visited a concentration camp.  Until that experience, hearing or reading about these places and their victims was simply a historical exercise.  Though sadly it had little, if no "personal" impact on us. But we couldn’t walk away from the sights, sounds, buildings, fingerprints, photographs and personal stories of these people with simply a "historic knowledge" now.  All of us are changed now seeing these places, knowing a little more of what these men, women, and children went through.  Any comment referring to these places brings back the emotional pain of this weekend. However deep the pain though, the hope offered through a life in Christ is always greater. And hearing the stories of the brave Christians who were part of these camps was incredibly inspiring to say the least. Bonhoeffer and others like him gave their lives standing against Hitler and his regime, keeping hope and love in all circumstances, even horrific endings.  But they held to that promise of Matthew 10:28 which says "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." One of the most sadly memorable stories was of a camp survivor who said when his best friend was brutally executed, he lost all faith in God. The physical brutality was only outmatched by the spiritual demolition caused as a result of those horrific events.  On the opposite end of the spectrum was one of the most moving stories: that of Paul Schneider, a pastor, who was held at Buchenwald and eventually murdered there as a result of deprivation and torture.  Standing in front of his cell, hearing about his passionate life for Christ from our professor was indescribable.  It was saddening and convicting to hear of one who loved Christ so much and was willing to hold to that hope as long as he was on this earth no matter the cost.  He was willing to love others more than himself by giving his rations away and taking other's beatings. Standing in front of his cell, knowing he spent long cold nights naked on that floor made both of us consider what we are living our lives for, what we're willing to die for and whether or not we would be willing to endure such sheer evil for the sake of God’s call. The questions and convictions stirred by that moment in the cell block will always be with us, always challenging us, and always reminding us of the hope Paul Schneider held to through the very end.

Roll call grounds.

One of the holding cells in which prisoners on death row were held. 

A monument dedicated to famous prisoners executed in this courtyard. Included in the list is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 

Each slab of granite in this yard represents the prisoners from different countries. 

The personal stories of many of the prisoners. 

A breakdown of the number of prisoners from each country. 

The very organized Nazis kept careful records of every single prisoner. Unfortunately this is only one representation of how these prisoners simply became a list of numbers. No longer humans. 

One of the many atrocities committed at the concentration camps was the sorting of the prisoners by vocation, belief, social standing, and many other things.

One of the many stories of the prisoners here. 

A few of the demoralizing quotes.

Photos of Buchenwald Concentration Camp

Roll call grounds.

Remains of the medical buildings.

Probably one of the saddest pictures I've seen.  Three children who were imprisoned at Buchenwald.

Paul Schneider's cell.

After the most difficult day of the trip yet, we went to wonderfully uplifting (haha j/k) Friedrich Nietzsche’s house. He was one of the most famous Nihilists not only of his day, but also of the present time as well. Only a few of us, Joy, Ken, Taylor I. and myself to be exact, had to truly pay attention, because the following week we were giving a class presentation on the Nihilist worldview and this was our first dose of that outlook. Nietzche believed that all reality is only a figment of every man’s imagination and there is no source of truth or definitive purpose behind anything. This view of life not only eradicated God from the picture completely, but also made “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die” his mantra. If there is no purpose or truth behind reality, then pursue whatever makes you most happy and question whatever threatens that happiness, Nietzche  would say. For him, power was the only thing worth pursuing and Christian principles threatened that, hence his vehement attacks on the religion throughout his life. This worldview highly influenced German culture, and subsequently, the rest of the world. Although many people wouldn’t hold to the extreme views of Nihilism (although a very few do, which is ultimately based on circular reasoning that doesn’t make sense), those views have “seeped” into popular culture thought of today. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Nietzche went insane and died in 1900 at age 54.

The streets of Weimar

Cutest little German boys fishing for money in a fountain.  :D

The "Jugendherberge" (youth hostel) of Weimar

A beautiful cemetery just next to our youth hostel. 

The only Russian Orthodox Church in Germany

The beautiful courtyard of one of the Libraries of Weimar

The famous Cranach altar piece.  

To complete our depressing day we watched a movie called Sophie Scholl: The Final Days.  This movie tells the inspiring story of brother and sister passive resisters Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friend Christoph Probst who tried to warn their fellow citizens of the evils of Hitler's Regime in a peaceful way.  While spreading pamphlets around their university they were arrested.  This lead to interrogation and a "trial by the people."  The trial found them guilty (because they wanted to) and sentenced them to death.  While we were inspired by their duty to their country to show that what was happening was wrong, this was a heavy film to see at the end of a very heavy day.  

The next day we headed out on a city tour of Weimar which started with famous author, Johann Goethe's (pronouced Gur-teh), house.  We got an audio tour which was a massive (extremely massive. As in opposite of small. As in did we mention utterly large?) info dump. Although it was very interesting, some content editing might have made it a little less overwhelming and mind-numbing.  Most of what we remember from the audio tour is that he was considered the Shakespeare of Germany and beyond that there were a myriad of stories covering his life and furniture that we no longer remember. Unfortunately photos inside the house weren’t allowed, but his outdoor garden was very beautiful and the photos we took out there more than made up for what we couldn’t get inside.  

Goethe's House

We continued our city tour with highlights of famous sights such as Franz Liszt's house, a statue of William Shakespeare, an awesome library with a sideways piano (see picture), and before going to our last stop at Fredrich Schiller's house we got some amazing gelato.  

At this point, "get-out-of-the-rain" was more a motivation than genuine interest about this house/museum. On any other day this would no doubt have been very interesting, but we were so tired and brain-dead that unfortunately we have almost no remembrance of what we heard here.  We know that he was a good friend of Goethe’s and a playwright whose most famous work is William Tell. Fellow German playwright Richard Wagner wrote a play about swans (Lohengrin) which was premiered in Weimar and conducted by Franz Liszt in Schiller’s honor.

Outside Liszt's house were giant "pieces" of music strung from the trees.

The giant piano on display in the Library courtyard.

We ended the day with a very interesting "interview" with the owner/manager of the youth hostel we stayed at in Weimar.  She grew up in East Germany, living under communism for 25 years and has now lived 23 years in a free capitalist country.  We got to learn about the extreme differences between the two ways of living and why communism doesn't work. Thanks to Kelley, we had an awesome running translation of everything Frau Frederick told us- everything from the demoralizing idea that “you are only as good as the job you hold” to the cardboard cars most parents got for their children after a 15-year wait. Although the freedom from socialism was much needed and greatly sought-after, the reunification of Germany and of Berlin was a difficult process socially, economically, and politically. Two completely different cultures, basically two different countries were merging immediately and as soon as the "honeymoon" period was over, the clashes began and are still being worked through.  

The discussion with Frau Frederick ended our very intense but very enlightening weekend and we were happy to head back home to Regensburg and get ready for our first travel week to Spain and France!