"Katrin and Jürgen are friends of mine from the GDR. We became friends through my father, who is a pastor. The parishes of Berlin-Weißensee and Dortmund-Eichlinghofen were partner communities. Which was why, on my first visit to Berlin, I got to know the pastor and other families from the community, as well as learned about the problems facing the Protestant church in the East. Katrin grew up in Weißensee and we had been pen pals since the 1970s. As soon as travel restrictions were eased in the summer of 1989, we began visiting them more often. On 13 August 1989 (the anniversary of the construction of the Wall), we stood together at Schloss Babelsberg and looked towards the West. Katrin suggested that we might be able to see each other at Christmas. At the time, that seemed so unlikely to me, yet it became reality in a way nobody had expected."
Dagmar Lipper (West Berlin)
