Walther getting a double dose of German history

Oct. 13, 2009

Daniel Walther went to Germany in September to observe German history, and a slice of German history will come to Wartburg in November under his aegis.

Walther, the Gerald R. Kleinfeld Distinguished Professor of German History and chair of the history department, was among 18 scholars and journalists from four continents selected by the German Academic Exchange Service — funded by the German Foreign Office — to observe the quadrennial Bundestag parliamentary elections Sept. 27.

Walther witnessed campaign events in Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin. The group met with leading media and business executives, labor officials, academicians and candidates.

“It was an amazing trip when you look at all the people we met,” Walther said.

Back home, Walther is helping coordinate “Freedom Without Walls” events, a Nov. 4-13 celebration commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall that separated West Berlin from communist East Berlin and East Germany. Wartburg was one of 25 U.S. colleges selected by the German Embassy in Washington for an $8,000 “Freedom Without Walls” grant.

Walther got a firsthand look at the dynamics of German politics in the election that marked the dissolution of the former coalition government headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel of the center-right Christian Democratic Union and Vice Chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the leftist Social Democratic Party.

The CDU and the pro-business Free Democratic Party won control of the Bundestag with 33.8 and 14.6 percent of the vote, respectively. The FDP is led by Guido Westerwelle, who is expected to become Germany’s first openly gay vice chancellor and foreign minister.

The SDP received 23 percent, refusing to align itself with The Left, which includes elements of the former East German Communist Party and got 11.9 percent.

Walther said the campaign was “not thrilling or exciting,” but noteworthy for issues the major parties avoided, including Germany’s roles in the European Union and Afghanistan. “They are afraid they’ll lose points,” he said. “They’ll talk about it after the election.”

Voters did not cast ballots for national leaders, but for local candidates and parties. Candidates from parties receiving less than 5 percent of the national vote won’t be seated. The smaller parties included the likes of the Pirate Party, which advocates free access to the Internet.

Back on campus, Walther and Dr. Edith Waldstein, vice president for enrollment management, are coordinating the student-run Freedom Without Walls activities on campus.

Waldstein said it will “commemorate the courage of people to protest openly for democracy and freedom; remind those who witnessed the fall of the wall of its relevance for our time; and perhaps, most importantly, challenge a new generation of students to resist injustices that the wall embodied and that continue to confront the world today.”

The campus events will include:

— German films expressing German culture and politics before, during and after the wall came down: “Goodbye, Lenin!” Nov. 4, and “Das Leben der Anderen” (“The Lives of Others”), Nov. 11.

— Freedom Without Walls Charity Run, Nov. 9, 5 p.m.: A 5k run walk or jog through Waverly, starting and ending on the Wartburg campus and following the Cedar River, The entry fee is $25 for non-students and $12 for students. Participant will receive a free T-shirt. All proceeds will be donated to the Waverly-Shell Rock Area United Way’s flood relief efforts.

— Graffiti competition, Nov. 7-8, 10: The wall will be constructed during two days, then the public will be asked to write on the wall about barriers in today's society.

— Speech competition, Nov. 11-12: Open to Wartburg students and local-area high school students. Six finalists will perform Nov. 12 at 5 p.m. in the Saemann Student Center. The winners on the 25 Freedom Without Walls campuses will vie for two free tickets to Berlin.

— Gala event, Nov. 13: Open house with traditional German foods, music and stories about the Berlin Wall, followed by a presentation by former Interim U.S. Ambassador to Germany James D. Bindenagel.

The complete list of activities is available at http://www.wartburg.edu/withoutwalls/

“This is a great way to showcase the talent of our students and also to recognize our school’s rich German heritage,” Walther said.

Pastor Georg Grossman, a Lutheran missionary from Bavaria, founded Wartburg as a teacher-training school in 1852. The college is named after the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, Germany, where Martin Luther spent 10 months in hiding amid a papal ban, completing a translation of the New Testament into German.