Where were you on 9 November, Frau Kässmann?

I was in Geneva where I was taking part in preparations for the World Council of Churches' World Convocation on Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation. I was overwhelmed with joy and though: what a miracle that this process has had such an effect. It was one of the reasons why the protests in the GDR remained peaceful. Three days later I returned to my country parish in Hessen where we we looking after people from the GDR, people who had escaped via Hungary and the Embassy in Prague who had been lodged in a vacation home nearby.

Bishop Margot Kässmann, newly elected chairperson of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany

- From a questionnaire of public figures asking where they were when the wall was opened, published in the Rheinischer Merkur.