A piece of the Berlin Wall lies inside Dieter F. Uchtdorfin the Church administration office in Salt Lake City. This small concrete fragment holds great significance for the member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Born in 1940, young Dieter grew up in Zwickau, in the former East Germany. When he was around 11, his father came under increased scrutiny as a political dissident, and his parents decided that their family should flee to West Germany.

The Uchtdorfs were among the estimated at 2.5 million East Germans who fled to West Germany between 1949 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The German Democratic Republic erected a large concrete barrier to cut off East German access to West Berlin and to West Germany.

On November 9, 1989 – 35 years ago this month – the wall that had become the symbol of the Cold War was demolished. The border was opened and East Germans could travel freely to the West.

“I keep a piece of the Berlin Wall in my office to remind me of this great miracle,” Brother Uchtdorf said. once wrote on social networks. “I never thought this would happen in my lifetime.”

Latter-day Saints in Germany have demonstrated “humble courage” and “loving perseverance” for decades that have advanced the Church in Germany, Elder Uchtdorf said upon his return from a visit to Berlin in 2018.

“Kleine schritte helfen,” he said, translating: “Small steps help.” »

The miracle of a temple in East Germany

After the rapid rise of the Berlin Wall in 1961, Latter-day Saints in East Germany found themselves in difficult circumstances.

An extract from an article from Church News provides some context: “Restrictions were placed on how members could worship. The state required advance notice of meetings and even monitored Sunday services. Scriptures, textbooks, manuals, and even hymns were not allowed in the land. At one point all unauthorized literature was burned. Many congregations even lacked established leadership.

There were no patriarchs, missionary work was prohibited, and the wall prevented Church members from visiting the shrine. Swiss Temple — the only temple in Europe. Yet the war-torn and isolated members continued to come together and strengthen each other.

In 1968, then eldest Thomas S. Monson traveled to the German Democratic Republic and met with members of the Church in the town of Görlitz.

Impressed by their unwavering faith and trust in the Lord, the young Apostle and future President of the Church made a bold promise to the people: “If you remain true and faithful to the commandments of God, all the blessings enjoyed by a member of the Church in any other country will be yours. »

Elder Monson returned in 1975 to dedicate the land to the work of the Lord. In his prayer of dedicationElder Monson advocated for many specific blessings for the Saints in East Germany, including a way to receive temple blessings.

When Brother Uchtdorf first heard about these promises, he said he was filled with gratitude, but also uncertainty.

“It did not seem possible that these beautiful promises made to our people could be fulfilled in their lifetime, if ever. How could a temple be built and operated in East Germany? …I felt somehow like the man who cried out, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief,’” Uchtdorf, then President of the First Presidency, recalled during the 2014 Church History Symposium.

In his journal, Brother Monson at the time recorded several experiments this confirmed to him that the Lord’s work would go forward in faith. Local members, including Henri Burkhardtwere instrumental in establishing relations with the government of the German Democratic Republic. Little by little, the promised blessings arrived.

The Freiberg Germany Temple as it was rededicated in 2016. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Ten years after Brother Monson’s dedicatory prayer, Gordon B. Hinckley inaugurated in June 1985 on Freiberg Temple Germany — the first temple behind the Iron Curtain.

“The construction of the Freiberg Temple is one of the greatest miracles in the history of the Church in Europe,” then-president Uchtdorf said in 2014. “It is a wonderful example of how God can making the impossible possible in any part of the world. world.”

The fall of the Berlin Wall

On the night of November 9, 1989, Brother Uchtdorf and his family were at home together in Germany when they learned that the Berlin Wall was open. He was then serving as a stake president in the Frankfurt area.

“It was a really heartwarming moment,” he recalled in a 2014 interview with Deseret News. “I immediately thought of our extended family back East. Our thoughts have been with the members of the Church, I must say. District presidents and other Church leaders stayed with us. Our thoughts immediately turned to them. “What are they going to do? »

Spencer J. Condie He was serving in the Europe Zone presidency and watching the events of November 9, 1989, unfold on television from a hotel room in Madrid, Spain.

“For a time it disrupted the Church in a wonderful way,” said the Emeritus General Authority Seventy. told the Deseret News. “So many people had not left East Germany for 45 years that they wanted to see their families in Stuttgart or Frankfurt.”

The Church quickly realigned its stakes to include congregations in East and West Germany. In July 1990, open missions in the former communist countries of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Missionaries were able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people who had been deprived of the teachings of the gospel for almost 50 years.

President Wolfgang Paul of the German Dresden Mission told the Church News in 1991: “The inhabitants of Dresden, so long hidden from the beauties of the knowledge of the Savior, react to the message of the Gospel. They are thirsty for truth and accept missionaries quite well.

The reunification of Germany was made official on October 3, 1990 – now celebrated annually as German Unity Day. Still stake president, Brother Uchtdorf held a special meeting of the Frankfurt Stake that day.

It was the first time in his life that a German congregation sang the German national anthem, he told the Deseret News. “It was with all our hearts. It was a moving moment. This time, many tears were shed. Elder Uchtdorf has served as a general authority since 1994.

During a mission to Germany and Austria in April 2019, Brother Uchtdorf met the German branch in Görlitzwhere then Brother Monson had promised, half a century earlier, all the blessings of the restored gospel.

Branch members were gathered with members from Germany and Poland as well as mission presidents from Berlin and Warsaw. “To me, it is always a symbol of the power of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ: Even in the most difficult circumstances, the gospel unites you,” Elder Uchtdorf said.

“There was unity, reconciliation to the highest degree thanks to the Gospel and the Church,” he added. “Here you see reconciliation in action through the values ​​and truths of the Gospel. »

Why it matters today: a lesson in unity

In a social media post in November 2019 commemorating the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Brother Uchtdorf continued this message of unity.

“As time passed, the miracle of unity occurred in Germany,” Brother Uchtdorf wrote. “There is also a great need for unity in our human relationships. Perhaps we have figurative “walls” in our families, our friendships, our lives. When our walls come down, we may think, “How is it possible to feel unity when we are so different?” »

In such circumstances, Elder Uchtdorf suggested reapplying the Savior’s teachings. “The Savior is the one who can help us break down our walls,” he said. “We are trying to be more forgiving, kinder, more understanding and more supportive of each other. If we make mistakes (and we will), we have the gift of repentance to repair our personal relationships and our relationship with God.

“Remember that through the sacrifice of the Savior, we can experience the miracle of unity in every relationship we have in our lives. »