'Singing Luther together' at the Berlin Wall

Communism | A Christian artist remembers | Warren Cole Smith

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It began on Nov. 9, 1938, with the start of Kristallnacht, the methodical destruction of Jews in Nazi Germany. Sixteen years later the Soviets built a wall in Berlin to divide east from west, communist from free. The work of bringing it down took 35 years and thousands of freedom lovers, who gathered in Berlin on Nov. 9, 2009, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its demise.

"My ministry included taking instruments to Christians in East Germany," said Scott Wesley Brown, one of Christian music's biggest stars in the 1970s and '80s. He has recorded more than 20 albums, mostly for Sparrow Records, and has traveled extensively overseas, especially to East Germany. "And then we built a recording studio in East Berlin because it was easier to record Christian music there than to smuggle it in."