5. July: Berlin: Part IV: Hohenstaufenstrasse 65

I've been helping my mother-in-law translate her father's diary. He traveled all over, mostly to the east and kept a very interesting journal. He taught at the Bible school and preached at the church in the courtyard below where he lived at Hohenstaufenstrasse 65. In 1919 he moved the Bible school to Wiedenest which is near Cologne because of World War I. So when we were planning to go to Berlin, I looked up Hohenstrasseand found it was relatively easy to get there. The closest subway station is Nollendorfplatz. The following week we were working on 1911 and came across the section where her dad talks about how much easier it is to get around now that they have the new subway station, Nollendorfplatz. Now we were finally going to Hohenstaufenstrasse 65 where Ama’s dad had lived

and preached prior to World War I. Founded by Fraulein von Blucher, it was the first Brethren assembly in Berlin They just happened to be having their last ladies meeting of the year. Doris, who had just last year moved with her family from Stuttgart, welcomed us. She knew Tante Annemarie from the assembly there. Her daughter Esther had just come back from the Wiedenest Bible School where she had had the last class with cousin Regina before she retired. I had printed out the sketch which Johannes Warns (Ama’s dad) had made in his journal which I am helping Ama translate to English. It turns out to be a sketch of a photo which hangs in the church with other old photos. He must have made that particular photo because the handwriting was the same. I recognized many of the names in the photos. Doris and Esther showed us around the church and in the balcony. It looks as if not much has changed in location. The apartments are still in the front. The church is at the back of the courtyard. It was very cool to meet new friends.