Did a prayer meeting really bring down the Berlin Wall and end the Cold War? [View all]

Peter Crutchley

The date 9 November 1989 is etched in history as the day the Berlin Wall came down. But was it actually a prayer meeting held exactly one month earlier that made the fall of the Wall inevitable?

Ignoring death threats and huge banks of armed police, thousands gathered at St Nicholas Church in the East German city of Leipzig on 9 October to pray for peace.

The congregation then joined an estimated crowd of 70,000 on a protest march against the country's communist regime.

It was the largest impromptu demonstration ever witnessed in East Germany, but this was no spontaneous flash mob. It was the culmination of years of weekly prayer meetings organised by Christian Führer, the pastor of St Nicholas.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/24661333