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Vassar College is the first small liberal arts college to receive the honor of exhibiting the Martin Luther King, Jr. collection as part of the African American Civil Rights and Germany in the 20th Century conference. The display opened on October 1 and is the starting point for a U.S. tour.
Martin Luther King, Jr. has long been a symbol for civil rights in the United States. His words and actions have become emblazoned in this country’s memory. However, his visit to Berlin on September 13, 1964, is just one symbol of Germany’s joint history of civil rights with the U.S. The German Historical Institute’s exhibit demonstrates how American struggles were framed and reflected in Cold War Germany.
After introducing the panelists, University of Heidelberg Professor Doctor Martin Klimke began the lecture by discussing how very few people understand the international connectedness of civil rights movements. As he states, “Very little has been done to show how the U.S. and other countries share that history.”
“Germans saw the civil rights movement for African-Americans and saw how to use that for their own society” commented Klimke. In treating these foreign soldiers with a respect they did not have in their own land, Germany began to recognize some of its own issues and influenced the attitude of the U.S. at the same time.
From Marienkirche, Berlin, Roland Stolte went into detail about the reasons for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s journey to Germany in 1964 and discussed how a close relationship to the church played a heavy role in his visit.
One of the most interesting portions of the evening was the speech given by Midland Lutheran College professor Alcyone Scott, a woman who experienced King’s speech, translated for him at one point, and even helped him move across the border from East to West Germany. At one point, she described the speech he gave: “He spoke in an enormous outdoor arena; there was a choir singing, and a pantomime of separation by wall.”
It was yelling at a German official to allow the passport-less King through to West Berlin that really stood out for her. They then had to fight through the massive crowd just to get into the church. “I thought I was accompanying the Beatles,” she joked.
Scott’s recollections of the event helped establish the image of America’s civil rights symbol delivering a similar message of equality and unity to a whole new group of people. But the second part of the night’s lecture was an important introduction to the German Historical Institute’s (GHI) research website (www.aacvr-germany.org/king).
The third member of the panel, Laura Stapane, introduced the audience to the GHI’s website on this extensive research into how African-American presence in wartime Germany contributed to their own civil rights movement. “One of the main goals has been to draw public and scholarly attention to their contributions to civil rights” Stapane explained.mo The digital archive contains an extensive selection of historical documents that will hopefully not only inform more people about the strong relationship between the United States and Germany, but will also make others consider this country’s relations with others. As Klimke observes, “It’s difficult to do a history when you intertwine two nations.” Such research efforts such as those undertaken by the GHI will possibly make these connected histories more apparent.
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