“I was a pastor in a divided parish. With my back to the wall, responsible for the west side.” -Pastor Fischer
Earlier this week I received the sad news that Pastor Manfred Fischer passed away at the age of 65. I photographed Pastor Fischer exactly a year ago at the Chapel of Reconciliation in Berlin for my project about the Berlin Wall.
He became pastor of the Chapel of Reconciliation in 1977. The fascinating aspect of Pastor Fischer’s story was that the chapel was located inside the death strip of the Berlin Wall which sat in between the walls that separated East and West Berlin.
The congregation was cut off from its church when the East German government constructed the Berlin Wall in August 1961. No one could step foot in the chapel for nearly three decades. Soaring above the monolith wall, only the chapel’s steeple was visible from the streets of the West Berlin neighborhood Wedding. In 1985 the East German government blew up the church.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Pastor Fischer was instrumental in getting back the land the chapel once stood on and constructing a new chapel on the original foundation. Today the chapel stands as a symbol of “reconciliation.” Pastor Fischer was also one of the few voices in favor of saving a portion of the Berlin Wall along Bernauer Strasse as a reminder of what stood there and the oppression that the wall helped contribute to.
I only photographed him once on a sunny but brisk Berlin day. But I will always remember the couple of hours I spoke with him at the chapel and our several telephone conversations. It was an honor to consider Pastor Fischer a friend. The world is a better place because of him and he will be missed.
