11/04/99
Contact: Robert Stewart, Ohio University, 740/593-2601
ATHENS-On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ohio University will welcome one of the leaders who played a key role in that historic event.
Robert Stewart, professor of journalism and Ohio's coordinator of the University of Leipzig Exchange Program, said Prorector Christoph Kaehler would be one of four guests on hand today for a program reception.
Kaehler was one of the pastors who gave the "Monday Prayer" in the St. Nicholai church in Leipzig, which led to the public demonstrations that eventually led to the downfall of the East German regime, Stewart said. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.
The reception, sponsored by the Ohio Leipzig European Center (OLEC) Steering Committee, is being held from 4-5:30 p.m. in Gordy Hall 113.
Kaehler will be joined by three other guests from the University of Leipzig: Dr. Svend Poller, Director of the Office of European & International Academic Affairs; Professor Wolfgang Hoepken, history department; and Sybille Scholz, InterDaf Intensive German Language Institute.
Guests will also celebrate a century-old OU-Leipzig connection that was discovered during planning for the European Center. John P. Gordy, who taught education, American History, philosophy, and pedagogy at Ohio University from 1886-1896, received his Ph.D. in 1884 from the University of Leipzig. The Hall bearing his name now houses Ohio University's Education Abroad office, as well as the Modern Languages program.
Also on hand will be the first group of Ohio University students to take part in the OLEC "Study Program in the New Europe" this spring. The Center, which was announced last April by President Robert Glidden and Connie Perdreau, director of the Office of Education Abroad, will provide about 120 Ohio University undergraduate students a year the opportunity to live in Germany and learn about the political, social and cultural institutions of modern Europe.
Although the study program is new, the groundwork was laid beginning in 1992, when the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and the Contemporary History Institute initiated a student and faculty exchange. Nearly 300 faculty and students from the two universities have participated in the program since then.