A couple of days ago, Claus Wischmann, of the World Wide Berlin project arrived in Berlin, Ohio. Claus is the film director for the Berlin, Ohio USA segment of the 3 hour film documentary to be aired on German national television on New Year’s day 2015. We’ve been working hard and having lots of fun planning the schedule of scenes for next week’s shooting sessions. Today Claus and I visited Eli Hochstetler (Small) of The Gospel Book Store in Berlin, Ohio. Claus delivered a welcome letter from the Mayor of Berlin, Germany to the people of Berlin, Ohio, with “very warm regards from the German Capital”. The letter is in German but there’s also an English translation. See translation below.
The welcome letter was designated to be delivered to the Mayor of Berlin. Since Berlin, Ohio has no mayor I thought it best to deliver it to Eli, who is the current President of the Berlin Ohio Main Street Merchants. We had a great time chatting with Small, who is never at a loss for telling a good story. Small gave a copy of the book “Amish Paradox” to our guest from Germany. Small agreed to and is scheduled to be in one of the filming scenes next week.
The translation of the letter from the Berlin Mayor into English is as follows: “It is with great pleasure that I send this greeting from one Berlin to another. The German capital, as “ancestral mother” of all Berlins, is keen to learn about the goings-on in the other Berlins and to connect the different communities across the world. We are proud of our project, “Worldwide Berlin”, which joins together and gathers pictures, films, and information from many Berlins. A selection of these will be part of a large TV event in Germany. We are grateful for you and your community’s willingness to take part in this project and send very warm regards from the German capital.”