Hi Jennifer,
You tell Firenze, "So anyway fire, the link I posted http://www.stmarkshsv.org/page29.php is what I found that mentions the germans (war criminals) that came to huntsville."
My Friend, I have searched and searched the web site you gave us Firenze -- and, for some reason I cannot find the words "German war criminals" anywhere on that web site. Obviously I have just missed it. Will you please show us where you found this written.
But, let me just say this. The work the German rocket and missile scientists did for America was directly responsible for putting America into space and putting an American on the moon. From their work, and the subsequent effort to travel into space -- upon the rockets the German rocket and missile scientists gave us -- every aspect of American life has been improved.
From medicine, to food, to clothing, to electronics, to automobile -- there is not one single aspect of your life which has not been improved because of the work pioneered by those "war criminals."
As a matter of fact, the computer sitting on your desk -- most likely would not be there except for the work begun by those German rocket and missile scientists. We ALL owe a huge debt of gratitude to Werner von Braun and his team.
So, please keep in mind that when you sit at your computer to write a nasty response to this -- Werner von Braun and his team made this possible.
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A short History of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Huntsville, Alabama
http://www.stmarkshsv.org/page29.php
The formation of St. Mark’s
The arrival of German rocket and missile scientists in 1950 made possible the birth of St. Mark's. These scientists were part of the reactivation of Redstone ****nal; these men and their families had come to America under the guidance of the United States Army. They first settled in El Paso, Texas before moving to Huntsville.
In the summer of 1950 the Reverend Dr. Charles E. Linn, President of the Georgia-Alabama Synod of the United Lutheran Church in America was contacted to organize a Lutheran congregation for these German space scientists. A Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary student, William Hartman, was sent to survey the field and conduct services for interested persons. That September, the Reverend Dr. William Stup came from Atlanta each Sunday for the services. Roughly 30 people met each week in the former Fifth Avenue Elementary School for worship. The Episcopal Church of the Nativity helped with office supplies and equipment, church furnishings and facilities to aid the Lutherans in their efforts to initiate a mission. Seven men from the group secured earnest money to purchase a funeral home to be converted into the first church and a house for a parsonage. This property was located on the northwest corner of Franklin Street and Longwood Drive.
On February 1, 1951, the Board of American Missions called the Reverend George F. Hart of Jacksonville, Florida to organize the work in Huntsville. A committee composed of Edward Tesmer, H. Cole Reasin, Hans Freidrich, Fred Schwarz, and Robert Axelson served as a temporary council. By October, 77 adults and 43 children were on St. Mark's membership roles. When the congregation was organized formally on Reformation Day, 1951 sixty-six of the confirmed members were German scientists and their wives.
In March 1952, the Board of American Missions loaned $38,000.00 to the Georgia-Alabama Synod to buy the lots at the southeast corner of Franklin Street and Longwood Drive for the future home of the congregation.
On April 28, 1957, Synod President, The Reverend Dr. Charles Fritz, dedicated the new building at Franklin and Longwood. The Reverend Dr. Raymond D. Wood, pastor of Ascension Church, Savannah, Georgia, delivered the sermon. The Savannah congregation, the home church of St. Mark's first pastor, had adopted St. Mark's as its mission church.
A German touch within the church is an original bronze plaque of Martin Luther, which hangs in the narthex of the current church building. While serving as legal counselor and Judge Advocate for the General's Staff of the United States Army in Berlin, Robert Kirk Bell saw the plaque on a monument in the Berlin Tiergarten and arranged to get it. Through Mr. Bell's efforts, the Federal Republic of West Germany presented the plaque to St. Mark's "as a token of appreciation for the spiritual ministry to the German rocket scientists and engineers who relocated to Huntsville in 1950."
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God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill