Germany: Introducing Falun Dafa and Exposing the Persecution Outside Cologne Cathedral

In order to expose the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China, German Falun Gong practitioners have carried out a peaceful appeal at Cologne Cathedral, a famous tourist site, for nearly three years. On each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, local practitioners and those from surrounding areas cooperate to ensure the appeal activities in front of the cathedral go smoothly, whether it's hot or cold, wind, frost, snow or even rain.

Because Germany has relaxed the visa conditions for Chinese tourists, travellers from China to Germany have increased. Previously there were relatively more tourists on weekends, but now every day there are Chinese tourists in the Cathedral. A practitioner made a rough guess that from Monday to Thursday, over two hundred people from China visited the world famous Cologne Cathedral. There are many more Chinese people during the weekends.

Previous Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin went to extraordinary lengths to use the state-controlled media in China to turn the Chinese people against Falun Gong. His personal campaign of propaganda and supprression, which has lasted over 5 years and claimed over 1,000 lives, has poisoned the minds of millions of people. In order to allow more Chinese people know the truth about Falun Gong, some practitioners decided to extend the previous three days appeal activities to every day. From the beginning of August to the present, practitioners try their best to come to support the activities no matter how far away they live. Due to practitioners’ initiative and cooperation, the appeal activities are smoothly maintained.

This Wednesday I went to Cologne again. That day there were three or four big Chinese tourist groups and many individual Chinese tourists as well. There was a middle-aged Chinese couple who were smartly dressed. I stepped forward to say hello and handed out leaflets and intended to chat with them. The man pointed at our “Falun Dafa Is Good” banner and said, “I already know that very well, I think there is no need for me to take this from you.” He did not say anything but raised his thumb to me with full admiration in his eyes. I said “thank you” from the bottom of my heart. I felt glad for their attitude towards Dafa.

From time to time there are also some German middle school or primary school students who visit, either several dozens students as a big group or just a few students in smaller groups. One day there was a small group with five or six high school students who were resting on the steps. I gave them the Falun Gong leaflets, and they read them carefully. About one hour later, when they intended to leave, they asked us to give them more leaflets to give to their friends. I immediately gave them some and they were very happy; each of them took a few and put them into their bags before they left.

There were two German middle school students who read our display boards carefully and then asked, "What is Falun Gong? Why does Falun Gong suffer persecution? How can we end this persecution?" After I briefly answered their questions, I told them, "If you want to end this persecution, you may sign your names on our signature collection form." They asked, "Is the signature really effective?" I said, "Yes, it is." I also told them, "If you could tell your friends and relatives about what is happening in China, the more people know this, the more helpful it will be to end this persecution of innocent people." The two students signed their names, wished us success and left.

Tourists swarmed in front of the cathedral again soon after a heavy rainstorm. Many people read our display boards. There were about ten German middle school students, gathered around our display boards and reading them carefully. A little while later, they walked towards me - one of them was the student who just signed his signature earlier that day. The two middle school students had brought their companions here to read our display boards. After the children learned the truth, they signed the petition.

In the reception hall of the Cathedral, three tourists from mainland China were waiting for their tour bus. A practitioner had already told them a lot about Falun Gong before I spoke with them. A retired man asked us if we were paid for coming here. I told him that we did not get a penny from anyone; we spent our own money to buy the ticket and used our spare time to come here. Moreover, all the expense of printing leaflets and newspapers came from our own pockets. We only have a single purpose for doing this – to expose the persecution. After he understood this, he told an old lady in font of him, “Do you know they spend their own money to print these materials”. The old lady said, “Yes, I know, it is the same situation in Mainland China. They are doing good deeds using their hearts instead of money”.

For the tourists here, especially those from mainland China, even if they didn’t accept our leaflets, they will think about Falun Gong after seeing our banners and our display boards. For the past three years, our banner and our display boards have already become a special landmark in front of Cologne Cathedral.