Spring Break
Professor shares German history through film
Film paints life of pastor involved in WWII anti-war movement
Jennifer Meyer
Issue date: 4/19/07 Section: News
Christian P. Stehr, a foreign languages and literature professor, is one of the procuders "Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace," a documentary based on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a renown German theologian and Lutheran pastor.
"I can remember losing one of my shoes while following railroad tracks westward, and accompanying my mother when she went bartering for food," Stehr said.
Stehr was born in Silesia and raised in northern Bavaria, where his family fled from the Soviet Red Army during the final months of World War II.
He was raised to value and strive for his education and learned that "education was the only path to a secure life," Stehr said.
Stehr studied at several German universities, attending Göttingen University where he studied German, English, Latin and theater.
As a graduate assistant at the University of Regensburg in Bavaria Stehr met professor Edward Diller, who encouraged him to teach at University of Oregon as a visiting instructor for a year.
The year turned into a permanent stay when Stehr received a doctorate degree from University of Oregon and a Green Card.
Stehr made the move to OSU in 1975 as an assistant professor in the department of foreign language and Literature.
"Oregon appealed to me in part because the landscape reminded me of home," Stehr said.
Stehr was honored in 2002 with the German Federal Order of Merit by Johannes Rau, the president of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition for an "outstanding contribution to the teaching of German as a foreign language in the United States through radio and television broadcasting and for the promotion of TV productions with German topics for Public Broadcasting in the United States," as stated in the award.
"Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace" aired on Public Broadcast Station Sunday, April 8. Despite the fact the film has already premiered in Corvallis' Darkside Cinema, the viewing popularity has continued on through the years.
"I can remember losing one of my shoes while following railroad tracks westward, and accompanying my mother when she went bartering for food," Stehr said.
Stehr was born in Silesia and raised in northern Bavaria, where his family fled from the Soviet Red Army during the final months of World War II.
He was raised to value and strive for his education and learned that "education was the only path to a secure life," Stehr said.
Stehr studied at several German universities, attending Göttingen University where he studied German, English, Latin and theater.
As a graduate assistant at the University of Regensburg in Bavaria Stehr met professor Edward Diller, who encouraged him to teach at University of Oregon as a visiting instructor for a year.
The year turned into a permanent stay when Stehr received a doctorate degree from University of Oregon and a Green Card.
Stehr made the move to OSU in 1975 as an assistant professor in the department of foreign language and Literature.
"Oregon appealed to me in part because the landscape reminded me of home," Stehr said.
Stehr was honored in 2002 with the German Federal Order of Merit by Johannes Rau, the president of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition for an "outstanding contribution to the teaching of German as a foreign language in the United States through radio and television broadcasting and for the promotion of TV productions with German topics for Public Broadcasting in the United States," as stated in the award.
"Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace" aired on Public Broadcast Station Sunday, April 8. Despite the fact the film has already premiered in Corvallis' Darkside Cinema, the viewing popularity has continued on through the years.
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