Augustana Toda Volume 18, No. 1
June 1990
Augustana College
Sioux Falls, SD 57197
Moller gathered for a farewell conversation with some of his students following baccalaureate
May 20. He left the next day for East Germany where his appointment as ambassador to the
United States became official. From left: Mike Cwach, Stephanie Bender, Steve Grill, Moller,
Brian Fedde and Julie Hennies.
Moller answers nation's call
East German professor
named U.S. ambassador
by Suzanne Hunstad
Dr. Michael Moller's story is not
typical of a visiting professor return-ing
home. For his home is East Ger-many,
and the last time he left the
country, he believed he would never
return.
Since the historic opening of the
Berlin Wall in November, not only
has Moller been back to his
homeland, he has been named East
German ambassador to the United
States, one of the highest diplomatic
positions
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Word of Moller's appointment
spread quickly across campus;
faculty and students alike shared in
his excitement.
President Lloyd Svendsbye said,
"Most of the founders of our country
were very young people who had
been fired by visions of freedom for
their country. Dr. Moller craves that
same kind of freedom for his coun-try.
"
At 33, Moller is the youngest am-bassador
to the U.S. ever.
He said his position will be tem-porary
because there will be no need
for two ambassadors when East and
West Germanies unite. He expects to
be in the East German embassy in
Washington, D.C., for two years.
"I'm not sorry it will be short-term
because it is so important,"
Moller said. He hopes to use his
position to inform people about East
Germany and ease their fears about
reunification with West Germany.
In the initial negotiations following
the revolution, the Social Demo-cratic
Party (SPD) earned the
right to control East Germany's
foreign ministry, according to
Moller. He has personal connections
to Foreign Minister Markus Meckel
through his membership in the SPD,
and he has lived in the United States
and is fluent in English. Those fac-tors
contributed to his appointment,
he said.
Spring semester for Moller was
hectic, to say the least. In addition
to teaching here, he traveled to East
Germany several times. He left
Sioux Falls immediately after com-mencement
to receive the official
appointment and undergo training in
Berlin.
Moller moved into the embassy by
mid-June, just1months after he
thought his connections to his
homeland had been severed forever.
`Blackmailed' to Leave
Moller left the country in March
1989 after struggling for over a year
to gain permission from East Ger-man
authorities to marry an
American woman.
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He had met Tina Petrov in 1986
while he was teaching at a seminary
in Columbus, Ohio, and she had
followed him to East Germany.
Finally, they were allowed to marry
on the condition that Moller would
obtain a permanent exit visa.
By approving his marriage to an
American, authorities "black-mailed"
him to leave the country.
"I was not banned from the state,
but I lost my right to reside there
permanently," he said.
Tina returned to Columbus im-mediately
after the wedding in
January 1989 and resumed her
career as a high school Latin
teacher. Michael followed three
months later.
He came to Augustana last
September on a one-year appoint-ment
in the religion/philosophy/
classics department. At the time, he
had no reason to suspect his country
would undergo such revolutionary
changes during his year here.
Continued on page 4
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