Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship, Int.
P.O. Box 7046
Naples, FL 33941
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The grisly stories about the former secret police in East Germany and its current status are based on true accounts and recently released German exposes. Gary Johnson, the publisher at Bethany House, suggested blending some “missing Stasi spy files” into what was then just an idea for the sequel to Florian’s Gate. As ever, I am indebted to our many friends and colleagues at BHP.
Lupold Von Wedel, former Director for Eastern Europe of the Matuschka Investment Group in Munich, has in recent months been appointed managing director of a multi-billion dollar heavy industries conglomerate in former East Germany. Lupold was born in the area of Poland known as Upper Silesia. He is a good friend, and has been most kind in relating both the circumstances of his early childhood and the trauma of leaving behind a war-torn Poland. I am also most grateful for his current assessment of the economic and political situation in Poland and the former East Germany.
Barbara Beck, Press Attaché with the German Embassy in London, was most helpful with background information on the search for the Amber Room. She also supplied contacts in both Erfurt and Weimar.
H. Reichmann is the new Director of Art Union Gmbh, the antique store on the Erfurter Bridge which was used as the antiques store in this novel. I am indeed grateful for his detailed chronicle of his own shop, the other nearby buildings, and the bridge itself.
Dr. Schleiff is Director of the Erfurter Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, which translates literally as the “Erfurt city authority for the care of memories,” and means essentially the preservation of monuments and buildings. He offered very valuable insight into the current search for the Amber Room.
Joachim Vogel is Press Attaché to the Lord Mayor of Weimar, and while maintaining a professionally detached view to the whole affair is passionately interested in the Amber Room and all the interconnected mysteries. He was most kind in assisting with general information and valuable contacts.
There is only one color photograph of the Amber Room in existence today. A copy of this was loaned to me by Weimar resident Hans Stadelmann, who is involved in the current probe into the Nazi bunkers beneath Weimar’s Karl Marx Platz (the former plaza for Nazi Party gatherings, soon to receive its third name change in four decades). I am indeed grateful that he offered me this picture, from which this book’s front cover was painted. Poring over stacks of yellowed documents and blueprints, he provided an extraordinary account of the Amber Room’s passage from the Catherine Palace in Russia, to Königsberg in Germany, and from there into the mists of unsolved mystery.
Joachim Gommlich is currently Managing Director of Wilhelm Glaudert Gmbh in Düsseldorf. He was born in Berlin and escaped two days before the Wall was finally sealed; by this time the Russian soldiers were no longer permitting people casual passage to the West, so Joachim kissed his mother and father goodbye, and with their blessings took his camera and some pocket money and walked over the border, telling the guards he was on a school photography project. It was the last time he ever saw his parents. The war-end recollections of the Erfurt antique dealer are based on those of Herr Gommlich. I am indeed grateful for his recounting these early memories.
Reverend Seyfarth, the head of the evangelical seminary in Schwerin, granted insight into the faith of the East German people, which proved most valuable in the structuring of both this book and Florian’s Gate.
To the numerous antiques dealers who have assisted me with both of these books, I extend my heartfelt thanks. All of you have shown remarkable patience with my never-ending stream of questions. I have been truly fortunate to meet so many people who not only know their business but love it as well.
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Just as Jeffrey goes through personal and spiritual struggles in this book, so do many others who feel that their own problems are too difficult to share or their questions too unworthy of being asked. This simply is not the case. We are, every one of us, both unique and uniquely important in God’s eyes. Anyone who feels he or she needs a listening ear or advice from a man of God is most welcome to write:
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Reverend Paul McCommon
c/o Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
DAVIS BUNN, a professional novelist for over twenty years, is the author of numerous national bestsellers with sales totaling more than six million copies. His work has been published in sixteen languages, and his critical acclaim includes three Christy Awards for excellence in fiction. Formerly an international business executive working in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, Bunn is now a lecturer in creative writing and Writer in Residence at Regent’s Park College, Oxford University. He and his wife, Isabella, divide their time between the English countryside and the coast of Florida.
Books by Davis Bunn
The Book of Hours
The Great Divide
Winner Take All
The Lazarus Trap
Elixir
Imposter
Lion of Babylon
Rare Earth
All Through the Night
My Soul to Keep
ACTS OF FAITH*
The Centurion’s Wife • The Hidden Flame
The Damascus Way
SONG OF ACADIA*
The Meeting Place • The Sacred Shore
The Birthright • The Distant Beacon
The Beloved Land
HEIRS OF ACADIA†
The Solitary Envoy • The Innocent Libertine
The Noble Fugitive The Night Angel
Falconer’s Quest
*with Janette Oke †with Isabella Bunn
The Amber Room Page 32
