After the 3rd  Goitzsche Marathon, a yearly race in mid-germany, a group of polish marathon runners, underneath them Marian Bigocki, stepped ahead to the organizers. They told them that they were running to the pope Johannes Paul II in the past. They also asked when we will run to our German pope Benedikt XVI. After this talk, Peter Junge, the head organizer of the Goitzsche Marathon, started to go in touch with the local priest Matthias Weise.

Perhaps, a run like this could get be a campaign for the slogan “athletes are helping athletes”. And maybe we can use it for our support in Kenya.

After a while, at a summery barbecue night, did Weise came in contact with Lars-Jörn Zimmer, a member of the Landtag in Saxony-Anhalt. While sitting together, he told him about the idea to make a marathon to the pope. Lars-Jörn Zimmer connected it with the recent Luther decade. We are living in the centre of Germany, the major region of the reformation. Isn’t it possible to associate the run with the ecumenical thought?

Sure: We are going to run from Luther to the pope.

All in all we brought three requests together und mixed them: sport, international understanding and ecumenism.

Since that time we found a lot of partners and supporters. With them we hope to enthuse others.

           Christoph Winkler      Jan Sittig        Timo Hoffmann     Michael Aspe

             Erich Mühlbauer   Axel Manthey      Michael Prantl   Wolfgang Nadler

         Dr. Adolf Mühlbauer     Jörg Lipka         Steven Pick      Daniel Schröder

               Ezekiel Thuo         Paul Thuo         Isaak Shang    Katrin Schneider

               Roger Hessel