In Their Lives 11-4-63: Wunder von Lengede

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They say you can’t pick your family. Genetically true, but you sure can pick people who are like family. I’m blessed with four friends who are that way. My putting coach is one celebrated at this look of things in November from the newspaper archives. I’ve known him for 20 years, spent 20 summers with him playing miniature golf, and shared a lot of laughs and heartache (he came to my mom’s funeral, and my dad’s....that is a friend!). So he’s included in this examination of history. Here’s the headline from this day in 1963, the year he was born. 11/4/63: Eleven German Miners Found Alive It’s called the Wunder von Lengede, or “Miracle of Lengede.” It began on October 24, 1963, when an iron mine in Lengede, Germany, was flooded by a sediment pond. Needless to say, after over a week all hope was lost for finding any remaining survivors. On November 4, the newspapers in the U.S. blared the good news: eleven miners had been found alive. It would take three more days to get to them and get them out. The story wasn’t totally great: 29 miners did die in the accident. But eleven survived, celebrated as the Wunder von Lengede. Here’s a clip from a German film dramatizing the rescue: