1990: “One World for All” Concerts with Dizzy Gillespie

At the end of the East-West German conflict and the beginning of the reconciliation between East and West, the German Baha’i community organized the benefit tour “One World for All” Concerts with Dizzy Gillespie which occurred May 9 to 11, 1990.  John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was a famous American Baha’i jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer who often used his art to promote the teachings of the Baha’i Faith.

Three concerts were given in three days in East-Berlin, Moscow and Prague under the patronage of Willy Brandt (former German Chancellor) with a kick-off concert in the Palace of the Republic in Berlin. In Prague, his legendary words, “There is only one world or none” in the middle of the concert in the presence of Václav Havel, then president of Czechoslovakia, earned him minutes of applause.

The aim of the project was to proclaim the message of the unity of mankind in Eastern Bloc countries. This happened at a time when religion was viewed as an opium for the people in those countries and wasn’t openly discussed. The project resulted in numerous references to the teachings of the Baha'i Faith in the press and other media, a historic milestone.