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Leipzig's Festival of Light Marks 35th Anniversary of the
Peaceful Revolution
The Leipzig's Festival of Light and special events on October 9 will mark the 35th Anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution.The new Explore Leipzig app will include all light projects along demonstration route.
New York, Tues. Oct. 1, 2024 -- For 28 years, from August 1961 to October 1989, a wall divided Germany severing families and friendships, creating hatred and international conspiracy, causing deaths and hair-raising tales of escape. Then, thirty-five years ago, the brave citizens of Saxony in the cities of Leipzig and Dresden gathered their forces and demonstrated their unmoving commitment to freedom and unity of the two German states. Facing guns and bullets, 70,000 citizens of Leipzig gathered in St. Nikolaus Square with candles in their hands to demonstrate peacefully for their freedoms.
Candles were the symbol of the Peaceful Revolution in the autumn of 1989, and so candles and light are the center of the remembrance on October 9 this year. Leipzig has created a program to honor the 35th anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution that includes the Festival of Light from 7 pm to midnight along the entire inner city ring road - the original demonstration route.
Other special events marking this annual Day of Remembrance, include the Prayer for Peace at 5 pm in the St. Nicholas Church and the Speech on Democracy. A joint ceremony of the Free State of Saxony and the City of Leipzig will take place in the Gewandhaus Concert Hall at 2:30 pm with speakers including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Marianne Birthler, former GDR civil rights activist and former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records.
More than 20 international teams of artists will remember the historical events of 1989 and bring them to life in public spaces with spectacular projections, music, and performances. Several of Leipzig's twin cities will also be presenting their own projects: Frankfurt am Main, Krakow (Poland), Lyon (France) and Brno (Czech Republic). The giant candle podium, forming an illuminated ‘89’, will be set up on Augustusplatz square. Candles will be provided free of charge to the visitors, who traditionally decorate the podium with thousands of lights.
Visitors to the Festival of Light can download the new Festival of Light 2024 tour (audioversion also available) in the Explore Leipzig App and access it offline. Also new in 2024 is the ‘Festival of Light XXL’: Five light projects will be on display until the weekend of 10-12 October 2024, each evening from 7 pm to 11 pm. All projects and artists can be found in the program overview at https://www.lichtfest.leipziger-freiheit.de/programme.html.
Important Background and Sites in Leipzig Honoring the Peaceful Revolution Year Round:
October 9, 1989 was the breakthrough of the Peaceful Revolution. The date is regarded as the catalyst for the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and the eventual reunification of Germany in 1990.
Since 1982, peace, environmental and human rights groups have regularly invited people to pray for peace in the St Nicholas' Church. It was from here that the Monday demonstrations began in September 1989. After the prayers for peace, more than 70,000 people gathered in Leipzig's city center on October 9 - also known as the Day of Decision - to demonstrate around the city center ring road, chanting the famous slogans ‘We are the people’ and ‘No violence’.
St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig became a symbol of the Peaceful Revolution of 1989. Starting with the Monday peace prayers, which still take place every Monday at 5 pm in St Nicholas Church, protest conquered public space in 1989. An exhibition in the south chapel tells the story.
The building, which housed the Leipzig District Administration for State Security for 40 years, is now home to the Memorial Museum in the ‘Round Corner’. During the Peaceful Revolution, the Monday demonstrations passed by the former Stasi building, which was peacefully occupied on 4 December 1989. In the former offices of the Stasi, visitors can learn about the function, working methods and history of the Ministry for State Security.
The modern Museum Forum of Contemporary History Leipzig commemorates opposition, resistance and moral courage in the GDR against the background of German division. The exhibition, documentation and information centre offers a forum for active participation in the study of contemporary German history from the end of the Second World War to the present day.
At 20 original locations in the city center, the open-air exhibition ‘Sites of the Peaceful Revolution’ with German-English texts allows visitors to experience the spirit of change in the years 1989-1990. Designed as a chronological tour, the exhibition illustrates how the oppositional actions of individuals gave rise to a mass movement that brought down the dictatorship in the GDR and paved the way for German unity. The steles offer a special kind of city tour for those who want to learn more about Leipzig's role as the city of the Peaceful Revolution.
For further information, please contact Victoria Larson, USA Press Representative, State Tourist Board of Saxony at Victoria@vklarsoncommunications.com
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