The lives of others
Síle Mcardle looks at how Leipzig and Berlin have come to terms with the years of Stasi tyranny
The cracks in the Berlin Wall that led to its fall 25 years ago today were due in no small measure to the burgeoning Peaceful Revolution 130km south in the elegant city of Leipzig.
On Mondays throughout 1989, more and more people flocked there for a candlelit vigil along the central ring road – many joining the weekly prayers for world peace at vaulted 12th-century St Nicholas’s Church beforehand.
But what started out in this won- derful ornate church seven years earlier as a global call to end division was moving inexorably close to home.
It must have been bizarre to think the guy beside you on the bus might be a disguised East German secret policeman or an informant for the infamous Stasi, but look no further than Oscar-winning film The Lives of Others for a chilling flavour of how this sinister force operated.
Veteran Leipzig guide Gitta Perl always chose her words carefully in the former East German city.
‘You had to praise the GDR,’ she revealed, adding that Ministry for State Security officials often sat on her tour bus. ‘It was only if you got a chance to go for coffee that you could speak freely.’
On October 9, 1989 the numbers at the Peaceful Revolution vigil
hit 70,000, with 8,000 Stasi police standing by. To this day no-one knows why they didn’t strike.
Since 2009 Leipzig has marked that momentous turning point with a Festival of Lights – and I had the privilege of walking in this year’s re-enacted candlelit vigil with its sound-and-vision installations projected onto buildings en route.