Wir Sind Ein Volk

This weekend my fair city of Leipzig celebrates the 21st Anniversary of the Montags Demonstration. In 1989 there was a massive protest in the square in front of Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church) where a group of 320,000 East Germans gathered to peacefully protest the Communist government and the separation of East and West Germany. These peaceful Monday night protests were held for many weeks, led by Nikolaikirche's Protestant preacher Christian Führer.The anti-Communist citizens of Leipzig took to the streets on October 9th with a chant of "We Are The People," protesting the oppressive government and demanding the reunification of Germany and the freedom of democracy. Other German cities (such as Berlin) immediately followed suit, and a month later the Wall had fallen. It wasn't until the next year (1990) that Germany was officially one single country.

Montags Demonstration, Leipzig, October 9, 1989

Nikolaikirche Denkmal (St. Nicholas Church Monument)

Though I credit having Annika (my sister-from-another-mister & German foreign exchange student) living with us when I was in high school as being the catalyst for my interest in German language and culture, I am probably discounting a major factor for my interest, which is the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Wall came down when I was in first grade and was probably the first political action I was ever keenly aware of. I can actually remember seeing newspaper and television images of this happening, and it must have had a profound effect on a six year old me to see hundreds of thousands of people claiming their freedom and peacefully reuniting their country. I can't ever know what it must have been like for those who were there on those nights; at the Nikolaikirche on Oct 9th or in Berlin on November 9th when the Wall came down; they must have experienced a sense of exhilaration so powerful that even imagining it gets me choked up. This year is the celebration of the 20th Anniversary of German Reunification. The German people seem to have an extremely tense relationship with their past- the second World War colors their view of themselves and their country to this day. To me, though, the fact that they earned their freedom through solidarity and peaceful protest is profoundly moving and inspiring and keeps me fascinated with this place and it's people. 

The Day the Wall Came Down, sculpture outside of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library