9th October in Leipzig since 1990

Already in the first years after the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, Leipzig’s citizens commemorated the events of 9th October in many ways: with the traditional peace prayer in St. Nicholas’s Church, with rallies on Augustusplatz square, music in the streets, public discussion meetings, concerts and an “open city hall”.

Over the past ten years, the ways to commemorate the Peaceful Revolution of 1989 have clearly changed.

List of Events

From 1997 to 2008 the list of 9th October events that are directly connected with this day of remembrance has considerably grown - quantitatively and qualitatively. Whereas the invitation brochure of 1997 had featured eight events in total, the number of events doubled until the year 2008.

Over the past ten years, important events of commemorating 9th October have become an inherent part of the event calendar and inextricably linked with this date for the people in Leipzig:

• the Speech on Democracy (since 2001, in St. Nicholas’s Church)
  
• the Democracy Forum (since 2001, in the Gewandhaus)
  
• a symposium on urgent questions of the time (since 2000, in the Forum of Contemporary History)
  
• the awarding of the “Prize for the Freedom and the Future of the Media” (since 2007, awarded by Medienstiftung der Sparkasse Leipzig)
  
• the light installation “Night of the Candles” (since 2007, on Nikolaikirchhof square)
  
• the Film Night (since 2002, in the Museum in the “Round Corner”)
  

Part of the broad spectre of commemorative events are also many events that do not take part annually: concerts, discussion forums and exhibitions in different places, the inauguration of memorials (1999 – memorial plaque at the Round Corner and column on Nikolaikirchhof square, 2003 – light installation on Nikolaikirchhof), the awarding of the Medal of Honour of the City of Leipzig, the conference of Leipzig’s twin cities and last but not least also the opening of the Leipzig Forum of Contemporary History (1999).

Focussing and Institutionalising

With regard to contents, the commemorative activities are above all focussing on 9th October as the Day of the Peaceful Revolution in Leipzig. This becomes visible in the presentation of the commemoration events: The traditional motto “Aufbruch zur Demokratie” (Set off for Democracy) is now always used in connection with the overall headline “Day of the Peaceful Revolution – Leipzig 9th October”.

Since 2003, today’s initiative group “Day of the Peaceful Revolution – Leipzig 9th October 1989” has been responsible for planning, organising and coordinating the commemoration events. The initiative group involves all participating organisers, with the City of Leipzig being represented by the Department of Culture, the Department of
Basic Political Issues, the Media and Communications Department as well as the Gewandhaus, the Volkshochschule education centre and the City History Museum. Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH’s dedicated involvement today significantly contributes to making the message of 9th October also clearly visible in city marketing.