(Kopie 1)
There was great anticipation and also a little excitement among the residents and staff of the Leipzig Plagwitz nursing home on Nonnenstraße when it became known that the Leipzig Festival of Lights would be paying a visit. On the evening of 7 September 2020, the time had come, and the mild late-summer evening was perfect for an outdoor event.
From the balconies and terraces, the residents followed the events, with more than 1,000 candles bathing the riverside façade of the building in an atmospheric light. The Volkschor Klinga e. V. provided the musical opening of the evening.
In the outdoor area of the home, directly on the Weiße Elster, Rolf Sprink – a contemporary witness of the Peaceful Revolution – gave a speech. Sprink offered a personal and moving perspective on the eventful time of autumn ’89, while also drawing thoughtful parallels to the present. He remembers the exciting but also tense and by no means fearless time very clearly: “It could snap shut at any moment.”
Arriving by boat, the renowned Leipzig vocal quintet Ensemble Nobiles gave the event a very special musical touch: using the water as their stage, Paul Heller, Christian Pohlers, Benjamin Mahns-Mardy, Lukas Lomtscher and Lucas Heller performed works by Bach, Reger and Mendelssohn Bartholdy, among others, delighting the audience. They gladly accepted the invitation to join in Silcher’s “Ännchen von Tharau”. After around half an hour, the first of four events on the way to this year’s Leipzig Festival of Lights came to an end.