Photos

Under the motto “Autumn ’89 – Awakening to Democracy”, Leipzig residents and their guests marked the Leipzig Festival of Lights on the 9ᵗʰ of October 2019 – for many, the emotional highlight of the celebrations commemorating the decisive Monday demonstration 30 years earlier. Despite the tragic events in Halle and the rainy weather, around 75,000 visitors had accepted the invitation to set off on foot around Leipzig’s city centre ring road after the opening of the Festival of Lights on Augustusplatz, experiencing numerous light installations along the historic demonstration route. Light, image and video material overlaid façades and spaces along the roughly 3.6 km route, with sound collages complementing the visual approach. 

The event was opened by Lord Mayor Burkhard Jung, who welcomed as further speakers the former civil rights activist Kathrin Mahler Walther, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Saxony’s Minister-President Michael Kretschmer and the Mayor of Gdańsk, Aleksandra Dulkiewicz.

On 9 September 2019, the second of six Light Spaces opened at St Nicolas Church Yard. Due to the persistent rain, the event was moved to St Nicolas Church. There, eleven trombone choirs from Leipzig and the surrounding area, under the musical direction of David Timm (University Director of Music) and Jörg-Michael Schlegel, created impressive sounds.

On 23 September 2019, the fourth of six Light Spaces on the way to the Leipzig Festival of Lights 2019 opened in the park and courtyard of the former Stasi headquarters. To mark the opening of the Light Space, a Freedom Slam, a poetry slam on freedom of expression, was held. Bonny Lycen, Skog Ogvann, Malte Rosskopf and Franziska Wilhelm competed against one another in a poetry battle under the motto “Power. Words!” Students from Leipzig International School also explored the phenomenon of “peaceful revolutions”. Together, following the example of the Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig in 1989, they marched from the “Runde Ecke” along Dittrichring towards the courtyard of the former Stasi headquarters.

On 7 October 2019, the sixth and therefore final Light Space on the way to the Leipzig Festival of Lights 2019 opened in Schillerpark (Lenné-Anlage) under the motto “For an open country with free people”. The performances “Freedom Shimmers” and “Game Trail in the Park” were presented. Poetry slammers Rainer Holl and Josephine von Blueten Staub entered into dialogue and resistance with 30 years of the past and our present. There was also a musical contribution by singer-songwriter Stephan Krawczyk. Karoline Günst, Alexander Fabisch, Victoria Schätzle and Gabriel Jagieniak then presented the text-and-music performance “Game Trail in the Park”.