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  • 2023 Croatia/Germany
    1
    Day 16

    Leipzig

    October 4, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Today was our first day with Rainer, our nephew, and his wife Olivia. We drove 2 hours from their apt. and spent the day in Leipzig. Leipzig was part of the former East Germany. I learned a lot about what life in the former East Germany was like and also about the uprisings that caused the wall to fall and the reunification of Germany.
    The first pic is of the 4 of us in Leipzig. Pic 2, a painting on the side of a building expressed the frustration of the people. Some of the sayings: “we are the people” “freedom” “free elections” “freedom of the press” “ the wall has to go” “democracy”. (Unfortunately my pics are a little out of order..) Pic 7 is of Nikolai Kirche and pic 3 is the inside of the church. It all started at this church with prayers for freedom on Mondays at 5pm. That evolved into peaceful demonstrations in the streets of Leipzig that lead to the fall of East Germany. Stepping out of that church and walking along the streets suddenly took on new meaning today after I read the history of what had happened here.
    Pics 4,5 & 6 are some of the buildings in the city.
    Pic 8 is the university library and pic 9 is the “assembly hall and university church of St Paul” that is attached to the library.
    The East Germans demolished the church in 1968. The church was rebuilt after the reunification but is now used sometimes as a church and sometimes as a lecture hall.
    The last pic shows the contrast between the plain, functional architecture of the East German era and the historic building in background. We visited an exhibit titled East Germany: 1945 to the Reunification. Such an eye opening, thought provoking exhibit.

    Highlight of the day: learning the history of Nikolai Kirche, Leipzig and East Germany    Read more

  • TravelerDeutschland 1.0
    Day 1

    Kurzaufenthalt in Leipzig

    May 9 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Der Plan war mit dem Zug von Bern nach Dresden zu fahren mit Umsteigen in Frankfurt. In Frankfurt hatten wir 10min eingeplant zum Umsteigen. Der Zug hatte 9min Verspätung und gemäss der Durchsage wäre unsere Verbindung 'leider' pünktlich. Die 1min reichte und zum Umsteigen, jedoch hatte der Zug dann doch 7min Verspätung. Nach kurzer Fahrt wurde bekannt, dass aufgrund eines Böschungsbrandes der Zug nicht die eigentlichen Stationen anfahren kann. Er müsste Umwege fahren und mit ca. 55min Verspätung nach Dresden hätte. Was für uns grundsätzlich kein Problem war. Kurz vor Leipzig kam dann die Ankündigung, dass der Zug nicht weiter fahren würde und alle in Leipzig aussteigen müssten. Deshalb entschieden wir uns kurzerhand einen Spaziergang durch Leipzig zu machen. Nach 4h Aufenthalt in Leipzig wollten wir den Zug nach Dresden nehmen, welcher auch wieder 45min Verspätung aufwies. Kurz zusammengefasst, wir haben es noch nach Dresden geschafft und hatten dank der zuverlässigen Deutschen Bahn einen schönen Aufenthalt in Leipzig.Read more

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  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets
    Day 3

    Zeitgeschichtliches Forum Leipzig

    November 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 43 °F

    We visited the Forum for Contemporary History, which was mainly a museum about the formation of the DDR, resistance against the government, how the government sought to order society and the economy, and how it eventually lost control. Exhibits touch briefly on the NSDAP era, and the years after Reunification. Have to watch what I post, re images, but there were a lot of interesting things here.

    Included and of note: a field stone left by a small farmer whose land was collectivized, a box of consumer goods from the West, the hiking gear worn by one of the first three East German girls to escape over the border of Hungary in 1989, and a cartoon by the LA Times equating Reunification with the return of the NSDAP.

    Highly recommend.    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets
    Day 3

    Neues Rathaus Leipzig

    November 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 45 °F

    Formerly know as Pleissenburg Castle, the site of the 1519 Disputation between Martin Luther and Johannes Eck. At that time, Leipzig was still Catholic, and it wasn't for very long afterwards. The castle was mostly destroyed in the Thirty Years War, and was never of significant military value afterwards.

    In 1905, it was rebuilt as the New Townhall. If you remember, last night we went to the Goerdeler Monument here to listen to the chimes. Today, we visited again, hoping to go up to the tower for the views, but due to high winds and rain, it was closed. We walked around inside and took pictures instead. It also has a famous restaurant in the basement, the Ratskeller.

    There was some sort of police party going on, up in the open area on the second level, but someone (husband) told me we couldn't crash it. Sigh.

    That said, it's a nice looking building, but we didn't stay long. Note the police bus-- one career, a thousand possibilities!    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets
    11
    Day 3

    Sudfriedhof

    November 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 45 °F

    Yay! A great big cemetery. If you followed our trip to Bavaria, you'd know we like to visit cemeteries. This is Leipzig's biggest, and honestly we wandered into by accident because we saw the tower of the central building. I said, "That looks like a monastery, let's go look." It wasn't. It was the main building of the South Cemetery, which contains various halls, funeral rooms, and a crematorium. It didn't look like you could visit, but we didn't walk too far inside. We're not ready to get in trouble yet...

    So we wandered around the cemetery, took some pictures. We found the 1948 monument to the victims of fascism, and it brings up a lot of interesting points on how the NSDAP period was addressed in post war DDR. It reminded me of what the historian Claudia Koonz told me way back in the early 1990s, about how the DDR viewed the period so much differently than the West. I'm trying to avoid such touchy political commentary, so look at the pretty pictures.

    The inscription on the monument front and back says: "Led to death, but behold, we are living," and "the victims of fascism admonish us". I had help with that, thank you DeepL translate. Google translate-- be better.

    So look at the pictures, while I remind myself to be quiet. Oh, don't miss the picture of the squirrel!    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets
    Day 3

    Monument to the Battle of the Nations

    November 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 45 °F

    Finally caught up to today. Apologies for falling behind.

    Started off our day having breakfast in a nearby bakery served by a very non-terminator type breakfast robot. I think his picture is on the facebook page (his? her?). Then we took the tram out to the Monument to the Battle of the Nations, which marks the final defeat of Napoleon in October 1813. The battle took place outside Leipzig, and approximately 90,000 were killed.

    It's huge, very solid, with an immense amount of detail in the stonework. The weather wasn't so cooperative, but it could be worse. If you're interested in Napoleon, the last war against him, there's a museum about it, but we gave it a miss. My historical interests are mainly pre 1700s in Europe, and World War II so...    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets
    Day 3

    Goerdelerdenkmal

    November 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 45 °F

    Another place we went to last night, it was high on the itinerary. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, the mayor of Leipzig in the early 1930s, and an active force in several attempts to remove or assassinate Hitler. He was a conservative, Lutheran, a firm nationalist, but mostly opposed the Nazi. Like others in the early 1930s, while he didn't support Hitler's rise to power, he thought he would be controllable with the right pressure. As a result, he was constantly sending memoranda, advice, et cetera to Hitler and Goring, in his roll of Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan, especially on economics.

    As mayor, he actively opposed the boycott of Jewish owned businesses, even dressing in his full regalia and interfering with SA attempts to close and disrupt shops in 1933. His opposition continued, though he was softer on some issues such as Aryanization of professions, and believed in a fair number of common Antisemitic tropes.

    He resigned as mayor in 1937. On the surface, his resignation came over the removal of a statue of Leipzig-born composer Felix Mendelssohn, but his disputes with the Nazis went far deeper, centered around their Antisemitism and insistence on rearmament and movement towards a command economy.

    Goerdeler worked abroad and in Germany from 1937 to gain support for a putsch against Hitler. He was working for a military state, or a return to monarchy, and told his foreign contacts that this could be done, if the governments of the USA, UK, and France would return what had been taken from Germany in Poland and Czechoslovakia. (This is a gross simplification, but we're time limited here, and this isn't history class...)

    He was involved in several major plots to eliminate Hitler, either through arrest or assassination, including the one most Americans known about, on July 20, 1944. He was, with many others, caught in that one. He didn't hold up well in prison, gave information in the "hope that it would overwhelm the authorities", though it just ended up with more people being arrested. Eight members of his family were arrest on Sippenhaft (blood guilt-- the crime of being related to an enemy of the regime). He was executed by hanging in Plötzensee Prison in Berlin February 2, 1945.

    The Goerderler Monument is a well surrounding by passages from his writing, at the corner of the Neues Rathaus, the new city hall. Four times a day, chimes emanate from within, and we went out to hear it last night at 5:55. A very bad video follows, and pictures we took of the sight today.    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets
    Day 2

    Nikolaikirche

    November 27, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 48 °F

    We arrived in Leipzig, checked into the hotel, and went out to the Christmas Market to eat. More on that later though. We had three objectives for today: Nikolaikirche, Thomaskirche, and Goerderler Monument.

    We started with the Nikolaikirche, mainly because we had passed it already and knew where it was.

    Saint Nicholas Church, a Catholic turned Lutheran church, was originally built in 1165 as a Romanesque church. In the 1500s, it was renovated into the Gothic Hall Style it has to this day. Baroque elements were added in the 1700s, notably the tower and portal. Today, it's a shared church, in use by both Protestants and Catholics.

    One of Leipizg's many important places tied to music, JS Bach was the musical director at Nikolaikirche after his appointment to the Thomaskantor post over at St Thomas. Several of his works debuted here including Saint John Passion (BWV 245 if you're interested in listening to it) and the Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248). Yeah, I like Bach. He's one of my favorite composer, sorry.

    The church was a flash point for the Peaceful Revolution and the eventual downfall of the Communist government in East Germany. Pastor Christian Führer began holding peace prayers every Monday in the church. The prayer meetings grew in popularity, attracting members of the more vocal and open opposition to the government. In the opening months of 1989, the government, through the Stasi, attempted to end the prayer meetings: blocking streets, and arresting random attendees outside as well as inside the church.

    This only emboldened the opposition, and more people came each week. On October 7, 1989, the fortieth anniversary of the East German state, protests occurred around the city. Hundreds were beaten and arrested. Erich Honecker, the General Secretary of the Socialist Party (the one who ran the country), threatened to close the church, and announced that the counter-revolution would be ended on Monday, October 9.

    Expecting bloodshed and knowing they were risking their lives, thousands crowded into the Nikolaikirchen and other central churches that Monday. It was estimated 70,000 people massed in the center of the city. The army and police had been mobilized, expecting violence, when instead, the people just stood with candles and prayed. Low level members of the Socialist Party on the scene urged a withdraw of the tanks and troops.

    The rest, as they say, was history. The Berlin Wall fell a month later.    Read more

  • TravelerMathi’s Reisen ab Juli 2024
    1
    Day 60

    Egolzwil-Leipzig 1 13.09.2024

    September 13, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    13.09.2024

    Heute Morgen früh mit dem Trottinette auf den Zug in Wauwil gegangen. Pia ist in Nebikon zugestiegen. In Olten mussten wir auf den Anschlusszug nach Basel warten. In Basel sind wir auf den direkten ICE nach Berlin eingestiegen. Die Abfahrt in Basel SBB verzögerte sich bereits um 20 Minuten, weil das nötige Personal fehlte. Zweieinhalb Stunden nach Abfahrt war es endlich möglich, etwas zum Trinken zu bestellen. Die DB machte auf der ganzen Reise ihren schlechten Ruf Ehre. Es glaubt kein Mensch, aber wir sind mit 28 Minuten Verspätung in Leipzig angekommen, nachdem er kurz vor Leipzig mal eine kleine Strecke mit 250 km Stunde gefahren ist. Ron hat uns am Bahnhof abgeholtRead more

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  • Convention 2024 Liepzig
    Day 7

    Convention Dinner

    August 17, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Formal Dinner - I had the honour of carrying the Australian flag as part of the opening ceremony. Followed by presentations to some amazing people that are doing extraordinary things for their communities. Humbled ❤️

    Pipes and drum band was included throughout the evening.
    Roger presented the 2026 convention information to the room. This went down extremely well.

    Germany 18 then did a knighthood ceremony to the board. Our Region 8 director Ken Mohan was blown away, as was everyone in the room.
    .    Read more

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