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Leipzig’s peaceful revolution – 20 years on
The protest took place a month before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
di Staff
The 9 October 2009 marked the 20th Anniversary of the Leipzig peaceful revolution.
Chanting “we are the people”, more than 70,000 East Germans marched through the city in the country’s biggest anti-Communist protest.
The move was largely sparked by a weekly prayer for peace at the Nikolai church in the city centre.
The parish’s priest was Christoph Wonneberger.
He said: “October 9th was a day one can describe as a marriage. To send out such a good message was amazing,”
Security forces had threatened to crack down on the protest but they held back – unsure of how to respond to the largest demonstration that anyone had ever seen in East Germany.
Former protest organiser Frank Richter said: “The aim of the slogan ‘we are the people’ was to include the forces in front of us and to tell them don’t beat us, don’t beat defenceless and peaceful people.”
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