World Germany Sachsen Leipzig

Jeni's World Trip 2005 - 2006

Leipzig, Germany Jul 25, 2005

My next stop was Leipzig, Germany. Why Leipzig? Well, I had hoped to catch up with a German friend I met in Brisbane, but it turned out she would not be in Leipzig during the time I was planning to be there so I decided to explore Leipzig, Berlin and Dresden instead before heading on to Prague to meet another friend.

My cousin, Alison, and her husband, Simon, very kindly dropped me at Stansted Airport at 4am (remind me never to book such early flights again even if they are cheap!). I arrived at Leipzig Airport at 8:30am Sunday morning. The Air Berlin plane had not been full and it had been strange to hear all announcements ín German. I needed to catch a train from the airport into Leipzig and couldn't see anyone at the train ticket service centre so decided to have a coffee - my first opportunity to try my limited German. 'Ains kafee bitte' (one coffee please). (It was very exciting to be understood!)

I finally bought my train ticket and, along with about five other people, (the airport train was not crowded!), made my way to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), then walked a short distance to the hostel I had booked into. I dumped all my bags and walked back in to Leipzig to explore.

Leipzig is a very pretty place with a lot of majestic buildings, cobbled streets (there they are yet again!), cafes, and a lot of building going on (for example, an underground subway stop is currently being built under the old market place in the centre of town). Leipzig is also world-renowned (by at least one visitor) for its gigantic doner kebabs. At only 1.80 Euro, they were also delicious! Leipzig is also quite compact, so I was able to see quite a bit during the two days I was there. I went to a few museums, including:

Zeitgeschichtliches Forum (Leipzig Forum of Contemporary History)

This permanent exhibition was very interesting, though (unfortunately) most of the information was in German so it was hard to get the most out of it. In essence, it chronicles German political, economic and cultural history during the time of its division and since its unification. Interestingly, Leipzig was the location for peaceful demonstrations in 1989 which were actually the catalyst for the Berlin Wall to come down!

Bach Museum

The Bach Museum is located opposite St. Thomas School, where Bach lived and taught from 1723 - 1750, and St. Thomas Church, which (along with St. Nicholas Church) was the focus of much of Bach's musical activities. The museum was fascinating and focused on Bach's life and work with displays of valuable manuscripts, historical instruments, and furniture from the 18th century. In front of St. Thomas Church, one of two monuments to Bach in Leipzig was placed in 1908.

Stasi Museum

This was another interesting museum which documents activities of the Stasi or secret police. Located in the former Stasi Headquarters, on display is camera surveillance equipment and listening bugs, various disguises, and information about the oppression civilians were subjected to (eg the regular invasion of postal and domestic privacy) and the collection of individual information which was recorded in thousands of files. Even 'scent specimens' of individuals were collected!

In 1989, when Leipzig citizens occupied the building, there were still 2401 full-time agents registered with the Leipzig Regional Authority for State Security (though this number had been as high as 90,000 with 178,000 unofficial collaborators involved). They also found 10 kms of files and 1500 bags of pre-destryed documents which Stasi agents had torn up. A pulp machine is on display along with some of the pulped documents. The remaining files are now being evaluated in the upper floors of the building.

Zum Arabischen Coffe Baum (Tree) Museum and Cafe

Europe's oldest preserved restaurant-café - continually opened since the middle of the 15th century! The coffee was very good too - no wonder they have been in business so long!

City-Hochhaus (City High-Rise)

I also got a good view over Leipzig from the 110 metre high City-Hochhaus (City High-Rise).

As well as museums, there are beautiful churches, including:

St Thomas Church

This church dates from before 1355 and Johann Sebastian Bach is buried within its walls. Other famous people have had an impact there too - in 1789, Mozart played the organ there (although that organ no longer exists and has been replaced) and in 1806, the church was used to store munitions by Napoleon's troops!

St Nikolai Church

This church was the location for the start of the peaceful revolution in 1989.

I missed the train I had booked to Berlin because I had not altered my alarm clock from English time. With my printed ticket in hand I went to the ticket office and asked "sprechen Sie Englisch". A shake of the head was the response I received, so I showed the ticket and tried to explain that I had missed that train and when was the next one. Luckily there was another one in a couple of hours so I had time to explore the shops at the Hauptbahnhof before resuming my journey the same day.