Leipzig

A tale of two monuments.

As a student of history, I had read about Leipzig's St. Nicholas Church (Nikolaikirche, in German), which played a major role in overthrowing the dreaded German Democratic Republic (GDR) regime through a peaceful revolution resulting in unification of West and East Germany. My visit to Leipzig now gave me an opportunity to see the famous Church, which has become a symbol of peace not only in Germany but across the world.

Standing in front of the 12th century monument, I tried to imagine how 70,000 people, including women and children, gathered here on October 9, 1989 to protest 40 years of communist rule, even when fear of action to suppress was looming large over them. I kept wondering what prompted them to take this risk and was the GDR regime so terrifying and inhuman.

My curiosity led me to "Runde Ecke" (round building), which houses a museum about Stasi, Ministry for State Security, a secret service agency of the then GDR. "Runde Ecke" used to be the district headquarters of the Stasi. A walk through the museum gave a chilling picture of how Stasi operated a sinister network of spying and infiltrating citizens' lives, stealing their basic freedom. The exhibits explain the everyday life of a Stasi officer, the way the secret police recruited school children, the counterfeiting and disguise workshops to spy on people, execution in Leipzig and many more ominous designs. Exhibits include tools to conduct surveillance on citizens such as forged rubber stamps, tiny cameras, sophisticated bugging equipment, disguises, including false noses, wigs, glasses, the false stomach made of padded fabric with a hole in the middle for a hidden camera, jars containing the preserved body scents of potential suspects, gathered by summoning them to Stasi headquarters, having them sit on a cloth for 10 or 15 minutes, then storing the cloth in sealed jars. If the suspects dropped out of sight, they could later be tracked by dogs.

I learnt that the Stasi had agents in the post office, opening and reading mail; they routinely broke into homes and planted bugs; they had a network of "safe houses" from which they monitored what went on in people's homes. They photographed citizens going about their business and punished expressions of discontent against the GDR regime.

I was a bit disappointed as all information about the exhibits was in German. I needed to buy an English booklet of the museum to understand them. The exhibits include large number of official correspondence. Some are even fake letters that Stasi used to write to people to create division and confusion among them. It would be of great help to tourists like me if a translated version of these documents was available. That would provide deeper understanding of this vital piece of history. Nevertheless, the museum sufficiently satisfied my curiosity.

This sojourn through the history was not only informative but a refreshing experience in itself. I couldn't help but notice the contradiction. Two important monuments in this historical city-St. Nicholas Church and Stasi Museum-while one symbolizes peace and solidarity, the other is a reminder of terror and divide.