Leipzig im Herbst

The 1989 Monday demonstrations in Leipzig and other cities in East Germany had a completely different dimension than the nuclear protests in West Germany. Even before the big celebration of the state’s 40th anniversary, there had been protests from the population. They protested both against the manipulation of the local elections in May 1989 and demanded freedom of travel and assembly. On 4 September 1989, the first “Monday demonstration” took place in Leipzig. The initial number of 1,200 participants grew to around 200,000 by November.

The documentary LEIPZIG IM HERBST by Andreas Voigt and Gerd Kroske was shot between 16 October 1989 and 7 November 1989. It shows the mass demonstrations and interviews the participants. Their great dissatisfaction with the situation in East Germany becomes clear. They demand change. Their statements are contrasted with interviews with police officers and state officials. There have been a few films about this phase of social upheaval and the subsequent dissolution of East Germany as a state. But this film is shot in the old DEFA studio tradition in black and white on professional 35-mm film. Numerous spotlights had to be set up for this in the evening. Nevertheless, the people give very honest answers and are not intimidated by the filming. The images by cameraman Sebastian Richter document this historical situation shortly before the opening of the wall and German reunification and make the film an important contemporary document.

At the same time, the film demonstrates clearly that the security forces would have been ready for a bloody crackdown on the protests, even if some of them sympathised with the protesters’ demands. But orders for a crackdown did not materialise. “It was an incredibly exciting time for documentaries because our lives and the country had changed almost overnight,” said Andreas Voigt in 2015 at DOK Leipzig, where LEIPZIG IM HERBST opened the festival at the end of November 1989. In “Letztes Jahr Titanic” (1991) Andreas Voigt and his cameraman Sebastian Richter documented the following year in Leipzig. “Glaube, Liebe, Hoffnung” (1994) accompanied young people from Leipzig in the right and left-wing milieus. The two filmmakers revisited some of the protagonists in 2015 for the film project “Alles andere zeigt die Zeit.” This created a true Leipzig chronicle.

Image © DEFA_Stiftung_P. Martins