Leipzig in the Fall

(Leipzig im Herbst)

GDR, 1989, 50 min, b&w

In German; English subtitles

Leipzig im Herbst © DEFA-Stiftung

Credits:

Director
Kroske, Gerd
Voigt, Andreas

Script
Kroske, Gerd
Voigt, Andreas

Editor
Bothe, Manuela
Schöning, Karin

Camera
Richter, Sebastian

Themes & Genres:

Synopsis

This stunningly comprehensive documentary captures the famous Monday Demonstrations of 1989, which began in Leipzig and spread to other East German cities in the months leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. Interviews with demonstrators, politicians and bystanders fill out this portrait of the citizens’ movement that precipitated the Wall’s collapse.

Co-director Andreas Voigt recalled filming the movement in Leipzig: “It was an incredibly flickering, exciting, anarchically-beautiful and hopeful time. This short moment of uprising, until the fall of the Wall. In those days, no one knew that this would come to pass.”

Commentary

The famous Monday Demonstrations can be traced back to the East German peace movement of the early 1980s. East German churches were somewhat autonomous from state, and thus became an important gathering place for peaceful political resistance. After the rigged national elections of May 1989, the independent groups who gathered in churches organized a demonstration in Leipzig. The movement would continue until the Berlin Wall came down.

The DEFA Studio for Documentary Films was reluctant to grant permission to film the demonstrations. In fall 1989, they gave in and allowed Gerd Kroske and Andreas Voigt to film the Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig. It had become clear, Kroske said, that “the mantle of history” could not be ignored.

Awards

2009	Retrospective Wende Flicks: The Last Films from East Germany
1990	Forum, Berlin International Film Festival
1989	Special Golden Dove, Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animation Films