A traveling exhibition will document the path to the planned national freedom and unity monument in Leipzig. From Sept. 6 to Oct. 9, a historic room extension hall on Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz will explain how the monument process came about and how it has developed so far.
"We want to raise awareness and curiosity with discussions and events," Gesine Oltmanns of the Peaceful Revolution Foundation said Thursday in Leipzig. Among other things, secret film footage of the Monday demonstrations can be seen. At the same time, the role and tasks of monuments are illuminated from artistic, civil society, political, art historical and urban planning perspectives.
From March 2024, the exhibition is to tour seven other cities in Germany to revive the culture of remembrance. Talks on this are to begin in the coming days.
From 2025, a Freedom and Unity Monument is to be erected on Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz to keep the memory of the Peaceful Revolution of 1989 alive. Leipzig was a starting point of the peaceful Monday demonstrations. On October 9, 1989, 70,000 people took to the streets in the trade fair city to stand up for their civil rights. The planned location of the monument is next to the former demo route, the inner city ring.
The open, artistic competition for the design of the monument will start in October 2024, said Leipzig's culture mayor Skadi Jennicke on Thursday. "The foundation stone for the monument is to be laid on the anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution in October 2025," the left-wing politician stressed.
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