Dear Members and Friends of Houston-Leipzig,
This is the last call for the Leipzig trip in October 2014.
It is time to make final decisions about the October trip to Leipzig to participate in the celebrations of the 25 Years of the Peaceful Revolution. Opposition groups in Leipzig had begun organizing Peace Prayers since 1982. In 1989 an uprising emerged in Leipzig out of these prayer meetings and subsequent Monday demonstrations and provided the spark for the so-called Autumn Revolution. 70,000 peaceful protesters, armed only with a candle and their conviction, faced a wall of highly-trained secret police ready to do combat. It is a miracle that no major bloodshed occurred. Non-violence as a means of political confrontation connects all participants of the Peace Prayers to this day.
Most of us are planning to be in Leipzig at least one, if not more, days ahead of October 9, and we will have activities leading up that day. Here is the official program from the City of Leipzig.
Thursday, October 9, 2014, is the anniversary of the confrontation of the peaceful protesters and the secret police 25 years ago.
The program on Thursday is firm and begins at 11:00 a.m. with an official Ceremonial Act at the Gewandhaus. Through the efforts of Dr. Gabriele Goldfuss, head of the Mayor’s Department, Office for International Affairs, we are privileged to have been invited to attend the festivities. We must arrive early because of strict security measures. For this event we have to provide the names (and probably additional information) of the participants to the Mayor’s Department, Office for International Affairs, in Leipzig. After the official program there will be a buffet at the Gewandhaus.
When you send us your information, please include telephone numbers and emails where you can be reached, both in the US and Germany, as well as the name and telephone number of the hotel where you will be staying. It would be helpful to have arrival and departure dates, so that we can plan the proper activities. Details as to when and where we meet on October 9 will be provided to you latest the Wednesday before in Leipzig when the participants will meet. We will keep you informed as the itinerary fleshes out.
At 5:00 p.m. at the St. Nicholas Church, the Honorable James A. Baker III, former Secretary of State, will give a brief speech during a commemoration of the Peace Prayers and Monday demonstrations that culminated in the peaceful revolution and led to the fall of the Wall in Berlin exactly one month later on November 9, 1989.
At 7:00 p.m. the Festival of Lights begins at the Augustus Platz. The festival stretches over the entire inner ring of the city center along the historical demonstration route of 1989. International artists create changing points of view through light, sound, and video, and produce contemporary references with music.
On Wednesday, October 8, 2014, at 6:00 p.m. we will meet at Auerbachs Keller, Leipzig’s famous restaurant formerly frequented by Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe, who forever memorialized that place in his Faust.
Friday, October 10 through Wednesday, October 15, 2014, there will be more events organized by the city or by our sister association, the Staedtepartnerschaft Leipzig-Houston e.V. Even though planning goes ahead full speed, many visitors from Germany and abroad have to be accommodated. We have an informal list for our itinerary, and I will have more definite information after our return from the Bachfest in Leipzig in June:
• Meeting with the Mayor of Leipzig, the Honorable Burkhard Jung
• City tour by bus with experienced guides
• Private tour of the Zeitgenoessische Museum (Museum of Contemporary History)
• Private tour of the Gewandhaus by Intendant (CEO) Professor Andreas Schwarz and maybe a handshake with Maestro Riccardo Chailly
• Private tour at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (similar to the Library of Congress)
• Private tour at the Bundesverwaltungsgericht. (Federal Administrative Court of Germany, a federal supreme court. It is the court of the last resort for generally all cases of administrative law, mainly disputes between citizens and the state.) This tour promises to be of great interest
• Visit of the Monument of the Battle of the Nations (last year was the 200th anniversary of the battle and the 100th anniversary of the completion of the monument)
• Meeting with the U.S. Consul General in Leipzig, if he will have been appointed by then, or with Teta Maria Moehs, Acting Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate General in the states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia
• Visit of the zoo with the world renowned Primate Research Center and Gondwanaland
• Visit of The Leipzig School of Human Origins, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Professor Dr. Swante Pääbo or deputy
• Visit of the Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig’s famous artists’ colony, and the current exhibit “From Cotton to Culture”
• Motets in the St. Thomas Church, Friday 6:00pm, Saturday 3:00pm. with the Thomanerchor
• And last, but not least, many happy moments and meetings with our many Leipzig friends and sister city association members
Certainly we will meet over a glass of wine or beer, to eat and to talk about our experiences and to jointly decide about our activities; you will also have private time. Because many of the experts we want to meet are often out-of-town, the actual program has to be more closely defined as time goes by. KhetKhet Burger and her team are doing a great job for us. Be assured, there will be no boring time in Leipzig. Thank you to our Leipzig friends.
Thursday, October 16 and Friday October 17, 2014, will be for your own planning. Suggestions are going to Berlin by bullet train, visiting Dresden, or enjoying more time in Leipzig.
Saturday, October 18, 2014, is the Leipzig Opera Ball honoring Leipzig’s sister city Houston. Fabulous Houston photographer Jim Olive will provide images that will adorn the opera house, and our own Houston Grand Opera will send two studio artists to perform at the ball. Leipzig will reciprocate at the opera ball in Houston next spring. Those who are interested in attending the Leipzig Opera Ball, please contact Angelika right away at angelika@houstonleipzig.org.
Hints for your preparation to travel to Leipzig.
So far we have 25 persons who have indicated an interest in participating in Leipzig. We will write to you individually to make sure that you are on the list. If you receive no such email by Monday, please contact Angelika immediately.
Our partner association board member KhetKeht Burger has secured a block of 10 double rooms in each of the Hotel Arcona 14 Living Bach and in the Marriott Hotel from October 7 through October 18, 2014. If you want to make use of any of these blocks, please contact Angelika for the reservation code. You can book rooms for any duration that fits your travel plan.
We are also receiving great support from Dr. Goldfuss of the Mayor’s Department, Office for International Affairs. Her office also may have access to more reasonable accommodations, if you so desire. If you would like to follow up on that option, please contact me right away by e-mail. We have to check this on a case-by-case basis.
You can reach Leipzig by air or by rail and, of course by car over the Autobahn. From some starting locations, like Berlin, you can use the bullet train system.
I hope I covered all essential points. If you have questions, please contact Angelika or me by e-mail. Angelika will also provide links to some of the interesting spots in Leipzig. I am certain we will have an exciting, interesting, educational, emotional and memorable time in Leipzig.
Sincerely,
Wolfgang Schmidt
2014 President
wolfie@hal-pc.org
281-630-0714