November 1999
Greetings PMers,
I started this year´s series with a photograph of the St Thomas church where Bach ended his days. And so, as if to wrap things up for this particular millennium, I seem to be in another church. This time it´s the St. Nikolai church (in the centre of Leipzig) - of particular note ´cos this is where the GDR ´s socialist system finally fell apart (yep, it happened here folks...one of the reasons I decided to come here). By the time you read this, the 10th anniversary of the opening of the "Berlin Wall" will have passed (10th November). The people´s movement really started to pick up momentum when the Friday evening candlelight gatherings here began to draw larger and larger crowds. Everyone knew why they were here, including the authorities who sent undercover Stasi agents along to keep an eye on things. Their nervousness increased as word spread throughout East Germany and public protests rapidly escalated. Soon the crowds were spilling onto the surrounding streets. There was eventually no real possibility to control this, and as the people started marching in the last days at least 100,000 people were regularly crowding the city centre, facing helpless, hapless, and unwilling, armed soldiers and police (apparently refusing to follow orders to shoot). And so, the announcement was made in Berlin, actually in error (prematurely, by a subordinate), that the barrier to the west was now open. Some say that this event marks the beginning of the 21st century...it certainly was the most significant world event in the lives of most of us.
Best wishes for Christmas, and if the sky doesn´t fall in, I guess I´ll see you in the new millennium.
Dean