Leipzig & Zwickau, Germany
Do all the dormers on the roofs of buildings in Saxony look like eyes to you? That’s exactly what they look like to me. I guess the feeling that you’re being watched is fitting considering I visited a Stasi museum in Leipzig today.
The Stasi, short for “State Security Service” in German, was the internal secret police of East Germany. Similar to the KGB in Russia, the Stasi operated with ruthless effectiveness. I remembered watching an excellent movie, The Lives of Others, from 2006 about the Stasi and East Germany.
Virtually every facet of an East German’s life was monitored by the feared and hated Stasi. When the regime dissolved in 1989, agents tried to destroy their extensive files on the population but protesting mobs overran Stasi headquarters in each city. Today, people can go and view their personal files.
The museum displayed special steam machines which opened mail, tapping devices for monitoring phones, special cameras inserted in tiny holes drilled in walls and even disguises Stasi agents wore while observing their targets.
Virtually the entire population was either informing the Stasi or being monitored. The Stasi utilized psychological harassment on perceived enemies including breaking into homes and subtly manipulating contents: moving furniture, altering an alarm, removing pictures from walls or replacing one variety of tea with another. This led to breakdowns and suicides.
Truly a dark 45 years these people spent under East German rule. Ironically, as I walked outside the former headquarters there was Coca-Cola ad. What a striking contrast with a quintessentially upbeat American brand today now fronting such a feared building.
American culture is everywhere in Germany. Movies, music and icons from the USA permeate their everyday lives. Of course, this can be good and bad. Not everyone wants to be Americanized. Overall however I feel the Germans like Americans as individuals. Just don’t ask them about our government.
Leipzig is the largest city in Saxony, just edging Dresden, and is considered a smaller version of hip Berlin. Unemployment has plunged and the “brain drain” of young workers moving to western Germany has stopped. This area is now known as “Silicon Saxony” due to the high number of tech companies.
For many years after reunification, the former areas of East Germany suffered as state-controlled industries collapsed, young people moved away and unemployment skyrocketed. People were disillusioned with the future.
Some of that feeling still lingers with the older population. Saxony voted at a higher percentage for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party than any other area of the country. Much of the AFD’s platform is hyper-nationalist, anti-EU and anti-immigrant. These echos of Germany’s not-too-distant past have evidently stirred strong feelings here.
Obviously, I don’t bring it up in conversation. Leipzig was damaged during World War II but didn’t suffer the complete incendiary bombing like Dresden. I was intrigued by the Art Nouveau design of the Zeppelin Haus while walking through the inner city.
Later in the afternoon, I boarded Deutsche Bahn again and headed south to the town of Zwickau. It’s been a center for automobile manufacturing in Germany since the early 1900s. The Trabant was built here during the East German years. Since reunification, Volkswagen now runs the manufacturing plant which has helped to bolster the local economy.
All of the old German churches are interesting to study from the outside. One in Zwickau had a series of impressive stone motifs above each entrance.
While walking, I passed a monument embedded in the ground marking the site of the Zwickau synagoge prior to it being burned on Kristallnacht.
Overall, an interesting day again filled with reflections on past (and current) history. This marks my last evening in Dresden. Tomorrow I board a bus for the Czech Republic. Gute Nacht and Auf Wiedersehen!
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