Peace service at the Nikolaikirche
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Several of us went to the peace service at the Nikolaikirche on Monday afternoon after our tour of the city. The weekly peace service was started by a brave pastor during the last year of the GDR; at first only 10 people attended but every week it grew and grew, so much so that the Stasi [the Secret police] built a new building next to the church in order to take pictures of the people going to the service. The pastor also opened the altar to everyone. The Church has marvelous late 18th century decorations of florid palms on every column, and in October 1989, when the attendees at the service came out of the Church, they found thousands and thousands of people there with candles lit asking for freedom. It is this moment that is commemorated with a huge column topped with palm fronts right next to the church, the moment, our Leipzig guide said, when the Communist regime began to fall.
Our service was in honor of Christopher Street, where the American gay rights movement began in 1969 at Stonewall; I'm sure that's because today, July 12th, is the Leipzig Pride parade. There were a number of gay couples at the service, one, quite young and very affectionate, right in front of us; they could barely keep their bodies apart and kissed, gently, quite often. There were also many local people, obviously traditional Germans. The service began with a Bach Fantasia on the marvelous Nikolaikirche organ; unfortunately, there was a pretty ghastly folk singer as well. The most touching moment was when people, one by one, including us, took a votive candle, lit it on the candelabra, and placed it on the altar steps or on the cross there.
I noticed yesterday at the Weimar Opera House that its columns also had newly attached palm fronds, I'm sure in honor of that moment in Leipzig.
Louise Forsyth /
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