Leipzig, Germany - Sabine Gugutschkow is a tour guide in her home city of Leipzig in eastern Germany. In many cases, it is schoolchildren whom she takes to the original locations where Leipzig's Peaceful Revolution took place in 1989 - the demonstrations that helped bring about the demise of Communist East Germany. "These kids only know East Germany from history books." But many adults also have limited knowledge of the former Communist state. "They are usually very surprised, stunned, get emotional and say 'We didn't know that'."
That surprise is all the more unusual when you remember it is just 20 years since the Peaceful Revolution reached its highpoint in Leipzig on October 9, 1989. In that month over 70,000 people demonstrated in Leipzig with slogans such as "We are the people" and "No violence."
Gugutschkow's tour begins at St Nicholas' Church, which was the location for the start of the Monday Demonstrations, a series of peaceful protests against the East German authorities. The church has become a symbol of the process of change from authoritarian rule to representative democracy.
The church is a late Gothic design with its interior dominated by columns decorated with palm leaves. A reproduction of one of those columns stands outside in the church grounds.
"It is meant to symbolize awakening outside the church," explains Gugutschkow.
A light installation with 144 illuminated cobblestones can also be found in the church grounds. The cobblestones are switched on randomly one stone per minute and symbolise a slow awakening through peaceful gatherings.
The regular Monday prayer session began in St Nicholas' in September 1982. "The church was the only free space, spiritually and physically, in East Germany. It was the only institution that was independent of the state," says the former pastor of St Nicholas', Christian Fuehrer.
At that time - and just at it remains today - St Nicholas' was "open to everyone." It unified a diverse slice of the population. "People who wanted to leave East Germany, the curious, regime dissidents, Stasi members, church workers and Communist party members, Christians and non-Christians. In 1989 St. Nicholas' was the best guarded place in East Germany."
A visit to the museum in the "Runde Ecke" (round corner) building where the district headquarters of the Stasi secret police was located gives visitors a vivid sense of how big the mechanism of suppression had grown in East Germany.
The building takes its name from its shape and was once the most feared place in Leipzig. Its occupation by Monday demonstrators on December 4, 1989 is regarded as a highpoint of the Peaceful Revolution.
One of the people who occupied the building was Tobias Hollitzer. "It was an unforgettable moment as people started to call from the building's balcony 'We are not the Stasi. We are the New Forum'."
Hollitzer was 23 years old at the time and a member of the New Forum, a political movement formed in the months leading up to the end of the East German regime. He was an initiator of the plan to turn the building into a museum that would remind people of the injustices committed in East Germany.
The museum informs visitors about the structure, history and working methods of the Stasi. There are over 30,000 items in its collection, including cameras, eavesdropping devices and equipment for opening letters.
The museum, which also includes the former East German official execution place, is showing a special exhibition on the 20th anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution.
