Submitted by Hannah Paxton on the 2016 winter session program in Leipzig, Germany sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures…
During my first walking tour of Leipzig Germany, and even driving in from the very small airport, I was a little confused. The architecture wasn’t the soaring Gothic or Romantic beauty I was used to from Italy or France; there was no feeling of ancient history alive in modern times. Mostly, what I saw was square. Square facades, square windows, square roofs… Then, I remembered: Leipzig was one of the central cities of the German Democratic Republic, the GDR, and what I was seeing is the aftermath of living behind the Iron Curtain.
My tour guide, a resident of Leipzig and teacher at the InterDAF where I am learning German, discussed with us how the after-effects of communism are still being felt since the Peaceful 1989 Revolution. Soviet-era buildings lay empty, and yet with no bureaucracy to claim them, artists have moved in. This brings an exciting new flavor to the city that Stalin could never have guessed when he built the square post office that now lies empty near Augustusplatz in Leipzig’s center city. With these new artists, new young Germans and new enterprise, the East German city is coming to life, even earning a new nickname: Hypezig.
While a new era of growth and freedom has been ushered into East Germany since the fall of the Soviet Union, small vestiges of former German nationalism are creeping back into the social culture with the creation of the PEGIDA movement. PEGIDA, an incredibly long German acronym which essentially means Patriotic Europeans against the Islamification of Europe, started in nearby Dresden, Germany, but gained a fairly devoted following about a year ago, with protests reaching 10,000 people at their peak; including large demonstrations in Leipzig. This group marches in response to the refugees Chancellor Angela Merkel has allowed into the nation, a mostly popular decision, but a still criticized one by certain circles.
So from Soviet era harsh rule, to opening and Westernization, now Leipzig stands at a crossroads. Will they continue to reject the re-emergence of nationalism in Germany and counter-protest the PEGIDA movement, or will they start down a nationalistic path again? With increasing violence in Europe and the rest of the world, that question is far from answered. The entire world will be watching Germany, and Leipzig, from now on.