Leipzig

The German reunification story did not begin in Berlin. It began in Leipzig, in the Nikolaikirche, with the Monday prayers for peace that grew into demonstrations of seventy thousand people in October 1989 and were not fired upon. This archive holds the private walking tour that follows that autumn street by street.

The route takes in the Nikolaikirche itself, the ring road the marches occupied, the former Stasi district headquarters — now the Runde Ecke museum, left deliberately unrenovated, with the smell of the files still in it — and the Augustusplatz where the crowds gathered. Our guides in Leipzig include people who were there, which is the reason to book the peaceful revolution as a guided walk rather than read about it in the hotel.

Leipzig has a second and older identity worth another half-day: Bach spent twenty-seven years as cantor at the Thomaskirche and is buried in it, and the Gewandhaus still performs most nights of the week. Both can be added to the walk.

The city is seventy minutes from Dresden and pairs with it in our five-day Eastern German Highlights journey; see also the wider eastern Germany programmes. All tours here are private.