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Writing on the Wall

Leipzig Book Fair Recalls Heady Days of 1989

The fall of the Berlin Wall is the talk of the town in Leipzig this weekend. The city's book fair is awash with memories and chronicles of that historic day. And with venues including the former Stasi headquarters and the famous St. Nicholas' Church, history is set to come alive.

The titles say it all: "Visit to the West," "The Night the Wall Fell" and "The Miracle of the Peaceful Revolution." These are just some of a raft of new books recalling that massive day in contemporary German history: Nov. 9, 1989, the day the Berlin Wall fell. Published to coincide with the 20th anniversary, they will form the main talking point at Germany's second biggest book fair in Leipzig this week.

The event, which runs from Thursday to Sunday, will air new perspectives on the eurphoric moment -- and the bumpy process of reunification which followed.

Some 130,000 people are expected at the year's first major event in the German literary calendar. And with Leipzig having been the focal point of demonstrations against the communist regime in 1989, visitors attending readings and presentations will find themselves in some of the city's more poignant locations, including the former Stasi Headquarters and the St. Nicolas' Church, the focal point of the Monday demonstrations which kicked off East Germany's peaceful revolution.

Politicians of all stripes as well as historians and journalists are among those publishing their takes on the momentous events that heralded the end of the Cold War.

But old divisions, or what Germans refer to as 'the Wall inside people's heads,' also loom large among the latest offerings. "Gefängnis Notizen" (Prison Notes), written by Egon Krenz the last leader of the communist German Democratic Republic, is based on his thoughts while serving time between 2000 and 2003 for his role in the killings along the East-West border. By focusing on some flaws in the former West German justice system, Krenz attempts to boost the image of the old East Germany.

Former Social Democratic politican Reinhard Höppner, on the other hand, is more reconciliatory in his recollections. He writes that reunification can only truly be achieved "…when we stop vilifying East German biographies and histories but rather understand them as part of our German history."

Loud Heart Beats

Other books avoid polemics by homing in on the everyday stories of life in divided Germany. Jutta Voigt's "Westbesuch" (Visit to the West) gathers telling anecdotes from both sides of the divided Germany. We meet the 20-year-old East Berliner who memorized bus routes in West Berlin, even though he saw little chance of crossing the Wall in the foreseeable future. Then there is the tale of Regina from East Germany who was in love with Eckhard who lived in the West. She hid in the boot of a car to be united with him and her heart beat so loud she feared the border police would hear her.

Voigt includes stories about West Germans who travelled to the East because they enjoyed the nerve-jangling border crossing. In the communist East, travel was severely restricted and Voigt described how any visting Western relative was "a source of joy, a window into the outside world. Apart from that, the coffee that he brought with him was tastier."

Voigt, like the authors of many of the recent Wall books, dwells on subjective details rather than the bigger historical picture. The Leipzig Book Fair also showcases a number of anthologies written in a similar vein. Examples include "Das Wunder der Friedlichen Revolution" (The Miracle of the Peaceful Revolution) or "Die Nacht der Mauer Fiel" (The Night the Wall Fell), a collection of writers' personal experiences.

All will add to the ever-growing bookshelf of Wall tales and will feed the ongoing fascination with the divided Germany 20 years after reunification.

jas-- with reports