Into former forbidden territory... .
My e-book "Leipzig, or: East West Real Life" is available free for download today. This is a new, updated version with extra photos and extra notes included:
Free today: "Leipzig, or: East West Real Life"
Here are some lines from it:
Leipzig. It's only five hours from here, from Stuttgart. Still I never have been there before. Been to Italy, to India, to Ireland, but never to the East of Germany. Arrived there with a mix of pictures in mind, mostly the blurred memories of newsflashes and films, headlines of reunion and run down cities, Plattenbauten, Goodbye Lenin, the red star, another world in the same country.
Arriving there, what struck me most were the houses. Ruins of deserted houses next to neatly renovated places with fresh neon signs on top. A bizarre mix of life. And our flat, right in the middle of it. Rented for a long weekend, mostly because the hotels were all full already due to the book fair, this huge happening that brought us here, too. Us, that is: me, B. and J., three friends with a weak spot for books and art. And there it was, our rent flat, next to a Konsum shop, opposite an empty house, with a view to the towers of the city, with a view to roofs roamed by pigeons.
One of the things I didn't fully realize before: Leipzig was the place where the democratic revolution in East Germany started in 1989. The centre of the revolution back then: the Nikolai-Church. We didn't search for it, simply walked from the main train station towards the centre plaza, and there it was. This church.
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Free & Free
& i just noticed the double-meaning while typing: the city of Leipzig actually was the place where the movement to more freedom in the East of Germany started. Free, in a very different sense.
About the book
For a bit more about the e-book, click to the blog post below: life, twists, penguins, books, the joy of revision, the road, and: tomorrow, for free. there also is book page: Journeys to ... Asia and Leipzig and other places
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