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Staff assembly on 11 December 2024 in Leipzig

The reading rooms of the German National Library in Leipzig will only open at 13:00 on Wednesday 11 December due to a staff assembly. The exhibitions of the German Museum of Books and Writing will open from 10:00 to 18:00.

Disruptive Elements. Jazz, Protest and Revolution

Black-and-white photograph of an open-air concert looking out into the audience; the stage can be seen in the foreground along with a number of musical instruments Photo: Matthias Creutziger

Jazz festival in Leipzig to mark 35 years of the Peaceful Revolution
20 to 22 September 2024
German Museum of Books and Writing and German National Library Leipzig

The German National Library in Leipzig will be marking the 35th anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution this autumn by organising a jazz festival remembering the importance of music as a medium of resistance in the GDR. The three-day festival will take place from 20 to 22 September 2024 under the patronage of Minister of State and Federal Government Commissioner for East Germany Carsten Schneider. Cooperation partners are the Foundation for Sites of German Democratic History, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Ulli Blobel – Gesellschaft zur Förderung von Kunst und Kultur gemeinnützige UG as well as Musikfonds e.V.


Greeting from the Federal President Frank Walter Steinmeier at the opening of the jazz festival (available only in German).


The festival was instigated by Jazzwerkstatt Peitz, whose founder brought international free jazz to East Germany with youthful fearlessness beginning in 1972. However, the SED regime banned Jazzwerkstatt Peitz in 1982, not least because of its great success – also on the international stage. Jazzwerkstatt Peitz restarted in the Lausitz region in 2011, becoming known as "Woodstock on the Karpfenteich".

From 20 to 22 September 2024, the festival will be taking place at the German National Library in Leipzig and showing once again that freedom and democracy are not only fought for "in words" but also with music. After all, Jazzwerkstatt Peitz has not only made a unique contribution to the history of international jazz in the GDR but also shown that music is a medium of resistance against state-imposed cultural practices and ideological restrictions.

The jazz festival will be accompanied by two discussions featuring prominent panellists, who will debate questions relating to democracy today. The Jazzwerkstatt archive will also be presented to the German Museum of Books and Writing as a donation, thus preserving it for posterity as a significant cultural asset testifying to the history of democracy. Minister of State Carsten Schneider will oversee the official handover of the archive to the museum during the festival.


Tickets for the three-day festival are available at info@jazzwerkstatt.eu or at eventim.de




Black-and-white photograph showing percussion in the foreground; behind it, there is a man with a beard playing with great concentration Photo: Matthias Creutziger

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Günter Baby Sommer on drums, Jazz festival Peitz, 1980

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Last changes: 02.09.2024

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