30 April 2024 press release

The German Bundestag has resolved to start building a national monument to freedom and unity in Leipzig in 2025 with the aim of keeping the memory of the Peaceful Revolution of the autumn of 1989 alive in the present and future. The Stiftung Friedliche Revolution (Peaceful Revolution Foundation) is overseeing the process of developing the future monument.

In the autumn of 2023, the foundation developed the touring exhibition "The monument is...". The exhibition features eleven international artists who use film as a medium to address fundamental aspects of remembrance culture and memorial processes. More than 4,000 visitors attended the opening in September and October 2023.

The exhibition will be touring the western federal states from May 2024. Between May and September 2024, it will make stops in Frankfurt am Main, Karlsruhe, Nuremberg, Hanover and Bonn. It will spend around three weeks in each of these cities, where it will show visitors how the memorial process has developed up to the present day. It will be complemented by an extensive, dialogue-oriented supporting programme of guided tours, discussions, readings, workshops and performances.

Launch in front of the German National Library in Frankfurt am Main

On the initiative of the new federal foundation "Stiftung Orte der Deutschen Demokratiegeschichte" (Foundation for Sites of German Democratic History), the Leipzig touring exhibition will be open for viewing on the German National Library's forecourt from 3 May to 1 June 2024. The exhibition invites visitors to explore remembrance culture and memorial processes in Germany and Eastern Europe from an artistic perspective. It will be held in an unusual setting, i.e. in a historic "Raumerweiterungshalle" (REH), a mobile architectural structure dating from the 1960s, which will serve as an attention-getter and a place of encounter alike. Organised by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Book Traders' Association) in cooperation with the German National Library and the new federal foundation "Stiftung Orte der deutschen Demokratiegeschichte" (Foundation for Sites of German Democratic History) as a contribution to Freedom of Speech Week (3 to 10 May), the exhibition is intended to serve as a point of access for debate on democratic values and their preservation.

Gesine Oltmanns, chairperson of the Stiftung Friedliche Revolution (Peaceful Revolution Foundation), emphasises: "The exhibition and the planned monument are deliberately designed to look beyond Leipzig. The monument is not specifically for Leipzig; as a memorial to German democratic history, it will be a place of national significance. After all, one key outcome of the Peaceful Revolution was the reunification of Germany. It is very important to clarify that the Peaceful Revolution was a European revolution with close ties to the freedom movements in central and eastern Europe at that time."

The "tour of the West" is also intended to provide inspiration in the present day and show that the Peaceful Revolution was the breeding ground for a collective mission to shape and protect democracy – all the more important in times of populism and growing anti-democratic sentiment.

"The Peaceful Revolution of 1989 is a milestone in the history of German and European democracy. Its memory must be kept alive throughout Germany since it shows that democracy cannot be taken for granted and has to be renegotiated time and again," explains Dr. Kai-Michael Sprenger from Stiftung Orte der deutschen Demokratiegeschichte (Foundation for Sites of German Democratic History).

More information
Monument to freedom and unity: www.freiheitsdenkmal-leipzig.de/en
Exhibition and programme in Frankfurt am Main:
www.dnb.de/EN/Kulturell/DasDenkmal/dasDenkmal.html

Background

Monument to freedom and unity

2025 will see building work commence on a national monument to freedom and unity in Leipzig, the purpose of which is to keep the memory of the Peaceful Revolution of the autumn of 1989 alive in the present and future. The political basis for this is a resolution adopted by the German Bundestag. In October 2017, Leipzig city council commissioned Stiftung Friedliche Revolution (Peaceful Revolution Foundation) to undertake the process of developing the monument. The international artistic competition got under way in March 2024, and work on building the winning design is scheduled to commence in October 2025. www.freiheitsdenkmal-leipzig.de/en

German National Library

For more than 100 years, the German National Library has been collecting, documenting and archiving all media works published in Germany since 1913 along with and German-language media works in text and sound; these are then made available to the public. It offers a comprehensive range of services at its sites in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main along with digital services that can be accessed all over the world. The German National Library also holds extensive special collections of inestimable value in the German Exile Archive 1933–1945 and the German Museum of Books and Writing.

"Stiftung Orte der deutschen Demokratiegeschichte" (Foundation for Sites of German Democratic History)

"Stiftung Orte der deutschen Demokratiegeschichte" (Foundation for Sites of German Democratic History" is a foundation with legal capacity under public law based in Frankfurt am Main. By funding educational projects on the history of democracy, holding its own events and cooperating with various partner institutions, the foundation aims to communicate the significance and value of diverse historical democratic traditions for a free and democratic basic order and a functional, stable, fair community to civil society at large.

Freedom of Speech Week

From World Press Freedom Day on 3 May to the anniversary of the book burnings in Germany on 10 May, the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Book Traders’ Association), the newly established Freedom of Expression Foundation and the Frankfurter Agenturallianz (Frankfurt Agency Alliance) is inviting organisations, corporations and private individuals to initiate events and campaigns all over Germany. More than 50 civic organisations and corporations have signed up so far, including publishers, book dealers, retail press outlets, libraries, trade unions, churches, musical organisations, associations, societies and municipal administrations. www.woche-der-meinungsfreiheit.de

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