Leipzig - Runde Ecke
East German Political Security Police, Stasi, had its headquarters in Normannenstrasse, Berlin. It was from there that Stasi’s chief Mielke controlled everyone and everything. But all East German cities had local offices and prisons and in Leipzig this was at a place called Runde ecke. The name comes from the fact that the facade was rounded around a corner. The building was centrally located and all citizens knew about it but hardly anyone wanted to be brought there.
Current status: Preserved with museum (2006).
Address: Dittrichring 24, 04109 Leipzig.
Get there: Walk from central Leipzig.
Follow up in books: Gieseke, Jens: The History of the Stasi: East Germany’s Secret Police, 1945-1990 (2014).
It was in Leipzig that the Monday demonstrations began on 4th September 1989. These were peaceful demonstrations protesting openly against the East german regime. The march ended at Karl Marx square and in mid-October the number of protesters at the square had raised to 320,000. The East German people’s army was mobilized, but was never ordered to take action out of fear that it would end like it did on Tiananmen Square in Beijing earlier in June that year. In Beijing people were killed by the military who had been ordered by the chinese government to take action. The large number of demonstrators forced the East German regime into submission and finally the opening of the border with West Germany. The rest is what you might say, history.