On Monday, October 9, Aram and I wanted to return to Leipzig. The Stasi stood in the courtyard as usual and gazed up at me on the fourth floor. I went to the bakery, the comrades behind, me back to my apartment. We had a plan hatched: I had timers installed in the living room and in the bedroom, light on - light off. One last control look out of the window. The comrades in the yard indulged themselves in standing a Bockwurst.
I climbed through the hatch to the roof, ran the rooftops along Bornholmer Strasse to Schönhauser Allee, climbed there through a skylight into the stairwell. Aram was already waiting.
When we felt we were being followed, we parked Arams Trabant on Oderberger Strasse, walked through a few yards and got out at Kastanienallee. The floppy hats ran after us. With difficulty we reached the streetcar direction Friedrichshain. The pursuers do not. We drove to Stephan Bickhardt, who worked at the Protestant church and gave us his service Trabi.
On the highway to Leipzig was before us a long column with perhaps 30 trucks on the backs of soldiers or police officers. Aram said, "Siggi, they're not going to Leipzig for fun, they're up to something." We were silent. In a traffic jam on the highway, the People's Police waved out a few cars. We went the sleeve. We sat in an inconspicuous Trabant, they waved us through.
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Leipzig in October 1989: "Take a picture of this here"In search of a good filming location we walked through the city, in the side streets military vehicles. Today we did not want to demonstrate that we wanted to film from the top. 200 meters from the main station was the highest residential building in the GDR, overlooking the city center ring road and towards Nikolaikirche. On the tenth floor a balcony door was open. We lay down. The view was perfect, four hours left until 6 pm.
"Of course it works," said the pastor
But then a beefy, older man in the blue man opened the balcony door. We looked at us in puzzlement. He hissed, "I'm the janitor, what are you doing here?" I stammered: "We are students from the Film Academy Potsdam-Babelsberg and have the order to film here." I could not think of anything else. The Blaumann: "Well, listen, you know that's nonsense, the whole skyscraper is full of comrades from the state security, they'll be here in a few minutes, they will not take your story off, I do not care I advise you, just take off and film from elsewhere for your college. "
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Siegbert Schefke
As fear changed sides, the power of forbidden images
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Now we were back in the street. Not far from the Stasi headquarters, corner Tröndlinring / Goerdelerring, was a residential building, the gable windows offered a very good view of the expected demonstrators. The front door was open. On the third floor there were stickers on the door: "Nuclear power, no thanks," "Church from below," "Peace without arms." That should be enough evidence that lived here a sympathizer of our cause.
We rang the bell, were admitted, saved the movie student legend and told the truth to us and the family. The eyes of our host lit up. But our eyes stayed on the little children. It was clear that the Stasi would find out the location. And then it would not be the two Berlin Videodesperados in front of the door, but the Stasi and would arrest the family man.
Aram and I agreed that we could not take that responsibility back to the streets. At half past three we met Uwe Schwabe and two or three other Leipzigers. One suggested to try it in the Reformed Church.
The original recordings of Aram Radonski and Siegbert Schefke
The streets were full of people. Today prayers for peace should take place in the Nikolaikirche and at the same time in four other churches. One of the Leipzigers counted on 100,000 people. I thought that was too high. Another threw the number 50,000 into the round. That was definitely not enough for me. We agreed on 70,000 protesters who would be on the inner city ring in the evening.
We ran out of time. We rang the parish office of the Reformed Church and told Pastor Hans-Jürgen Sievers what we had in mind. What if he said NO? It took ten seconds. Then he said, "Of course you can."
And there was no shot
The caretaker led us over an iron "ladder" up and pushed a heavy roof hatch to the side. On the top platform of the church tower we lay down on the pigeon-strewn ground. Downstairs everything was deserted and dark. No cars, no trams, no glowing street lamp, hardly any people. Would be shot? The state newspapers had advised the citizens to stay at home.
We waited, heard first chants, then they came: An indescribably large crowd moved directly below us. We were very excited, had no monitor, only the small viewfinder. Later, we heard whispering on the tape: "Is there anything to recognize?" Just keep turning, let it run. Aram photographed. Below the chants: "We are the people", "Allow new forum", "Gorbi, Gorbi", "Peoples hear the signals, to the final battle! The International fights human rights".
The SED comrades had repeatedly claimed that in Leipzig a few drunken rioters and hooligans wanted to roam the streets and spread unrest. The chants responded: "We are not rowdy guys".
We were overwhelmed. Aram whispered, "Siggi, today the world is going to change, and if the pictures are to be seen on Western television tomorrow, it will not just change the GDR, not just Germany, but the whole of Europe and the world!"
500 meters from the church tower the route of the demonstrators passed the roundabout. The neuralgic point, there was the Leipzig Stasi headquarters. Everyone knew that if they did not shoot from there, it would stay peaceful. Over there on the skyscraper roofs were secret police, watching what was going on down the street. I thought, when we see them, they see us too. Surely they catch us later at the church entrance.
But first we breathed, that no shot had fallen. Before we left, Pastor Sievers and his wife entertained us with sandwiches. The son, 16, had to find out if there were any conspicuous people outside the door. The air was pure, we said goodbye.
We had an appointment with SPIEGEL correspondent Ulrich Schwarz. Ulli was not supposed to be in Leipzig at all. Traveling outside the GDR capital, West journalists had to be approved by the GDR Foreign Ministry. And trips to Leipzig were generally not approved in the fall of '89. Ulli had driven with his Mercedes to Berlin-Schoenefeld, continue by train and was probably the only West journalist in Leipzig that day. Even today, he wonders about his colleagues and their cowardice.
The thing with the Italians
In the revolving door of a large hotel, I put the videotape to him with about 20 minutes of lathe material. He let her disappear under his coat. In the lobby we thought: Back to Berlin drove no train. Shortly determined we packed Ulli in our car - somehow he had to come to his Benz to Berlin. Shortly before Köckern the Trabant began to stutter and drove only 50. At the motorway service area advised the gas station attendant: "Guys, your Trabi runs only on a top, just drive on and watch."
Two hours later Ulli drove the cassette in the Mercedes of Schönefeld to the west. I chugged to Schönhauser Allee, climbed up, ran in the dark to Gotlandstrasse 4, and looked out of my apartment into the courtyard. In one corner stood the Stasi people and smoked. My plan had worked.
The next day, they accompanied me back to the bakery, then left surprisingly. Aram came in the evening. At 8 pm the "Tagesschau" - no pictures of us from Leipzig. At 21 o'clock the ARD political magazine "Report" with Franz Alt, without much introduction, our pictures were shown for two minutes.
Then the "Tagesthemen". Presenter Hanns Joachim Friedrichs began: "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, you will soon see unbelievable pictures from Leipzig and an Italian camera crew managed to shoot the following pictures in Leipzig last night." Disappointment with us. Yes, yes, the Italians again! But also joy that there were better pictures than our shaky shots.
Seconds later, we could not believe our eyes. It was our pictures. What a jubilation, a satisfaction! Years later I visited Hajo Friedrichs in Hamburg and asked him how he came to Italy. He replied, "It had to be very quick, and ultimately I wanted to protect you."
