Thought I would share the details about the picture in the header. It is a picture I took of the the ceiling of Nikolai Church in Leipzig, Germany on my trip there last autumn. It was a fascinating place to be and has a rather significant place in history. Its recent history (recent in terms of a 12th Century building) as host of peace prayers fascinates me. From these peace prayers (every Monday at 5pm) the non-violent movement that saw the collapse of the ideological dictatorship of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) emerged. The church’s website has an informative and engaging description. In regards to the basic facts and figures here are excerpts from the Wikipedia entry…
The St. Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas’ Church) has long been one of the most famous in Leipzig, and rose to national fame with the Monday Demonstrations in 1989 when it became the centre of the revolution.
The church was built around 1165 when Leipzig, or St. Nicholas’s City was founded. It is named after St. Nicholas, the patron saint of merchants and wholesalers and is situated in the very heart of the city on the corner of two historically important trade roads. … The church has been a protestant seat since 1539 after the Protestant Reformation.
“ There was no head of the revolution. The head was the Nikolai Kirche and the body the centre of the city. There was only one leadership: Monday, 5 P.M., the Nikolai Kirche. ”
—Cabaret artist Bernd-Lutz Lange, in The rise and fall of the German Democratic Republic, 1945-1990, by Mike Dennis, Longman, 2000. p.278
