On the trail of Leipzig's communist past

Leipzig's streets still carry traces of the communist dictatorship that once ruled East Germany, from secret police surveillance to candlelit protest marches. On this walking tour, you'll follow the peaceful demonstrations that toppled East Germany's regime. You'll also hear what daily life was like under constant Stasi surveillance. Locals once called this city the ‘City of Heroes’ for its role in the revolution.

The tour starts outside the West Entrance of Leipzig's Hauptbahnhof, once dusted with Cold War placards and home to the Mitropa, a legendary railway canteen where disillusioned East Germans gathered over cheap beer. From there, you'll pass the mirrored Osthalle, built jointly by Saxons and Prussians, and cross toward the shuttered Astoria hotel, once a showcase of East German luxury. You'll continue along Richard-Wagner-Strasse and into the Brühl, historically the heart of Leipzig's Jewish-run fur trade.

You'll pass the former Stasi headquarters at the Runde Ecke, now a museum preserving its original surveillance rooms, and stand outside the Nikolaikirche, where prayers for peace sparked the demonstrations that filled Leipzig's ring road each Monday night in 1989. The tour ends at the City-Hochhaus, the city's tallest skyscraper, built to resemble an open book and nicknamed the ‘University giant’ under the East German regime.

On this 120-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Visit the Thomaskirche, where Johann Sebastian Bach served as cantor for 27 years and is buried today
• Step into Mädler Passage's Auerbachs Keller, the cellar restaurant that inspired Goethe's Faust
• See Sighard Gille's ‘Song of Life’, one of Europe's largest ceiling frescoes, inside the Gewandhaus concert hall
• Learn why East Germans formed a resistance movement to save their beloved Ampel Man traffic lights
• Explore contemporary works by Leipzig painter Neo Rauch at the Museum der Bildenden Künste
• Wander through Specks Hof, Leipzig's oldest trade arcade, with its glass-covered courtyards
• Spot the golden Democracy Bell, commemorating the Monday demonstration that helped end East German rule

By the time you reach the City-Hochhaus, you'll understand exactly how a divided city found the courage to end a dictatorship.