Customer Reviews

Escape From Leipzig

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This book gives the reader a fine description of the difficulties of living in, studying in and escaping from East Germany. It provides a first-hand account of the distruction of ancient St. Paul's church in Leipzig by the GDR, a historic church that figures in the life of J. S. Bach and other German musicians. (St. Paul's is currently being rebuilt by the German government.) The political prank protesting the church's distruction by the government, which the author and a friend pull off during a Bach performance awards ceremony, is clever and effective, but soon makes the author and another friend decide to leave East Germany by folding boat across the Black Sea(!). Their escape would make a very exciting movie. The book was written by a German scientist, translated by another German scientist, and consequently has a number of interesting German-English passages which provide a nice conversational flavor. I enjoyed it.

Although undoubtedly biased by my connections to Harald Fritzsch, I was surprised by the quality and involving nature of this tale of personal courage associated with his protests while he was a resident of East Germany and with his ensuing escape therefrom. It is an intimate account of a situation and an era that has an aura of genuine authenticity due to its very personal perspective. The translation from the german original is a bit awkward in places, but still very effective.

It was an iteresting story and recalled memories of the way of life that I observed in Eastern Europe during the communist era.

Escape from Leipzig is a story of a courageous demonstration of protest over the E. German destruction of a cathedral in Leipzig, and the subsequent escape of the protester-student to W. Germany, where he became an honored academic and advisor to the W. German government.

Unfortunately, the hardback book is short(125pp.), competently if ineloquently translated from the original German, and outrageously overpriced at $40!!