A pearl in a shell

The second largest town of the federal land Saxony, a town with a long history, which was especially brightly imprinted in outlines of the streets in the twentieth century and affected all spheres of life: social, economical, educational, political. More than 25 years ago, the cultural environment began to shape here, which looks very special not only to me as a foreigner but also to people from other German cities. "I have not seen anything like Leipzig in other cities," they say.

In the urban jungles of shopping malls and entertainment centres, officious business buildings of glass and concrete and boring residential high-rises full of tired and busy serious people, who choose such entertainment as attending expensive events on a Friday evening in order to get over their tiredness and visibly senseless to-dos, not all residents of the city are like that, not everyone like doing it this way. Back in the 1989, a milestone year for Germany when the Berlin Wall came down and the border between East and West was opened, many young and active citizens preferred to make their own choices in terms of how to organize a whole new life from scratch. Whether work and earnings were concerned, or an own place to live and relations with the neighbors, or creativity and self-expression – they were finding completely new answers to many questions and organizing their life differently from what it had looked like before the events of the peaceful revolution, and also differently from what the newly established official order of things was offering them.

What is sometimes called "amateur" has acquired here a mass character. Independent initiatives of various kinds, founded by individuals or groups on the wave of liberation spirits are still continuing to multiply and develop.

• Are you a cyclist? Come to the bike repair initiative, and they’ll give you the tools and tips on how to tune it, or fix it. Come and repair if you like.
• Are you into environmentalism? Take part in free workshops, have fun and find out how nice and stylish things can be made from what was traditionally seen as garbage.
• Are you plunged into the computer world? There are seminars on limitless possibilities of free software and data protection.
• A farm co-op is not a word from the Soviet history book, it is a way to build a team of people who love living in the nature, and who find healthy food important and want to promote these ideas among dwellers of the city.
• A reading circle is your own club where those interested in some issues or books participate, who wants discuss it in a circle of associates.
• You can watch a movie or theatre performances often and free, just invited by people living the next door who want to share their creativity and create a space for the exchange of views. Or you can join the theatre probe or a filmmaking group – easy.

This story has no end. And it has no but’s. Come and open the shell of the city of Leipzig to find a pearl of the alternative scene.