Photo Gallery Monumental Failures
The monument "Citizens in Motion," designed by the German design firm Milla & Partner and Berlin choreographer Sasha Waltz, won a government competition in 2011.
The Leipzig memorial will be constructed on Wilhelm Leuschner Platz, a run-down square that played no role in the historic demonstrations in 1989. Many harbor the suspicion that the city of Leipzig is merely using the 5 million allotted to the project by the government to revitalize a neglected part of town.
The design by Munich architects Marc Weiss and Martin de Mattia, which won an international competition in July 2012, foresees 70,000 blocks in seven different colors forming a vast rag rug -- representing the 70,000 demonstrators who participated in the first mass protests against the East German leadership on October 8, 1989.
