ESCAPE FROM LEIPZIG
by Harald Fritzsch (University of Munich, Germany), translated by K Heusch, with a foreword written by G 't Hooft
Table of Contents (85k)
Foreword (86k)
Autumn 1967 (149k)
prologue (124k)
About the AuthorHarald Fritzsch received his PhD in Theoretical Physics from the Technical University of Munich in 1971. He was previously a Research Associate with CERN and has been serving as Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of Munich since 1979. Professor Fritzsch won the prestigious Award of the Volkswagen Foundation in 1989 and the Medal for Science Publishing by the German Physical Society in 1994. He has held many general talks on problems of physics and astrophysics, and is the author of the TV series “Microcosmos”. He is the president of the German Society of Medical Doctors and Scientists — the German equivalent of the American AAAS and the British BAAS.
In the 1960s, Leipzig was the center of resistance in East Germany. Harald Fritzsch, then a physics student, contemplated escape. But before he left, he wanted to demonstrate to the government that they had gone too far when they destroyed St. Paul's Church in May 1968. He accomplished that by unrolling a protest transparency in spectacular fashion. Despite the great efforts of the secret police, the STASI, the government was unable to find out who was responsible for this act. Soon after, together with a friend, Fritzsch began his journey to Bulgaria in order to escape into Turkey by traversing the Black Sea in a folding canoe. This was a daredevil endeavor, never done before.
In this book, Harald Fritzsch — now a world-renowned physicist — portrays in captivating detail an authentic picture of the East German regime and the events of the late 1960s. Today, 40 years later, he critically takes stock of the events since German reunification.
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