Readership: General.

“This book is of historical importance. It describes the tensions created by a ruthless regime in a defenseless community, the feelings of helplessness as well as the resourcefulness of those who wanted to make a difference, and then had to escape under life-threatening conditions. No one at the time knew whether the tiny pinpricks of the protesters would help at all to bring about any change in a seemingly perpetual situation and whether the monolithic autocrats could maintain their communist rule forever. Indeed, only few could surmise that less than two decades would be needed to bring the cold war to an end. What happened should not be forgotten. Personal accounts such as the one here are real jewels.”

from the foreword by Gerard 't Hooft, Nobel laureate

“Rarely if ever does a world-famous scientist write a page-turning thriller every word of which is true! … This wonderful book is both a heartwarming tale and a historical testament.”

Sheldon Glashow

Nobel laureate

“This book, written by my collaborator Harald Fritzsch, describes his escape from East Germany in 1968 and the events in Leipzig that forced him to leave. He had organized a protest movement against the destruction of the 700-year-old Pauliner church in Leipzig. … Fritzsch's story is fascinating, significant, and well told.”

Murray Gell-Mann

Nobel laureate

“Fritzsch's book on his life in Leipzig and his escape to the West should be read by everybody, who is interested in the history of Germany in the twentieth century. The book looks like a criminal story, but it is a true story, written down after the fall of the Berlin wall.”

Helmut Kohl

ex-chancellor of Germany

Harald 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.