The mural “Peaceful Revolution” by Michael Fischer-Art

Perhaps you have already noticed this picture of our new Liebherr LB35 drill in front of a colorful mural in various publications?

This is the mural “Peaceful Revolution” by the internationally active artist Michael Fischer-Art. Since 2009, the 20th anniversary of the Monday demonstrations that began in Leipzig and ultimately culminated in the reunification of the two German states, the mural has adorned the outside wall of the Marriott Hotel in a gap between buildings near Leipzig’s main railway station. The artist required around 3.5 tons of paint for its creation. The mural incorporates motifs from Leipzig’s Monday demonstrations, the refugee movement of the summer of 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall – and it will now, at least in large parts, make way for the construction of a new hotel.

Our client Züblin Spezialtiefbau was entrusted with the foundation work and used two drilling rigs on this construction site. The Berlin-based photographer Iwo Hoffmann (Meyerfoto) impressively captured the drilling rigs, construction site and mural.

Fischer-Art has incorporated his personal experiences from 1989 and his life in the GDR into the mural. As a member of the youth organization of the Protestant Church in the GDR and due to dissident statements, he was not allowed to graduate from high school, so he initially worked as a house painter, janitor and later as a nurse in a psychiatric ward. In 1989, he took part in Leipzig’s Monday demonstrations and expressed himself artistically and critically with banners he designed.

34 years after the peaceful revolution, one can regret the demise of the mural or rejoice in the fact that it has inspired reflection and remembrance for 14 years and that the gap between the buildings is now being closed as expected – appropriately enough with a hotel.
One of the demands propagated at the Monday demonstrations at the time was: FREEDOM TO TRAVEL!