Germany - Leipzig - Monument to Ernst Thalmann and skateboarder

A young skateboarder leaps into the air beneath the huge memorial to the German Communist leader Ernst Thalmann, the leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944. The Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation, consisting of the Young Pioneers and the Thälmann Pioneers, was a youth scouting-styled organisation of schoolchildren aged 6 to 14, in East Germany. Its motto was" "Für Frieden und Sozialismus seid bereit – Immer bereit" ("For peace and socialism be ready - always ready") but the Pioneers were disbanded in 1989 after early protests here in Leipzig at the same time as the Berlin Wall and the Socialist state's fall.

Add to Cart Add to Lightbox Download

Filename: DDR_travel05-06_1990_1.jpg
Copyright: Richard Baker
Image Size: 5221x3502 / 1.7MB; DDR GDR old heritage history past era bygone historical historic ideology Germany East Germany former German politics political Socialist Communist Cold War Eastern Bloc Warsaw Pact enemy opposition 1990 reminder Communism indoctrinated leader party monument memorial statue Leipzig kid skateboarder jump hop graffiti young youth personal relaxation lifestyle hobby pastime leisure estate ownership homes housing apartments figure Ernst Thalmann Ernst Thaelmann pioneering heroic hero disrespect times changeover regime oppression education discipline defeated security authority order Iron Curtain iron boot iron hand rule tyranny brute force police state totalitarianism reign of terror sports youthful change of fortune regime change fist icon motif philosophy martyr the cause residential owner community citizen people neighborhood neighbourhood town industrial expression defaced urban
Contained in galleries: Richard Baker - All pics

A young skateboarder leaps into the air beneath the huge memorial to the German Communist leader Ernst Thalmann, the leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944. The Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation, consisting of the Young Pioneers and the Thälmann Pioneers, was a youth scouting-styled organisation of schoolchildren aged 6 to 14, in East Germany. Its motto was" "Für Frieden und Sozialismus seid bereit – Immer bereit" ("For peace and socialism be ready - always ready") but the Pioneers were disbanded in 1989 after early protests here in Leipzig at the same time as the Berlin Wall and the Socialist state's fall.