Hello Leipzig: This is how Tuesday 27 October 2026 begins

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Europe is watching the protests, which have been overshadowed by riots. A plenary session in Leipzig is taking place today to discuss how to effectively fight back against cuts and rising poverty. The registration deadlines for an important consultation meeting and a special event at the DOK Festival end today. And this evening, the city will honour the author Tupoka Ogette with the Louise Otto Peters Prize.

Standing up to cuts in social services

Rising retail prices, ever-increasing rents – coupled with cuts or even the complete withdrawal of benefits and grants. Many feel helplessly at the mercy of this vicious cycle. How can we fight back, and what form of protest is most effective?

The LeipzigStehtZusammen alliance/‘Es reicht’ is hosting an open plenary meeting today at 7 pm at the Treffpunkt HELMUT (Kohlgartenstraße 51) to provide information on planned social cuts, assess previous protest activities and discuss further political actions with interested participants. The potential of demonstrations and the importance of strikes in resisting socio-political cuts will also be discussed.

The event forms part of the programme for the Leipzig Critical Introduction Weeks (KEW) – “The welfare state is being cut back, and we’re fighting back!”, as stated in the official event description. According to the alliance, it aims to provide an overview of what it considers to be far-reaching cuts and to present its thoughts so far on organising further protests.
At the same time, participants are to discuss how social resistance can be organised and what options for action exist in the face of political decisions. The organisers also intend to address questions regarding how to deal with feelings of powerlessness and concerns about the future. Today’s event is explicitly intended as a consultation and organisational meeting; it is not an active demonstration or a strike.

The alliance can already look back on major protest actions in Leipzig. On 15 June 2026, according to police figures, approximately 1,100 people took part in a demonstration under the slogan ‘Enough is enough!’. The protest march began at 5.30 pm at the Naschmarkt (as reported by the LZ
). Today’s plenary session thus builds on an existing protest movement directed against cuts to social security.

HELMUT is the meeting place of Kohlektiv e. V., which provides a space for art, culture, education and political events. Information about the alliance and its activities is available via its official communication channels, including a Telegram news channel and a WhatsApp news channel for “Enough is enough!”. The email address SozialratschlagLE@proton.me
is provided as a means of contact.

Deadline for entries for the awards ceremony

The deadline for registering to attend the ‘Leipziger Ring’ film award ceremony organised by the Peaceful Revolution Foundation is today. The public awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, 31 October 2026, from 12 noon to 2 pm in the Filmeck cinema at Passage Kinos (Hainstraße 19a). Admission is free. As seating is limited, the Foundation requests that you register in advance by emailing veranstaltung@stiftung-fr.de.

With the ‘Leipziger Ring’, the Foundation for the Peaceful Revolution honours, as part of the 69th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, DOK Leipzig, to documentary works that address human rights, democracy and social engagement. In addition to artistic quality, the award also takes into account the personal commitment of the filmmakers.

The winning film will be screened at the awards ceremony on Saturday. There will also be a tribute to those involved in the production. The winner is selected by a three-member voluntary jury: Christian Fuchs, investigative journalist and writer for *DIE ZEIT*; freelance radio and feature writer Ute Lieschke; and filmmaker, director and documentary maker Tilman König. König himself was awarded the ‘Leipziger Ring’ in 2022.

The free awards ceremony is separate from the festival’s regular film screenings, for which DOK Leipzig offers its own admission prices and season tickets. The festival’s ticket prices can be found on the DOK Leipzig website. In 2025, the documentary film “A Simple Soldier” by Artem Ryzhykov and Juan Camilo Cruz won the award.

Honour for anti-racism activist

The City of Leipzig is today awarding the 2026 Louise Otto Peters Prize to the author and anti-racism expert Tupoka Ogette. The award, worth 5,000 euros, recognises her commitment to combating racism and discrimination, as well as her work towards social equality.

Tupoka Ogette is one of the best-known voices in anti-racist educational work in the German-speaking world. Through her books, lectures and educational programmes, she advocates for a critical examination of structural racism. The author has become well known, amongst other things, for her bestseller ‘exit RACISM’.

Ogette was born in Leipzig in 1980, the daughter of a German mathematics student and a Tanzanian agricultural student. In 1988, she moved with her mother to West Berlin, where she grew up and took her Abitur. She then studied African Studies and German as a Foreign Language at the University of Leipzig and later obtained a Master’s degree in International Business from the Graduate School of Business in Grenoble. In recognition of her work, she was named one of the 25 most influential women of the year by Edition F magazine in 2019 and received the ‘Idol of the Year’ award at the About You Awards in 2021.

The Louise Otto Peters Prize has been awarded by the City of Leipzig since 2015. It is named after a German writer, journalist and women’s rights activist who was born in Meissen, worked in Leipzig and is regarded as one of the most important pioneers of the German women’s movement. She campaigned for women’s equality, their access to education and paid employment, and for better living and working conditions for female workers. By co-founding the General German Women’s Association in Leipzig in 1865 – an organisation she chaired until her death – she laid a crucial foundation for the organised women’s movement in Germany. Otto-Peters lived from 1819 to 1895.

How saving electricity helps your wallet

New to the city, having just moved into your flat – this is when your bank account and savings are put to the test. And taking steps to save money is particularly important. Tomorrow, Wednesday 28 October 2026, the Leipzig Welcome Centre, in collaboration with Caritas’s Local Energy-Saving Advice Service, will be providing information on ways to cut household energy consumption and reduce costs. The event, entitled ‘Saving electricity made easy – questions about electricity and utility bills’, begins at 4 pm at the Welcome Centre (Otto-Schill-Straße 2).

In light of rising energy prices and high utility bills, those interested will learn how they can save electricity and money by making changes to their daily routines. Caritas Leipzig’s Local Energy Saving Advice Service primarily supports people on low incomes, but is also open to others seeking advice. Its regular advisory services include guidance on reducing electricity, heating and water consumption, as well as explanations of electricity tariffs, energy contracts and payment arrangements. In addition, the advice centre helps with checking electricity and service charge bills, answers questions about the energy market and provides information on additional support options.

Important: For planning purposes, if you wish to attend, you must register in advance TODAY by calling 0341 123 2676 or 0341 123 2677, or by emailing willkommenszentrum@leipzig.de. Caritas Leipzig publishes further information on the Municipal Energy-Saving Advice service, beyond the scope of this event, HERE ONLINE on its website.