» WE ARE THE PEOPLE! « EXHIBITION MAGAZINE PEACEFUL REVOLUTION 1989/90 Published as part of the theme year “20 Years since the Fall of the Wall” by Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH CONTENTS 7 | OPENING ADDRESS | KLAUS WOWEREIT 8 | OPENING ADDRESS | BERND NEUMANN 10 | 28 YEARS OF THE WALL 100 | TIMELINE 106 | HISTORY WITH A DOMINO EFFECT 108 | PHOTO CREDITS 110 | MASTHEAD 2 CONTENTS 14 | AWAKENING 38 | REVOLUTION 78 | UNITY 16 | AGAINST THE DICTATORSHIP 40 | MORE AND MORE EAST GERMANS 80 | NO EXPERIMENTS 18 | THE PEACE AND ENVIRONMENTAL WANT OUT 84 | ON THE ROAD TO UNITY MOVEMENT IN THE GDR 44 | GRASSROOTS ORGANISATIONS 88 | GERMAN UNITY AND WORLD POLITICS 22 | it‘s not this countrY – 48 | REVOLTS ALONG THE RAILWAY LINE 90 | FREE WITHOUT BORDERS yOUTH CULTURES 50 | ANNIVERSARY PROTESTS 96 | THE COMPLETION OF UNITY 24 | SUBCULTURE 7 OCTOBER 1989 26 | THE OPPOSITION GOES PUBLIC 54 | EAST BErlin‘s gETHSEMANE CHURCH 30 | ARRESTS AND EXPULSIONS 56 | WE ARE THE PEOPLE! 34 | FIRST STEPS TO REVOLUTION 60 | THE SEd‘s nEW TACTIC 62 | THE CRUMBLING SYSTEM 66 | 4 NOVEMBER 1989 70 | 9 NOVEMBEr 1989 – THE FALL OF THE WALL 74 | THE BATTLE FOR POWER CONTENTS 3 4 IMPRESSIONS OF THE EXHIBITION INSTALLATION © SERGEJ HOROVITZ 5 6 IMPRESSIONS OF THE EXHIBITION INSTALLATION OPENING ADDRESS For Berlin, 2009 is a year of commemorations of the moving Central and Eastern European countries and Mikhail Gorbachev’s events of 20 years ago, when the Peaceful Revolution finally policy of glasnost and perestroika had laid the ground for change. toppled the Berlin Wall. The exhibition presented on Alexander- And across all the decades since the airlift 60 years ago, Berlin platz by the Robert Havemann Society is one of the highlights of was able to depend on the unprecedented solidarity of the Ameri cans, the theme year “20 Years since the Fall of the Wall”. It focuses on British and French. the people, showing how they overcame their fears, took their The Peaceful Revolution of autumn 1989 brought fundamen- fates into their own hands, actively called for freedom of travel tal change, not only to Berlin and Germany, but also to Europe and free elections, joined together to form grassroots movements and the world as a whole. The exhibition documents this exci t- and parties – and finally brought about the end of the East ing time and prompts debate. I would like to thank the Robert German regime. Travelling across time through the dramatic Havemann Society, which has organised the project in conjunc- weeks and months of 1989, the exhibition illustrates how isolated tion with Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH, and also the Berlin opposition activities grew into a broad popular movement. Lottery Foundation and the German Government Com missioner The exhibition, accompanied by this magazine, honours the for Cultural and Media Affairs for their financial support. freedom movement in the GDR. Yet above all it aims to empha sise the courage of all those who challenged the East German regime. This did indeed call for great bravery, as there was no way to rule out violent suppression of the protests. Today, we look back thank fully at the dedication of the women and men who took to the streets for their rights and freedoms. At the same time, KLAUS WOWEREIT we remember that the freedom movements in the neighbouring Governing Mayor of Berlin OPENING ADDRESS 7 OPENING ADDRESS On Alexanderplatz in the heart of Berlin, on the site of the historic demonstration of 4 November 1989, the Robert Havemann Society has put together an exhibition on the Peaceful Revolution in the GDR in 1989 and the path to German reunification in 1990. As the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, I provided a substantial sum towards funding this exhibition. It occupies a central role in the German government’s programme honouring the anniversary of overcoming the GDR dictatorship and the division of Germany in this year and the next. By financing this exhibition, the government is also giving a very clear signal for an official state tribute to civil engagment, in the hope of strengthening this dedication. It is only this engage- ment that gives our culture of commemoration a weight of its own. The state cannot and should not prescribe a culture of recollec- tion, yet it may certainly promote the evolution of such a culture. What is necessary is the personal engagement of the people, to play an active and lively role in passing down our history, for in stance in associations as in the case of the Robert Havemann Society. The German government holds this engagement in very high esteem, and it therefore occupies a corresponding position 8 OPENING ADDRESS OPENING ADDRESS in the continuation of our memorial concept, which the Bundes- young people’s knowledge of East German history are indeed tag passed at the end of last year. shocking. It seems that only very few have an idea of what the The fall of the Berlin Wall, the 20th anniversary of which GDR dictatorship was like. Visiting the Robert Havemann we are celebrating this year, should make us proud and grateful. Society’s exhibition and reading this accompanying publication Proud, because without the resistance and opposition of the can show them how brutally East German socialism treated people of the GDR there would be neither freedom in the East of young people in particular, who wanted to live their own lives Germany nor German unity. And grateful, because without without state intervention. Prague in 1968, without Solidarnosc in Poland, without the loyalty On this note, I would like to wish this exhibition magazine of the United States of America and without Mikhail Gorbachev’s very many young readers. reform policies, German unity would have been impossible; just as it would have been without the determination of Helmut Kohl and the trust in which he was held by East and West. 9 November when the Wall came down and 3 October as Day of German Unity are events that affect the whole of Germany. They are among the happiest days in our nation’s history. Know- ledge of our own history is one of the key foundations of every democratic society. The 2009 memorial year in particular gives BERND NEUMANN MP us the opportunity to keep our country’s history vital and alive, Minister of State to the Federal Chancellor and especially to present it to the younger generation. Numerous Federal Government Commissioner for Culture studies have shown how urgently necessary this is. The gaps in and the Media OPENING ADDRESS 9 NOBODY HAS THE INTEN- TION OF BUILDING A WALL. Walter Ulbricht, head of the GDR state and SED party, 15 June 1961 Incredulous: West Berliners watching the Wall being built, August 1961 10 28 YEARS OF THE WALL THE WALL WILL STILL BE STAND- ING IN 50 OR 100 YEARS. Erich Honecker, head of the GDR state and SED party, 19 January 1989 Cautious approach: people sitting on the Wall at Brandenburg Gate, 10/11 November 1989 28 YEARS OF THE WALL 11 28 YEARS OF THE WALL On the morning of 13 August 1961 the Berliners had a rude A DIVIDED GERMANY awaken ing: a border had been drawn across the middle of their Building the Wall in 1961 cemented the division of Germany after city. The government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) the end of World War II. In the western part, the Federal Republic had closed the last escape route to the West in a country that of Germany accepted the borders of the GDR in the 1972 Basic had been divided for the past 16 years. The ruling Socialist Unity Treaty. West Germany began building “good neighbourly relations” Party (SED) built an almost insurmountable death strip for its but stood by the principle of joint German citizenship. In the own subjects, equipped with walls, towers and barbed wire. eastern part of Germany, the GDR gave up the idea of German Anyone trying to cross the border was shot down. People had been reunification in its 1974 constitution. leaving the East of Germany for the West since 1945. Up until the Wall was built, some 3 million people had left the GDR. From PEACEFUL REVOLUTION 1989/90 1961 to 1989, the West German authorities registered just under In 1989, the Berlin Wall was still a symbol of a divided world. a million East Germans placing an application for pro vi sional Two systems highly armed with nuclear weapons – NATO and the accommodation in the Federal Republic and West Berlin. These Warsaw Pact – were in a standoff. All over the world, people were included people leaving the country by official routes and those working to preserve peace. The East Germans, too, were concerned, who escaped illegally. Many people paid for their escape attempts but they were not allowed to express their worries openly. with their lives. 136 deaths have so far been proved at the Berlin The press was censored, with critical voices suppressed by the Wall alone. secret service (Staatssicherheit – Stasi). The leadership of the state 12 28 YEARS OF THE WALL 28 YEARS OF THE WALL and the ruling party refused to follow the Soviet head of state selves. The largest mass assembly in the history of the GDR took Mikhail Gorbachev on the road to reform. Although the economy place here on 4 November 1989, tolling the end of the regime. was on the brink of collapse, the cities were in a state of decay and the environmental damage was impossible to ignore, strident EXHIBITION ON A HISTORIC SITE propaganda drowned out the signs of decline.