4 November 1989

From Denkzeichen

On the morning of 4 November 1989, approximately 500,000 demonstrators (sometimes the number is even said to have been nearly a million) made their way through East Berlin's center, past the East German Parliament and the Staatstrat Building. At the end a rally was held on Alexanderplatz at which numerous speakers took the floor.

The demonstration, with its concluding rally, is a highlight of the democracy movement in the GDR. The idea came about in the New Forum (an oppositional alliance founded in September 1989); Berlin's creative artists took over the implementation and organization. [1]

The organizers registered the event officially, in order to take legal proceedings for the recovery of the basic right to the freedoms of assembly, of expression and of the press, which were anchored in the constitution of the GDR, but never actually granted by the state. A security partnership was agreed upon with the police, who hardly made an appearance. Actors with green and yellow sashes and the inscription »No Violence« acted as supervisors.

»Never before had Berlin experienced so much shared determination, spontaneous imagination and, despite all radicalism, circumspection.« [2] Many demonstrators voiced their annoyance and demands with original, witty banners. Radical reforms were also demanded in the speeches given on Alexanderplatz. »The structures of this society must be changed, if they are to become democratic and socialist. ... Let us create a democratic society, on a legal foundation, which is liable!« (Christoph Hein) [3]

Henning Schaller, one of the organizers, described later: »Even beforehand, there were solid arguments and discrepancies as to who one... should let speak. Speakers like Markus Wolf, Günther Schabowski and Manfred Gerlach were criticized by many. But my opinion was that the spectrum of speakers should be as broad as that which the whole collapsing GDR had to offer ... But then again and again we had to demand the crowd, who flared up at the hard-liners, to let them talk and to listen carefully, because often enough these speakers exposed themselves.« [4]

For the first time, a demonstration for the democracy movement was broadcast live by GDR television, during which one of the commentator's statements was: »The people have overcome their speechlessness«. On the same day, there were large protest rallies in many other cities of the GDR.

»The 4th of November will become a landmark. From now on, the Socialist leadership can no longer side-step the demands of the masses; there's no going back to the old ruling practices.« [5]

Annotations:

[1] Jutta Seidel, founding member of the New Forum. In: Bilderchronik der Wende, ed. by Hannes Bahrmann and Christoph Links, Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 1999, page 36
[2] Hannes Bahrmann, Christoph Links: Chronik der Wende, Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 1994, page 79
[3] Christoph Hein in his speech on 4.11.1989. Website of the German Historical Museum, Berlin
[4] Quoted from: Bilderchronik der Wende, ed. by Hannes Bahrmann and Christoph Links, Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 1999, page 36
[5] Hannes Bahrmann, Christoph Links: Chronik der Wende, Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 1999, page 64

Quotations

Stefan Heym:
»... it is as if one pushed open the window after all the years of stagnation --spiritual, economic, and political-- the years of dullness and mustiness, of phrasemongering and bureaucratic arbitrariness, of official blindness and deafness.« ... »Someone wrote me - and the man is right: In the past weeks we have overcome our speechlessness, and we are now in the process of learning to walk upright.«
Stefan Heym, website of the German Historical Museum, Berlin

Christa Wolf:
»The 'people of the state of the GDR' have hit the street in order to identify themselves as a 'people'. And for me, this is the most important sentence of these past weeks - the thousandfold cry: We - are - the - people! A simple statement. We don't want to forget it.«
Christa Wolf, website of the German Historical Museum, Berlin

Speakers in order of their appearance: (professional activity in November 1989)

Marion van de Kamp (actress)

Johanna Schall (actress)

Ulrich Mühe (actor)

Jan Josef Liefers (actor)

Gregor Gysi (lawyer)

Marianne Birthler (catechist, Initiative for Feedom and Human Rights)

Kurt Demmler (singer, sang the song »Irgendwer ist immer dabei«)

Markus Wolf (colonel-general retd. of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR)

Jens Reich (molecular biologist, founding member of the New Forum)

Manfred Gerlach (chairman of the Liberal-Democratic Party in Germany)

Ekkehard Schall (actor)

Günter Schabowski (first secretary of the District Management of the (East) German United Socialist Party, member of the Politburo)

Stefan Heym (writer)

Friedrich Schorlemmer (theologian)

Christa Wolf (writer)

Tobias Langhoff (actor)

Annekathrin Bürger (actress, sang »Words from a Political Prisoner to Stalin«)

Joachim Tschirner (director of documentary films)

Klaus Baschleben (journalist)

Heiner Müller (writer)

Lothar Bisky (cultural studies scholar, Rector of the Potsdam-Babelsberg Film Academy)

Roland Freitag (student, Humboldt-University Berlin)

Christoph Hein (writer)

Robert Juhoras (student, University Budapest)

Konrad Elmer (lecturer)

Steffi Spira (actress)

What's the tipping point for revolution?

Elizabeth Pond over on the Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article about the similarities – and differences – between East Germany in 1989 and Iran in 2009:

In both cases a robust civil society and middle class that habitually guarded their private sphere by eschewing politics suddenly turned political and challenged an authoritarian power structure. In both cases a mobilizing spark was the insult to citizens in apparent official falsification of formal elections that offered little genuine choice anyway. In both cases the social contract snapped; a wide range of businessmen, technocrats, and young mothers spontaneously joined the protest of elite student malcontents.

Furthermore, both framed their demands in religious terms – calling on the moral authority of the Protestant church in then East Germany, chanting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) nightly in Tehran.

Yet in neither case were the powerful religious or nationalist motives that drive many revolutions a major factor. In Iran both the ruling hierarchy and the demonstrators spoke as Muslims. And nationalism was neutralized as an issue by President Obama's refusal to cheer on the protesters and thus expose them to branding as traitors in service of the Great Satan.

Mikhail Gorbachev meets Egon Krenz

From: The Making the History of 1989 site

Soviet Record of Conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and Egon Krenz

The new General Secretary of the SED, Egon Krenz, traveled to Moscow on November 1, 1989 to meet in person with Gorbachev and assess the situation in East Germany and discuss possible paths forward. Throughout the lengthy meeting, Krenz and Gorbachev spoke openly about the challenges that now faced the GDR. Gorbachev, for the most part, remained hopeful that the new GDR leadership could instigate the necessary reforms that would save the GDR from complete collapse. Here, it is quite interesting to note just how steadfast Gorbachev remained in 1989 to the ideals of socialism and the necessity to defend those ideals against the magnetic appeal of capitalism. Also interesting is the personal nature of Gorgachev's observations about leaders in the East and West.

Egon Krenz was also straightforward in his assessment of the situation in the GDR. Like Gorbachev, Krenz remained optimistic that the GDR could withstand the hardships brought about by reform and emerge from the crisis in a better position. One might note that the German notes from this meeting are far longer and richer in detail than the Soviet notes and that these notes focus more on Gorbachev than Krenz. more here >>

See also the East German notes from this same meeting here.

History from above

I have just finished listening to a BBC progamme How the Wall Fell, in which John Tusa brought together key protagonists of the moves towards the opening of the Berlin Wall and German unity for a reunion discussion about the decisions that led to the 9 November 1989 ... except that there was no one from the GDR there - US, Soviet, British and West German diplomats and politicians got in on the act, but the only person really to mention the role that the people of the GDR themselves had in the events was the British ambassador, who referred to the demonstration in Berlin on 7 October and who said the East German people had played an amazing role in ensuring that the events passed off peacefully (and also who noted that given the state violence in October it was by no means clear whether there would be a peaceful outcome to the events). No one, but no one from the GDR there - neither from the SED side (Schabowski comes to mind, though there are others) nor from the opposition - Markus Meckel who was a co founder of the Social Democratic Party in the GDR and then the foreign minister who was in the 2+4 talks from the GDR side. ... maybe it was just a "technical" problem in that their English wasn't good enough.

A people rise up, and are air brushed out of history ...