I did not allow myself to be beaten up by the police in front of the Nikolaikirche on Mondays, nor did I join the big protest march to shout ‘No violence!’ particularly forcefully in front of the ‘Runde Ecke’ (the seat of Leipzig’s Stasi headquarters).
My timely discharge from the combat group saved me from having to hold the peacefully demonstrating people at bay with a loaded machine gun.
For me, good and evil, right, and wrong were so close together. I had already fought for democratic co-determination when many of the young demonstrators had not even been born yet.
However, almost always without success and mostly to my personal disadvantage. Where should revolutionary enthusiasm come from?
I fully agreed with the demands for freedom of travel and democratic participation, but my experience told me that it was too late to push through a few reforms.
People expected more and associated freedom of travel with the hope of an early reunification of the two German states. This was precisely the reason why the politburo of the German Socialist Unity Party kept delaying the approval of the freedom to travel, despite enormous popular pressure.
The ousting of the Chairman of the Council of State, Erich Honecker, on October 18, 1989, was intended to feign a political course correction and reassure the people. In reality, this clever move served to buy time for the consolidation of ailing power.
The Politburo was aware that immediate approval of unrestricted freedom to travel would give all GDR citizens the opportunity to personally experience the high standard of living in the Federal Republic.
This would lead to people wanting to share in the prosperity after years of scarcity, and they would therefore demand reunification and the introduction of the deutschmark.
But for the economically bankrupt GDR, reunification on an equal footing was impossible and would have been tantamount to unconditional surrender.
My feeling resisted this idea, because the hardworking people of the GDR did not deserve such a humiliating downfall.
Even without Marshall Plan aid, ambitious landscape and industrial projects were realized, including the Rappbode Dam, the Rostock harbor, the large power plants in Lusatia, the Druzhba route and many other projects.
For 40 long years, the Republic had also shaped my life. Despite countless political controversies, a simple working-class boy became an academic.
Such a development, coupled with years of work and experience, cannot simply be brushed off like a dirty shirt. But the political and economic reality prevailing at the time did not suggest any alternative. The historic downfall of the GDR seemed inevitable.
At a press conference on November 9, 1989, the Central Committee Secretary for Information (roughly comparable to a government spokesperson) of the German Socialist Unity Party Günter Schabowski finally announced unrestricted freedom of travel for all citizens of the GDR.
That was exactly one month to the day after the peaceful revolution in Leipzig. But since Schabowski had not specified the effective date, a reporter present at the meeting followed up with the question of when the law was to take effect.
Schabowski hesitated for a moment, looked at his notes and replied: ‘As I read it, without delay, starting now.’
This statement spread like wildfire. That same evening, thousands of Berliners flocked by car or on foot to the official border crossings and demanded that the barriers be opened to West Berlin.
But the border guards refused, as they were not informed about the events of the press conference.
Tumultuous scenes ensued and finally the border guards had to give in to the pressure of the highly visible crowd. 𝓣𝓸 𝓑𝓮 𝓒𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓮𝓭…
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