In the fall of 1989, the violent suppression of protests
in many cities in the GDR, which advocated for more democracy
and human rights, was in the air.
One reason for this was the repeated shoulder-to-shoulder contact
that the SED government sought with its comrades in Beijing.
And many people were afraid that the SED government
would intervene violently in demonstrations.
And there was a good reason for that,
because the SED government, or the GDR, was
the first state in the world to officially approve
the Tiananmen Square massacre in early June 1989.
In addition, over the course of the year
or the summer of 1989 and the autumn of 1989
multiple trips of GDR, SED and ZK members took place,
which were just quite demonstratively to show solidarity
with the brutal action in Beijing.
And the opposition in the GDR naturally felt
that this was a threatening gesture to themselves,
so to speak, and to their own country.
And therefore this scenario
was quite realistic for many people, especially since
Erich Mielke, the Minister for State Security,
still said at the end of September:
"Consistency and toughness. This is the only way
to safeguard socialism in the GDR.”
The 40th anniversary of the founding of the GDR
on October 7, 1989, developed into a tipping point
from the already existing social crisis
to a manifested dictatorship crisis.
Because that evening, many people,
especially young people,
protested in East Berlin and also in other cities
like Plauen, and were massively attacked there by the police
and other state security forces.
There were many arrests in East Berlin.
And against this background, it is really a stroke of luck
in German history that the revolution
passed off peacefully in the course of the fall of 1989.