Inside History: Protest. Revolt & Reform

WIR SIND
DAS
VOLK!
WE
ARE
THE
PEOPLE!
Monday demonstration in Leipzig, 16 October 1989
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0922-002 / Friedrich Gahlbeck / CC-BY-SA 3.0.
As the International guests and delegates drank their
champagne in the Palace of the Republic to celebrate
the 40th anniversary of the GDR, there was something
more serious stirring in the country. The voices of
reform were getting louder as the Soviet Union was
tittering on the edge. In Hungary, the government had
began to dismantle its border fence with Austria. The
first gap in the Iron Curtain had opened and with it
came a desire for more freedoms. Czechoslovakia
would soon follow. Those gaps within the curtain
would encourage many from the GDR to travel to
those regions in the hope of finally getting to the west.
Change was happening and yet in eyes of the GDR
officials, it was simply ignored. They had controlled so
much of people’s lives during their 40 years that, in
their minds, that this was simply just another political
game. Small concessions were of course being made
in an attempt to appease the restlessness but what
GDR officials miscalculated was that their numbers
had swelled.
The champagne that flowed that day within those
walls could not wash down what was really
happening. Those within the Palace might have been
We are here to claim our
right as women, not only
to be free, but to fight for
freedom. That it is our
right as well as our duty.
treated to the finer facades that comes to those in
positions of power but in reality, the GDR was
crumbling beneath them. Little did they know just
over a month later, the socialist dream that they had
concocted over their 40 years in power would soon
come tumbling down. They may have not have
60 INSIDE HISTORY