A ‘Peaceful Revolution’ That Began in the Streets of Leipzig

This year marks the twelfth anniversary of an extraordinary moment in German history called “The Peaceful Revolution”. The dramatic media images of the Berlin Wall coming down in the autumn of 1989 have led many perhaps to assume that the origins of the famous revolution against the communist regime of Erich Honecker began in Berlin.

But the cradle of the Peaceful Revolution is not Berlin but the Saxon City of Leipzig. During the 1980’s, after years of financial mismanagement of the city and environmental neglect of the rivers and nearby coal mines, whole sections of this historic town had become dilapidated, the economy depressed.

By 1982, citizens had begun to gather for prayers and silent protests at the St. Nicolas Church in Leipzig every Monday afternoon at 5. Accounts vary as to what specific event sparked the events that led to the collapse of the government. Some believe that it all started in 1968 when a beloved Leipzig church was blown up by the Communist leadership without public debate. There were small protests even back then that were extremely risky and some paid for their courage by being jailed for several years. But the Peaceful Revolution of 1989 was started by an accumulation of events. These included the banning in East Germany of a Soviet magazine that reported on liberalizing changes in Soviet society that had been initiated by President Gorbachov, alleged ballot-tampering in local elections, and the violent suppression in May by Chinese government authorities of students rallying for democracy in Beijing’s Tienamen Square.

When an indirect way to the West was discovered, about 10,000 East German citizens began streaming out of Germany to Hungary and Austria in the summer of 1989. On September 26th, about 8,000 people took to the streets of Leipzig forming a ring around the city center to demand democratic change. On October 7th, the 40th anniversary of the founding of the German Democratic Republic, police used water cannons and rubber truncheons against the protesters while the state-controlled media referred to them as criminals.

By October 9th, the crowd of protesters grew to nearly 70,000 showing that it was possible to express their frustrations about political and social conditions without provoking violent confrontations with police.

With cries of “We are the people!” and “STASI – Get out of here!” the number of protesters grew in Leipzig to about 500,000 demonstrators by early November while similar non-violent marches took place in other cities, such as Jena, Berlin and Dresden.

A month later, the right to free travel which had been denied them for decades became a reality for East Germans when the Communist rulers were forced to open the Berlin Wall on November 9th.

The Peaceful Revolution began as a criticism of state policies within socialist society. But the participants soon realized that democratic change could not be expected from a system that was not democratic in the first place. The history of two separate German states formally ended on October 3, 1990. Leipzigers are justly proud of the seminal role they played in helping bring about the historic reunification of their country.—