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Around 70,000 people took to the streets in Leipzig in the early evening of October 9, 1989 to demonstrate against the SED dictatorship and for freedom. “We are the people” was the slogan that emanated from that evening and became the motto of the entire Peaceful Revolution.
This Monday demonstration in Leipzig in October has since been considered a decisive turning point on the way from the GDR to a unified Germany. But is this common picture correct? Jens Schöne, a historian with an East German biography, has his doubts. In himself an expert on rural regions in East Germany, he has also written several books on the popular uprising in 1953, the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and the Peaceful Revolution.
Jens Schöne is a historian and GDR expert
Source: Fanny Heidenreich
WORLD:
In the usual interpretation, October 9, 1989 marks the decisive breakthrough of the Peaceful Revolution.
You are skeptical about that.
Why?
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Jens Schöne:
Because nothing has changed significantly.
What was different on the morning of October 10th than the day before?
Erich Honecker had not resigned, and certainly not the SED Politburo.
The sole claim to leadership of this party remained in Article 1 of the constitution.
All security forces were still armed to the teeth.
Yes, it was non-violent that evening.
And the images that Western television broadcast of the demonstration had a big impact.
But nothing was decided.
WORLD:
What you say has been known for a long time.
How did the opposite interpretation nevertheless come to dominate?
A sign on the motorway (here taken in the city center) advertises Leipzig as a place of the Peaceful Revolution
Source: picture alliance / dpa
Schöne:
Leipzig and the protagonists there recognized very early on that history is valuable in many ways.
Nowhere else have the events around the October days of 1989 been marketed so strongly and so permanently, and have been so since the beginning of the 1990s.
That left traces and interpretations.
I do not judge this marketing at all.
But I do think that it should be mentioned precisely because it influences our view of history.
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WORLD:
Which event do you consider decisive if it wasn't the Leipzig demonstration on October 9, 1989?
Schöne:
No revolution is decided in a single day.
This was not the case in France in 1789 or in Russia in 1917.
Still, there are days that stand out.
This certainly includes October 9, 1989, but also November 9, the day the Berlin Wall came down.
Suddenly the borders were open and people could leave the GDR unhindered.
This fundamentally changed the framework, and the consequences could hardly be foreseen.
Even now not everything was decided, but it was clear that a historic turning point had just occurred.
"We don't want violence! We want change!"
can be read on one of the very few banners that demonstrators show on October 9, 1989 in Leipzig
Source: picture-alliance / dpa
WORLD:
If we look back over the entire Peaceful Revolution after 30 years - was it actually likely that the bloodless overthrow of the SED dictatorship succeeded and that unification would come in less than a year?
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Schöne:
This question can be answered very easily: No.
What may seem logical from today's point of view, was by no means back then.
Nobody could have guessed that it would remain non-violent.
To this day we don't even know exactly why it remained non-violent.
And you mustn't forget: when state unification appeared possible at the end of 1989, everyone involved assumed a process that would take years.
WORLD:
How surprising was the collapse of the GDR?
In the West, at least, that wasn't expected, was it?
After the Monday prayer in the Nikolaikirche, more than 70,000 people demonstrated on the Leipziger Ring
Source: picture alliance / Volkmar Heinz
Schöne:
There were model calculations that the US State Department had been doing since the late 1970s.
It predicted the collapse of the Eastern Bloc pretty accurately, both in terms of timing and manner.
But hardly anyone believed in it or acted accordingly.
Especially not in the Federal Republic.
German-German normality had long since set in, and it seemed to be eternal.
Therefore, by the way, there were no reliable plans for an emergency.
We can still feel that today.
WORLD:
And in the east?
Schöne:
The overall situation was very similar.
However, we haven't even noticed a lot until today.
As early as April 1989 the fire brigade of a small Brandenburg village sang in public: “Now we are tearing down the wall, Germany will be unified.” At the beginning of 1989, the Ministry for State Security knew that the GDR would no longer owe its debts to the West in 1990 at the latest would be able to pay.
Unrest in the population was also expected.
These are just two examples of many that should be considered when we talk about 1989.
The demonstrators jammed in front of the Leipzig Opera House on October 9, 1989
Source: picture alliance / Volkmar Heinz
WORLD: In
your opinion, how would an appropriate appreciation of the Leipzig Monday demonstration look in the German historical consciousness in the future?
Schöne:
It's not as if this day is not recognized.
Look what's going on in Leipzig today alone.
I am convinced: October 9, 1989 will keep its permanent place in our historical consciousness - and that is right.
Tens of thousands streamed into the city that evening, it remained peaceful, the images spread via western television.
All of this was not without consequences, which also reached far beyond Leipzig.
People actively fought for democracy and risked a lot.
That alone justifies adequate remembering.
Especially nowadays.
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Jens Schöne: “The GDR. A history of the 'workers and farmers state' ”(BerlinStory Verlag. 288 pp., 19.80 euros).
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This article was first published in 2019.