20 Years Ago: Monday Demonstrations
About 20 years ago the so called Monday Demonstrations in East Germany took place. They began in Dresden on October 4, 1989 and spread among other towns in the GDR. At first there were only few demonstrants and the government was able to stop them with police, but within only one or two weeks the number of participants has increased a lot.
On October 9, 1989 there were 70,000 demonstrants in Leipzig and one week later 120,000 people were counted. Another week later even 320,000 citizens participated. Due to this enormous masses, the state was not able to suppress the demonstrations anymore. Since the responsible persons did not want to carry the guilt of a bloody massacre, they called on the army to use violence only for defense.
The aim of the demonstrant were democratic rights and an end of violence. You have to know that the GDR did not really care about basic rights, e.g. they used dubious interrogation methods leading to confession of anybody. Later, the demands have been extended to the unity of Germany.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
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