AboutPrivacyLogin/RegisterDeutsch

Exhibition theme: A Semblance of Normalcy: FDJ torchlight procession [3/19]

OBJECT INFORMATION

Info

October 6 1989
Berlin, Unter den Linden
Created By: Merit Schambach

License: Creative Commons License

From the Set

FDJ Torchlight Procession, East Berlin, 6 October 1989

Participants with giant flags at a FDJ (Free German Youth) torchlight procession to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the GDR

Depicts

banner (flag), crowd, torchlight procession

Context

ambulance man, aversion, October 7, 1989, photographer, political party, school

People/Organizations

Free German Youth

Places

Unter den Linden

Other items in this set

Many people who experienced the final summer of SED rule in East Germany recall how fragile reality seemed at the time. The incongruity between the way normal citizens experienced reality and the way it was perceived by GDR leaders was all too apparent. People were increasingly articulating this discrepancy. Minor concessions, as in the case of travel, for instance, were intended to improve the mood within the population. Rising protest against living conditions continued to be nipped in the bud. That summer nobody could have imagined that the dream of freedom would soon be reality.