Exhibition theme: Protest and Flight: The demonstration at Hauptmarkt [49/56]
OBJECT INFORMATION
Info
October 29 1989
Gotha, Hauptmarkt/Berg
Created By:
Archiv Eckardt HoffmannLicense: Not Creative Commons
From the Set
From the Set
Mass rally at the central marketplace in Gotha; city council headquarters, City Hall, in the background
Depicts
child,
city hall,
crowd,
demonstration,
market place,
signboardChristian Church,
crowd,
freedom,
functionaries,
market place,
reform,
turning pointPeople/Organizations
Ministry for State Security,
People's PolicePlaces
GothaOther items in this set
Ultimately, it was the citizens of the GDR themselves who brought down the SED regime. From the summer of 1989 on, thousands of East Germans tried to flee to the West across the Hungarian-Austrian border and via the West German embassies in Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw. In East Germany itself, ever greater numbers of people supported the demands of the citizens' movements for free elections, freedom of the press, and freedom to travel, despite their fear of state repression. In October, mass protests, which now involved hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, spread across the entire country. Aware that their protest could no longer be stopped, people increasingly felt a desire to capture events on film.
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