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Demonstration against the single ticket voting system, Leipzig, May 7 1989: Local election day in East Germany [1/19]

OBJECT INFORMATION

Info

May 7 1989
Leipzig
Created By: Roland Quester, Quelle: BStU

License: Creative Commons License

From the Set

Exhibition theme: A Semblance of Normalcy

Depicts

advertising column, car, child, group of people, police, vehicle

Context

arrest, camera, fair, local election, protest, surveillance

People/Organizations

Ministry for State Security, People's Police

Places

Leipzig

Other items in this set

Memory

"The photos were taken in inner-city Leipzig on the day of the last local elections in East Germany 1989. There had been an appeal for people to make a clear show of their protest against the single ticket voting system by taking their ballot cards to Leipziger Markt. Those who did were meant to thereby use them as proof that they had not voted. Naturally the government body got hold of the flyers announcing the appeal and promptly organized for a fair to be held on Leipziger Markt the same day. They sent a tremendous amount of plain-clothed Stasi to the inner-city (many equipped with video and photographic gear) and riot police were ready and waiting in the side streets. I tried to document all of that. Then at some point, while taking pictures of a Stasi arrest, they realized that my camera and I did not belong to them but to the others and they arrested me. My films were confiscated and are currently located at the BStU [Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives]."

Roland Quester