Exhibition theme: Protest and Flight: Force is used against protesters [31/56]
OBJECT INFORMATION
Info
October 7 1989
Berlin, Dimitroffstraße, now Danziger Straße
Created By:
Nikolaus BeckerLicense: Not Creative Commons
From the Set
Force is used against demonstrators during a protest in East Berlin on the 40th anniversary of the GDR.
Depicts
crowd,
demonstration,
force,
night,
October 7, 1989celebration,
crowd,
demonstration,
force,
joy,
local election,
photographer,
prime minister,
vehiclePeople/Organizations
Free German Youth,
Ministry for State Security,
People's PolicePlaces
Alexanderplatz,
Berlin Gethsemanekirche,
Palace of the RepublicOther 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.
