East Germany: Fall of Communism (1989)


Figure 1.--As DDR leader Erich Honecker steadfastly maintained hard-line Communist police state policies, the Communist workld around him began to crumble. AndcEast Germans began to flee through Czechoslovakia and Hungary where Communist regimes were teetering. Here East Germans are seeking santuary in the West German Embassy in Prague. The prress caoption read, "A three year old boy looks through the fence of the of the West German embassy in Prague Sept. 29 while some of the 2,600 East German refugees expect their exodus from the embassy's ground in Czechoslovakia to West Germany."

The Cold War for all practical purposes ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the Communist satellite governments in Eastern Europe. It all occurred with unbelieveable speed in 1989. Most Europeans believed that Soviet control of Wastern Europe, especially East Germany, would last for decades probably becoming permanent. The process began in Poland where the Soviets had neither supressed Polish nationalism or the Cathiolic Church. Poland was the largest of the satellite countries and had a long border with East Germany. Poland would be the country which sparked the end of communism in central and eastern Europe and the Solidarność (Solidarity) movement was behind it. Solidarność was a worker movement led by Lech Wałęsa. It was founded after a wave of worker strikes (1980). This began after a 10 year struggle ended the Communist regieme in Poland. The people of Estern Europe might have acceopted the denial of city liberties if the Communists had delivered prosperity. But the infefficiencies of Socialist economics meant that they could not and this first bubbled to the surface in Poland where the Catholic Church had resisted the Communists from the beginning. In Poland the historic Round Table Agreement was signed legalising Solidarity and setting up partly free parliamentary elections (April 4, 1989). The victory of Solidarity would surpass all predictions. That was the proverbial hole in the dike because Soviet General Secretary Gorbechev did not order in the Red Army as earlier Soviet leaders had done. The Berlin Wall still stood and Poland to the East did not provide a way west for East Germans, but holes to the West in the Iron Curtain began to open. Hungary started dismantling its barbed wire border with Austria (May 2). This opened the first hole west. And East Germans began using it. Some 30,000 East Germans used the route West. Then DDR authirities began closing the border to Hungary (end of September). This left Czechoslovakia) as the only way out. Thousands of East Germans tried to reach the West by occupying the West German diplomatic facilities in Central and Eastern European capitals. This was the case in Prague because the Czech-DDR border was still open. Thousands ofEast Germans camped in the muddy garden hoping to get exit papers (August to November). The DDR closed the Czech border (October 3). This mean that the DDR had isolated itself from all of its neigbors. The result was not what hard line East German leader Erich Honecker wanted. East German protests to his regime escalated. They were not yet massive, but they were increasing. The Stazi arrested and beat people, but the demostrators were not intimidated and they only escalated. Honecker issued a shoot and kill order. Mikhail Gorbachev visited East Germany to mark the 40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic (October 6-7) and urged the East German leadership to accept reform. A famous quote of his is rendered in German as "Wer zu spät kommt, den bestraft das Leben" (He who is too late is punished by life). Honecker continued to resist meningful. Amazingly, he even forbade the circulation of Soviet publications that he viewed as subversive. He continued to hope for last miniture Soviet military intervention and there were still substantial Soviet forces starion in the DDR. . Finaly it was the DDR Communist Party (SED) that cracked. The growing protests which were now becoming massive, casued the SED to depose Honecker (October 18). His deputy, Egon Krenz replaced him. The demonstrations continued growing. DDR officials reopened the border with Czechoslovakia (November 1) and the Czech authorities began letting East Germans just driuve straight through with their Trebbies to Wesr Germany. The Czech Communists had their own problemds s the Velvet Revolution began to unfold. Back in the DDR, Krenz was faced with a massive demonstration in Alexanderplatz -- more than half a million people (November 4). As East German crowds converged on the Wall (November 9), German Communist officials wanted to use force to supress them. Gorbachev made it clear, however, that the Soviet forces in Germany would not support such actions. As a result, the East Germans demonstrators surged through the check points in the Wall and crowds on both sides were soon desmantling the hated Communist Wall. Other Eastern European Communist Governments quickly fell like a giant set of dominoes. Most collapsed peacefully, exccept in Romania where Nikolai Cesecasneu ordered his security forces to fire on surging crowds. He was executed a few days later after a perfunctory trial. What virtually no one at the time realized, least of all Gorbachev that the firces he unleased in Eastern Europe woul rick ghe Soviet Union itself. The capstone to the end of the Cold War was the disolution of the Soviet Union (end of 1991).






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Created: 11:52 PM 7/1/2018
Last updated: 11:52 PM 7/1/2018