Alexanderplatz demonstration

In early October 1989, East German authorities celebrated the 40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic. At the same time, they had to face increasing protests across the country and a mass exodus of their citizens to West Germany via Hungary and the West German embassies in Prague and Warsaw. On 18 October, reformist members of the Politburo forced Erich Honecker to resign as the chair of the council of state and general secretary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED). He was replaced by the slightly less hardline Egon Krenz, who became the new party leader and the chair of the council of state a few days later. In his inaugural address, he used the term Die Wende (lit. turnaround) and promised political reforms. He later ordered the cessation of all police actions against protesters and reopened the previously closed border to Czechoslovakia. A few days later, on 23 October, more than 300,000 people joined the Monday demonstration in Leipzig, and many more at other protests throughout the country. The Alexanderplatz demonstration was the first officially permitted demonstration in East Germany that was organized by individuals and not by the authorities. The first idea for a demonstration on the Alexanderplatz in the center of the capital of East Germany came from actors and employees of theaters in East Berlin, who had been struck by the assaults on peaceful protesters by the Volkspolizei and the Stasi during the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of East Germany on 7 October 1989. On 15 October 1989 at 11 am, an assembly of actors and employees of theaters in East Berlin met at the Deutsches Theater and decided to hold a demonstration for democratization and against the East German government. It was not the first meeting as on 7 October, the 40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic, actors of the Volksbühne had invited their colleagues to discuss the political situation. The application for a permit to hold a demonstration was submitted two days later to the authorities by Wolfgang Holz of the Berliner Ensemble. The application was met with confusion by the SED and Stasi who could not decide whether to ban, allow or subvert the planned demonstration. After long deliberations the authorities decided on 26 October to permit the demonstration. A list of speakers was prepared by the organizers, including representatives of the regime, members of the opposition and artists. ==Demonstration==

On 4 November 1989 the demonstration started at 9:30 with a protest march to Alexanderplatz in the center of East Berlin. At 11:00 the first protesters arrived at the Alexanderplatz. The more than 500,000 protesters came not only from East Berlin but from all over East Germany. Thousands of banners showed the slogans that were already used by hundred of thousands of protesters in other East German cities during the still illegal Monday demonstrations. Neither the opening of the Berlin Wall nor a possible German reunification were among the demands. Instead the protesters concentrated on the democratization of East Germany, with references to paragraphs 27 and 28 of the East German constitution which in theory but not in practice guaranteed freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. ==Banners==

The most often and commonly used protest slogan of the Monday demonstrations as well as the Alexanderplatz demonstration was "We are the people" () which became "We are one people" () after the fall of the Berlin Wall, thus changing the nature of the demonstrations. Many other slogans and banners have been documented by photographs and by an exhibition in the Deutsches Historisches Museum: • "Change without ifs and buts" ("Wende ohne wenn und aber") • "Civil rights not only on paper" ("Bürgerrechte nicht nur auf Papier") • "Rehabilitate Robert Havemann" ("Rehabilitiert Robert Havemann") • "Privileges for all" ("Privilegien für alle") • "Socialism yes, Egon no" ("Sozialismus ja, Egon nein") • "No lies – new people" ("Keine Lügen – neue Leute") • "New thinking in old heads?" ("Neues Denken in alten Köpfen?") • "Democracy for the SED" ("Demokratie für die SED") • "No Nazi-methods in the penal system" ("Keine Nazimethoden im Strafvollzug") • "Open house at Wandlitz" ("Tag der offenen Tür in Wandlitz") • "Independent labor union!" ("Unabhängige Gewerkschaft!") • "40 years are enough" ("40 Jahre sind genug") ==Commemorations==

In early 1990 banners of the demonstration were used to decorate and cover the exhibits of the by then politically outdated permanent exhibition "Socialist mother country GDR" at the Deutsches Historisches Museum. In mid-1994 banners and other artifacts of the demonstration were permanently added to the collection of the museum and were shown in an exhibition on the Alexanderplatz demonstration. The banners were preserved by Henning Schaller, stage designer at the Maxim-Gorki-Theater, who asked participants to leave the banners so that they could be collected for an art exhibition. ==Notes==