Civil action the catalyst for ending communism

The Berlin Wall started to fall in.......Leipzig

The collapse of the communist bloc began 20 years’ ago today on October 9 1989, sparked by the “civil courage” of non-violent demonstrators in Leipzig, facing what many feared could become a bloodbath of violent repression.

Elizabeth Pond describes the portentous evening’s events:

At the time, many in both East and West Germany feared that although détente was blossoming in Europe, an anachronistic hard-line East German hierarchy might hang on for a long time (on the pattern, say, of North Korea today). The Stasi – whose ranks maintained a much higher ratio in proportion to the population than Hitler’s SS ever enjoyed – still held tight control. And East German citizens still shared with the Bulgarians the reputation of being the most quiescent people in the Soviet bloc.

…. On Oct. 7 and 8, security forces had detained several thousand demonstrators in Leipzig, Dresden, and East Berlin on the occasion of the GDR’s gala 40th anniversary. In Leipzig, the watchdogs, tone-deaf to history, had even rehearsed plans to intern thousands of dissidents in new concentration camps.

Hospitals had been stocked with extra blood plasma in preparation for a Monday-night clash, and Leipzigers knew it. The city’s security contingents, reinforced to 8,000 – only 2,000 short of the record turnout of 10,000 peace watchers the previous Monday – had been issued live ammunition and ordered to use whatever means were required to suppress the “counterrevolution,” the most serious crime in the Communist books.

RTWT.