Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig (1989): East Germany's Protests

The Monday demonstrations in Leipzig were a series of peaceful protest marches in East Germany that began in September 1989 after weekly peace prayers at the city’s Nikolaikirche (St Nicholas Church). On 9 October 1989 about 70,000 people marched through the city under the threat of a violent crackdown, and the security forces held back. That evening is widely seen as the turning point of East Germany’s Peaceful Revolution, which led within weeks to the opening of the Berlin Wall.

Background

The German Democratic Republic (GDR), or East Germany, was a communist state closely tied to the Soviet Union. It was ruled from 1971 by Erich Honecker and enforced conformity through the Stasi, a vast secret police network. Unlike Poland and Hungary, the GDR leadership refused to follow Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms in the late 1980s.

The Protestant churches were among the few places where people could meet with some freedom. Since the early 1980s the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig had held peace prayers every Monday evening, supported by the pastor Christian Führer. Over time they attracted environmentalists, human rights activists and people who wished to leave the country.

In 1989 discontent sharpened. Opposition groups showed that the local elections of May 1989 had been falsified. In the summer, thousands of East Germans fled west through Hungary, which had begun opening its border with Austria. Many of those who remained wanted change at home rather than escape, and they began to say so openly.

The first marches

On 4 September 1989, after the first peace prayer following the summer break, a small group unfurled banners in the square outside the church calling for “an open country with free people”. Stasi officers tore them down, but Western television crews, in Leipzig for the autumn trade fair, filmed the scene.

In the following weeks the crowds grew. On 25 September several thousand people marched onto the ring road around the city centre, and on 2 October the number reached an estimated 10,000 to 20,000. Police made arrests and used force. Protesters chanted “We are staying here” and “We are the people” (Wir sind das Volk), a slogan that challenged the regime’s claim to rule in the people’s name.

9 October 1989

Tension peaked after the GDR celebrated its 40th anniversary on 7 October, when police in East Berlin and other cities beat and arrested hundreds of protesters. In Leipzig, the authorities prepared for the next Monday. Thousands of police officers, members of the factory militias known as combat groups and soldiers were mobilised. Hospitals were reportedly told to prepare extra beds and blood supplies, and many people feared a repetition of the violence used against protesters in Beijing that June.

On the afternoon of 9 October, peace prayers were held in the Nikolaikirche and other city churches. An appeal for non-violence and dialogue, signed by the Gewandhaus conductor Kurt Masur, the theologian Peter Zimmermann, the cabaret artist Bernd-Lutz Lange and three local Communist Party secretaries, was read out in the churches and broadcast over the city’s loudspeakers.

About 70,000 people then marched around the ring road, chanting “No violence!” (Keine Gewalt!) and “We are the people”. No order to open fire came, and the security forces did not intervene. Two East Berlin activists, Siegbert Schefke and Aram Radomski, secretly filmed the march from a church tower, and their footage was smuggled out and shown on West German television the next day. Because many East Germans watched Western channels, news of the peaceful march spread across the country.

From protest to revolution

After 9 October the protests grew rapidly in Leipzig and spread to other cities. Crowds in Leipzig rose to well over 100,000 later in October, and estimates for some November marches are in the hundreds of thousands. On 18 October Honecker was forced out and replaced by Egon Krenz, who promised dialogue but was widely distrusted.

On 4 November a vast rally filled Alexanderplatz in East Berlin. Five days later, on 9 November, the fall of the Berlin Wall followed a confused announcement of new travel rules. The Monday marches in Leipzig continued, but their mood changed. From late November the slogan “We are one people” (Wir sind ein Volk) increasingly replaced “We are the people”, as calls for German unity grew louder.

Leipzig’s example was quickly copied. Monday marches and similar protests took place in Dresden, Halle, Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz), Plauen and many smaller towns, and opposition groups such as New Forum, founded in September 1989, gained tens of thousands of supporters within weeks.

The demonstrations continued into early 1990, with the last of the series held in March, shortly before the first free elections to the East German parliament on 18 March 1990.

Why the regime did not shoot

Historians have long asked why the security forces held back on 9 October. One factor was sheer numbers: the crowd was far larger than the authorities had expected, and putting it down would have required a massacre. Local officials in Leipzig, unable to obtain clear instructions from East Berlin, chose to avoid bloodshed, and the three party secretaries who signed the appeal for calm acted without approval from above.

The international situation mattered too. Soviet troops stationed in East Germany were ordered to stay in their barracks, and Gorbachev, who had visited East Berlin for the anniversary celebrations days earlier, had made clear that Moscow would not back a violent crackdown. Many in the East German leadership also feared the political and economic consequences of a “Chinese solution” in the heart of Europe.

Key people

Christian Führer (1943–2014), pastor of the Nikolaikirche, kept the church open to all comers under the motto “open to all”.

Kurt Masur (1927–2015), chief conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, lent his prestige to the 9 October appeal for calm.

Erich Honecker (1912–1994) led the GDR until 18 October 1989. His successor Egon Krenz later claimed credit for preventing violence on 9 October, a claim many historians treat with scepticism.

Legacy

Leipzig became known in Germany as the “city of heroes” (Heldenstadt) for the courage of its citizens. A column modelled on the palm-topped pillars inside the Nikolaikirche was erected on the church square in 1999 as a memorial to the Peaceful Revolution. Each year on 9 October the city holds a Festival of Lights to commemorate the march.

The phrase “Monday demonstration” entered the German language and has since been borrowed by many later protest movements, sometimes controversially. Historians see the Leipzig marches as proof that mass peaceful protest, combined with the regime’s unwillingness to shoot, could bring down a dictatorship.

Timeline

• 1989, 7 May: Local elections take place; activists document vote rigging.
• 1989, 4 September: Protesters display banners outside the Nikolaikirche after the Monday peace prayer.
• 1989, 2 October: An estimated 10,000 to 20,000 march in Leipzig.
• 1989, 7 October: The GDR’s 40th anniversary is marked by police violence against protesters.
• 1989, 9 October: About 70,000 march peacefully around Leipzig’s ring road.
• 1989, 18 October: Erich Honecker is replaced by Egon Krenz.
• 1989, 9 November: The Berlin Wall is opened.
• 1990, 18 March: East Germany holds its first free parliamentary election.

Why it matters

The Monday demonstrations turned private discontent into a public movement that the East German state could no longer control. Coming 36 years after the crushed East German uprising of 1953, they were a key part of the revolutions of 1989 and opened the road to German reunification in October 1990.