The fall of the wall

A tribute to the courageous GDR

The peaceful Revolution of 1989 was not a reversal of above, but the work of many people, the GDR-System have had enough. Your courage is the focus of the Open-Air exhibition on the grounds of the former Stasi Headquarters.

The largest Demonstration in the GDR at the 4. November 1989, the Berlin Alexander Platz

Tom Sello is on the large courtyard between the louder the grey panel buildings. Even on Sunny days, the terrain looks drab. And now it is raining still in torrents. Nevertheless, the East German civil rights activist, is in high spirits. Because he is surrounded by almost 500 photos, posters and cartoons, the exhibition “Revolution and the fall of the wall”. For many years project Manager for Sello has worked to get a permanent location for the historic images. Since Wednesday, they are permanently on the extensive Site of the former Ministry for state security (MfS), short Stasi. Under the open sky, on a two-Meter-high, water-resistant aluminum plates.

It is a beautiful punch line, that this historically contaminated site, now those are appreciated, We are chanting in the autumn of 1989, “the people”. Protesting with your courage everywhere in the GDR, against the dictatorship of the Socialist unity party of Germany (SED). On 9. November 1989 collapsed the long time fluctuating System: The Berlin wall fell. A year later, the Germans celebrated their reunification.

Next Door: The Stasi Museum

Really New is not the panels on the 14 with a total length of nearly 300 metres, to discover. That would be 27 years after the non-violent Revolution is not surprising. And yet, the views, and in the disturbing past, is a completely new experience. Because here, five kilometres from Alexanderplatz square, was the residence of the oppressors of the people. How you did that, you can relate to in the Stasi Museum, whose entrance is located directly next to the Open-Air exhibition.

Project Manager Tom Sello, Minister of state Monika Grütters and the Stasi-files-in-chief Roland Jahn (v. l. n. r.)

“I didn’t want the GDR,” says Tom Sello. At first he did, but also “the West” not wanted. This has changed very quickly, “because I learned after the fall of the wall a lot about the GDR”. About the true background of the failure of the people’s uprising of 17. June 1953. In the Tradition of Sello sees the successful Revolution that took place 36 years later. And he expressly refers to the freedom movements in Eastern European neighboring countries: Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968, Poland in 1980. However, “time and again, the hopes with tanks were destroyed”.

View from below

It was in the GDR at the second attempt differently is also the merit of men like Mikhail Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl. The Soviet state and party chief, as well as the West German Chancellor, would have recognized the “signs of the times” pays tribute to Sello the two. And yet, he always seeks to look at the Revolution from the perspective of a at the end of fearless people, “not from the point of view of state politicians.” When walking through the newly landscaped courtyard of the former Stasi Headquarters that look easy. This also applies to foreign and younger visitors. The Audio Guide is also available in English. Also thought about sub-titling, of the 54 Videos.

An irreverent protester on 7. October 1989, 40. Anniversary of the GDR Foundation

Well over a Million euros have demonstrated flowed in the permanent exhibition, which was shown in a similar Form in 2009 and 2010, on the Alexanderplatz, where a few days before the fall of the wall at least half a Million people against the solidified DDR System.

Around two-thirds of the funding will go to the account of the Minister of state for culture and media, Monika Grütters. The Christian Democrat, proclaimed in the former Stasi Headquarters a for Tom Sello and his Team good news: The
Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft is to be institutionally funded by the Federal government and the state of Berlin. From the collection of this non-governmental Initiative, the most image – and video material of the exhibition originates.

A plea for a freedom monument

All joy of the appreciation of the peaceful Revolution on the authentic site from the perspective of the GDR civil rights activists but a large fly in the ointment. Because since the end of the nineties, the proposed Central monument to German unity is to be erected. This decision has been taken by the budget Committee of the Bundestag, already in mid-April. In contrast, the initiators of the fight, the former President of Parliament, Wolfgang Thierse. The social Democrat, criticized the financial risks justified backing down in Berlin on Wednesday as an “embarrassing disdain for” the freedom revolution of 1989.