title: The East German revolution of 1989
abstract: Until 1989, Communist rule in East Germany seemed perdurable, buttressed by a Wall which SED leader Erich Honecker promised would still be standing a century later. Popular revolt seemed doomed to fail. From June 1953—the date of a workers' uprising—until 1989, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) suffered a dearth of collective protest. For decades ordinary East Germans had been denied any say in public life, any influence on political power. From the mid-1970s onwards, East Germany suffered al