Title: 4-11-89 Protestdemonstration Berlin DDR
Photographer(s): Various photographers
Writer(s): Annegret Hahn, Gisela Pucher, Henning Schaller, Lothar Scharsich
Designer(s): Erik Spekermann, Hans-Werner Holzwarth,Anja Nienstedt, Alexander Nagel
Publisher(s): Henschelverlag Kunst und Gesellschaft, DDR Berlin, Germany
Year: 1990
Print run:
Language(s): German
Pages: 224
Size: 20 x 29 cm
Binding: Softcover
Edition:
Print: Zimex, Leipzig, Germany
Nation(s) and year(s) of Protest: ex DDR Germany,1989
ISBN: 3362004733
The shop stewards of the Berlin theatre had mobilized for a demonstration for the contents of Articles 27 (freedom of expression) and 28 (freedom of assembly) of the GDR constitution; almost half a million East Berliners responded to the call on 4 November 1989. Not since 17 June 1953 had the "capital of the GDR" seen such a huge rally, not organized by the SED. The book is dedicated to "those who had the courage before 4.11.89 and stood up against state despotism, ignorance and depravity". It documents the prehistory of the demonstration, the imaginative variety of demands ("Grandmother, why do you have such big teeth?" - under a caricature of Egon Krenz with a bonnet, "Without visas from Berlin to Pisa") and also the wording of the thirty rally contributions (by Gregor Gysi, Markus Wolf, Jens Reich, Günter Schabowski, Stefan Heym and Christa Wolf, among others). In particular, the wish of Steffi Spira, the last speaker, came true: "I wish for my great-grandchildren that they grow up without flag roll call, without civic education and that no blue shirts with torches pass by the high people.