Скачать или смотреть Backstage GDR - Episode 5: Opposition and Peaceful Revolution

How does a dictatorship collapse when its people lose their fear? What happens when decades of repression and control are met with peaceful resistance? How did ordinary citizens bring down the SED regime without violence?

In the autumn of 1989, the GDR was on the brink of change. The economy was in ruins, the surveillance state was losing its grip, and growing opposition groups were demanding freedom. Inspired by protests in other Eastern Bloc countries, more and more people took to the streets. The Stasi monitored, threatened, and arrested—yet the movement grew stronger. The turning point came on October 9th in Leipzig, when 70,000 people defied the regime. Weeks later, on November 9, the unimaginable happened: the Berlin Wall fell. The SED’s rule collapsed, and in March 1990, the first free elections sealed the end of the dictatorship. This episode tells the story of courage, resistance, and the peaceful revolution that led to German unity.

“Backstage GDR” is a video series by the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in East Germany, offering insights into the history of the GDR and everyday life under its regime. Through eyewitness interviews, historical film footage, and photographs—along with narrators who provide clear explanations—the series presents key areas of the communist dictatorship in the GDR, from education and the economy to repression and resistance, in an accessible format.

GDR, EastGermany, DDR, socialism, dictatorship, repression, surveillance, censorship, history, Germanhistory, BerlinWall, ColdWar, socialism, stasi