The GDR Intelligentsia and its Forgotten Political Role during the Wende of 1989

摘要

The “fall of the Berlin Wall” is one of the great images of the last century. But the main outcome of this event, the unification of Germany, was not the only possible future in that time. Autumn 1989 in GDR was a historically open situation. Two of the four collective actors in the late GDR did not want to end their state but transform it into a renewed democratic one. The article aims to explain mainly the actions of the reform-oriented intelligentsia of the GDR in that situation. Its role was forgotten due to the historical narrative that became hegemonic after 1989 in the new Germany.