resistance groups

• reasons for protest

  • Many in the GDR saw the reforms being made in the USSR as an opportunity to protest about elements of the SED government that they disagreed with and complain about the problems they faced
  • The years after Gorbachev’s reforms saw a huge increase in protest movements in the GDR
  • The majority of protestors were between 25-40 years old. This social group were known as “Ulbricht’s children” they had grown up in the GDR during the period of liberalism and Ostpolitik
• push factors for 'ulbrichts children'

  • Desire to improve their quality of life
  • Lack of opportunities to improve on the lives of their parents
  • Hardening attitudes as the regime grew more oppressive towards dissidents
  • Objected to being indoctrinated from an early age
  • Growing lack of respect for their aging leaders - their prestige from opposing the nazis was diminishing
  • Gorbachev's reforms in the USSR (though most groups predated gorbachev)