rise of protests

• Protests mostly took place weekly in the GDR about anything and everything
• Protests were not coordinated and not about regime change
• Protests were about a change to their situation, not about the government or communism in general
• Groups involved in protests

  • Green party
  • Christians
• Green party returned and became more vocal
• Christians were given more freedom to worship
• New forum was created for democratic reform
• New forum met in churches
• In Leipzig, crowds reaching roughly 70,000 people gathered at St Nicholas church on Monday nights
• Mielke gave a red notice to one of these rallies, with a shoot to kill order, which was not carried out
• Mielke's shoot to kill order was not carried out


  It's never good to slaughter your own people (backdrop of Tiananmen Square)
• USSR would not help the GDR
• Protests were peaceful
• Protests reflected badly on the government
• Most officers were conscripts, not war veterans
• Most officers just didn't want to shoot their own people
• With this, the organ of oppression stopped working