Who were ‘the people’? Classes and movements in East Germany, 1989

Abstract

There is no shortage of literature on the East German revolution of 1989, but class analyses have been few and far between. In this paper, I survey a number of interpretations of the class composition of the 1989 movements—namely, that they comprised ‘the people’ or the intelligentsia—and find them wanting. I also subject Linda Fuller’s thesis on the non-participation of the working class to detailed examination. Against Fuller, I show that workers were involved en masse, and that although the decisive part they played was on the streets, this movement synergised with upheaval in workplaces, too.