A short autumn of utopia: The East German revolution of 1989

Abstract

Readers of this journal are unlikely to be participating in the twentieth anniversary celebrations of the “transition to capitalism” in Central and Eastern Europe and it’s easy to see why. The expansion of NATO shows that its supposedly defensive purpose—to contain the Soviet Union—was a lie all along. The civic freedoms for which Eastern Europeans took to the streets are in a sickly condition in West and East alike. One review of The Lives of Others, a film centred on the surveillance of dissidents by East Germany’s secret service (the Stasi), remarked upon its “relevance to a world where fundamental civil liberties are increasingly at risk of being undermined”. Anti-globalisation protesters in the East German seaside resort of Heiligendamm two years ago could be forgiven for thinking that little had changed since 1989 as they gazed up at the steel wall around the G7 summit and heard the spurious reasons given by police for making arrests.