ABSTRACT
The 80s saw a very gradual loosening of cultural controls, though nothing as dramatic as in the early 70s; meanwhile, external political events again became a driving force for internal policy. With the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev to power in 1985, the Soviet Union embarked on internal reforms in the direction of democratization, striking terror in the hearts of a GDR leadership already unsettled by the Solidarity movement in Poland. The GDR distanced itself from the Soviet policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, while its citizenry became increasingly restive. Rising expectations for reforms and unprecedented outrage over electoral fraud was met with total governmental intransigence (Tienanmen Square being cited with admiration in some quarters as the “Chinese Solution”) , leading by the spring of 1989 to a rapid deterioration of public morale. The newly opened border between Austria and Hungary provoked a flood of illegal emigration reminiscent of the months before the Berlin Wall was built, and as the summer wore on, the economy faltered, bled of its work force. Meanwhile, intellectuals and artists formed the GDR’s first independent opposition group, the New Forum, and churches and theaters became hotbeds of anti-government protest. The situation climaxed during the GDR’s 40th anniversary celebrations, when Gorbachev let it be known that he would no longer back the Honecker regime with arms to quell internal disturbances. Shortly
