austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil

138 THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL
evening, a number of people on a central plaza (Alexanderplatz) in East
Berlin indicated their intent to express their support for their communist
ally, Gorbachev, and the group started walking toward a building (Palast
der Republic) where he was meeting with East German leaders. As the
group continued across the rest of the plaza and crossed a central park
where people often strolled, the crowd grew. Once in front of the building,
the crowd shouted chants in support of Gorbachev and sang com·
munist songs. Police were stationed in front of the building, but they
and the building were separated from the crowd by a narrow river
(with bridges over it blocked by police). Nothing earthshattering happened
until plainclothes police began arresting a few people for making
remarks that they perceived to be anti-government. The arrests in plain
view of the crowd were not popular, and the secret police was jeered.
The crowd had grown to over ten thousand people by this time, and they
began to lose their fear of the secret police and to feel power in their
numbers and in their complementary opinions.
Somewhat later, the crowd began moving back toward the residential
section of East Berlin, and the chanting became more militant, with
jeers of "Secret police, get out!" The crowd gathered more strength in
the residential section, as the demonstrators called on those watching
from balconies to join them by chanting "Onto the street." The demonstrators
also soon ran into crowds of people returning home from an
official fireworks ceremony (celebrating the 40th anniversary of East
Germany), but many of these celebrants merely wanted to go home.
Meanwhile, the secret police chief (Erich Mielke) had ordered the
police and security forces to hinder the spread of the demonstration
(Schabowlski, 1990). Police barriers were set up, but, with many people
(including many fireworks celebrants) needing to get to their homes,
the various crowds of people began to force their way through the
barriers (Riecker, Schwarz, and Schneider, 1990). The crowds were
then surrounded by troops and pushed back in a direction away from
their homes (Schnauze, 1990). With thousands of people being pushed
against one another in an unknown direction, and with many people
angry at not being allowed to return to their homes, violence broke out
(Riecker, Schwarz, and Schneider, 1990), chaos ensued, and the police
clubbed and arrested hundreds of demonstrators as well as innocent
·
bystanders (Schnauze, 1990).
CHAPTER 3
139
There were also numerous other much smaller demonstrations on
October 7, including in other cities of East Germany, such as in Leipzig
and Potsdam (Bahrmann and Links, 1994). However, there had been
prior publicity (including circulating flyers) about these events from
well-known and well-observed East German dissident groups such as
"Neues Forum." Neues Forum was one of the newest, most popular,
and most famous dissident groups in East Germany that had been created
as a new fo rum for promoting political discussion, but it had not
been formally authorized by the state because the group openly sought
to "break the state's power monopoly" to reform the system instead of
going through the 200 different organizations already authorized (and
encouraged) by the East German government to express their opinions
and initiate reforms (Rein, 1989). As a result of the prior information on
these demonstrations sponsored by renowned dissidents, the Stasi bad
been well-prepared for them and had easily broken them up with a few
arrests that included several West German, Polish, and other foreigner
demonstrators in Potsdam (Maximytschew and Hertle, 1994).
EAsT GERMAN PoucE CoNTROL
The police patrols, arrests, and clubbings continued through the night
of October 7 and the next day in Berlin as the security forces sought
to restore order in a situation they did not understand and for which
they were ill-prepared (Riecker, Schwarz, and Schneider, 1990). The
East German police and troops had been trained to fight criminals and
foreign infiltrators but not innocent demonstrators and their own people
(Diedrich, Ehlert, and Wenzke, 1998). The East German secret police
had put all the well-known East German dissidents under close observa­
tion . and had quietly dispersed or kept under control the small demon­
strations that they had called (as they had always done in the past). The
demonstration in the center of Berlin, however, appeared to be sponta­
neous and without leaders.
. In East Germany, demonstrations were illegal unless they were autho­
nzed by the government. However, as previously mentioned, East Ger­
an: there was nothing illegal in a group of people wandering some­
many had laws guaranteeing freedom of expression (Philipsen, 1993),
� ere to express support for their government or their communist allies
ecker, Schwarz, and Schneider, 1990). Only when some people in
th e group made anti-government statements or slandered government