"In autumn 1989, thousands of people also took to the streets in Gotha. From 27 October on, they demonstrated every Friday evening for changes in the GDR.
On Sunday, 29 October 1989, well over 20,000 citizens gather at Market Square. Forty-two speakers participate in a discussion that is very passionate at times. The situation becomes dangerous, however, as soon as it becomes known that policemen and members of the Stasi are spying on the meeting. Hundreds of people prepare to storm the Haus der Dienste, the building where the security staff is hiding. It is only with great effort that church representatives succeed in preventing a violent conflict.
In fact, the Wende begins in Gotha with that first demonstration and huge meeting at Market Square. For everyone there, with the exception of the representatives and beneficiaries of the old regime, the hours at Market Square represent a genuine act of emancipation from the restrictions of the previous decades. As soon as the meeting is over, the most heavily incriminated functionaries in the Party and state apparatus are removed from office. The 'twilight of the gods' within the hitherto all-powerful Party and state leadership has begun in Gotha, too."
Eckhardt Hoffmann (Gotha, District of Erfurt, now in Thuringia; born 1934)
(7 rankings) 
