"Wir sind das Volk"--20 Years Ago

September 5, 2009 (LPAC)—Exactly 20 years ago, on Sept. 4, 1989, the first Leipzig Monday Rally took place, with several hundred citizens taking to the streets of the then East German city, demanding the freedom to travel and freedom of speech. Even arrests by the special police of the State Security Agency, the Stasi, who deployed massively, could not crush the protest rally, which was joined by a couple hundred more. The genie was out of the bottle. Only three weeks later, on Sept. 25, already 20,000 took to the streets of Leipzig, chanting "We Shall Overcome" among other songs. By the end of September, their numbers had increased to 40,000. Protest rallies also began to be held in more and more other cities.

Then, from October on, the number of protesters exploded: In Leipzig alone, a quarter-million people joined for a mass rally, and another quarter-million protested in other east German cities. Already during September, slogans changed, and the famous "Wir sind das Volk" ("We Are the People") began to prevail.