German Democratic Republic: The Monday Meetings in Leipzig and the Peaceful Unification of Germany

1989

For 40 years, the citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) were provided with no outlets through which to express their political or social grievances. But in 1979, deep in East Germany, the residents of Leipzig founded a tradition which more than ten years later would change their lives forever.

Every Monday night, the local people would meet in the Nickolaikirche to pray together and talk politics. And every Monday night, as they left the church, they were given the same warning by police; to make their way home and to put an end to the public meetings. But the people could not be dissuaded and the meetings continued. By 1989 people had been congregating in the church every Monday evening for more than a decade and there had not been one evening when such a meeting had not taken place. East Germans were hungry for change and the as the Monday Night Meeting movement gathered momentum, communities all over the GDR were inspired to join in what had become a nationwide movement. The world was watching.

The number of attendees in Leipzig rose steadily in late 1989 and by Monday the 23rd of October over 300,000 people from all over the country braved warnings and arrived in the city to join in what was to be the largest demonstration East Germany had ever seen. They carried candles and marched under banners reading ‘We Are the People’. Astonishingly, the city, which was prepared for a bloody altercation between police and protesters, saw no violence that night. The people had spoken.

The peaceful demonstrations in Leipzig that night, and the movements which they inspired, played a pivotal role in the fall of the Berlin Wall just over 2 weeks later. Ecstatic crowds scaled the wall and surged through checkpoints. They were met by jubilant West Berliners on the other side.

This was followed by the collapse of the GDR and the reunification of Germany on the 3rd of October 1990. Courage, resilience and a commitment to peaceful protest had won.