Peaceful Revolution - Earlier Demonstrations

Earlier Demonstrations

Opposition to the East German government and its leader, Walter Ulbricht, had existed since the 1950s. Before the Peaceful Revolution there were a few demonstrations that usually had little to no effect on the regime. In the most significant incident, the uprising of 1953 in East Germany was quickly and violently suppressed by Soviet troops which had been stationed in East Germany. At the time, most of the opposition was left up to the intellectual elite, led by Wolfgang Harich and other like-minded individuals.

The elite resistance ultimately had little to no effect on the government, and ended with its members being incarcerated after a series of show-trials. Until 1989, the only visible form of popular protest was the increasing rate of East Germans that were fleeing to the West. By 1960, already three million East Germans had left the country. In 1961, the East German government, in an attempt to stop the quick decrease of population, constructed the Berlin Wall.