CPO-2002 Lecture 31: Lecture 31
Document Summary
Protests on the streets of berlin and leipzig in 1989 forced the east german government to open up the berlin wall and allow free elections. From our vantage point, the collapse of communism in east germany, and eastern. At the time, the collapse of communism came as a complete surprise to almost everyone. There had been very few uprisings or revolts in. Communist government in the gdr was one of the most hard-line in eastern. No real crisis since the berlin uprising of 1953, when protests calling for the resignation of the communist government were met with force and martial law. Compared with other east european countries, east germany was relatively prosperous. Eventual collapse of communism in east germany had much to do with the election of gorbachev as leader of the soviet union in 1985. Inheriting a soviet union in crisis, gorbachev responded with two reform policies called perestroika and glasnost.
