13-30 November 1989
November 13: A ten-hour-long meeting of the GDR Volkskammer (Parliament): the representatives of the block parties withdraw their previously unconditional allegiance to the SED. Spokespeople from the DBD, the CDU, the LDPD and the NDPD demand that the SED’s claim to leadership as enshrined in the constitution be deleted, and call for free elections with a secret ballot. The delegates express horror at the high national debt and demand the "unsparing revelation" of the GDR’s economic situation. Hans Modrow is elected the new Chairman of the Council of Ministers and asked to form a new government.
At the same time, the Volkskammer sets up a "Temporary Committee to investigate cases of abuse of office, corruption, unjustified (sic!) personal enrichment and other actions where there is a suspicion that the law has been violated." The committee includes two representatives from each parliamentary party. The highlight of the meeting – besides the rather depressing appearances put in by Horst Sindermann, who is replaced as Speaker of the Volkskammer by Günther Maleuda (DBD) after a crucial vote, and by Willi Stoph and other members of the Council of Ministers – is the speech by State Security Minister Erich Mielke ("But I love you, I love everyone"), which provokes an outburst of laughter that relieves some of the tension.
With his ten-minute appearance, Mielke manages to discredit himself and his ministry, and to completely demoralise the staff at the Ministry for Security.
In the evening, the SED Central Committee convenes for its 11th – and penultimate – meeting. The resolution taken at the 10th Central Committee conference to convene a party conference, but not an extraordinary party congress, threw the rank and file into turmoil, and is corrected: instead of the party conference, an extraordinary SED party congress is called to take place in Berlin from December 15-17. Although the call for a party congress is aimed at only one thing, i.e. the complete replacement of the Central Committee – along with the Politburo and the General Secretary -, the SED leadership does not put up any show of resistance.
Younger Central Committee members call on the "old comrades" to leave the CC voluntarily in the face of the demands of the rank and file. Fourteen ex-members of the leadership signify their willingness to resign. But there is no vote on the matter, because Egon Krenz and others are afraid that this would trigger a flood of resignations that could sweep them away as well.
November 14: The GDR prepares for the return of people who have emigrated – but only a few people sign into the reception centres. In the south of Berlin, a border crossing is opened from Teltow to the Berlin district of Lichterfelde (Ostpreussendamm). West Berliners go shopping in the department store in the district of Seehof in Teltow – and are interviewed by RIAS.
November 15: The head of the State Central Administration for Statistics, Arno Donda, announces that the GDR’s manipulation of statistics is to end immediately. In West Berlin, over 150 million marks in "welcome money" have been paid so far to more than 1.5 million GDR citizens. The West Berlin banks are reaching the limits of their capacity, but the continued payment of the money is guaranteed. The director of the Berliner Bank reports on the situation in a telephone interview.
November 16: The Soviet embassy passes on several "pieces of advice" from the Central Committee of the CPSU to SED General Secretary Egon Krenz. The suggestions it makes indicate that Moscow is keeping to its inflexible stance. The paper suggests that Krenz should make use of the emotional euphoria after the opening of the border to give a television address "conveying to the populace an impression of you as a person who unites the people and upon whom one can rely in a difficult situation." His speech, it says, should make it completely clear to West German politicians "that every attempt to exploit the current difficulties or to pressure you with demands and ‘advice’ regarding steps towards the reunification of Germany or a revision of the territorial order in Europe are condemned to absolute failure."
In Bonn, the Bundestag discusses the situation in the GDR and a possible reunification. The chancellor states among other things that the "compatriots in the GDR" have to decide for themselves what path they want to take in the future.
November 17/18: The Volkskammer chooses a new government under Prime Minister Hans Modrow. On November 18, the "democratic coalition government" formed by the SED and the block parties starts work; nine of the now 28 (instead of the previous 44) ministers still come from the Stoph government. In his policy statement, Modrow focuses on securing the standard of living, economic, educational and administrative reforms, and changes to the political system. He announces his readiness to work together comprehensively with West Germany and offers it a "Vertragsgemeinschaft" (union by treaty) between the two German states going far beyond the Basic Treaty (Grundlagenvertrag).
Following Modrow’s statement, the newly elected chairman of the NDPD, Günter Hartmann, goes even further, bringing up the notion of a confederation, the first time anyone has done so in the Volkskammer in a long while: "It would certainly also reflect the objective situation of the GDR and the way large parts of its population think and feel if its politicians were to bring into play once more the idea of a confederation with the Federal Republic of Germany based on the national sovereignty of both partners. This would also surely lead to a new identity of our country with its government. Patriotism would certainly have its role within the confederative relations with the FRG as a force driving internal social processes."
November 19: On the second weekend after the Wall has come down, over three million GDR citizens visit West Germany and West Berlin, according to ADN. After the euphoria of the first few days, negative aspects start to become apparent in everyday life in West Berlin.
November 20: Hans Modrow, Egon Krenz and Alexander Schalck try to capitalise on the mishap of November 9 in negotiations with Chancellery Minister Rudolf Seiters. Because the West German government has always wanted GDR citizens to travel freely to the West, Krenz says, it should now take over at least a part of the costs. In addition, says Modrow, the German Central Bank should support the exchange rate of the East German mark. Seiters feels that the West German government could participate in a travel fund with foreign currency if the reform process in the GDR is continued, free elections are called, other parties are allowed and the consitution is amended. Before deciding on further assistance of a financial nature, he demands a comprehensive overview of the GDR’s economic situation. Finally, Krenz and Modrow agree on a meeting of the East Berlin leadership with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in the near future. In many cities and localities in the GDR, "Monday demonstrations" take place; in Leipzig, the motto is now "Germany – united Fatherland".
November 21: Nikolai Portugalov, who works in the Central Committee Department of International Relations within the CPSU led by Valentin Falin, holds a conversation with Horst Teltschik, an adviser to the West German Chancellor. Portugalov tells Teltschik that he could imagine that, in the medium term, the Soviet Union could give the go-ahead to a German confederation, whatever form it took. Teltschik is "as if galvanised" by these remarks, and concludes that, if even Gorbachev and his advisers were discussing the possibility of reunification, it was high time for the West German government to go on the offensive. - In a speech he gives at the inauguration to office of Mielke’s successor, Wolfgang Schwanitz, Hans Modrow explains his government’s ideas to the committee of the Office for National Security (AfNS), as the former Ministry for State Security is now called. He regrets the GDR’s awkward negotiating position with regard to West Germany brought about by the collapse of the Wall.
November 22: The SED Politburo declares its willingness to follow the Polish example and meet with the block parties, citizens’ movements and the new parties at a "round table" to discuss ideas on free elections and a reform of the constitution.
November 23: Günter Mittag, who was the Central Committee Economic Secretary until October 18, is barred from the SED. Legal proceedings are brought against Erich Honecker. – The GDR Council of Ministers decides to take measures against "racketeers and speculators".
November 24: Valentin Falin, as the head of the Central Committee Department for International Relations of the Foreign Ministers of the CPSU, holds talks with Egon Krenz and Hans Modrow in which he elaborates further on Modrow’s idea of a "Vertragsgemeinschaft" (union by treaty) – "and that it could go even further," as Modrow later recalled.
November 28: West German Chancellor Kohl announces his Ten-Point Programme to the Bundestag. The programme envisages the gradual establishment of confederative structures over a period of five to ten years, with the aim of establishing a uniform federal order. The final goal of this process is then to be reunification. At this time, Helmut Kohl assumes that the process of reaching an agreement will need five to ten years – Stefan Heym publicly presents the appeal "For Our Country". It contains a plea for a reformed version of socialism and opposes the taking over of the GDR by West Germany.
November 29: The former chairman of the FDGB, Harry Tisch, who is also a former SED Politburo member, is barred from the FDGB for abuse of office.
November 30: The SED grass-roots organisation of the turbine and generator manufacturer VEB Bergmann-Borsig appeals to "all honest" party members in an open letter distributed by ADN. It says that SED members were increasingly being asked why they were doing in a party that had produced people like Mittag, Tisch and Stoph. It calls on the SED to "dry out the whole bog of abuse of authority" before the party congress, and demands that a new General Secretary be elected.
On the same evening, 150 to 170 SED members from various Berlin factories, businesses and academic institutions meet in the Berlin Werk für Fernsehelektronik (WF). At the end of their meeting, they issue at statement, "Plattform WF". The initiators want to dispute the right of the party leadership to prepare the party congress on its own, saying it showed no will "to morally cleanse and politically consolidate the party."
The key sentences of the "Plattform" are as follows: "We withdraw our trust in the party leadership and the apparatus that supports it, und support the present government. The party can only be saved by an uncompromising reform that would be tantamount to re-founding it." On the next day, the "Plattform" is broadcast on radio and meets with a response that overwhelms its initiators.
In November 133,429 GDR citizens manage to flee to the West.
