72 FRANK BÖSCH AND JENS GIESEKE
civil rights movement, but it did not really see itself as the opposition or
resistance.^102 Aptly referred to as “anti-politics” in other Communist states,
this constellation also carried over into post-unifi cation society.^103
In contrast, the political ideas of the antiauthoritarian students’ move-
ment, the New Left of the 1970s, and ultimately the green-alternative
new social movements with their corresponding critique of democracy
and “the system,” hardly resonated within the GDR. Most GDR residents
were put off by this Western brand of Marxism, in part because of its
linguistic affi nity with the SED. The older and middle-aged generations,
at least, also saw a real provocation in such antiauthoritarian critiques of
society or parenting and upbringing, as well as ideas about grassroots
democracy. The SED establishment and large swaths of the population
thus largely agreed, for example, that military service was still the best
education for the younger generation and that young rowdies had to be
put in their place.^104
1989—Asymmetrical Aspects of a Democratic Revolution
In Central Europe, the paths leading to the sudden transformation of 1989
varied greatly in length from country to country. Especially in Poland,
the Communist leadership had already begun to make some incremental
changes in response to the myriad protests that had taken place, culmi-
nating in a “Round Table” in February 1989 as well as semifree elections
in June 1989. These measures paved the way for the establishment of
political competitors within the structures of the state. A “second” civil
society, which included not only Solidarność and the heavy anchor of the
Catholic Church, but also a lively youth and pop culture, was the motor
behind this process.^105 In the GDR, however, it was the mass exodus that
took place in the summer of 1989 that began to tear away at the foun-
dation of the SED state. The sudden collapse of historic Communism as
not only a form of rule, but also as a leitmotif, was without a doubt the
most far-reaching “transformation of politics” for those in power. At the
same time, it was a fundamental act of liberation for the majority of GDR
citizens, most of whom had never before publicly questioned the Com-
munist Party’s monopoly on power. The path to this point had been paved
by the corrosion of the old system of rule as well as the fusion of diff er-
ent actors and agendas—the exodus movement, the opposition, and the
population at large—into a revolutionary subject.^106 The catalyst for this
amalgamation was the call for the establishment of the New Forum on
10 September 1989 that was formulated by activists from the civil rights’