Information on an Unauthorised Demonstration in the City Centre of Leipzig on 9 October 1989

The report is dated 9 October 1989 and was sent by Lieutenant-General Manfred Hummitzsch to two deputy ministers for state security. It gives the secret police’s own count of the day: peace prayers from 17:00 to 18:00 in four city-centre churches with more than 5,000 people present, and then an unauthorised demonstration of 50,000 to 60,000 from the forecourt of the Nikolaikirche. It lists the slogans shouted, records that there were no attacks on the security forces, and states that the measures prepared to prevent and break up a demonstration were not used, because of the overall situation and in accordance with a central decision. It also reports the regional bishop’s announcement that he would speak at the prayers.

The report itself fills sheets 100 to 103: the count of the prayers and the demonstration and the first slogans on sheet 100; the further slogans, the absence of attacks, the measures not used and the bishop’s announcement on sheet 101; his words in the four churches and the circulation of the appeals on sheet 102. Three annexes follow. Annex 2 (sheet 104) is an appeal for nonviolence signed by three church-based groups. Annex 1 (sheet 105) is the “Appeal to all Leipzigers” of six citizens, read by the conductor Kurt Masur. Annex 3 (sheet 106) is a call for dialogue in place of violence in the name of members and supporters of the New Forum. The online viewer loads the neighbouring sheets with each page, so the sheet number should be read from the stamp on the facsimile. The archive’s introduction says that western media and the Stasi counted 70,000 demonstrators.

The document is the work of the body that watched and tried to control the churches, and its wording shows it: the peace prayers stand in quotation marks. It is cited for the facts it records against its authors’ interest. See Churches and the Fall of Communism.