Abstract
Austin discusses the transformative year of 1989 and its aftermath, capturing the feeling of excitement and uncertainty in the region at this pivotal moment. The chapter examines the negotiated power transfers that occurred in Hungary and Poland, while emphasizing the role of ordinary citizens in bringing down the regimes in East Germany and Czechoslovakia in November 1989. The chapter then looks at the decade following the collapse of Communism, including the peaceful breakup of Czechoslovakia, and questions how much changed in the region as corruption reigned and many communists remained in power across Central Europe. Austin concludes with the accession of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary to NATO and the European Union at the beginning of the twentieth century.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
For Further Study
Books (Fiction and Non-fiction)
Garton Ash, Timothy. The File: A Personal History. New York: Random House, 1997.
Garton Ash, Timothy. The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of ’89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague. New York: Vintage Books, 1999.
Krapfl, James. Revolution with a Human Face: Politics, Culture, and Community in Czechoslovakia, 1989–1992. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013.
Matynia, Elzbieta. An Uncanny Era: Conversations between Vaclav Havel and Adam Michnik. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.
Mark, James, Bogdan C. Iacob, Tobias Rupprecht, and Ljubica Spaskovska. 1989: A Global History of Eastern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Robin Okey, The Demise of Communist East Europe: 1989 in Context. London: Hodder Arnold, 2004.
Ther, Philipp. Europe since 1989: A History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016.
Films
Die Mauer (1990). Directed by Jürgen Böttcher. Germany.
Sweet Emma, Dear Böbe (1992). Directed by István Szabó. Hungary.
Goodbye, Lenin! (2003). Directed by Wolfgang Becker. Germany.
Chuck Norris vs Communism (2015). Directed by Ilinca Calugareanu. Romania.
The Power of the Powerless (2009). Directed by Cory Taylor. USA.
1989 (2014). Directed by Erzsébet Rácz and Anders Østergaard. Denmark.
Remembering Solidarity (2017). BBC. United Kingdom.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Austin, R.C. (2021). 1989–2004: Roundtables, Street Protests, and the Long Journey Back to Europe. In: A History of Central Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84543-8_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84543-8_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-84542-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-84543-8
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)