The Wende in Schwerin

Abstract

Both Chapters 3 and 4 present insights into the pre-history of the events in Schwerin up to and including September 1989. The present chapter analyses both forces of exit and voice which came together in an unintended collision of destabilising forces, thereby setting events in Schwerin in motion. Of great importance is the fact that the actions of both of these broad ‘movements’, described in detail in the previous chapters, paved the way for citizens who had previously remained silent in the realms of conditional loyalty. It is this group, numerically much larger than all exit and voice proponents put together, that constituted the majority on the streets during the peaceful revolution of 1989 throughout the GDR. The complex relationship between these three groups (exit, voice and the bulk of the population) was further shaped by the Church, its personnel and facilities, all of which are discussed below. The story of the Wende in Schwerin is a tale of an everincreasing number of citizens deciding to step out of their social niches, cross over that line holding the tacit Sozialvertrag in place and take direct public and collective action.