‘We were heroes.’ Local Memories of Autumn 1989: Revising the Past

Abstract

The year 2009 in Germany was dominated by the remembrance of the twentieth anniversary of the autumn of 1989. A vast number of books and articles were published and various films and television documentaries were made. But memory activities were neither restricted to the media nor exclusively a top-down phenomenon. Autumn 2009 saw commemorative events taking place throughout the whole of eastern Germany; cities from Plauen to Rostock and from Erfurt to Görlitz recalled their demonstrations against the regime of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) of 20 years earlier. Various exhibitions, lectures and discussions were organised and numerous local days of remembrance were initiated to celebrate local contributions to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dismantling of the GDR. Apart from the anniversary of the fall of the Wall on 9 November, an undoubted highlight of the commemorative efforts in autumn 2009 was the Lichtfest (festival of lights) in Leipzig on 9 October.