Berlin Embassy Cable, The GDR Political Crisis: Still Deepening. October 4, 1989
Annotation
On the eve of East Germany fortieth anniversary celebrations, it appeared that the SED was losing control. Several pressure points in society were mounting at the same time. In Prague, East German citizens had jumped over the walls into the West German embassy and the East German regime had negotiated their safe passage to West Germany planned for October 4. The outcome of the crisis in Prague was seen by many in the West as acknowledgment by the Honecker regime of defeat.
Domestically, signs were mounting that the aging East German regime no longer had a grasp on reality and were thus unable to efficiently deal with the situation on the ground. These assertions are echoed in this report from the US embassy in East Berlin from October 4, 1989. The report ends with a summary comment that the situation in East Germany is "politically pregnant," not explosive, but that the general situation was deteriorating. Honecker would be removed from power on October 8, and the Berlin Wall fell just over a month later on November 9.
Credits
Berlin Embassy to U.S. Secretary of State, "The GDR Political Crisis: Still Deepening," 4 October 1989, Cold War International History Project, Documents and Papers, CWIHP (accessed May 14, 2008).