THE COLLAPSE OF THE COMMUNIST REGIME IN EAST GERMANY 1989: A HISTORICAL STUDY

East Germany is an artificial entity created by the Soviet Union in 1949 and thus suffered from the loss of legitimacy and its independent national identity in isolation from West Germany, which is what Honecker, head of the ruling party since 1971 and head of state from 1976 to 1989, sought to achieve.The country relied in its growth on assistance.Generous support from West Germany, but its reliance on a planned economy, lack of natural resources, and the Soviet Union's dismantling of much of its industrial infrastructure to compensate for war losses led it in the end to complete bankruptcy, with increasing inflation and debts.The cohesion of the ruling party and the strength of its security grip prevented the presence of an effective opposition, other than The latter began to take shape through the church institution and Monday prayers, which took political influence as well as opposition groups since 1985.The process of change in Soviet politics with Gorbachev's coming to power in 1985 and his reform policy and abandonment of the Brezhnev Doctrine led to hastening the end of the existence of East Germany as a state.The ruling party's support for the Chinese authorities' suppression of the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 sparked angry popular reactions, and citizens expressed their support and support for this democratic movement.Hungary's opening of its borders with Austria to allow the flow of East Germans to the West contributed to a further undermining of the control of the East German government.All contributions These above factors led to the start of the mass movement that led to the collapse of the authority of the ruling regime through peace prayers every Monday that began in the city of Leipzig on a regular basis since September 4, 1989 in the Church of St. Nicholas, which became a starting point for mass demonstrations.In parallel with the popular demonstrations, "citizens' movements" appeared.They are independent opposition groups that were distinguished by the fact that they were not part of the church and formulated their own programs and directions, the most important of which were (the New Forum), (Democratic Awakening), (Democracy Now), and (the United Left).The demonstrations of October 9, 1989 constituted the true beginning of the revolution, which overthrew Honecker and then The Modro government sat with the opposition forces in the round table negotiations that led to free parliamentary elections on March 18, 1990, and then the unity of the country on October 3, 1990 .