archival records, berlin wall, citizen action, courage, east germany, secret police, stasi, surveillance state
The sudden collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked not only the physical dismantling of a barrier but also the symbolic crumbling of an oppressive regime. The East German State Security Service, known as Stasi, was a formidable force that had, for decades, instilled fear in the hearts of the people it was supposed ...
Eavesdropping Storm tells the story, after 1949, of the terrible darkness that fell all over East Germany. It became shrouded in an autocratic communist rule behind the infamous Iron Curtain. “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals ...
In the early morning of June 4, 1989, the bloody suppression of the student-led demonstration by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Tiananmen Square shocked the world. The Western world and media severely condemned this. Four months later, the Berlin Wall fell. On October 7, 1989, at the National Day celebrations of the 40th anniversary ...