East German Round Table

Round table refers to the Central Round Table (Zentraler Runder Tisch) that convened in East Berlin on December 7, 1989, the day after Egon Krenz, the new head of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) government, resigned. This Round Table, modeled after the Polish Round Table convened in April 1989, was initiated by the group Democracy Now. It was set up as a forum in which members of East German government organizations (such as the so-called block parties, trade unions, the women’s league, etc.) came together with representatives of the new citizens’ movements (such as Democracy Now, Democratic Awakening, and New Forum) to discuss and advance reforms in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), advising the executive until new national elections could be held. There were 39 representatives at the Central Round Table, 33 with voting rights. Seventeen of them represented new oppositional groups and political parties, and 16 were from political parties and organizations that had been part of the official East German government. Three, representing women, consumers and environmentalists, had observer status. The final three members were the moderators, all clergymen, from the Protestant, Catholic and Methodist churches, who did not have the right to vote. At first most participants hoped to reform the East German government and thus retain the country’s independence, but as popular opinion moved towards rapid unification with West Germany, these hopes were dashed.

The Round Table's first three meetings, held on December 7, 18 and 22, 1989, were in the Bonhoeffer House near Friedrichstrasse in Berlin-Mitte. Because popular interest created a need for more space, from the fourth meeting on December 27 to the sixteenth and final meeting on March 12, 1990 the Round Table met in the Conference Building of the former SED Council of Ministers in Ossietzky St. near Niederschönhausen castle in Berlin-Pankow.

During the first meeting the Round Table decided to dissolve the Office for National Security (the organization that succeeded the Stasi), to hold elections for the East German Parliament (Volkskammer) on May 6, 1990 (in January the election was moved earlier to March 18, 1990), and to draft a new constitution, a project that was completed by a subcommittee and presented on April 4, 1990, but never discussed by the newly elected Volkskammer.

Modeled after this Central Round Table many local round tables were set up in cities and towns across East Germany. In general they continued to exist until the May 6, 1990 local elections constituted new local governments.

Bibliography

• Timothy Garton Ash, We the People: The Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague (London 1999)
• André Hahn, Der Runde Tisch: das Volk und die Macht – politische Kultur im letzten Jahr der DDR (Berlin 1998)
• Uwe Thaysen (ed.), Der Zentrale Runde Tisch der DDR: Wortprotokoll und Dokumente 4 vols. (Wiesbaden 2000)
• Uwe Thaysen, Der Runde Tisch. Oder: Wo blieb das Volk? (Opladen 1990)

External links

• Captioned image of the first Central Round Table meeting at germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org.
• Image of some members at the Jan. 22, 1990 Round Table meeting at germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org.
• Goals of the Central Round Table by Democratic Awakening, at germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org.
• Zentraler Runder Tisch article on the website of the Deutsches Historisches Museum