A New Group of SED Reformers Tries Its Luck

Abstract

This chapter covers the few months in the fall and winter of 1989/90, during which a new group attempted to preserve an independent and socialist GDR. Led by Hans Modrow, this group recognized the futility of trying to hold onto the SED’s political power monopoly. Instead, these reformers relied on their control of the state apparatus to institute their program of reformed socialism in the GDR.

This second group of reformers was no more successful than the first. With the country’s borders now open, Modrow and his allies no longer controlled the GDR’s future. The possibility of German reunification moved onto the national and international agenda. And in the GDR’s first genuinely free elections in March 1990 the voters decisively rejected any form of socialism in favor of union with West Germany.