LEIPZIG — More than 100,000 workers demonstrated in east German cities on March 18 to protest against mass dismissals.
In Leipzig, the birthplace of the democracy movement that toppled the Communist government of Erich Honecker in 1989, more than 60,000 marched through the city centre carrying signs and banners criticising Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
In the industrial town of Chemnitz — formerly Karl-Marx-Stadt — police reported that 40,000 demonstrated against unemployment. Smaller demonstrations were reported in East Berlin and Cottbus.
Demonstrators criticised the Treuhandanstalt, or Trust Agency, which has been handing over some formerly state-owned industries and businesses to private ownership and closing down others, producing mass unemployment for the first time since the GDR was formed after World War II.
The Leipzig area chief of the metalworkers' union predicted that unemployment in the east would soon reach 50% as the result of the Treuhandanstalt's economic "shock therapy". The union leader addressed the mass rally in Leipzig's Augustplatz, formerly Karl-Marx-Platz.
Although the centrally planned economy was inefficient by Western standards, basic consumer goods were plentiful and cheap in the GDR before the sudden collapse of the Communist dictatorship in 1989. Critics say the transition to a market-dominated economy could have been managed without forcing millions of workers onto welfare rolls.
Most of the GDR's welfare system — including inexpensive day care, free education and family benefits — will be dismantled. When rents rise to "market levels" next year, east Germans may face another previously unknown problem: mass evictions and homelessness.
Thousands of students are losing their places as GDR universities — some of which have operated continuously since the Middle Ages — are forced to close their doors. Even the ancient University of Halle-Wittenberg — where Martin Luther launched the Reformation — could not adapt overnight to "market forces" and no longer exists. — Christic Institute/PEGASUS