Aktuelle Kamera, October 6, 1989

OBJECT INFORMATION

Info

October 6 1989
Duration: 58:21 min.
Broadcaster: Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF) - DRA

License: Not Creative Commons

“One day before the anniversary of the founding of the German Democratic Republic, the celebrations of the central committee of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED; Socialist Unity Party of Germany), the Staatsrat (State Council), the Ministerrat (Council of Ministers), and the Nationalrat (National Council) of the Nationale Front begin in the Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic) in the presence of the guest of honor, Mikhail Gorbachev. This visit from the Soviet statesman and the extensive agenda take up most of the reporting on Aktuelle Kamera. While numerous demonstrations across the country in support of the freedom to travel and reforms of the security forces were in some cases violently broken up and several thousand demonstrators arrested, around a hundred thousand members of the Freie Deutsche Jugend (Free German Youth) met that evening in Berlin for the Fackelzug der Jugend (Torchlight Procession of the Young). In addition to the celebrations for the fortieth anniversary and the torchlight march, the ARD news programs Tagesschau and Tagesthemen were reporting on an assembly of ten thousand people in from of the central train station in Dresden, waiting for the special train with refugees fleeing the GDR to the West. There were serious conflicts between the public and the police. The crowd was forced back with batons and water cannons. From Berlin, an ARD correspondent reported on the failed immigration attempt of numerous tourists who wanted to cross into the GDR via border checkpoints in Berlin. They were turned away by the East German border guards. At the same time, the ARD reported on the celebrations of the fortieth anniversary at the Permanent Mission of the GDR in Bonn.” (Source: DRA)