October 1989

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This article covers breaking news and events in October 1989.

Daily events

Sunday 1st October 1989

• Copenhagen / Denmark : As of today , same-sex couples can officially register a partnership in Denmark . Denmark is the first country in the world to offer this option; however, registration is not treated as equivalent to marriage .
• Prague / Czechoslovakia : A few hours after thousands of people wishing to leave the German Democratic Republic (GDR) were brought from the premises of the Federal German Embassy in coaches to refugee trains, which transport them across the GDR to the state of Bavaria , there are already around 2,000 new GDR willing to leave the country - Citizens on the premises of the Federal German embassy. They are hoping to leave "to the West ".

Monday October 2, 1989

FuBK test image

• Mainz , Munich / Germany : The public television programs ARD and ZDF are broadcasting the ARD midday magazine for the first time, closing the gap between the morning and afternoon programs that they visually bridged until yesterday with the broadcast of the FuBK test image . The ARD midday magazine produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk is to be broadcast alternately with the ZDF midday magazine .
• Vienna / Austria : The entrepreneur Udo Proksch is recognized and arrested at Schwechat Airport while attempting to enter the country. As part of an insurance fraud, he is said to have accepted the deaths of six sailors from the sunk bulk carrier Lucona in 1977 . The explosives came from the armed forces .

Tuesday 3rd October 1989

• Berlin / Germany : Erich Honecker ( SED ), de facto head of state of the GDR, orders the closure of the country's border with Czechoslovakia . Until now, it was possible to leave the country without a passport or visa . At 9:02 p.m. a passenger train from the German-Czechoslovakian border near Bad Schandau is led back to Dresden because inmates locked the car doors in front of the border guards on duty.
• Dresden / Germany : With the passage of refugee trains with East German citizens, which the Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany Hans-Dietrich Genscher on 30 September in the West German Embassy in the Czech capital Prague announced that their departure would be possible in the Federal Republic, try about 800 people to get to the sealed-off main train station and the special trains. The people's police force the people back and arrest an unknown number of people during the riots that broke out.

Thursday October 5, 1989

• Oslo / Norway : For his efforts to create a demilitarized and independent Tibet is Tenzin Gyatso , who as Dalai Lama , the leader in Tibetan Buddhism embodied this year's Nobel Peace Prize received.

Saturday 7th October 1989

• Berlin / Germany : does the guest of honor de facto - Head of State of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev at the military parade on the occasion of the 40th founding anniversary of the German Democratic Republic. He advises his host Erich Honecker , de facto head of state of the GDR, to follow the Soviet example for renewal and more transparency . In the Politburo, Gorbachev articulates: “Dangers await only those who do not react to life.” He made almost identical statements to journalists from the German broadcaster ARD .
• Dakar / Senegal : The Senegambia Confederation, formed in 1982 from Senegal and Gambia , is dissolved. The immediate cause is the question of whether the offices of President and Vice-President of the confederation should rotate between the two countries. Senegal did not respond to this suggestion and, in response, terminated various confederation agreements.
• Plauen / Germany : The Saturday demonstration is the first time since June 1953 that the GDR is taking part in a major demonstration critical of the government that cannot be broken up by the security forces. The approximately 15,000 demonstrators are calling for a. the democratization of the country.
• Schwante / Germany : About 40 people from the community of the Evangelical Church found the Social Democratic Party in the GDR . In 1946 the original Social Democratic Party of Germany in the Soviet occupation zone , in East Berlin only in 1961, was united with the KPD to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) . The move was controversial at the time. According to the SED, social democracy is not necessary in socialist societies, since the so-called “ working class ” is in power anyway.

Sunday 8th October 1989

• Bregenz / Austria : In the election for the Vorarlberg state parliament , the absolute majority of voters will vote for the ÖVP for the tenth time in a row . The SPÖ received its worst result since 1949 with around 21.3% . In addition, the FPÖ wins three mandates and the Green Alternative Vorarlberg succeeds in entering parliament with two mandates.

Monday 9th October 1989

• Berlin / Germany : For the first time, a newspaper controlled by the GDR ruling party, the SED , publishes a critical statement from a member of the SED Central Committee when the writer Hermann Kant in the Junge Welt declares that the worst thing about the GDR is that it “so as currently there ”.
• Bonn / Germany : The Federal Republic and the People's Republic of Poland agree to reschedule debts of 2.5 billion D-Marks that Poland owes the FRG from loans from 1986 to 1988 . The deadline for their repayment is extended to 1997.
• Leipzig / Germany : Pastor Christoph Wonneberger , who was deposed in 1988 , has a human rights group and their friends distribute his call for nonviolence, which has been reproduced 30,000 times with a hidden printing press, at today's Monday demonstration . Foreign security forces and demonstrators fill the streets in addition to the people of Leipzig. When the participants in the peace prayer leave the Nikolaikirche , the demonstration critical of the government begins in the presence of the armed state power. Starting at 6:00 pm, the radio station “Leipziger Stadtfunk” will repeatedly call for prudence, written by three politicians and three celebrities .
• Leipzig / Germany : Around 70,000 people circle the inner city ring . They shout “ Allow new forum ” to express their demand for a political opposition , as well as “Take to the streets, join yourselves” so that the hesitant can overcome their fear of the reprisals of the dictatorship , and “No violence” because u. a. the Red Army , the National People's Army , the Ministry of State Security and the People's Police could take up arms. They shout “ We are the people ” because in a democracy rule is in the hands of the people and not just in those of a political party that commands the judiciary , legislative and executive branches . They manage the route around the city center without the security forces intervening. A peaceful revolution in the GDR seems to be possible.
• Karasjok / Norway : King Olaf V opens the parliamentary representation of the Sami people , the " Ordentlige Sametinget ". Another Sami parliament exists in Finland .
• Stockholm / Sweden : This year the Americans John Michael Bishop and Harold Elliot Varmus will receive the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their research on retroviral oncogenes .

Tuesday October 10, 1989

• Luxembourg / Luxembourg : The nine faction loose parliamentarians of the Chamber of Deputies block the Parliament at the first meeting day the stairs to the meeting room and call for equal treatment with fraction bound elected. This leads to fights. The Bureau of Parliament ultimately has the stairs cleared by the police.

Wednesday October 11, 1989

• Athens / Greece : Prime Minister Tzannis Tzannetakis ( Nea Dimokratia ) resigns after the coalition partner Synaspismos terminated the cooperation a good three months after the start. The Greek parliament is expected to be elected later this year .
• Stockholm / Sweden : The Norwegian Trygve Haavelmo will receive the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics this year "for his formulation of the probabilistic foundations of econometrics " .

Thursday October 12, 1989

• Athens / Greece : Following the termination of the governing coalition by the Synaspismos alliance and the resignation of Prime Minister Tzannis Tzannetakis from the Nea Dimokratia party , a transitional government headed by the President of the Supreme Court Ioannis Grivas is formed. Most cabinet members are non-party.
• Stockholm / Sweden : The Canadian Sidney Altman and the American Thomas R. Cech will receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year . The foundation honors her discovery of the catalytic properties of ribonucleic acid , which is the link between genetic information and protein production in living things . The Nobel Prize in Physics this year will be at the American Norman Ramsey , the German americans Hans Georg Dehmelt and the German Wolfgang Paul for their further development of atomic spectroscopy awarded.

Saturday October 14th 1989

• Kailua-Kona / United States : At Ironman Hawaii , the South African-based athlete Paula Newby-Fraser defends her title from last year in the women's competition. For men, the first time can Mark Allen from the United States all the competition behind and defeated the so-called "Iron War" ( German  " Iron War " ) the six-time champion Dave Scott . In the race, which lasts just over eight hours, the competitors are separated by just a few seconds.
• Santiago / Chile : In the first democratic election of the president after the initiation of the so-called " transition in Chile " in October 1988, Patricio Aylwin from the coalition of the parties for democracy, a former supporter of the dictatorial president Augusto Pinochet, who has ruled since 1973 , receives the most votes . The long-time head of state himself did not run for the election, as the Chilean people spoke out in a referendum in 1988 against extending the term of office of Pinochet.

Sunday October 15, 1989

• Frankfurt am Main / Germany : The Czechoslovak essayist and human rights activist Václav Havel receives the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade .

Tuesday October 17, 1989

Bridge damaged by the California earthquake

• Santa Clara County / United States : A 7.1  M _s earthquake with an epicenter near Mount Loma Prieta near San Francisco , California kills 58 people and injures around 3,500 others.

Wednesday October 18, 1989

Galileo spacecraft

• Berlin / Germany : Erich Honecker ( SED ) resigns from his political offices. In the SED Politburo yesterday, the chairman of the GDR Council of Ministers, Willi Stoph, requested the addition of the item “Removal of the General Secretary of the Central Committee ” to the agenda . The topic was postponed until today and is obsolete after Honecker's voluntary withdrawal. Egon Krenz moves to the leadership position in the Central Committee.
• Cape Canaveral / United States : In the STS-34 mission , the space shuttle Atlantis takes off into space with the space probe Galileo . The probe should reach the planet Jupiter by 1995 and then examine it and its moons .

Thursday October 19, 1989

• Stockholm / Sweden : The Spaniard Camilo José Cela receives the Nobel Prize for Literature this year . One of his most famous works is Mazurka for Two Dead .

Saturday October 21, 1989

• Berlin / Germany : In a speech to some of his employees, the Minister for State Security of the GDR Erich Mielke stated: "Without the Soviet Union [...] there is no GDR." In doing so, he makes it clear that he either considers the GDR security organs to be ineffective or not reliably enough to guarantee the existence of the republic even in the event of a violent popular uprising without the help of the Soviet Union.
• Darmstadt / Germany : The German Academy for Language and Poetry awards the Georg Büchner Prize to the German Botho Strauss .

Sunday October 22, 1989

Ayrton Senna

• New York / United States : The term "the end of history " is known to the general public through an article about political scientist Francis Fukuyama in The New York Times newspaper . According to Fukuyama, the “chaos” in Eastern Europe is an expression of the “triumph of the West ”. Therefore, the "end of the story " is good news.
• Pailin / Cambodia : The Vietnamese People's Army loses the strategically important city of Pailin to the Cambodian movement of the Khmer Rouge . In 1988 the Vietnamese government announced its intention to resolve the conflict with the neighboring country, but it has not yet withdrawn all troops.
• Suzuka / Japan : Following the penultimate race of the Formula 1 season , the Brazilian winner Ayrton Senna is disqualified in the McLaren MP4 / 4 . His French team-mate Alain Prost is thus early driver world champion in 1989 ahead of Senna in 2nd place.

Monday 23 October 1989

• Budapest / Hungary : President Mátyás Szűrös of the Socialist Party declares the Socialist People's Republic to be the "Republic of Hungary". The country is to become a parliamentary democracy based on the example of the western states of Europe. As of today, the reforms of the constitution from 1949 come into force and the title of the constitution is changed to the Basic Law of Hungary .

Tuesday October 24, 1989

• Berlin / Germany : The State Council of the GDR elects the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED Egon Krenz as its new chairman. In the position of General Secretary, he has been the de facto head of state of the GDR since October 18 .

Wednesday October 25, 1989

• Paris / France : Education Minister Lionel Jospin ( Socialist Party ) calls on parents of school children in a speech to the National Assembly , out of respect for secularism , to ensure that their children do not present any signs of their religious affiliation in school. Without explicitly saying it, he is addressing Muslim parents. However, according to Jopin, it is acceptable for Muslim schoolgirls to wear headscarves for religious reasons , because participation in classes is above the secular principles of the republic.

Saturday 28th October 1989

• Berlin / Germany : After 23 years of performance ban in East Germany in 1966 because of "anti-socialist tendencies" remote will DEFA -Kinofilm track of the stones of the director Frank Beyer shown again.
• Prague / Czechoslovakia : The republic is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its founding. In the center of Prague, several hundred people at an unannounced event are calling for more civil liberties in socialist society. Public expressions of opinion of this kind and of this magnitude have not existed in the ČSSR for over 20 years.

Sunday October 29, 1989

Felipe González

• Madrid / Spain : In the early elections to the Spanish parliament , a. decided on the distribution of all seats in the lower house . In the House, that the Prime Minister will choose which lies socialist party of the incumbent government Felipe González with 39.6% in the first place. The People's Party came in second with a share of the vote of almost 26%.

Monday October 30, 1989

• Berlin / Germany : The Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED advises without result on the u. a. by Gerhard Schürer and Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski compiled "Analysis of the economic situation of the GDR with conclusions". The current debt of the GDR in the non-socialist economic area is estimated at 49 billion currency marks. In order to avert a moratorium and an intervention by the International Monetary Fund , the GDR would have to take out additional financial loans amounting to 23 billion currency marks. The analysis remains internal.
• Hamburg / Germany : In Der Spiegel magazine , editor-in-chief Erich Böhme states : “I don't want to be reunited.” Boehme's motive is skepticism towards a larger German nation-state . The rejection of a possible German unity is widespread in the Federal Republic for various reasons.

Tuesday October 31, 1989

Turgut Özal

• Ankara / Turkey : The Grand National Assembly elects Prime Minister Turgut Özal of the Motherland Party as the new President . Özal replaces Kenan Evren , who led a military coup in 1980 to take over the country's political leadership. Özal's party colleague Ali Bozer is provisionally appointed as the new Prime Minister .
• Berlin / Germany : The President of the Police of East Berlin Friedhelm Rausch steps on the steps of the Red City Hall and informs a crowd of 1,500 demonstrators that he regrets the attacks by police officers on demonstrating government critics on Republic Day about three weeks ago.

See also

• Nekrolog October 1989 for deaths that month
• List of annually recurring commemorative and action days in October
• Category for commemorative days, holidays or action days in October

Web links

Graubünden in October 1989

Commons : October 1989  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The covenant of life sealed. In: Der Spiegel . February 4, 1991. Retrieved August 23, 2018 . 
2. ↑ German Embassy in Prague totally overcrowded and blocked. In: radio.cz . October 1, 2014, accessed January 3, 2019 . 
3. ↑ “Mittagsmagazin” from ARD and ZDF starts. In: ard.de . Retrieved June 8, 2019 . 
4. ^ The "Mephisto" of Viennese politics is condemned. In: diepresse.com . Retrieved October 2, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Information No. 438/89 “on initial indications of the reactions and behavior of people in the GDR in connection with the temporary suspension of passport-free and visa-free travel”. In: bstu.de , material from the Ministry for State Security . October 4, 1989. Retrieved October 14, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Dresden and the region in 1989. In: dnn.de . December 8, 2018, accessed January 2, 2019 . 
7. ^ The Nobel Peace Prize for 1989. In: nobelprize.org . October 5, 1989, accessed January 6, 2017 . 
8. ↑ Erich Honecker and Michail Gorbatschow at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the GDR. In: ghi-dc.org . Retrieved December 8, 2016 . 
9. ↑ "Those who come too late are punished by life". In: 60xdeutschland.de . Retrieved December 8, 2016 . 
10. ^ David Perfect: Historical Dictionary of The Gambia . 5th edition. Rowman & Littlefield , Lanham 2016, ISBN 978-1-4422-6522-6 , pp. 44 .
11. ^ The year 1989. In: plauen.de . October 13, 2016, accessed October 7, 2017 . 
12. ^ The foundation of the SDP in Schwante. In: mdr.de . Retrieved May 15, 2018 . 
13. ^ State elections in 1989. In: vorarlberg.at . Retrieved June 3, 2017 . 
14. ↑ Hans-Hermann Hertle , Gerd-Rüdiger Stephan (ed.): The end of the SED: The last days of the Central Committee . Ch. Links Verlag , Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86284-207-0 , p. 49 .
15. ^ Joint German-Polish declaration. In: berlin.msz.gov.pl . November 14, 1989, accessed on November 17, 2017 : "of the Agreement of October 9, 1989" 
16. ↑ A call that made history. In: deutschlandfunkkultur.de . November 1, 2009, accessed May 15, 2018 . 
17. ↑ The day of decision. In: lvz.de . November 1, 2016, accessed May 15, 2018 . 
18. ↑ Første åpningstale. In: kongehuset.no . Retrieved on October 11, 2017 (Norwegian): "åpning October 9, 1989" 
19. ^ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1989. In: nobelprize.org . October 9, 1989, accessed December 8, 2016 . 
20. ↑ From September 88 to October 89. In: adr.lu . Retrieved October 14, 2018 . 
21. ^ Harris M. Lentz (Ed.): Heads of States and Governments . Routledge , London 2013, ISBN 1-884964-44-3 , pp. 337 .
22. ^ The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1989. In: nobelprize.org . October 11, 1989, accessed December 11, 2016 . 
23. ^ Public Spending Patterns: the regional allocation of public investment in Greece by political period. In: lse.ac.uk . May 2008, accessed on November 14, 2017 (English): "caretaker government under Yiannis Grivas" 
24. ^ The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1989. In: nobelprize.org . October 12, 1989, accessed November 24, 2016 . 
25. ^ The Nobel Prize in Physics 1989. In: nobelprize.org . October 12, 1989, accessed November 25, 2016 . 
26. ↑ trinews.at, Stefan Leitner: Women ( Memento from March 1, 2020 in the Internet Archive )
27. ↑ trinews.at, Stefan Leitner: Gentlemen ( Memento from March 1, 2020 in the Internet Archive )
28. ↑ The "Pinochet Case" - a chronicle. In: Menschenrechte.org . October 29, 2000, accessed October 15, 2019 . 
29. ^ Václav Havel. In: friedenspreis-des-deutschen-buchhandels.de . 1989, accessed March 16, 2018 . 
30. ↑ Major earthquakes in the USA 1980–2011. In: munichre.com . 2011, accessed June 25, 2018 . 
31. ↑ Honecker resigns. In: dw.com . Retrieved May 22, 2017 . 
32. ^ Launch of Galileo on STS-34 Atlantis. In: nasa.gov . Accessed August 24, 2018 . 
33. ^ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1989. In: nobelprize.org . October 19, 1989, accessed December 18, 2016 . 
34. ^ Stefan wool : GDR . S. Fischer Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-596-16122-3 , pp. 82 .
35. ↑ Botho Strauss. In: deutscheakademie.de . October 21, 1989. Retrieved August 18, 2019 . 
36. ↑ The End of History? In: wesjones.com, material from The National Interest . 1989, accessed June 3, 2017 . 
37. ↑ What is Fukuyama saying? And to whom is he saying it? In: The New York Times . October 22, 1989, accessed June 3, 2017 . 
38. ^ The situation in Kampuchea. In: un.org . January 15, 1990, accessed November 22, 2017 . 
39. ↑ A sensation in Japan. In: ayrton-senna.net. August 17, 2016, accessed January 11, 2017 . 
40. ^ Proclamation of the Republic of Hungary. In: cvce.eu . October 23, 1989. Retrieved September 3, 2017 . 
41. ^ Egon Krenz - The end of an SED career. In: Welt Online . November 20, 2009. Retrieved January 16, 2017 . 
42. ↑ France Allows Muslim Schoolgirls' Scarfs. In: Los Angeles Times . October 24, 1989, accessed August 24, 2018 . 
43. ↑ anniversaries 2019. In: dra.de . 2017, accessed August 23, 2018 . 
44. ↑ November 17, 1989 and its history. In: radio.cz . November 6, 2004, accessed November 10, 2017 . 
45. ↑ Winfried Steffani (Ed.): Government majority and opposition in the states of the EC . Leske + Budrich , Opladen 1991, ISBN 978-3-8100-0898-5 , pp. 358 .
46. ↑ The “Schürer Paper” (October 30, 1989) - the GDR's oath of disclosure. In: voebas.de, Vöbas e. V. Accessed April 15, 2018 . 
47. ↑ Germany and the nation - a difficult relationship. In: Spiegel Online . December 30, 2016, accessed January 12, 2017 . 
48. ^ Biography of Turgut Özal. In: tccb.gov.tr . Retrieved August 23, 2018 . 
49. ^ Turkey. In: worldstatesmen.org. Retrieved September 11, 2018 . 
50. ↑ Fifteen years ago, Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler lost his job. In: tagesspiegel.de . October 31, 2004, accessed September 30, 2017 .