Romanian Revolution 1989

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Romanian Revolution 1989
Flag without coat of arms of socialist Romania as a symbol of the revolution
Flag without coat of arms of socialist Romania as a symbol of the revolution
date December 16, 1989 - December 27, 1989
place Romania
output Victory of the revolutionaries
consequences Execution of the Ceaușescus,
change to democracy
Parties to the conflict

Romania 1965Romania Socialist Republic of Romania Romanian Army         (until December 22nd) Securitate and others
Romania 1965Romania

Romania 1965Romania

Romania flag 1989 revolution.svgProtesting regime - opponents of the Romanian Army         (from December 22nd) Dissident members of the PCR
Romania flag 1989 revolution.svg

Romania flag 1989 revolution.svg

Commander

Romania 1965Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu †

Romania flag 1989 revolution.svg several independents

losses
1,104 dead
3,352 injured

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a chain of demonstrations, riots and bloody fighting that took place in Timișoara , Bucharest and other Romanian cities from December 16-27 , 1989 . It led to the fall and execution of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena Ceaușescu and to the end of the real socialist system in Romania .

prehistory

The Ceaușescu era

Nicolae Ceaușescu, 1978
Flag of the PCR, banned since the 1989 revolution

After coming to power in 1965, Nicolae Ceaușescu initially enjoyed considerable popularity in Romania. He continued the policy begun by his predecessor Gheorghiu-Dej of cautious demarcation from the Soviet Union , which culminated in his non-participation in the invasion of the Warsaw Pact in the ČSSR in 1968 ( Prague Spring ). Romania opened up to Western tourists and investors, established diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany and became the first Warsaw Pact state to become a member of the IMF and the World Bank .

Ceaușescu got rid of his internal party rivals as early as the 1960s with an alleged de-Stalinization campaign in which he concealed his own involvement in Stalinism in the 1950s , during which he was responsible for organization in the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR). His apparently liberal politics withdrew the issues from possible opposition. That changed suddenly after a visit to the People's Republic of China and North Korea in 1971. In his “July theses” he proclaimed a lay art movement (“Price you, Romania!”), Which became the basis of a personality cult that increasingly included his wife Elena. In doing so, he pacified artists and intellectuals. A year later the “cadre rotation” was introduced, which prevented other Communist Party functionaries from building up a domestic power. Only members of the Ceaușescu family were exempt. In 1974 he was appointed president, whose decrees had the force of law - unique in socialist countries. He was also commander in chief of the Armata Română (Romanian Army). The PCR, which in 1987 had 3.6 million members, became the mere executive organ of Ceaușescu's orders, politics was no longer pursued in it. Romania became a police state .

The most important pillar of power was the secret police Securitate , in whose leadership a brother Ceaușescu also worked: he directed the special school of the Securitate in Băneasa near Bucharest. Although their eavesdropping center in Bucharest was one of the most modern in the world at the time, there was no connection to the international self-dialing network - which made communication with other countries much more difficult. At the end of the Ceaușescu period, it employed 14,259 full-time employees and between 400,000 and 700,000 informants . Many Securitate officers practiced a civil profession. As a result, the Securitate was present in all areas of society.

Prison camp in the
Socialist Republic of Romania

Dissidents in Romania were usually not charged with political crimes, but instead were admitted to psychiatric clinics in which conditions were inhumane. This made it very difficult for human rights organizations to expose and accuse political persecution . The regime often met intellectual opposition by offering those involved to leave the country. An opposition movement that formed around the writer Paul Goma in 1977 was smashed, and this offer was also made to the “ Action Group Banat ” around the German-language writers Richard Wagner and William Totok . If they did not respond, they were placed under house arrest, interrogated and mistreated by the Securitate. The regime fought opposition among the workers by tougher means. Ceaușescu, who spoke personally to the workers, met a strike of around 10,000 miners in the Jiu Valley in 1977, initially with economic concessions, but the 20 leaders were arrested shortly afterwards and some of them disappeared without a trace , others were placed under house arrest; many of the miner families involved were relocated to other parts of the country and replaced by "politically reliable" workers who worked for the Securitate. Several attempts to found free trade unions , such as the SLOMR , were broken up in the early stages.

Impoverishment of the population

  • Romanian food menu for bread, 1989

  • Edible Oil Queue, 1986

  • Petrol voucher for foreign tourists, 1980s

  • Demography of Romania

  • Major project of the 1980s: "House of the People", today Parliament Palace

In the 1970s, Ceaușescu embarked on an ambitious, loan-financed industrialization program. The economy of real socialist Romania at that time was characterized by strong structural imbalances, with heavy industry being given priority, which was not in line with the available energy and raw material quantities in the country. The Romanian industrial products found hardly any buyers on the world market , and the necessary energy imports worsened the Romanian balance of payments . These circumstances led to a doubling of Romania's national debt during the oil crisis between 1979 and 1981, so that Romania had to declare its insolvency in 1982 . In order to reduce debt, imports were rigorously restricted, the aging of industry and equipment stocks were accepted, and exports were accelerated at the same time. At the end of 1989, the country had repaid its foreign debt of US $ 6.9 billion, but the accompanying austerity policy had brought serious supply problems bordering on famine as well as massive impoverishment of large parts of the population. In order to achieve these goals, Ceauşescu had demanded “dedication and willingness to make sacrifices” from the population.

The supply situation has deteriorated from year to year since 1980. In the summer of 1981 there was temporarily no bread and no cornmeal available in the Western Carpathians for weeks, in other areas no eggs or oatmeal for weeks or months; Dairy products and cheese were rare; Butter and cooking oil rarely came into the shops, rice and potatoes were irregular, and the shelves were often empty; Meat was hardly available. From 1981 the government increasingly propagated the "Scientific Nutrition" (Rum .: Alimentaţia raţională); a concept that had been politically decided in 1975 and had the goal of educating the population to a standardized diet “depending on age, gender, physical exertion and physical condition”. For this purpose, an exact breakdown was formulated of how much nutritional energy , proteins and minerals are “scientifically” necessary for which age. As early as 1980 there was food rationing in individual regions. Grocery cards for everyday goods were introduced on a large scale in the summer of 1981, and electricity and petrol were strictly rationed. In order to strengthen the personality cult around himself, Ceauşescu was celebrated as the sole creator and source of ideas even in the unpopular rationing of food.

Sellers were instructed to sell the rationed products only to citizens who lived or worked in the local area. Anyone who bought oil, sugar, flour, rice, coffee and other non-perishable food beyond the family's monthly needs was punished with between six months and five years in prison. “Standing in line” had become part of everyday life, and the insufficiently functioning rationing mechanism forced the population to purchase the necessary goods through informal channels. Der Spiegel described the situation in 1985:

“The already meager supply of food has also deteriorated catastrophically since the beginning of autumn. There are long queues of buyers in front of the shops for the poor goods - they usually wait in vain. Meat is only available to those employed in production; Sugar, butter, vegetable oil, coffee and flour are scarce. In the shops in the province there are often only wilted cabbages and rotten potatoes on the shelves [...] But Ceausescu [...] also has his own recipes for the lack of food. In a televised address he stated that there were no shortages of supplies at all, only wrong eating habits. To stay fit […] 2800 calories a day were enough; Forest berries and roots are much more digestible than meat and bread anyway. After all, he called on his people to keep pigeons and other livestock in the house and garden, and if necessary on the balcony as a supplement to the vegetarian menu. "

In the 1970s / 1980s, the American cigarette brand Kent established itself in the Romanian population as the second, unofficial and most popular " baksheesh " currency as the preferred means of barter. With the exception of Bucharest and on the Black Sea coast , petrol was rationed for the population's cars from 1982 onwards. The ration of 60 liters of petrol per car per month was reduced to 20 liters. Even for small rations you might have to stand in line for days. Cars not belonging to the district were given a ration of 5 liters of petrol per filling station. These restrictions did not apply to foreign tourists as long as they were paying for gasoline receipts in foreign currency .

The temperature in the remote-heated apartments was reduced to 12 ° C in winter, and sometimes there was no heating at all for days. Only one 25 watt lightbulb was allowed per household, power outages were part of everyday life. Only 5 percent of the Romanian population owned a car, 7.6 percent owned a vacuum cleaner, 14.7 percent owned a washing machine and 19.6 percent owned a refrigerator.

The infant mortality rate in 1989 was the highest in Europe at 2.69%; the average was 0.98%. In the Romanian orphanages, for example in the children's home Cighid near Oradea , handicapped and unwanted children were kept worse than cattle under the most unworthy conditions as a result of decree 770 , and there was also the phenomenon of street children in Romania . The television program was shortened to two hours on weekdays.

Regardless of the desperate situation of the population, Ceaușescu took on new major projects that completely overwhelmed the country's economic strength. In 1984 the Danube-Black Sea Canal was inaugurated. The most important building project was today's Parliament Palace , the largest connected building in Europe . The building material should come exclusively from Romania. A three and a half kilometer long street lined with residential buildings for the oligarchy functionaries led to the palace ( Bulevardul Unirii ), in front of the palace there was space for a gathering of a million people, to whom Ceauşescu wanted to speak from the balcony. Until 1989, however , the apartments were only a facade construction , i.e. on the back you could only see the concrete pillars. Up until then there was only a ghost quarter. The Bucharest districts of Uranus, Antim and Rahova were demolished for the ensemble , and the 18th-century Văcăreşti Monastery and other churches were razed to the ground. Most of the construction work was carried out by the army.

Despite the internal political conditions in Romania Ceausescu was due to its seemingly USSR supported by Western politicians -kritischen foreign policy course until the mid 80s. In 1983 the then US Vice President George Bush visited him , and in 1985 the Spanish royal couple traveled to Romania. From 1980 to 1982 he received invitations to state visits to France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Austria; the last western country he visited was the Federal Republic of Germany in 1984. Only the green politician Petra Kelly caused an upset by handing Ceaușescu a brochure from Amnesty International on the human rights situation in Romania at a banquet in Schloss Brühl .

The program to systematize the villages , which Ceaușescu tackled in 1988 after lengthy planning , led to international protests . It planned to grind 6,500 of around 13,000 Romanian villages and relocate the residents to “agro-industrial centers”. The first of these centers was completed in 1989 near Bucharest. The apartments consisted of two rooms and a four-square-meter kitchen without a water pipe, which at least six people had to share because each family should have at least four children. There was no bathroom, the only toilet in the apartment block was in the courtyard . The militia officer responsible for the block lived on the first floor. He woke the residents up in the morning, distributed spades, scythes and pitchforks, accompanied them to work in the fields and locked the front door in the evening. At lunchtime, the common LPG food was distributed from canisters , the militia had a separate canteen.

Lack of opposition

Domestic political repression was intensified in Romania in the 1980s . Since March 1984 every typewriter had to be registered with the police and a new handwriting sample had to be deposited every year. With the " Decree No. 408" of December 1985, Romanian citizens were obliged to report any conversation with a foreigner to the security authorities within 24 hours. The private accommodation of foreign guests had been forbidden before, which particularly affected the minorities . The enforcement of the abortion ban, which had existed since 1966, was rigorously monitored by compulsory gynecological examinations in the factories. The company doctors only received 100 percent of their salary if a certain “pregnancy rate” was met. Between 1966 and 1989 around 11,000 women lost their lives in illegal abortion attempts.

Propaganda image on the streets of Bucharest in 1986

Nevertheless, no organized resistance against the communist regime formed. All attempts to do so were crushed by the Securitate , those involved arrested, placed under house arrest, tortured and forced to emigrate. In 1982 some members of the Hungarian minority in Oradea published the underground magazine "Ellenpontok" ( Hungarian : counterpoints): Geza Szöcs, Attila Ara-Kovacs, Karoly and Ilona Toth. After a few expenses, the group was tracked down and broken up. The magazine “Luneta” ( Romanian : telescope) published in Bucharest was able to hold up longer . It appeared only irregularly and was produced by Bucharest book printers, who smuggled the required letters out of print shops one by one. The Bucharest engineer Radu Filipescu drove a motorcycle through the streets of the capital at night and threw leaflets in the mailboxes calling for the overthrow of Ceaușescu. His protest, however, had no consequences, just like the critical statements of university lecturers and writers such as Doina Cornea , who criticized the "village systematization", Dan Deșliu, who refrained from publications in protest against the cult of personality, Mircea Dinescu or Dorin Tudoran, who was a "court poet" Ceaușescus convicted of plagiarism , and other intellectuals known abroad. They were banned from publication, placed under house arrest, and often arrested and interrogated. Less prominent people who were noticed by the Securitate simply disappeared without a trace or were convicted of criminal offenses.

The prevailing misery, combined with all-encompassing corruption in Romania (doctors, teachers, militia, Securitate, salespeople, party officials and pastors had to be bribed) and the vast undergrowth of decrees and laws forced almost everyone into illegality due to the physical necessity of survival. This made people vulnerable to blackmail. Solidarity against the communist dictatorship could not arise in this way. In addition, there was control of the media and the difficulty of establishing contact with other countries. In 1987 a workers' uprising in Brasov was bloodily suppressed. When the most listened to radio station in Romania, Radio Free Europe , heard about it, it was already too late for the unrest to spread to other cities.

The intellectuals who protested against the Ceausescu regime remained isolated. The majority of the writers, but also the leaderships of the Orthodox Church and the Protestant churches, which are strongly represented among the minorities, collaborated with the regime. Members of the German minority could, if they were lucky, legally leave the country as repatriates for bribes of up to DM 15,000 . With the free purchase of Romanian Germans by the German federal government from 1967 to 1989 under the code name top secret channel the departure of 226,654 Romanian Germans from Romania sought in the Federal Republic of Germany. The amount of the payments for the so-called bounty is estimated at over 1 billion DM. All others could only flee. Often attempts were made to swim across the Danube to Yugoslavia , which was the only neighboring country that did not have an extradition agreement with Romania. The flight to Hungary also increased, although the Romanian border troops had constant shooting orders . In 1986, 2,800 escape attempts were registered on the Romanian western border, of which 1,800 were successful. A few months before the revolution, the border troops like the Securitate were subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior. Its armed units (militia, securitate, "anti-terrorist units" (USLA) ) were directly subordinate to Ceaușescu and had the same number as the regular strength of the army, which Ceaușescu mistrusted. In Timișoara there were 3,000 members of a special unit equipped with submachine guns, armored cars, grenade launchers (AG-7), tear gas grenades, pistols, shields, protective helmets, electrically charged rubber truncheons and shepherds.

The revolution

Report on human rights and youth in Romania by Dumitru Mazilu; a UN document

The revolutions of 1989 also affected Romania. Critical intellectuals increasingly turned to the Western public in interviews and open letters . An open letter from six old communists to Ceaușescu, including the former President of the UN General Assembly , Corneliu Mănescu , which was published on March 10, 1989 by the New York Times , caused a sensation . The author of the letter was the later “chief ideologist” of the “Front for National Salvation”, Silviu Brucan. He raised serious allegations against Ceausescu's policies. The signatories, with whom Brucan only consulted orally, were given house arrest. Another old communist, who was also accused of collaborating with the Securitate, Dumitru Mazilu, smuggled a report on the situation of Romanian youth out of the country in August 1989, which was published as a UN document. He and his family were then threatened with death. In the run-up to the 14th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party, which took place in Bucharest at the end of November, a document signed “Front for National Salvation” emerged, which called on the congress delegates to vote out Ceausescu and to reconstruct the PCR. The "rescue front" that took over the government after the overthrow distanced itself from this document. Foreign countries distanced themselves from the Ceaușescu regime, Denmark , Norway and Portugal recalled their ambassadors from Romania. However, the situation in Romania remained calm. That only changed on December 15, 1989.

Timișoara

In Timișoara , the largest city in the Banat , riots had already broken out twice in November 1989, but these were immediately put down. The television programs of Hungary and Yugoslavia could be received in Timișoara and were also understood by parts of the population, especially within the Hungarian and Serbian minorities . The Germans were informed about the revolutions in Eastern Europe through family connections. The coexistence of the ethnic groups in the Banat, unlike in Transylvania , was largely free of tension. In 1986 the clergyman László Tőkés became pastor of the Hungarian Reformed community here.

Interview with László Tőkés in 2007

In his sermons he made a hardly concealed criticism of the conditions in Romania. That is why they were increasingly visited by members of other denominations and ethnic groups, with an average of 600 people attending each of his devotions in 1989. His superior Bishop László Papp wanted to transfer him to the village of Mineu in northern Transylvania on May 1, 1989. This was in contradiction to the reformed canon law , according to which the presbytery of a parish may elect the pastor itself. The Timișoara presbytery wanted to keep Tőkés and the latter refused to obey the order. The members of the presbytery were put under pressure by the Securitate and Bishop Papp removed Tőkés on August 31 for “sermons against the interests of the state”. Tőkés continued to exercise his office. On October 20, at the request of the Reformed Church, a court ruling was issued that Tőkés should leave his parish apartment. On November 2, Tőkés was attacked and injured in his apartment by masked securists, but friends who were present succeeded in driving the attackers away. On November 28th the decision was made to deport him on December 15th. On December 13, the militia guard was withdrawn from Tőkés' house. Tőkés announced the measure threatening him in the Reformed Church on Mary and called on those present to witness his eviction. After the date of the transfer date was announced on Hungarian television, around 200 people, including many Romanians, gathered in front of the house on the evening of December 15. The consul of Great Britain also arrived from Bucharest. The district party committee then sent the mayor of Timișoara, Petru Moț, to the rectory to negotiate with Tőkés. Two MPs from the demonstrators, a Hungarian and a Romanian, made him promise to reverse the evacuation order and give access to the house. They then called on the crowd to go home but come back the next day to check on the promises made.

December 16

Reformed Church of Mary. Here the uprising began
This plaque on the facade of the Reformed Church commemorates the beginning of the uprising

On the morning of December 16, people began to gather again in front of Pastor Tőkés' house, which was in the neighborhood of Piața Sfînta Maria , an important traffic junction at the intersection of the districts of Elisabetin and Iosefin . Many people became aware of the gathering and joined them, whereupon over 1000 people had already gathered by the afternoon. At 1:00 p.m. the Bucharest militia and the Securitate received orders to disperse the protesters, if necessary with the use of sharp weapons. In the evening Pastor Tőkés appeared at the window and called on the demonstrators to keep calm and go home. Candles and notes with the text of the song “ Deşteaptă-te, române! “(Wake up, Romanian) - today's Romanian national anthem - which had been banned since the communists came to power in 1947. From today's Piața Alexandru Mocioni , a group of young people with sticks and bicycle chains appeared, led by strangers, possibly Securitate people, and began to break window panes. Some of the demonstrators marched with the young people in the direction of the student area and tried to stop the destruction. However, the student dormitories were locked from the inside. The crowd then went to the county party committee and stormed the building. The militia that usually guarded it was withdrawn. From the direction of the Decebal Bridge trucks came with 200 militia men, around 50 of them in plain clothes. About half of the demonstrators marched back to Piața Maria , where a rally had started. The first clash with the intervention troops occurred nearby. The fire department tried to disperse the demonstrators with water cannons ; they had armed themselves with sticks, pipes and bottles and fought at several points with the militia. In the meantime, the Securitate had surrounded the Piața Maria and Tőkés' house and began to arrest peaceful demonstrators and take them away in buses. Pastor Tőkés was arrested in his church, beaten up, forced to sign the eviction notice and taken away. The demonstrators who escaped from the Piața Maria tried to bring reinforcements from the city's industrial plants, but the workers were detained in the plants. They tried to speak to the Orthodox Metropolitan Nicolae Corneanu in the Cathedral of the Three Holy Hierarchs , but it was locked. At the Piața Dacia they came across an armed "anti-terrorist unit" of the Securitate, which did not fire but made use of its bayonets . Also amphibious vehicles of the military appeared now in the city. The crowd gathered on Bulevardul 30 Decembrie in front of the Timișoara Opera House , where there were again clashes with repressive forces and many arrests were made. The city was sealed off from the outside.

December 17th

On the morning of December 17th, a Sunday, several thousand demonstrators gathered again at the Reformed Church and on Opera Square. Military marched in several parts of the city. The student dormitories were not locked this time and the students joined the demonstrators. This time the district party committee was guarded by soldiers , but the demonstrators succeeded in routing them and storming the building. The soldiers were then armed. At lunchtime, a civil off-road vehicle appeared near the party committee, and the first shots with a machine gun were fired from its window. At about the same time, the Politburo members Ion Coman and Ilie Matei flew from Bucharest to Timișoara, accompanied by four generals : Chief of Staff Ștefan Guşă, the first deputy defense minister Victor Stănculescu, the commander of the chemical armed forces, Mihai Chitac and Air Force General Ardeleanu. After their departure, a dramatic meeting of the Politburo took place in Bucharest . Ceaușescu charged the attending ministers Tudor Postelnicu (Interior) and Vasile Milea (Defense) as well as Securitate boss Vlad the allegation of not having provided the security forces in Timișoara with live ammunition and threatened to resign. At the urging request of the Politburo, he withdrew the threat. He had planned a state visit to Iran for the next two days, entrusting his wife and brother-in-law Manea Mănescu with coordinating the repression and delegating political responsibility to a subcommittee (CPEx) of the Politburo. He ordered the borders to be closed completely. He attributed the unrest in Timisoara to the activity of foreign spy rings. In a subsequent conference call with the generals who had meanwhile arrived in Timișoara, he reaffirmed the order to shoot. The order to shoot was actually issued through an emergency law that put all army units on heightened alert (young men who had done their military service in 1989 practiced these emergency plans very often). At 5 p.m., the army's first tanks rolled through Timisoara on the basis of this order. They came from several military units and completely cordoned off the city center. The emergency law stipulated that anyone could be shot dead after a single warning.

In Timișoara, the riot had spread across the city. Revolutionary leaders spoke to the assembled crowd on Opera Square. The demonstrators succeeded in stopping and hijacking some military vehicles, while others were broken down due to lack of fuel and technical defects. As on the previous day, businesses were looted and destroyed by Securitate provocateurs, and isolated shots were fired. For the time being, the military fired only with blank cartridges , from 6 p.m. with live ammunition, including dum-dum bullets . Dead and injured lay in the streets. The use of firearms in the center pushed the insurgents into the outskirts, where the fighting continued until 3:00 a.m.

December 18th

The citizens of Timisoara appeared in their factories on Monday, but there was no work anywhere. They talked about the events of the past two days and asked about the fate of the injured and missing. Ceausescu's brother Ilie and a prosecutor from Bucharest arrived early in the morning, ordered that the injured should not be treated and confiscated the medical records from the district hospital. On December 17th 58 dead and 92 injured were registered there. The morgue was placed under the orders of Colonel Nicolae Ghircoiaș, director of the Bucharest Criminal Police Office, and only Securitate officers were allowed to enter. The telephone connections from Timisoara were interrupted. However, the Yugoslav consul Mirko Atanačković, who was later made honorary citizen No. 1 of the city, managed to inform the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug through diplomats . The Romanian-German writer William Totok was also able to call Timișoara. The first reports of the unrest reached abroad. The students of Timisoara were sent home and spread the word about what was happening in the country.

Ceaușescu had left for Tehran that morning . At 10:00 a.m. General Stănculescu announced a state of emergency in Timișoara. Nevertheless, from 4:00 p.m. onwards, people gathered again at Opernplatz. The Securitate shot into the crowd. The fighting broke out again. Protesters went to the district hospital and demanded the surrender of the dead and injured, which was refused. Under the command of Securitate-General Nuță, a refrigerator truck was ordered from the COMTIM meat combine to bring 40 bodies from the district hospital to Bucharest. The transport started at 5:00 a.m. on the morning of December 19.

19. December

The 40 bodies removed from Timișoara were cremated in a specially repaired incinerator in the Bucharest crematorium . The helicopter with the coordinator of the action, Securitate-General Nuță, on board was shot down on the return flight from Timișoara near the city of Alba Iulia . About 30 lawyers came to Timișoara from Bucharest to prepare trials against those arrested during the riots. The defendants were a total of 832 people: 700 men, 132 women, 716 Romanians, 82 Hungarians, 19 Germans, four Serbs and 11 people of other nationalities. 140 underage prison inmates were released on December 18th.

The workers at the large Electrobanat (ELBA) and Electrotimiș factories had occupied their factories and were on strike. Barricades were erected to prevent the security forces from storming the factories. 200 soldiers were sent to the ELBA factory to "persuade" the workforce to start work again. Mayor Petru Moț and district party leader Radu Bălan rushed to the scene to appease the mostly female workforce. Unable to dissolve the mass, Bălan frantically scribbled some of the workers' demands in his notebook: "We want heating [...] we want chocolate for our children [...] socks, underwear, cocoa and cotton." Chief of Staff Ștefan Guşă was called to Helping Bălan out of the situation found himself increasingly confronted with questions and allegations even from strikers. Guşă was able to convince himself on the spot that this alleged trouble spot "was not about hooligans, but about serious people" who went on strike in protest. He explained to those present that the army was recruited from the population and was not interested in a civil war. He had the soldiers move in front of the factory and later also remove the tanks that had been driven up at traffic junctions.

20th of December

NCO of the Romanian Army , the emblem of the socialist state is removed from the cap

In the morning, the workforce of the large industrial companies gathered on Buziașer Straße to march into the center. Everyone stood next to someone they knew to prevent provocateurs from being smuggled in. On the way, other workers joined in, although in some factories they were forbidden to go out on the streets and in others they were sent home. A column moved towards the north station to take the workers from the factories there with them. At 11:00 a.m., about 20,000 people were gathered in the Opera Square. District party leader Radu Bălan had already set up microphones and loudspeakers there for a Pro Ceaușescu rally. The demonstrators went without fear to meet the soldiers on Opernplatz, who stood in front of them with weapons at the ready. The soldiers then lowered their weapons and the demonstrators took possession of a number of chariots. The workforce of the largest operation UMT , around 10,000 people, made their way to the district party house, although Bălan had come to the plant to calm them down. They shouted "The army is on our side" and "no violence". The soldiers posted along the way only fired a few warning shots and then withdrew on the orders of their officers . The Securitate soldiers posted in front of the party building did not follow the foc (fire) order received from the officers . Their officers fled. Then the UMT column also moved to Opernplatz. The Romanian Prime Minister Constantin Dăscălescu , who had meanwhile arrived from Bucharest, wanted to speak to the gathering, but was booed. A committee of 13 insurgents called Frontul Democratic Român (Romanian Democratic Front) formulated their demands:

  1. Resignation of Ceaușescu
  2. Resignation of the government
  3. Freedom of expression and truthful reporting of the events in Timisoara
  4. Respect for human rights
  5. Freedom of worship
  6. Opening the borders
  7. Release of all detainees since December 16
  8. Clarification of the whereabouts of the dead
  9. Day of mourning for the dead

The Yugoslav consul Atanačković was asked to mediate. He refused, referring to his diplomatic status, but promised to inform the Yugoslav media about the committee's demands. Dăscălescu promised the release of the prisoners on condition that the demonstrators go home. In fact, all prisoners were released by 11:00 p.m. The demonstrators stayed on Opernplatz.

Ceaușescu had meanwhile returned from Iran. He held a conference call with the district party secretaries and announced a televised address for the evening. In this address he said that the riots in Timisoara were the result of foreign espionage . In doing so, he admitted the unrest and made it known across the country.

21st December

In the morning, 15 trains from Oltenia and the Schil Valley (Valea Jiului) , the area where Ceaușescu was born, arrived in Timișoara. In them were 20,000 workers in uniforms of the party militia "Patriotic Guard", who were told that Hungarians and hooligans had taken power in Timișoara . They had been “armed” with spade and broomsticks to crush the insurgents. The trains were stopped in front of the station, the occupants were forced to alight and taken to the Opera Square, where 150,000 people had now gathered. The workers expressed their solidarity with the demonstrators. Most of them went home and spread the news of the state lie. They were also happy because they were able to stock up on groceries in Timișoara, especially sausage and meat products from COMTIM. The company had been supplying the demonstrators with food for days. Many of their truck drivers had also been involved in building barricades by setting fire to their vehicles themselves. Consul Atanačković managed to get to Vršac on the Yugoslav border. There he reported to Radio Belgrade on the previous day's events, named the 13 committee members and declared that the Ceaușescu dictatorship had been defeated in Timișoara. Radio Belgrade spread the interview across Europe, Radio Free Europe changed its program and only brought news from Romania.

Bucharest

21st December

A mass rally condemning the events in Timișoara was scheduled for midday in front of the ZK building. Ceaușescu began speaking to around 110,000 people at 12:00 p.m.

During the speech there was a stir in the square. The causes of the sudden unrest in the congregation are unclear. Some interpretations are based on a deliberate unrest caused by provocateurs; the range of explanations extends from explosions of petards to injuries to people in the crowd with needles or batons; the use of speakers with simulated tank and gunshot noises; the spread of inaudible, but unrest and frightening sound waves to the provocative voice of slogans directed against Ceaușescu such as "Ti-mi-șoa-ra", for which different actors were held responsible depending on the interpretation (Securitate, Soviet agents etc.) . Less speculative statements point to anti-Ceaușescu demonstrators outside the assembly who tried to penetrate the area sealed off by the security forces and tried to push back by the security forces with tear gas, which led to panic and unrest in the crowd. The meeting was called at very short notice, so there may be some information gaps in the chain of command.

The reaction of the Ceaușescu couple on the balcony is memorable: To get the angry crowds under control again, Nicolae Ceaușescu initially shouted helplessly “A-lo, A-lo!” (“Hello, Hello!”) Into the crowd. Elena Ceaușescu advised her husband how to deal with the situation: “Vorbește-le, vorbește-le!” (“Speak to them, speak to them!”). He urged the crowd to “Stați liniștiți la locurile voastre” (“Stay calm in your seats!”).

Romanian television temporarily stopped broadcasting live during the unrest and played music. Later, the broadcast of the speech in which Ceaușescu promised increases in the state's cash benefits to citizens continued. Then there were new incidents, whereupon the rally was broken off.

From that day on, Bucharest could not rest either. Violent clashes between the insurgents and the security forces deployed by the state leadership formed the scene in the city center, which resembled a hard-fought battlefield. Thousands of mostly young people gathered in the center and built barricades. The army, the militia and the Securitate in civilian clothes attacked the rebels with water cannons, clubs, chariots, tanks and live ammunition; they resisted. The fighting became most intense at midnight when a barricade built by the insurgents at the Hotel InterContinental was breached. The fighting continued until around 3:00 a.m. Even around the university there was fighting until the early hours of the morning. Occasionally soldiers began to fraternize with the insurgents. Unrest has now also been reported from other Romanian cities such as Arad , Sibiu , Cluj-Napoca , Brașov , Reșița , Tîrgu Mureș and Cugir . But instead of leaving the city under cover of darkness, the Ceaușescus decided to wait for the next morning.

December 22

Romanian postage stamp commemorating the revolution

On the morning of December 22nd, around 7:00 a.m., Elena Ceaușescu received the news that larger columns of workers were moving from the industrial districts (larger factories or factory associations were concentrated in industrial zones during the communist era) towards the center of Bucharest. At 9:30 am, the university square was crowded with people. The army fired a few shots, including at the demonstrators, but individual military units also defected. The last meeting of the Communist Party Politburo took place in the Central Committee building. Ceausescu was the death of the defense minister Vasile Milea known who was a traitor and suicide committed. This was read out as the last message on Romanian radio. The prevailing opinion at the time was that Milea had been eliminated because he had refused to continue to obey Ceaușescu's orders. The command of the army was transferred to General Stănculescu . This accepted after a short period of reflection. In addition, at 10:00 am, a state of emergency was declared across the country on television . With this, Ceaușescu created the legal basis for his own subsequent execution. At 11:30 a.m. he tried one last time to speak to the people gathered in front of the Central Committee building and was booed again. Stănculescu had meanwhile ordered the troops back to their quarters without Ceausescu's knowledge. The insurgents were already breaking into the ground floor of the building. Distraught, Ceaușescu, persuaded by Stănculescu, ordered a helicopter to escape. Stănculescu's insubordination to Ceaușescu played an important role in the overthrow of the dictatorship.

Ion Iliescu on Romanian television during the revolution

At 1:00 p.m., the insurgents managed to capture the television station. Actor Ion Caramitru announced a speech by the poet Mircea Dinescu, who has been released from house arrest. This announced that the dictator had fled. From then on, television broadcast "Revolution live". Everyone who happened to be present was able to express their joy at the overthrow of the dictatorship and their ideas for the future. Ion Iliescu arrived at the building around 2:00 p.m. , coming from his office at the Bucharest Technical Publishing House . He announced the establishment of a "National Salvation Front" that had taken power in Romania. 39 people were presented as the “ Council of the Front for National Salvation ”, some without even knowing anything about it. The army was now on the side of the people, it was said. At around 5:30 p.m., a live broadcast began from the square in front of the former royal palace, where the ZK building is also located. At that time, the place was under fire by strangers, and the army returned the shots. The university library opposite the former royal palace went up in flames. The Ministry of Defense and the television station were shot at almost the same time, and fire opened in other cities in the country. It was announced on television that terrorists would shoot and that the population was urged to defend the revolution . In the subsequent exchanges of fire, which lasted until December 27, 942 people were killed, six times as many as in the period up to December 22. The revolution claimed a total of 1,104 deaths.

Escape of the Ceaușescus

By helicopter

On December 22, 1989 at 11:20 am, the pilot of Ceaușescu's escape helicopter, Lieutenant Colonel Vasile Maluțan, received the order from Lieutenant General Horia Opruta to fly to the Palace Square to pick up the President. When flying over the palace square, however, he found no possibility of landing. Malutan landed the white SA365N Dauphin helicopter at 11:44 a.m. on the roof terrace and waited there with the engine running. Malutan later explained, “Then Stelica, the co-pilot, came to me and said demonstrators were coming out onto the terrace. Then the Ceaușescus came out, both practically worn by their bodyguards […] They looked as if they were passed out. They were white with shock. Mănescu (one of the vice-presidents ) and Emil Bobu (secretary of the Central Committee) ran right behind them. Mănescu, Bobu, Neagoe and another Securitate officer crowded the 4 seats in the back […] When I pulled in Ceaușescu, I saw the demonstrators running across the terrace […] There wasn't enough space, Elena Ceaușescu and I were between them Sitting and squashed in the door […] only four passengers were planned […] we had six. ”According to Malutan, the overloaded helicopter took off from the roof of the building at 12:08 on the way to the dictator's second residence in Snagov . When they arrived there shortly afterwards at 12:20 pm, Ceaușescu took Malutan into the presidential suite and ordered him to call two more helicopters, filled with soldiers as escorts, and another Dauphin to Snagov. Malutan's commanding officer answered on the phone: "There was a revolution [...] you are on your own [...] good luck!" Malutan then told Ceaușescu that the second helicopter would now warm up and they would soon have to move on, but he could only take four of the six people with him. The two members of the Politburo, Mănescu and Bobu, stayed behind. Ceaușescu ordered Malutan to fly to Titu . Near Titu, Malutan said he was going to fly the helicopter up and down. As a pretext, he stated that this was to avoid anti-aircraft fire, within whose range they were now. The dictator panicked and landed.

Arrest on the ground

The helicopter pilot dropped them off at 1:30 p.m. in a field next to the old national road 7 that leads to Piteşti and told his four passengers that there was nothing more he could do. The two Securitate bodyguards ran to the curb and waved cars out. They managed to hijack two vehicles, one from the Forestry Department and a red Dacia from a local doctor. In order not to be drawn into anything, the doctor Nicolae Deca faked an engine failure after a short time of chauffeuring the Ceaușescus. A bicycle mechanic's black Dacia was waved out at 2:15 p.m. and he drove them on to Tîrgovişte . The driver of the car, Nicolae Petrișor, convinced them that they could safely hide in the plant protection center on the outskirts of town. When they got there at 3:00 p.m., the director led the Ceaușescus into a room and locked them there.

Under arrest

They were picked up by the local militia at around 3:30 p.m. and taken to their local police station. Generals Chitac and Voinea had given the military units at Tîrgovişte the order on television to arrest the Ceauşescus. Around 6 p.m., soldiers found her in the militia area by chance (the Tîrgovişter militia had not informed the military) and took her to the Tîrgovişter barracks . The garrison chief, Colonel Andrei Kemenici, received strict orders not to hand her over to anyone else alive. At 7:30 p.m. Romanian television announced that the Ceaușescus had been arrested. The pilot of the escape helicopter, Malutan, and the officer Dinu, who made the arrest, were later killed in unexplained circumstances.

Short process

Original grave of Nicolae Ceaușescu in the Ghencea Cemetery (Bucharest)

On December 24, the core of the “rescue front” around Ion Iliescu decided to make short work of the Ceaușescus , who, according to the state of affairs, could only end with the death penalty . For this purpose, a decree for the establishment of an extraordinary military tribunal was signed and the versatile Major General Stănculescu was entrusted with the organization . He arrived at the barracks on December 25 at 1:00 p.m., accompanied by the military, who were supposed to be judges and prosecutors in the trial.

Verdict and execution

The show trial lasted 90 minutes (1:10 p.m. - 2:39 p.m.), at 2:40 p.m. Colonel Gică Popa pronounced the verdict. After this summary process, in which the Ceaușescus genocide through hunger, cold and lack of medical care for 64,000 Romanian citizens, undermining the state power and the national economy were accused, without observing the 10-day appeal period, they were immediately reported on December 25th at 2pm: 50 executed. Ceaușescu did not appeal the judgment because he obviously did not want to recognize the court. According to then prosecutor Dan Voinea, the process would have continued if an appeal had been made . The trial and execution were filmed, and the camera failed at the moment of execution , which later gave rise to speculation that only one doppelganger had been executed. The film of the execution was to be shown on television first in an abridged version, but those present in the television studio suspected a fake and requested the original video. After another cut version was produced, all three versions of the video were broadcast on December 27th. The public only found out about Ceaușescu's execution late. The exchange of fire with the "terrorists" ended on the same day.

Open questions

Romanian flag, during the Revolution, from an exhibition at the Military Museum in Bucharest

Reports from international media on the number of people killed during the fighting in Timișoara ranged from 2,000 deaths to 4,500 deaths in mass graves to 64,000 deaths, but later turned out to be false.

After the fighting ended, unidentified bodies were found twice in the Timisoara poor cemetery, initially at the end of December. These apparently died of natural causes before the battles. These bodies, including a woman with a child on her stomach, were photographed by a Yugoslav journalist and were mistakenly believed to be evidence of the Securitate's crimes. At the beginning of January, another 13 bodies with clearly recognizable gunshot wounds were found, which had been buried in a mass grave on December 27th . According to the forensic surgeon Timișoaras, Dr. Dressler, there were 25 bodies with recognizable gunshot wounds in the morgue of the district hospital on December 21. 15 had been handed over to the relatives, 10 could not be identified. One person was shot in the oral cavity, two people died of natural causes and had no relatives, these 13 dead were buried on December 27 in the Timișoaras poor cemetery. The erroneous dissemination of the pictures of the first corpse found later led to the assumption that there were no deaths at all in Timișoara. On January 15, 1990, the Timișoara County Council announced that 71 people killed in the fighting had been identified by name, the number of those missing was given as 33. A total of 153 dead in Timisoara is assumed. The age structure of the victims provides an insight into the structure of the participants, as it was mainly young people who were injured or lost their lives during the revolution. In this context, the term “revolution of the boys” was established, a catchphrase that was later used and instrumentalized not only by Ion Iliescu.

To this day, the question of the background remains controversial, in particular whether it was the victory of a spontaneously erupted popular uprising or the coup d'état by a group of conspirators, or whether there were several storylines.

The role of Romanian state television was also critically questioned. Conspiracy-based voices claimed that Romanian television did not make the revolution, but a faction of the nomenklatura did use television to initiate a palace revolt . The "spontaneous" popular uprisings were directed and controlled by television. The television filmed, as it were, "live" what it staged and prepared itself. The hallmark of this “tele-revolution” ( Romanian Telerevolutia ) is the abolition of the separation of real and reality : what is staged has been masked as real and what has been manipulated as spontaneous.

The discussion was intensified because the post-revolutionary rulers of Romania had no interest in clarifying many questions. It can be considered certain that there was one or more conspiracies against the Ceaușescu rule in the communist establishment . The conspirators had contacts with the Soviet Union and with Romanian non-communists. However, there is no evidence to support the thesis that the unrest in Timisoara was carefully prepared as part of a coup plan. The provocateurs who, according to many eyewitness reports, were out and about in Timişoara in the first days of the unrest, may also have been part of Ceauşescu's own “script” on how to deal with revolts. The Romanian security forces took a similar approach to the unrest in 1977 in the Schiltal and in 1987 in Brașov: They tolerated the unrest or even instigated it, in order to then suppress it and take action against those involved. It is also possible that they wanted to stage riots to distract from the deportation of the popular pastor Tőkés. The Ceaușescu system was more focused than other dictatorships on the person of the ruler. With his flight, loyalty to the system collapsed: In the ensuing chaos, the conspirators around Iliescu could easily seize power.

The following questions have not yet been answered satisfactorily:

  • Who gave the order to shoot in Timisoara? The helicopter carrying the two ambassadors of the Interior Ministry in Timișoara, Generals Nuță and Mihalea, was shot down during the revolution on its way back to Bucharest. The two generals Chitac and Stănculescu held high positions in post-revolutionary Romania. They were sentenced to 15 years in prison only in 1999 for their involvement in the repression in Timisoara.
  • When and why did the military and the Securitate change fronts? Have there been power struggles among the armed organs? An autopsy of Defense Secretary Milea's body in 2005 revealed that the latter had committed suicide. Why?
  • Who were the “terrorists” who shot at the people and the military after Ceaușescu's escape? None of them have ever been caught and sentenced. It is very likely that the Securitate owned unregistered weapons and ammunition. The new rulers were charged with staging the shootings themselves , or at least tolerating them, in order to prove their own indispensability as a force for order and to gain revolutionary legitimation. On 24 December, the population was a headline in the newspaper Scinteia poporului : - "All that can use a gun to arms!" Called. It is also possible that Securitate units recruited from orphanages , which had a particularly high level of personal loyalty to the Ceaușescus, fired the shots. Many exchanges of fire were based on misunderstandings (it was not known who was for or against Ceaușescu) and improper use of weapons.
  • On April 22, 1990, the French broadcaster Télévision française 1 (TF1) broadcast secret new video recordings of the Ceaușescu trial. The tapes contained scenes with the judges, how the sentenced couple was led away for execution, how Elena Ceaușescu refused to have her hands tied, and how the couple were shot and then carried away. These were scenes that had been omitted from broadcasts at the time of the revolution. The presiding judge shown here, Gică Popa, committed suicide on March 1, 1990. Soon afterwards, the President of Free Romanian Television filed a claim for damages because the video that TF 1 had acquired for 50,000 francs from an "unknown seller" was a black copy and threatened to initiate legal action at international level. Ballistics experts from an independent French forensic laboratory were commissioned to analyze the recordings. From the written declaration of the laboratory director it emerged that based on the apparent degree of coagulation of the blood, the bodies of the executed couple must have been dead a few hours before the execution shown in the video; therefore there is reason to believe that the recordings have been manipulated - but for what purpose and on whose instructions?

consequences

Dumitru Mazilu , Ion Iliescu and Petre Roman
Timeline of major parties in Romania after 1989

The new rulers were the first to open Romania's closed borders, stopped food exports, repealed Ceaușescu's most oppressive decrees (ban on abortion, energy decrees) and released political prisoners and detainees. Basic human rights were granted, and the communist elements were removed from Romania's name and flag . A heated, often demagogic and polemical discussion quickly developed in Romania about the background and political consequences .

The "rescue front" initially continued to rule by decree. The Securitate was placed under the command of the army, but not dissolved. This decision by the new rulers led to much bitterness and violent protests among participants in the uprising, which culminated a few months later in the occupation of Bucharest University Square. Also in cities and regions where there was no fighting, little changed at first. After initial hesitation, the establishment of parties was allowed; a program and 256 signatures were sufficient to establish a party . The parties of the interwar period were reconstituted, and by May 1990 over 80 new parties were formed, often with few members and without a clear program.

Numerous new independent print media were founded , but television was dominated by the new rulers, who controlled the formation of opinion , especially in rural areas . The tensions between Romanians and Hungarians , which had been overcome during the revolution, grew again. In March 1990 there were serious inter-ethnic clashes in Tîrgu Mureș with several dead. In order to clarify the role of the army in the repression in Timișoara and to disempower the former political officers, army officers founded a Committee for the Democratization of the Army (CADA) , which officially dissolved after the Mineriade in Bucharest, but remained active. The patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Teoctist I , resigned a few days after the revolution because of his collaboration with Ceaușescu, but was re-elected by the synod in the spring of 1990. However, a “group to reflect on the renewal of the Church” was formed.

On March 30, 1990, a legislative decree on the rehabilitation of persons who had been politically persecuted since March 6, 1945 was passed. Another legal decree confiscated the property of the former communist party. It was about cash in the amount of 1.2 billion D-Marks and material assets (companies, castles, aircraft, yachts, etc.) worth over 10 billion D-Marks.

In March 1990, parts of the opposition passed the Timișoara proclamation . In its section 8 that former was called upon officials of the Romanian Communist Party were not allowed to run for the office of the president, which was directed against President Iliescu. This and the cancellation of “Decree 473”, which placed television under the direct supervision of Iliescu, were the main demands of demonstrators who occupied Bucharest University Square in April 1990 . Iliescu, meanwhile elected president, had him forcibly evacuated by miners two months later during the Mineriade , which led to fierce national and international protests.

On May 20, 1990, a bicameral parliament and the president were elected. In the election of the president, Ion Iliescu received 85% of the vote, in parliament the ruling "Front for National Salvation" won 66% of the vote in both chambers. These elections were criticized as undemocratic by both Romanian traditional parties and Western media. Iliescu remained a central figure in Romanian politics for more than a decade, re-elected for the third time in 2000, after a break between 1996 and 2000 (one term of office). The tenacity of Ceauşescu's former party comrade demonstrates the ambiguity of the Romanian Revolution; it is considered the bloodiest of the revolutions in 1989, and yet it did not entirely replace the previous regime.

The discussion about the course and the background of the Romanian revolution has not stopped in Romania since 1989. Two camps oppose one another: The “rescue front” and its supporters emphasize the spontaneous character of the uprising, while their opponents consider one or more conspiracies to be ultimately decisive for the outbreak and the outcome of the revolution.

The course of events has largely been clarified today. The assessments are unanimous in that the overthrow would not have been possible in this form without the pressure of the revolting population.

Public opinion

The Center for Urban and Regional Sociology (CURS) published the following survey results in the newspaper Jurnalul Național in November 2009 :

For comparison: results of surveys from the 1990s
Type of break 1991, in percent 1994, in percent 1995, in percent
revolution 46 51 50
Internal plot 31 30th 30th
External plot 23 16 24

Question: What happened in Romania in December 1989?

Answer:

  • 47 percent: revolution
  • 36 percent: coup
  • 3 percent: other
  • 14 percent: don't know, no answer

Question: Who was responsible for the December 1989 events?

Answer:

  • 34 percent: Ion Iliescu and other forces (internal or external)
  • 19 percent: external forces (USA, CIA, KGB, Russia, Gorbachev)
  • 12 percent: Internal forces such as the army or the Securitate
  • 11 percent: Former communists, second link, environment of Ceaușescu
  • 3 percent: internal and external forces
  • 2 percent: population, youth
  • 19 percent: don't know, no answer

Question: How should Ceaușescu be rated in the history books?

Answer:

  • 31 percent: As a person who has done more good for Romania
  • 13 percent: As a person who did more bad things for Romania
  • 52 percent: As a person who has done good and bad to the same extent
  • 1 percent: different
  • 3 percent: don't know, no answer

Work-up

Liberty Bell on the Piața Traian

The Memorialul Revoluției din Timișoara Foundation was founded on April 26, 1990 for scientific research and processing of the events of the revolution . The foundation documents the events of the revolution of December 1989 and informs the population about the research results. In order to better recognize the causes and connections, the foundation is also dedicated to researching the communist era in Romania and the connections between the Romanian revolution and the events of 1989 in south-eastern Europe . For this purpose, leaflets, magazines, books, illustrated books and video films are published. The foundation organizes symposia, conferences and exhibitions on the subject of revolution and has built a memorial and several monuments in honor of the heroes of the revolution. The foundation supports students in their research on the subject of revolution. The public relations work to provide information about the results of the research work is completed by permanent exhibitions and video presentations.

Milo Rau dealt with the subject artistically in 2009/10 in his play The Last Days of Ceausescus , premiered in the Teatrul Odeon in Bucharest, then in the Hebbel am Ufer Theater in Berlin.

Others

Reactions in Germany

On December 23, 1989 in Berlin: At the new Brandenburg Gate border crossing there is a lot of activity, the Berliners show solidarity with the Romanian people on banners

As early as November 15, 1989, around 300 citizens in Berlin responded to the call by the Berlin district office of the Association of Visual Artists and demonstrated for the "rights of the Romanian people". On the occasion of the second anniversary of a violent demonstration by workers in Brașov , they moved from the church in Pankow through Ossietzky Street to the Romanian Embassy in Park Street. As early as November 20, 1989, hundreds of Berlin citizens marched in silence from the Hedwig's Cathedral to Alexanderplatz and expressed their solidarity with the Romanian people.

On December 15, 1989, a demonstration took place in Berlin. The New Forum's “Solidarity Initiative with Romania” had called for a demonstration against human rights violations in the Socialist Republic of Romania in front of the embassy in Pankower Parkstrasse. With a vigil in front of the building of the Romanian embassy in Berlin on December 20, mainly young citizens expressed their solidarity with the peoples of Romania. With burning candles and banners, they continued their silent protest that began on December 18. On December 21, hundreds of citizens in Berlin responded to a call by the “Initiative group against the use of violence in Romania” and protested in front of the Romanian embassy against the brutal use of the military and security forces. They called for the most basic human rights to be guaranteed for all Romanian citizens.

The German federal government recognized the new Romanian interim government on December 25, 1989 and organized flights with relief supplies and doctors.

  • Silent march on November 20, 1989

  • Demonstration of the New Forum, December 15, 1989

  • Vigil in front of the Romanian embassy, ​​December 20, 1989

  • Demonstration of December 21, 1989

See also

literature

Non-fiction

Press

Movie

Web links

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

Individual references, comments

  1. ^ The unfinished revolution , Karl-Peter Schwarz, FAZ, December 21, 2014; official information
  2. ↑ Kunze, Ceaușescu , p. 356
  3. ↑ Kunze, p. 323
  4. ↑ Frauendorfer, Fall des Tyrannen , p. 78 f.
  5. ↑ Carl Gibson : Symphony of Freedom. Resistance to the Ceausescu dictatorship. Chronicle and testimony of a tragic human rights movement in literary sketches, essays, confessions and reflections. Röll, Dettelbach, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89754-297-6
  6. ↑ Karin Tasch: Social Transformation in Eastern Europe - A Comparison between Eastern Germany and Romania , GRIN Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3-638-81778-4 , p. 154, here p. 30 (→ online )
  7. ↑ a b c d e fu-berlin.de (PDF; 19.5 MB), Freie Universität Berlin , Valeska Bopp: "We found our way ..." - Deficiency and survival strategies in Romania in the eighties of the 20th century , in : Eastern Europe Institute (Berlin) : Everyday Life and Ideology in Real Socialism , 23/2005
  8. ↑ a b Christian Schraidt-Häuer: The "morning star" is fading . In: Die Zeit , No. 51/1981
  9. ↑ Torben Waleczek: The last day of the dictator ; news.de , December 25, 2009
  10. ↑ Daniel Ursprung: Legitimation of rule between tradition and innovation: Representation and staging of rule in Romanian history in the premodern era and in Ceaușescu , Studium Transylvanicum, 2007, ISBN 3-929848-49-X , p. 433, here p. 317
  11. ^ Romania: Berries and Roots . In: Der Spiegel . No. 49 , 1985 ( online ).
  12. ↑ Peter Beddies: Interview with Christian Mungiu. "We have been underestimated" . In: Die Welt , May 29, 2007
  13. ↑ Hanswilhelm Haefs: The 2nd Handbook of Useless Knowledge , BoD - Books on Demand, 2002, ISBN 3-8311-3754-4 , p. 236, here p. 191 ( books.google.de )
  14. ↑ Steven W. Sowards: Modern History of the Balkans: The Balkans in the Age of Nationalism . BoD - Books on Demand, 2004, ISBN 3-8334-0977-0 , p. 596, here p. 495 ( books.google.de )
  15. ↑ news.google.com The Gazette (Montreal) . Jonathan Lynn: Cigarettes good as gold in Romania , December 1, 1984 (English)
  16. ↑ ucsf.edu , The Wall Street Journal : In Romania, Smoking A Kent Cigarette Is Like Burning Money and In Romania, Kent Cigarettes are Very Useful As A Bartering Medium , March 1, 1986 (English)
  17. ^ Hans-Heinrich Rieser, The Romanian Banat: a multicultural region in transition. 2001, ISBN 3-7995-2510-6 , p. 268
  18. ↑ Kunze, p. 313
  19. ↑ Oschlies, Wolf, Ceaușescus Schatten schwindet, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-412-06698-2 , p. 9
  20. ↑ tagesspiegel.de , Der Tagesspiegel : Romania's Forgotten Children: In the Home of Sore Souls - After the Ceausescu dictatorship they are allowed to live again , September 7, 2000
  21. ↑ Kunze, p. 328
  22. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 30
  23. ↑ Kunze, p. 326
  24. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 49 f.
  25. ↑ Kunze, p. 375
  26. ↑ Hans-Heinrich Rieser, p. 261
  27. ↑ Kunze, p. 376
  28. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 118.
  29. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 119
  30. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 170
  31. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 186
  32. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 195
  33. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 175
  34. ↑ Adelina Elena: Martor ocular. Față în față . Orizont magazine , January 6, 1990, p. 5
  35. ↑ Peter Siani-Davies: The Romanian revolution of December 1989 . 2005, p. 72
  36. ↑ The interview given by General Stefan Gusa to Colonel Valeriu Pricina, March 20th, 1990 ( Memento from December 26th 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  37. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 208
  38. ↑ Peter Siani-Davies: The Romanian revolution of December 1989 . 2005, p. 73 f.
  39. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 228
  40. ^ A b Victor Sebestyen: Revolution 1989. The Fall of the Soviet Empire. Hachette UK, 2009. ISBN 0-297-85788-6 , p. 314.
  41. ^ Frederick Becker: The 1989 Romanian Revolution and the Fall of Ceausescu. In: Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Moments in US Diplomatic History.
  42. ↑ a b c daniel-ursprung.ch , Daniel origin: The Romanian Revolution of 1989: Chronology of the fall and the trial of Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena
  43. ↑ a b December 21, 1989. Tagesschau (ARD) , December 21, 1989, accessed on December 28, 2016 .
  44. ^ A b Anneli Ute Gabanyi: The Romanian Revolution of 1989 . University of Hildesheim Foundation, 2009. p. 13.
  45. ↑ Elfriede Piringer: The Romanian Revolution 1989. The End of the Ceausescu Dictatorship - A Spotlight in Romanian History. diplom.de, ISBN 3-8324-1336-7 . P. 73.
  46. ^ Leif Pettersen, Mark Baker: Romania. Lonely Planet, 2010. ISBN 1-74104-892-3 , p. 34.
  47. ^ A b Karl-Peter Schwarz: Romania. The unfinished revolution. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of December 21, 2014.
  48. ↑ Uwe Detemple : The Romanian Revolution began in Timisoara. In: the Friday of December 7th, 2014.
  49. ↑ Kunze, p. 393, also: Anneli Ute Gabanyi: System change in Romania . Munich 1998, ISBN 3-486-56377-7 , p. 7
  50. ^ George Galloway , Bob Wylie: Downfall: The Ceaușescus and the Romanian Revolution . 1991, pp. 168-169
  51. ↑ George Galloway, Bob Wylie: Downfall: The Ceausescus and the Romanian Revolution . 1991, p. 171
  52. ↑ Oschlies 1998, p. 78
  53. ^ Transcript of the closed trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu. Wikisource (English)
  54. ^ Prosecutor Dan Voinea: "Ceaușescu's death was certain before the trial" welt.de
  55. ↑ bhhrg.org ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , BBC 1 at 9 p.m., December 22, 1989 and ITN , Penny Marshal: News at Ten , 10 p.m. the same day @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bhhrg.org
  56. ↑ Upheavel in the East; Mass Graves Found in Romania; Relatives of Missing Dig Them Up . In: The New York Times , December 22, 1989
  57. ↑ Antonia Rados: The Conspiracy of the Securitate. Romania's betrayed revolution , Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg, 1990 pp. 183 and 223
  58. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 245 f.
  59. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 241
  60. ↑ Video documentation: Balkan Express: Romania . The Standard , 2007
  61. ↑ Wolf Oschlies : Ceausescu's shadow is disappearing. Political history of Romania 1988–1998 . Böhlau, 1998, ISBN 978-3-412-06698-7 , pp. 179, here p. 50 : "On December 22nd, 1989 Iliescu spoke of" our remarkable youth who at the price of their blood gave us back the feeling of national dignity ""
  62. ^ A b Klaus Ronneberger : Romania 1990 - Can the Revolution Be Televised? Nitribitt, 2006
  63. ↑ on this Engelmann u. a., p. 96 ff., Kunze, p. 377, 391 f., Frauendorfer, Sturz, p. 92, Wagner, Sonderweg, p. 17 ff., 39
  64. ↑ Gabanyi 1998, p. 169
  65. ↑ Frauendorfer, p. 87f., Gabanyi 1998, p. 170
  66. ↑ Frauendorfer u. a. 1990, p. 14 ff. Using the example of Piteşti
  67. ↑ Wagner 1991, p. 47
  68. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 256
  69. ↑ Oschlies 1998, pp. 31, 79
  70. ↑ Engelmann u. a., p. 286
  71. ↑ Wagner 1991, p. 20
  72. ↑ Daniel Ursprung: After Ceausescu's fall, the planned chaos broke out - as the Securitate managed to cover up their bloody counterrevolution in 1989 , nzz.ch February 8, 2020
  73. ↑ Anneli Ute Gabanyi : System Change in Romania: From Revolution to Transformation, Edition 35 of Investigations on Contemporary Studies in Southeastern Europe . R. Oldenbourg, 1998, ISBN 978-3-486-56377-1 , pp. 331, here p. 161 .
  74. ↑ a b Cum ar trebui să fie apreciat Nicolae Ceaușescu în manualele de istorie? Sondaj CURS, November 17, 2009 (Romanian)
  75. ↑ A fost Revoluție sau lovitură de stat? Sondaj CURS, November 18, 2009 (Romanian)
  76. ↑ memorialulrevolutiei.ro , Asociaţia Memorialul Revoluţiei
  77. ↑ Videograms of a Revolution. 1989 - the year of upheavals and revolutions. ( Memento from July 21, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) For broadcast on ARTE 2009 - Farocki and Ujica edited the existing film material in chronological order. As a first media-critical confrontation, the film shows recordings by video amateurs and cameramen from the state film studios, which remained on the air for around 120 hours, occupied by demonstrators, between December 21, with Ceaușescu's last speech, and December 26, 1989 with the first TV summary of his trial (stand trial).
  78. ↑ Kristina Werndl: Ole, Ole - Goodbye Ceaușescu! at aurora-magazin.at , Corneliu Porumboius: 12:08 am east of Bucharest (A fost sau na fost?) , film about post-revolutionary Romania, 2006 (Romanian)