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Mass demonstrations on 15 March, the National Day, persuaded the regime to begin negotiations with the emergent non-Communist political forces.
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On 2 May 1989, the first visible cracks in the Iron Curtain appeared when Hungary began dismantling its 150 mile long border fence with Austria
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On 4 May 1989, Hungary started dismantling its barbed wire border with Austria, opening a large hole through the iron curtain to the West that was used by a growing number of East Germans.
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Having been shut off from their last chance for escape, an increasing number of East Germans participated in the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig on 4, 11, and 18 September, each attracting 1,200 to 1,500 demonstrators; many were arrested and beaten. However, the people refused to be intimidated. The 25 September demonstration attracted 8,000 demonstrators.
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On 7 October 1989, the Communist Party at its last congress re-established itself as the Hungarian Socialist Party
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In spite of rumours that the Communists were planning a massacre on 9 October an incredible 70,000 citizens demonstrated in Leipzig that Monday. The authorities on the ground refused to open fire. This victory of the people facing down the Communists guns encouraged more and more citizens to take to the streets. The following Monday on 16 October 120,000 people demonstrated on the streets of Leipzig.
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The border to Czechoslovakia was opened again on 1 November, but the Czechoslovak authorities soon let all East Germans travel directly to West Germany without further bureaucratic ado, thus lifting their part of the Iron Curtain on 3 November
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Unable to stem the ensuing flow of refugees to the West through Czechoslovakia, the East German authorities eventually caved in to public pressure by allowing East German citizens to enter West Berlin and West Germany directly, via existing border points, on 9 November 1989
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On 13 November GDR Prime Minister Willi Stoph and his entire cabinet resigned. A new government was formed under a considerably more liberal Communist, Hans Modrow
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On 1 December the Volkskammer removed the SED's leading role from the constitution of the GDR. On 3 December Krenz resigned as leader of the SED; he resigned as head of state three days later. On 7 December Round Table talks opened between the SED and other political parties. On 16 December 1989 the SED was dissolved and refounded as the SED-PDS, abandoning Marxism-Leninism and becoming a mainstream democratic socialist party.
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the first held in that part of Germany since 1933. The SED, renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism, was heavily defeated. Lothar de Maizière of the East German Christian Democratic Union became Prime Minister on 4 April 1990 on a platform of speedy reunification with the West.
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