Väter der Gerüchte. Angst und Massenkommunikation in Halle und Magdeburg im Herbst 1989

Abstract

Mothers of Rumours. Fear and Mass-communication in Halle and Magdeburg in Autumn 1989

Prior to and at the height of the peaceful revolution in the GDR, rumours fulfilled the following function: they made it possible for local communities to coordinate their collective protest behaviour in a communicative process. In the hermetically structured public space of the GDR, oppositional groups seized the opportunity for mass mobilisation: they generated a counter-public sphere by countering state intimidation with continuous politicisation. Comparing the protest in both of the provincial centres of Halle and Magdeburg in the autumn of 1989, we are able to outline the influence of state-made fear scenarios and the impact of counter-rumours spread by those active in the East German citizens’ movement. Since September 1989, the citizens’ movement showed solidarity with the protest in Leipzig. Rather unexpectedly, the new instrument of mobilisation became more and more important in October: repetitive demonstrations even conquered the inner cities of Halle and Magdeburg. Following the same ideal of freedom, the revolutionists rallied in a kind of American civil rights movement. Mass mobilisation, which was influenced by the translocal flow of information was moreover caused more by confidence in intangible collective types of communication than by strategic planning, particularly because it led to unusual forms of protest in familiar places like city centres.