East German Round Table

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Round table primarily refers to the Central Round Table (Zentraler Runder Tisch), a series of meetings during the Peaceful Revolution in East Germany in late-1989 and early-1990.

The Round table first convened in

The Round Table's first three meetings, held on 7, 18 and 22 December 1989, took place in the Protestant church's Bonhoeffer House near Friedrichstraße in Berlin-Mitte. Because popular interest created a need for more space, from the fourth meeting on 27 December to the sixteenth and final meeting on 12 March 1990, the Round Table met in the conference building of the SED-dominated Council of Ministers in Ossietzky St. near Schönhausen Palace in Berlin-Pankow.

During the first meeting the Round Table decided to dissolve the "Office for National Security" (the organization that succeeded the Stasi), to hold free elections for the East German Parliament (Volkskammer) on 6 May 1990 (in January the election was preponed to 18 March 1990), and to draft a new constitution, a project that was completed by a subcommittee and presented on 4 April 1990, but never discussed by the newly elected Volkskammer.

Modeled after this Central Round Table, many local round tables were set up in cities and towns across East Germany. In general they continued to exist until the May 6, 1990 local elections constituted new local governments.

References

Bibliography

• Timothy Garton Ash, We the People: The Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague (London 1999)
• André Hahn, Der Runde Tisch: das Volk und die Macht – politische Kultur im letzten Jahr der DDR (Berlin 1998)
• Uwe Thaysen (ed.), Der Zentrale Runde Tisch der DDR: Wortprotokoll und Dokumente 4 vols. (Wiesbaden 2000)
• Uwe Thaysen, Der Runde Tisch. Oder: Wo blieb das Volk? (Opladen 1990)

External links

• Captioned image of the first Central Round Table meeting at germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org.
• Image of some members at the Jan. 22, 1990 Round Table meeting at germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org.
• Goals of the Central Round Table by Democratic Awakening, at germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org.
• Zentraler Runder Tisch article on the website of the
  Deutsches Historisches Museum