East Berlin’s Gethsemane Church

At the beginning of October 1989, the Gethsemane Church became the centre of the resistance and a focal point of the revolution. A contact telephone line took on the role of a news agency. Solidarity campaigns called public attention to imprisoned demonstrators. Numerous information events attracted thousands of people.

On 2 October 1989, members of the Weißensee Peace Circle, the Environmental Library and the Church from Below initiated a vigil in East Berlin's Gethsemane Church. Its aim was the release of the demonstrators arrested in Leipzig in September. The brutal police violence in Berlin on 7 and 8 October and the arrests of protesters angered many people. Thousands attended the services every evening and supported the solidarity campaigns.

In the Gethsemane parish hall, activists gathered information around the clock on oppositional activities and arrests throughout the country via a contact telephone. Reports were written to document attacks by the state forces, later forming the basis for a public review of the violence by an independent investigation commission.