Stroika

Epilogue

On October 18, the East German Communist Party, bowing to mounting clamour for change, replaced Erich Honecker with his protégé Egon Krenz. The new East German General Secretary, in a TV address to the nation, said that within the bounds of “continuity and renewal” the door was “wide open for earnest political dialogue.” He also quoted Mikhail S. Gorbachev: “We have to see and react to the times, otherwise life will punish us.”

A month later, the Berlin Wall fell, and with it, the East German Communist government.