Changes

==Collapse of Communism, 1989==

==Collapse of Communism, 1989==

The dissidents in East Germany were actually pro-socialist, critical of the West, and merely wanted to reform, not destroy, the Communist system. Since the more democratic East Germans had already fled, the remaining dissidents were more leftist than in the rest of the Soviet bloc, posed no ideological alternatives, and represented an alternative counterculture, not unlike protesters in the West.  

The dissidents in East Germany were actually pro-socialist, critical of [[the West]], and merely wanted to reform, not destroy, the Communist system. Since the more democratic East Germans had already fled, the remaining dissidents were more [[leftist]] than in the rest of the Soviet bloc, posed no ideological alternatives, and represented an alternative counterculture, not unlike protesters in the West.  

As reforms in Hungary in 1989 led to the dismantling of the secure border between Hungary and Austria, large numbers of East Germans began taking "vacations" to Hungary, from which they never returned, using vacation visas to travel to Hungary, and from there via Austria to West Germany. As East German authorities began blocking travel to Hungary, East Germans began going to other Eastern bloc countries, especially Czechoslovakia, where they stormed the compounds of the West German embassy in Prague and refused to leave until granted permission to leave for West Germany. The GDR regime relented and allowed those East Germans camping out at West German embassies to travel on sealed trains through the GDR to West Germany.

As reforms in Hungary in 1989 led to the dismantling of the secure border between Hungary and Austria, large numbers of East Germans began taking "vacations" to Hungary, from which they never returned, using vacation visas to travel to Hungary, and from there via Austria to West Germany. As East German authorities began blocking travel to Hungary, East Germans began going to other Eastern bloc countries, especially Czechoslovakia, where they stormed the compounds of the West German embassy in Prague and refused to leave until granted permission to leave for West Germany. The GDR regime relented and allowed those East Germans camping out at West German embassies to travel on sealed trains through the GDR to West Germany.