Book contents
- The Human Rights Dictatorship
- Human Rights in History
- The Human Rights Dictatorship
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Creating a Human Rights Dictatorship, 1945–1956
- 2 Inventing Socialist Human Rights, 1953–1966
- 3 Socialist Human Rights on the World Stage, 1966–1978
- 4 The Ambiguity of Human Rights from Below, 1968–1982
- 5 The Rise of Dissent and the Collapse of Socialist Human Rights, 1980–1989
- 6 Revolutions Won and Lost, 1989–1990
- Conclusion
- Archival Sources
- Index
6 - Revolutions Won and Lost, 1989–1990
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 April 2020
- The Human Rights Dictatorship
- Human Rights in History
- The Human Rights Dictatorship
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Creating a Human Rights Dictatorship, 1945–1956
- 2 Inventing Socialist Human Rights, 1953–1966
- 3 Socialist Human Rights on the World Stage, 1966–1978
- 4 The Ambiguity of Human Rights from Below, 1968–1982
- 5 The Rise of Dissent and the Collapse of Socialist Human Rights, 1980–1989
- 6 Revolutions Won and Lost, 1989–1990
- Conclusion
- Archival Sources
- Index
Summary
In 1989, those demanding human rights to reform the system versus those who fought to leave it combined to create an explosive crisis for the SED. Human rights served not just to rally a heterogeneous coalition of dissidents, but also provided an ideological justification for SED officials to dismantle their own power structure and abolish the party’s monopoly on power in the face of mass demonstrations and mass emigration. In planning for a new East Germany, former SED officials worked with dissidents to draft a constitution that would secure liberal democratic rights and freedoms alongside rights that would preserve the ideals of the socialist project. In 1990, however, the joint hopes of dissident activists and reform communists were dashed as the realities of East German economic collapse turned the population away from new utopian ideas towards realising human rights through reunification with the Federal Republic. The idealistic anti-capitalism of the dissident elite alienated a population that wanted both democracy and prosperity through human rights. While the dissidents were successful in ending state-socialist dictatorship through their campaign for human rights, they ultimately failed to expand upon the narrow and unsatisfactory human rights system of the capitalist West.
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- The Human Rights DictatorshipSocialism, Global Solidarity and Revolution in East Germany, pp. 222 - 254Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020