Browse Cases

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East German protest emigration and Hungarian solidarity, 1989

Country
Germany
Hungary
Time period
August 19, 1989 to September 11, 1989
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
George Lakey, 17/08/2008

“The pulling down of the Berlin Wall began in Sopron,” stated Lothar de Maiziere, East Germany’s last prime minister. 

On the outskirts of Sopron, a small town on the border between Communist Hungary and democratic Austria, they had a picnic – a most unusual picnic.  The organizers wanted to “act out the future in the present.”

Lithuanians campaign for national independence, 1988-1991

Country
Lithuania
Time period
June, 1988 to September, 1991
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Aurora Muñoz, 03/12/2009, and Max Rennebohm, 24/05/2011

Russia first occupied Lithuania and introduced a program of “Russification,” an attempt to eliminate Lithuanian language and culture in favor of Russian culture, in the mid-19th century. After 22 years of independence from Russia, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939 reintroduced the Soviet Union’s dominance over Lithuania—as well as the other Baltic states: Estonia and Latvia. The Soviet Union publicly stated that Lithuania had joined the USSR willingly, although secret protocols of the pact disputed this. Following World War II, the Soviet Union reoccupied Lithuania.