In 1989–90, when the old order no longer held and the shape of what was to come was barely discernible, anything seemed possible. The transformation of East German society unfolded at breakneck speed, at times verging on anarchy. Led by a handful of women, protesters in Erfurt peacefully occupied the local headquarters of the Stasi, the East German secret police. The district capital saw the opening of its first employment office, the first free elections to the East German parliament were held, and civilian service was introduced as an alternative to military conscription.
Anselm Graubner, who had returned from Dortmund to Weimar in December 1989 with a work permit, documented these moments as a photojournalist for the Thüringische Landeszeitung. Anne König, then a trainee journalist at the newspaper, accompanied him on some of his reporting assignments. More than three decades later, she looks back critically on this brief winter of anarchy, a time marked by great social and political hopes. Drawing on personal notes from the period and conversations with people who played a pivotal role in the upheavals of 1989–90, she reconstructs the history of a fleeting moment when anything seemed possible.
The book brings together photographs taken between May 1989 and October 1990.
