10,000 Rally in East Germany

More than 10,000 East Germans marched through the streets of Leipzig in East Germany on Monday night, chanting “Gorby, Gorby!” and singing “We Shall Overcome.” It was the largest such demonstration in East Germany since a workers’ uprising of 1953 that was crushed by Soviet tanks.

The security police reportedly detained some of the marchers, who were expressing their admiration for Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev as a gesture of protest against their own government. On Friday, Gorbachev begins a two-day visit to East Germany.

The march was a larger version of a Sept. 25 protest that involved an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 people.

Meanwhile, in East Berlin, a group of dissidents began a candlelight vigil in the Gethsemane Church to protest the arrest of activists there and in Leipzig and Potsdam.

A leaflet distributed at Monday night’s protest in Leipzig said:

“In the past weeks, people were criminalized and detained in Leipzig, Potsdam and Berlin because of their social activities and for observing basic human rights. The present internal political situation will only be exacerbated by police-state methods and not solved.”