Thilo Kühne Leipzig

The pictures were taken in the afternoon of 07  October 1989 in Grimmaische Straße, near Karl-Marx-Platz, when the festivities developed into a hands-on confrontation between police and Leipzigers. 

To begin with I was taking surreptitious photos, before stopping to be on the safe side. As I recall the situation deteriorated dramatically on this day and the police moved against the massed crowd for the first time. This was shocking and was a bad omen for the forthcoming Monday demonstration. These two, three days were the most decisive of the entire episode, we were fortunate that they passed without bloodshed.