Isolde Alicke

I belonged to the “Purple Ladies of Mockau”. The “Lila Ladies” emerged from the Protestant parish. That was around the spring of ’89 and we said it was the last attempt. We were about 14 women, single parents, married or divorced like me. A young student, who later became a pastor, later read in her Stasi file: “The character of the ‘Lila Ladies’ has not yet been recognised. We talked about death and the devil. We met once a month, but outside the church, in a flat. So it wasn’t under the roof of the church, but we were all Christians.

We were already thinking about what we could do. This gave rise to the idea that we should send a petition to Margot Honecker. We designed a poster and then sent it off as a roll with all the signatures. We really wanted peace education to be introduced in schools instead of military science lessons. We thought that Mrs Honecker, the GDR Minister of Education, would get in touch with us. We had hoped that there would be a response. But that didn’t happen. This letter was intercepted. It is now in the annals. […]

When reunification suddenly came to the fore and other people started to get in front of the demonstrations, I couldn’t go any more. Reunification was the lack of enlightenment of the masses, who went along and never bothered with politics themselves. If there had been more information in people’s heads, reunification would not have happened so quickly. Perhaps there would have been a federation. The masses allowed themselves to be pulled along, but didn’t know where to go. It all just sounded rose-coloured. […]”

Read more: in „Mother, don’t worry. Everything is fine here. Everyday life from 1989“. Publication of Frauenkultur Leipzig, 2009; 2nd edition in 2021. click here->