This photo from January 1990 shows a session of the Central Round Table [Zentrale Runde Tisch] at Niederschönhausen Castle in Berlin, the former guest house of the German Democratic Republic. Representatives of the parties, the popular citizens’ movements and interest groups participated under the leadership of church dignitaries. The Round Table had been founded on December 7, 1989, and functioned at first as a means of veto and control; later, however, it increasingly became a sort of sub-government. Among the participants were Ibrahim Böhme (3rd from right) and Martin Gutzeit (4th from right, both SDP, later SPD), Konrad Weiß (Democracy Now), Sebastian Pflugbeil and Ingrid Köppe (both New Forum) (from right to left).