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Abstract

After the passage of the NATO Dual-Track Decision in 1979, the peace movement in Germany, as in many other countries, continued demonstrating against the arms race and the stationing of nuclear missiles in Europe by the U.S. and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union. On October 22, 1983, the Federal Republic witnessed the largest peace demonstrations to date, with a total of more than one million participants. 

1 Million People Demonstrate against NATO’s Dual-Track Decision (October 22, 1983)

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Translation of transcription

Speaker: After the passage of the NATO Dual-Track Decision in 1979, people in both the Federal Republic and the GDR formed a peace movement to stop the spiraling arms race. On October 22, 1983, the movement reached its peak: more than a million people demonstrated at various locations in the Federal Republic for comprehensive disarmament and against the possible stationing of new medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe.

Hundreds of thousands gathered in many places—in Bonn’s Hofgarten alone, half a million people demonstrated against rearmament. In what was probably the most spectacular action, around 200,000 people lined up in protest against rearmament along a 108-kilometer route from Stuttgart across the Swabian Alb to Neu-Ulm—the longest human chain in the world.

Source: 22. October 1983 – 1 Million People Demonstrate against NATO’s Dual-Track Decision. History Vision (history-vision.de), Clip-ID: JHT000449D (1983).

history-vision.de