11 December 1989

The paper reads:
The truth about which we have spoken so often in the past few years has been reaffirmed once again - where there is delay in dealing with overripe problems, excesses are ...
and again:
We do need to move very steadily. We must not frighten anybody. If we have fear added to the present uncertainty ...

A scene of destruction. The wreckage of iron girders, twisted and bent, fill a cavernous interior through which a woman moves.

The vertical grain of a wooden panel on which a few traces of paint remain.

The man steadies his balance as he views a world upside down. A capsized camera disgorges above his head and inverted buildings collapse towards him. In the smoke and falling debris are torn portraits of Honecker, Husak, Krenz, Jakes and Adamec alongside a smashed wine bottle, a medieval fool and the heads of Modrow and Havel.

It is impatience. Impatience. That's what Socialism is. A rage for now.

George Steiner 'Proofs' 1991