Havel at Columbia



This Day in The Velvet Revolution, 1989

November 4: 500,000 protest in East Berlin

In the largest protest so far, at least 500,000 gather in the center of the East German capital to call for political change. Despite the reforms going on in neighboring Eastern Bloc countries, the Czechoslovak communist leadership maintains its hard-line stance. Havel and other opposition activists continue to press for changes in the regime's position and for dialogue between the government and citizens' groups.