The idea of a socialism with a human face was something that I absolutely could support, because it was my idea from the very first.

A Western writer came up to me and said, how come nobody at this demonstration spoke of German unity? I told him, because it isn't on the agenda. People were interested in having another, better GDR, another, better socialism.

Even in West Germany in the beginning, people wanted a kind of socialism.

The Wall was the actual symbol of a defeat, of inferiority.

If you live in a system that is suppressive, you don't walk upright, you always go with your head down.

I certainly hoped that in the Eastern part of Germany, what was just beginning to be called the German Democratic Republic, you would develop a system of socialism with freedom and democracy.

We certainly hoped perestroika would win out and that there would be changes. We knew all along that socialism could flourish only with a certain amount of freedom and democracy.