“PEACEFUL REVOLUTION” AS A WAY OF CONCEPTUALIZING THE EVENTS OF 1989 IN EAST GERMANY

The article revolves around the thesis that the present-day expression 'die friedliche Revolution' is the result of a breakthrough in German language, which took place inEast Germanyin the autumn of1989. Intoday's official commemorative discourse, it serves as a way of conceptualizing those events and also represents an attempt to create a “positive” collective memory, as opposed to the one associated with the Nazi period. Connotations of ‘peaceful revolution’ can be traced to other expressions, which were meant to build common values within the society in the year 1989. The term 'peaceful revolution' can thus be seen as a continuation of the language filled with the rhetoric of revolutionary struggle for freedom and as such, it has become a concept on the basis of which one creates a specific image of the events of the year 1989/1990 in Germany. The article also gives possible reasons for the linguistic choice of the phrase, including its juxtaposition with the term 'the Change/Turn' ('die Wende'). Conclusions of the article show that the phrase 'peaceful revolution', by virtue of its positive connotations, lays ground for the crafting of collective memory related to the latest German history.