Bürgerkomitee (Citizen's Commitee)
An informal association of citizens during the period of changeover for the achievement of demands for state-wide and local government politics. With the crumbling of the power structures of the state, citizen's committees increasingly took over legislative and executive powers on a local government level. On 14/12/1989 the Council of Ministers of the GDR passed the decree on the activities of citizen's committees. The government officially recognised the new bodies of power of the peaceful revolution in the form of the citizen's committees. (Draft of the decree on 9/12/1909 see there)