In China, white carnations are a symbol of mourning. On June 28, 1989, they were so in East Berlin as well. At the entrance of the Samariterkirche, volunteers handed out flowers to the many people that had come to the service of lament. About three weeks earlier, tanks of the communist regime in Beijing had brutally ploughed down the peaceful demonstrations on Tiananmen Square. Many citizens of Beijing had desperately resisted, and thousands paid with their lives for the call for freedom and democracy. The shock waves reached the GDR, where the ruling state party SED justified the violence. Here, too, the youth had an obligation to defend Socialism, "if necessary, with weapons in their hands" threatened education minister Margot Honecker.
Since then, the few who openly opposed the dictatorship in the GDR feared a "Chinese solution". Anyone who attempted to express dissent in front of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China was intercepted by security guards. When it became known that the first death penalties against demonstrators had been carried out in China, the state-controlled press of the GDR showed sympathy. Some opposition members hence opted for even more visible actions then before.
In the Samariterkirche in Berlin-Friedrichshain, Pastor Rainer Eppelmann had provided space for non-conformists for the past ten years. He, too, resisted the SED regime. Now, together with other pastors, he welcomed people to attend a service of lament. The 1,100 seats in the Samariterkirche, however, were not enough, and hundreds more had to stand or sat on the floor. Eppelmann and his colleagues read a chronology of the events in China to the audience. While doing so, they compared headlines from GDR newspapers with international ones and concluded: "The media of the GDR is not willing to truthfully report on the events in China". Many participants signed an open letter to the "friends in China": "We know that the violence did not start from your side and that peaceful citizens were shot at. … Rest assured that there are many people in the GDR who mourn with you, who share your anger and your fears – but also the hope for a democratic Socialism".
On this day, police vans with uniformed officers were parked all around the Samariterkirche. Officers of the People’s Police watched churchgoers suspiciously but did not intervene. The state authorities were content with exerting intimidation. In autumn of 1989, they would arrest and abuse hundreds of demonstrators. The feared "Chinese solution", however, never happened. The GDR leadership had scruples to shoot at its own population. And since the protest remained peaceful, it did not have any reason or justification to do so.
