Tue, 9 February 2010
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On November 9, Guenter Schabowski pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket and read out a decree stating that visas would be freely granted to those wanting to travel outside or leave the country. The announcement led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.The Berlin Wall fell on the night of November 9, 1989 because of a hasty announcement to the press by an East German official who had hoped the measure would "save" the communist regime.
"I wouldn't say I was a hero who opened the border,” said Guenter Schabowski, now 80. “Truth be told, I acted to try to save the GDR (German Democratic Republic, as communist East Germany was officially known),"
It was nearly 7:00 pm on November 9 when Schabowski, at the time spokesman of the central committee of the ruling SED party, pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket and read out a decree stating that visas would be freely granted to those wanting to travel outside or leave the country.
"As of when?" asked an Italian journalist.
Schabowski hesitated and then improvised: "As far as I know ... as of now."
Television networks carried the news conference live and within minutes news bulletins were proclaiming that "The Wall has fallen.”
Thousands of East Berliners started streaming towards the checkpoints leading to West Berlin, where baffled East German border guards, unsure what to do, kept phoning for instructions.
Eventually as the crowds grew ever larger, one barrier went up and bewildered East Berliners, who had been unable to cross freely for 28 years, staggered into the West.
But that had not been Schabowski's intention.
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