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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/11219434/Berlin-Wall-How-the-Wall-came-down-as-it-happened-25-years-ago-live.html

Berlin Wall: How the Wall came down, as it happened 25 years ago
By Laurence
Dodds

........................................
00:15 (END) By the morning of November 10, the GDR is dead. It may formally cling on for several more months, and
Germany will not be united for two years. But the regime is living on borrowed time.
That day, Anatoly Chernyaev, an advisor to Mikhail Gorbachev, writes in his diary:
The Berlin Wall has collapsed. This entire era in the history of the socialist system is over. After the PUWP
[Polish Communist party] and the HSWP [Hungarian party] went Honecker. Today we received messages
about the "retirement" of Deng Xiaopeng and Todor Zhivkov. Only our best friends Castro, Ceauescu, and
Kim Il Sung are still around people who hate our guts. That is what Gorbachev has done. And he has
indeed turned out to be a great leader. He has sensed the pace of history and helped history to find a natural channel.
Earlier the same morning, Marc Kusnetz, one of Tom Brokaws colleagues at NBC, goes back to his hotel to freshen
up. As he bends over the bathroom sink and splashes cold water on his face, he notices a thick grey powder washing
off him. Then, of course, it hits him: he is watching the Berlin Wall go down the drain.

Demonstrators pull down a segment of the Berlin wall at Brandenburg gate in 1989

00:05 In Britain, Fleet Street has long since sent out its front pages. The Daily Telegraph's headline for November 10,
1989 - written by Daniel Johnson - reads: "The Iron Curtain is swept aside."
East German border police at Checkpoint Charlie were surprised to learn yesterday that citizens could now
travel to the West freely. "People are going to read this and say 'there must be some mistake', said a young
guard, shaken out of his normally severe bearing. "It's not good," another said an hour after the decision
was announced. "We will lose our jobs."
Traffic was light at the famous crossing, meant for foreign travellers through the Berlin Wall... Early today, hundreds of

West Berliners stormed Checkpoint Charlie at the Berlin Wall. They pushed their way across the white demarcation
line dividing East from West Berlin shouting: "We want in, we want in."

00:00 It is 1am in united Berlin, and the city will party long into the morning.
ABC's Barrie Dunsmore finally goes live. Far later, on the flagship Nightline programme, his counterpart in the studio
will ask if western reporters are getting carried away with the euphoria of the moment. Dunsmore recalls:
I said no, adding that he and I would have other stories to cover, but this one the Cold War was
basically over. In my closing thoughts, I mused that the gods sometimes punish us by giving us what we
ask for. I wasnt predicting anything - just expressing an anxious feeling I had that night.

23:55 Somewhere in the chaos, a young Angela Merkel has made it through
the Bornholmer crossing. From the west side of the Wall, she phones her aunt
in Hamburg and then, presumably, joins the celebrations.
This is the night that sets Merkel on her path to be chancellor of Germany. She
will later join the new East German party, Democratic Awakening, and there
begin her political career.
23:50 On the KuDamm, Peter Millar and the waitresses pile out of their taxi
into what he calls the carnival that had spread across the centre of West
Berlin.
Andrea spots a telephone box, and Millar lends her the Western money to use
it. Soon, she is calling her mother: Mutti, Im on the KuDamm! Its mad. Its
marvellous. Oh, dont be cross. Im coming back.
23:45 Some individuals are now striking at the Wall with hammers and pickaxes.
In the weeks and months following this day, citizens from East and West Berlin will take the demolition of the Wall into
their own hands. 'Mauerspechte' - Wall woodpeckers - hack away at it, taking home chunks as souvenirs.
The Wall is only finally demolished next year, when the East German government - now racing towards unification brings in the bulldozers.

Picture taken on November 9, 1989.

23:35 Nearby, NBCs Barrie Dunsmore is supposed to be making a similar live broadcast. Instead, he can provide
only his voice while his staff try to book a video link.
At this point in history, satellite lines for video are very limited, and must be booked hours, if not days, in advance.
Tonight, for obvious reasons, they are chock-a-block. Nobody had expected this to happen, so nobody had booked a
satellite.

23:30 Its 6:30 pm on the USAs eastern seaboard, and NBCs Tom Brokaw goes live.
A historic moment tonight. The Berlin Wall can no longer contain the East German people. Thousands
pouring across at the Bornholmer bridge.
Brokaw will keep reading the news again and again and again, introducing each new version of the
programme as it sweeps west across the timezones of the United States.

Brokaw reporting, with water jets in the background.

23:20 Eastern officials use a water cannon to try and get people off the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate. Most climbers
are forced to get down, but one young man is handed an umbrella which he manages to use as a shield. Long spouts
of water bounce off it and into the night.

Revellers at the Brandenburg Gate just before midnight.

23:17 Weighed down by crowds, the border checkpoint at Sonnenallee telephones Stasi headquarters to announce
that it is opening everything.
23:15 Christiane, Janna and Andrea finally make it through the wall, where Petar Millar happens to spot them. As
he later writes:
Running through a cheering gauntlet of beery West Berliners dancing on the Wall came a ready-made
party. These three young waitresses from the Hotel Stadt Berlin, who came whooping through the Wall,
spraying Little Read Riding Hood, the fizzy party plonk of the East, at grinning policement, were readymade feel-good copy.
Millar flags down a taxi and offers them fare to the KuDamm in return for an interview.
23:10 In the compound reserved for senior officials, Gnter Schabowsk's Russian-born wife Irena watches the
darkened windows of the other Party houses. All are either asleep or in the city. At one point, her elderly mother wakes
up to ask about the fuss on television.
Theyve opened the border", Irina says.
Does that mean well have capitalism now?
Yes, it probably does.
Well, in that case, Ill hang around for a few more years and see what its like.
23:06 By now, Margaret Thatcher is watching the news from Berlin on TV. The next morning, she says:
I think it is a great day for freedom. I watched the scenes on television last night and again this morning
because I felt one ought not only hear about them but see them because you see the joy on people's faces
and you see what freedom means to them; it makes you realise that you cannot stifle or suppress people's
desire for liberty and so I watched with the same joy as everyone else and I hope that they will be a prelude
to the Berlin Wall coming down.
But amidst all this, Thatcher - who was a young adult throughout the Second World War - was worried. Memos from
the next few months show her deep unease about German reunification. If both Germanies were allowed to join, she
feared, it would mean the rise of a new and dangerous European power.
23:00 Midnight in Berlin. At a hotel on the Eastern side, three waitresses finish their shift. Christiane, Janna and
Andrea heard the news of Schabowskis announcement long ago, but together looking at each other, biting their lips
they decided to finish work first.
Now, Andrea turns to the others, giggles, and asks: Anyone for Kudamm?
The Kudamm, of course, stands for Kurfrstendamm West Berlins biggest, glitziest shopping street.
22:58 All along the Berlin Wall, the worlds biggest party has begun.
Secret police note that by this time, climbers near the Brandenburg Gate simply arent listening anymore. In the glare
of the news crews floodlights, West Berlin is dancing on the Wall.

East Berliners climb the Wall, some time after midnight

22:54 DPA, the West German news agency, puts out the following bulletin:
Several thousand GDR citizens have gathered at the East Berlin border crossings to get into West Berlin. At
the crossing on BornholmerStrasse there stood hundreds of East Germans who had heard the message
that the bordes were open by radio and television. They were let through by East German border guards
upon presentation of an identity document. The access roads were jammed for about two kilometres. Many
people said they just wanted to see whether they could reach the other side of town.
22:50 Hundreds of miles away in Cyprus, Bernard Becker, a former citizen of East Berlin, hears the news. As he will
later tell The Telegraph:

I wasnt born in East Germany or East Berlin. I had an English mother and a German father. I was 14 when
the Wall went up. So for me, it meant that I was stranded behind the wall, and that I couldnt get out
anymore. I couldnt move. I couldnt make my own decisions.
But I was always determined not to die in East Germany. When I was 18, I was arrested for defacing a postage stamp
with the leaders image on it. I had cut out the middle and pushed it together and put his eyes higher up, so he looked
quite funny. I was sentenced for eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and as a result the college where I
was to become an architect expelled me. The reason given was that I had damaged the reputation of the institution
and all that.
Then, in 1968, there was the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Army. I was in Prague at the time, as a
tourist, and I took back some leaflets that some Czech students had made and tried to distribute them in East
Germany. I was caught quite quickly, because there were undercover police everywhere, and imprisoned for about
2 years. After that I was a marked person, but it took me another 6 years to get out of East Germany. Not by escaping
I didnt have the connections or the knowledge but by applying to be expelled.
That night, I was in bed when I received a phone call from my wife, Cherrill, who had heard the news. She was much
more emotional than I was. She was in tears of joy seeing this on television. I was ambivalent. Because it didnt come
as a complete surprise to me. It was in the air. But the other feeling was, I have to admit to myself, a kind of mean
one. I thought, oh, now everybody is coming. Everybody will come now, including those who hadnt done anything
towards this. Any Stasi man can come and any enthusiastic supporter of the regime can come.
Of course, the effect of this time is still alive for many people. They never really forget about it. When youre talking to
me, youre opening a Pandoras Box.
Years later, on September 11, 2014, Becker receives a letter saying his conviction for the postage stamp has been
quashed.

Bernard Becker as a student in 1968

22:40 As he watches the crowds flow through his checkpoint, Harald Jger feels himself start to cry. He ducks inside
a building so his men dont see only to find one of them already weeping.
22:35 At Checkpoint Charlie, the guards make the same decision. One by one, without any real formation, they
retreat.

Michael Meyer, who was there, describes what happened next:

Among the first to cross to the Westwas a woman in hair curlers, a coat thrown hastily over her baby blue
bathrobe. I had watched her for hours, bobbing up and down on her toes, trying to keep warm amid the
throngs but also too excited to much notice the coldlike a flood suddenly unleashed, a wave of people
arose and carried her away. Half riding the tide, she turned her head and shouted to a friend standing to the
side, Ill be back in ten minutes! I just want to see if its real!
22:30 Jger's men begin to open the main gate by hand. Before theyve got it all the way, the enormous crowd on the
Eastern side starts pushing too.
As the joyous crowd floes through into West Berlin, the the camera crew Jger's men detained earlier have a perfect
shot of it happening.
22:25 Besieged at the Bornholmer Street checkpoint, Harald Jger makes a decision. After consulting with his
guards, he phones Colonel Zieganhorn to inform him: I am going to end all controls and let the people out. Then he
slams down the phone.
22:15 The crowd at Bornholmer Street, thousands strong, is becoming uncontrollable. Border guards detain a
Western camera crew who are climbing about on their fences to get a better angle.
22:00 It is now 11pm in Berlin. At the Brandenburg Gate crossing, West Berliners are climbing onto the Wall and
growing steadily less responsive to orders to come down.

Berliners climbing on the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate.

21:50 At another border crossing, Friedrichs colleague Robin Lautenbach is not so lucky. Nobody has gotten
through the gate yet, so he has nothing to show. Perhaps the big rush has possibly not happened yet? he tells his
superiors.
21:40 Though very few people have actually gotten through the Wall, the media is covering it as if they have.
On the West German network ARD, trusted anchor Hanns-Joachim Friedrichs opens his show:

In using superlatives, it is necessary to be cautious, but tonight one is allowed to risk using one. This ninth
of November is a historic day. The GDR has announced that its borders are, starting immediately, open for
everyone.

Hanns-Joachim Friedrichs on air, November 9.

21:35 Meanwhile, Peter Millar finally gets through the Wall.

Right up at the Western barrier, East German guards with megaphones ran to and fro, shouting
preposterously at photographers to stop taking pictures as families streaming tears kissed and hugged and
Western revellers climbed onto the electrically-controlled metal barriers.
Going through the pedestrian gate I had used a thousand times before was a strange and unforgettable experience. I
had my hair ruffled by a forest of outstretched hands, was kissed at random by unseen lips and find a can of beer
thrust into my hand with the emotional cry Welcome to freedom! Dazed, and probably looking as emotional as if I had
indeed set foot for the first time in West Berlin, I muttered Danke and stumbled on through the crowd who were
already embracing the next arrival.
22:30 Gerhard Lauter, who drafted the press release that accidentally opened the wall, returns home after a relaxing
evening at the theatre. He is greeted by his son, who tells him that the Interior Minister has called several times. Oh,
and by the way, the child says, the Wall is open.
21:25 At least 20,000 people are now crammed behind the Bornholmer checkpoint.
As Harald Jger later describes:
All I was thinking about was now was how to avoid bloodshed. There were so many people and they didnt
have space to move. If a panic started, people would have been crushed.
We had pistols. I had been given instructions not to use them, but what if one of the men had lost his
nerve? Even a short in the airI cannot imagine what reaction that would have provoked.
21:20 Peter Millar arrives at Checkpoint Charlie, where he recognises an East German guard he knows as the Bear.
He is allowed to go through, but the huge, drunken throng of West Berliners makes this difficult:

The other side of the checkpoint here was Kreuzberg, home of West Berlins disaffected squatters and
anarchists, and some in the crowd were hurling abusive insults and beer cans at the border troops, seen
close up for the first time, suddenly transformed from sinister armed silhouettes behind searchlights into a
close-up human enemy (any uniform was a target for some Kreuzberg characters).
The control area between the barriers had meanwhile filled with cars. One party of Third World diplomats, completely
uncaring about the history unfolding before them and more concerned about getting to their favourite West Berlin
nightclub, fumed at the helpless troopsI was not sure if the crowds dancing in the gap ahead of me were angry or
happy, but I knew one thing: I did not want to be responsible for the first casualty of the ngiht by running over someone.
Millar decides to go through on foot, and the Bear offers to look after his car.
21:15 East German state television is making regular announcements. At the request of many citizens, we inform you
again of the new travel regulationstrips must be applied for.
21:10 Peter Schmid, a sports reporter for South German Radio, races for a phone. As the son of legendary VfB
goalkeeper Otto Schmid, he has a particular stake in their historic victory. He gets through to the office in Hamburg
and asks how long the winner interviews should be. He is told: We have no time the wall has fallen! Almost nobody
is interested in VfBs win anymore!
21:05 The final whistle blows at the Neckarstadion. For the first time since 1966, and the last time until 2007, VfB
Stuttgart have defeated Bayern Munich. But their moment of glory has been surreally overshadowed.
Ralph Wild recalls the moment:
Ill never forget that day. I was with four friends who I had invited earlier, settled in the Untertrkheimer
Kurve [one of the stands] in the good old Neckarstadion. And at every goal - this was something my mates
had put me up to I had to drink a shot. Because that November 9th, everything else being normal, it was
my 18th birthday.
Today, when someone asks me about November 9, 1989, I always answer: A fantastic day, because we defeated
Bayern 3-0, I had my 18th birthday, and oh yes, there was something else the fall of the Wall!

21:02 Journalist Peter Millar, who has been speeding back to Berlin from the Baltic coast, finally reaches the
Bornholmer checkpoint, where thousands of West Berliners and several hundred Easterners have gathered.
He can see the guards letting people through in a trickle about 30 or 40 in the space of 15 minutes but does not
realise that they are being permanently ejected. As he later writes:

I spoke to the border guard in charge who would give no further details about the apparent dramatic change
in attitude other than to confirm they were letting GDR citizens through. As a foreigner, I would have to go to
Checkpoint Charlie. Cursing Prussian pedantry to the last, I ran back to the car and drove the kilometre or
so distance, taking with me, piled into the Merc, a group of East Berliners who had despaired of the queue.
21:00 It is now 10pm in Germany. The Central Commitee meeting, which has kept the East German government from
realising what's happening, finally concludes.
20:56 Helmut Kohl, the chancellor of West Germany, has been at a state dinner in Poland. Only when the meal is over
does he have a chance to speak to his underlings in Bonn. When they tell him that the Wall is falling, he asks if they're
drunk. When they say no, he starts considering his return.
By the end of the night, he will be on his way back to the West. Right now, his aides crack open a bottle of fine Soviet
sparkling wine.
20:47 Meanwhile, Fritz Walter scores a third goal for VfB Stuttgart. There is now little hope that Bayern
Munich can catch up.
20:40 George H.W. Bush, the US president, makes a speech.
I've just been briefed by the Secretary of State and my national security adviser on the latest news coming
out of Germany. And of course, I welcome the decision by the East German leadership to open the borders
to those wishing to emigrate or travel. And if the GDR goes forward now, this wall built in '61 will have very
little relevance. And it clearly is a good development in terms of human rights.
But Bush tries to keep it cool. He will later say that he doesnt want to antagonise the Soviets, or any of the Eastern
Bloc countries. One journalist says: You dont seem elated. Bush responds: Im not an emotional kind of guy.
20:35 2,000 people have now gathered at Checkpoint Charlie. GDR Colonel Gnter Mll deploys a line of
reinforcements to hold people back while he waits for orders from above.

Checkpoint Charlie, shown later in the night from the Western side.

20:34 In Stuttgart, VfB scores its second goal against Bayern Munich.
Jrgen Hartmann picks up the ball from a messy tackle and makes a dash from midfield. Its almost taken
off him, but a comrade flicks it back only for it to glance off the face of the Bayern player between them.
As it comes back down, Hartmann catches it on his right foot, takes his time, then drives it in.
2-0.
20:30 Schabowski, the man who accidentally opened the wall, receives a phone call from a Politburo member asking
him what on earth he thinks hes doing and what they should do now. Schabowski has no idea.
20:27 At the Bornholmer crossing, troublemakers whove been let through the Wall start trying to get back only to
be told they cant go home.
A map of the Bornholmer Street crossing, with the 'pre-control area' at 4, the main barrier
at 2, and the bridge into West Germany at 3.

Everyone remembers the traumatic days of 1961, when the construction of the
wall split families in half overnight. Now it seems to be happening again.
Wailed at by grieving parents, Harald Jger snaps. He disregards his orders
and tells the families hell let their children back through. Then, when others
start asking for the same, he disobeys again.
He wonders if he should tell Colonel Ziegenhorn, but then he thinks: Why
bother?
20:24 Across the Atlantic, the White House gives an early statement
welcoming the GDRs decision.
The Associated Press quotes Senate Republican leader Bob Dole:
The Berlin Wall and all that it represents are crumbling, even as the communist
state which built it crumbles too. But we should not do anything at this point
which might needlessly add fuel to the fire.
20:12 Its half time with all to play for in Stuttgart, but events intrude. Live images of from the Wall are
displayed on the stadiums giant scoreboard. I cannot remember anyone who saw these pictures without
getting goosebumps, VfB chairman Hans-Peter Dellwing will later recall.
20:10 At Bornholmer Street, on new orders from above, Harald Jger begins targeting the most aggressive members
of the crowd and letting them through the Wall.
Jger's superiors call this the 'let off steam solution'. The victims will have their passports stamped, invalidating them,
and be thrown out into West Berlin. This, it's hoped, will cool the crowds.
But the plan backfires tremendously. Word spreads among the crowd that people are getting through, which only
worstens the situation.
20:00 It is now 9pm in Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie, the crowds are becoming more brazen, shouting open up!
Michael Meyer, a journalist at the scene, recalls:

Emboldened by their numbers, they pushed within a few meters of the barricades. Guards stood nervously
with their weapons. If things got out of hand, I wondered, would they shoot? Inside his lighted,glass-walled
command post, the beefy Doberman of a post commander stood dialling and redialling his telephone
GOAL! Back in Stuttgart, VfBs match against Bayern Munich enters its 43rd minute. A foul from Alan
McInally a Scots player snapped up from Aston Villa by Bayern for a then-record 1.2m has put the
ball at the home sides feet.
Suddenly, a breakneck run by VfB and poor marking by their opponents transforms into a powerful cross. Fritz Walter
leaps up, heads it straight into the goal, and runs off with both fists in the air.
1-0 to the underdogs.
19:50 To pacify his subordinate at the Bornholmer checkpoint, Colonel Zeigenhorn adds him secretly to a
conference call with his own bosses up the chain.
But when Ziegenhorn explains the situation, one of the ministers asks: Is this Jger capable of assessing the situation
realistically or is he simply a coward? Then the phone cuts off.
Mary Elise Sarotte, who interviewed Jger, describes his mindset then:
Holding the dead phone in his hand, Jger felt a wave of anger wash over him. For close to two hours he
had been dealing with an unprecedented and threatening situation. He had received no substantive replies
to his urgent, repeated requests for guidance. He had been on duty for a dozen hours and would be there,
at a minimum, all night.
Jger felt himself reaching his limit. He had provided twenty-five years of loyal service at Bornholmerhe also knew
the GDR was in trouble, yet he remained willing ton a dark November morning to put on his uniform and report for a
twenty-four hour shift. Now his superiors were questioning his ability to provide an accurate situation report and
suggesting he was a coward.
A man who had not disobeyed an order in nearly three decades had, with that insult, been pushed too far.
Right: Harold Jger, years after his service as an East German border guard

19:40 At Bornholmer Street, border officer Harald Jger keeps trying for new
orders. He phones Colonel Ziegenhorn repeatedly, but every time, his boss
tells him its business as usual.
At this point Jager is scared of himself and his men. All of them carry pistols,
and there are machine-guns ready for use. How long will it be before one of his
people gets nervous?
19:32 Sunday Times journalist Peter Millar is hundreds of miles away on the Baltic Coast. He has been in the eastern
city of Rostok to cover a demonstration and is still driving back to Berlin. This being East Germany, the roads are
empty. As he later writes:
I turned on the car radio and I almost fainted. I felt for a surreal moment as if I had crossed into an
alternative universe. It was RIA S Berlin (Radio im Amerikanischen Sektor), usually a reliable mix of music
and news. They had abandoned the music. In a gabbling chatter rather than the usual sober tones, the
news anchor was saying, It appears now that a second crossing point on the Wall has opened. As I speak
thousands of East Berliners are pouring into the West.
Stunned and horrified I was still more than an hour and a half away I did the only thing I could: put my foot to the
floor.

At this time, of course, no border crossings have been opened. It's unclear if Millar is misremembering the event, or if
the news misreported it.
19:29 Many hundreds of East Germans are now crowding the Bornholmer Street checkpoint. A police car uses its
loudspeaker to tell them they must go and get a visa, but few listen.
Along the length of the wall, at Checkpoint Charlie, the Sonnenallee, and elsewhere, thousands of people are trying
to get through.
19:19 The West German Parliament amends its agenda to debate the news from the Wall. The leader of the Social
Democratic Party, Hans-Jochen Vogel, calls it a moving moment and says the Wall has lost its function.
19:15 Meanwhile, more than 600 kilometres away in the southern city of Stuttgart, 67,800 football fans have other
things on their mind.
VfB Stuttgart, the home team, are very much the underdogs against the powerful Bayern Munich.
Coach Arie Haan plays a squad including Berlin-born Guido Buchwald, who marked Maradonna out of the 1990
World Cup final, and played on the side which brought Paul Gascoigne to tears that same year.
The players are ready. The referee blows his whistle. The match is on.

19:13 The East German state broadcaster, ADN, is trying to take control of the situation by stressing the need for
travel papers. It puts out a report saying passport offices will be open from 9am to 4pm on Saturday to cope with the
extraordinary demand created by the new travel laws.
One minute later, it carries an item about opposition activists lining the road from East Germany into Czechoslovakia
with signs saying Stay here we need you! and It is only here you can change things!
19:10 It is now 20:10 in Germany and news agencies are reporting the first reaction from West German political
parties. Frederick Bohl, speaking for the Christian Democratic Union, urges East German leaders to begin
demolishing the Wall tomorrow now that it has lost its cruel purpose.
18:55 Albrecht Rau, who owns a caf just on the western side of Checkpoint Charlie, carries a tray with coffee,
glasses, and a bottle of sparkling wine towards the East German guards.
The nervous guards rebuff him, telling him they cant drink on duty, but as he goes back to the caf he is ambushed by

journalists who think he is a jubilant East German. One photographer even sends out a picture of them captioned as
East Germans celebrating their successful crossing.

An aerial view of the Wall in the 1970s

18:50 Over the last few days, NBC has taken the clever step of building a camera platform on the west side of the
wall. Stasi agents observing their position note their powerful spotlights switching on.
Now Tom Brokaw and his team are preparing to film. The problem is, nobody is crossing. The borders aren't actually
open yet.
18:45 At the West German parliament, the Bundestag, news of Schabowskis announcement interrupts a debate
about tax-deductible political donations. As one, the members stand up and applaud.
18:30 For 25 years, Harald Jger has worked at the Bornholmer Street border crossing. Earlier in the mess hall, he
watched Schabowski's press conference, yelling "bullshit!" when the new laws were announced. He has called his
boss, Colonel Rudi Ziegenhorn, who told him that nothing has changed.
Only now there are people queuing up at the checkpoint's Eastern entrances. Within minutes of Schabowski's
announcement, ten or twenty turn up. By 19:30 German time, the number of "wild pigs" - the border guards' nickname
for people trying it on at the checkpoints - has shot up to one hundred.

The Bornholmer Street bridge in 2009

18:22 The American newscaster, Tom Brokaw, has been interviewing Schabowski in a separate room. The Party
spokesman's English is not good. Asked if his words meant freedom of travel ofr East Germans, he says: "Yes, of
course." Asked if it is possible for them to go through the Wall, he says: "It is possible to go through the border."
Brokaw takes this as a yes.
As he comes out of the interview, all the other journalists ask him if it's true. Brokaw shouts over his shoulder: "It's
true! The Wall is coming down."
18:20 East German citizens begin phoning confused government officials. One complains that the travel application
offices are all closed. Another calls to ask whether they are allowed to leave by train.
18:17 The first television report appears. ZDF, a West German network, covers Schabowskis announcement but
only as its sixth item of news.
Stasi phone-tapping logs will later show that journalists are still confused about just what the announcement meant.
One TV reporter calls his office Cologne to say Schabowski probably did not even know himself what he was
announcing. His colleague agrees that the new rules probably only apply to permanent migrs, but warns him:
Keep your camera team ready.
18:15 After viewing the press conference recording, west Berlin mayor Walter Momper walks over to the window of
the office. Everything looked the same as ever, he recalls, staring out on his divided city.
At this moment, he makes a motto for the rest of the night: as if. As the historian Mary Elise Sarotte later writes:
Act as if the Wall were open. Act as if it would be the most natural thing in the world for Berliners to
celeberate a reunionin shortact as if he were certain that the border were open and only questions
about the practicalities remained, thus making it as difficult as possible for the East German ruling regime
to revoke Schabowskis statements.
18:12 Back at the ABC offices, Barrie Dunsmore is reviewing the press conference with his translator, but its difficult
to pin down just what Schabowski was saying. Immediately, she shrugs. Thats what he said these new visas and
passports are going to be offered immediately.
That does sound important, but Dunsmore is careful. As he later tells The Telegraph:

In dealing with the various Communist governments in this period, there was always a high degree of
scepticism about anything they said that they were going to do, because very often they would simply make
promises that they were not going to fulfil.
This guy was brand new to the job, and the fact that it was offered in such an offhanded way I dont think anyone
thought, hey, this is it, the walls coming down tonight. It was more like, oh thats interest. Well, well have to pay
attention now. I thought this was potentially something, but we had to see what the real practical effects were going to
be.
18:05 In West Berlin, mayor Walter Momper is supposed to be awarding the Golden Steering Wheel award for
automative design. Suddenly, his driver and a newspaper editor burst into the awards ceremony and run up to him to
tell him what they think they've heard. Momper immediately goes backstage to watch a video replay of the conference.
18:04 ADN, the East German state news agency, releases the text of Lauters travel law. Schabowskis
announcement has probably caught them by surprise, because the version they have is very clearly embargoed for
4am, but perhaps now they assume it has been superseded.
Egon Krenz, the newly-installed Party secretary, who thought the new travel regulations
would save the regime

18:02 A flurry of wire reports now begins. Reuters is first, with the report:.
Leaving via all GDR checkpoints immediately possible.
18:01 Schabowski dodges the question.
What will happen to the Berlin Wall? Information has already been provided in
connection with travel activities. (um) The issue of travel, (um) the ability to
cross the Wall from our side... does not necessarily affect the question of this
fortified state border of the GDR.... (um) We have always said that there have
to be several other factors (um) taken into consideration...
Surely the debate about these questions (um) will be positively influenced if
the FRG and NATO also agree to and implement disarmament measures in a
similar manner to that of the GDR and other socialist countries. Thank you very
much.
He ends the conference at 7:04 pm, German time, without answering the question.
18:00 Some reporters are already rushing for the phones, mindful of the time it will take for the Stasi
overseer to inform his superiors to tap them before he allows them to call.
"Is that also for West Berlin?" one reporter shouts. Schabowski looks at his papers and finds to his surprise that it is.
Finally, the Telegraph's Daniel Johnson stands up and asks: "What will happen to the Berlin Wall now?"
Schabowski stares. After a pause, he says: "It is 7pm. This is the last question, yes, please understand!"
17:59 Journalists keep pressing Schabowski: "When does that go into force?"
The papers say nothing about the 4am embargo, nothing about November 10. All they say is sofort at once,
immediately. Nobody has explained to him that this means "immediately tomorrow".
As far as I know, he says, immediately.
What was I to do? he will later explain. I couldnt exactly say, oh, never mind that.

17:58 Back in his office, Barrie Dunsmore can see the confusion unfold on screen, but because he speaks no
German he has no idea what is being said. Everyone is clearly very excited about something.
It was pretty much chaos, he says. It seemed that something significant had occurred, but just what, at that point,
we still didnt know.
17:57 Now several questions are asked at once. "Without a passport?" "When does that go into force?"
Schabowski is confused. He stalls while he checks the paper, claiming the press have already received a copy (they
have not). He starts reading through the regulations very rapidly.
...the travel authorizations will be issued within a short time. Grounds for denial will only be applied in
particular exceptional cases. The responsible departments of passport and registration control in the
Peoples Police district offices in the GDR are instructed to issue visas for permanent exit without delays
and without presentation of the existing requirements for permanent exit.
17:56 Schabowski hesitates, then ploughs on:
Therefore (um), we have decided today (um) to implement a regulation that allows every citizen of the
German Democratic Republic (um) to (um) leave the GDR through any of the border crossings.
17:55 Schabowskis bureaucratic speech suddenly changes tack.
A decision was made today as far as I know He looks towards his comrades for help, but none comes. A
recommendation from the Politburo was taken up that we take a passage from the draft travel regulations and put it
into effect.
The journalists are paying attention now.
17:53 Riccardo Ehrman, an Italian journalist, asks a question about travel laws. Years later, he will admit that he has
been tipped off to ask it by the head of the East German news agency.
But Schabowskis response is full of hardly inspiring:
No, I dont believe so. (Um) We know about this tendency in the population, this need of the population, to
travel or to leave the GDR. And (um) we have ideas about what we have to bring about...namely a complex
renewal of society (um) which will thereby achieve many of these elements... (um) that people do not feel
compelled to solve their personal problems in this way....
17:45 As the East German press conference continues, Tom Brokaw, the US television anchor, notices the
Associated Press correspondent next to him is almost falling asleep.
17:30 From the West Berlin offices of ABC, the American news network, Barrie Dunsmore is also watching.
Earlier today the veteran anchor has been speaking with Jens Reich, a professor who leads the unofficial opposition in
East Germany. Back in September, Reich bravely offered to meet over a phone line which was probably tapped, and
now the pair are talking almost daily taking the temperature, as Dunsmore calls it.
The press conference, however, offers little of note:
It just seemed like a run-of-the-mill thing. These things were always important to watch, because signals
were being sent. I would love to be able to tell you that I knew it was going to happen, but no one did.
17:20 Reporting on the conference for the Daily Telegraph is Daniel Johnson.

Two years ago, editor Max Hastings told him: Nothing ever happens in Germany. Youve got three months to prove to
me that we need a bureau. Johnson did so, and returned to London with many front pages under his belt.
Now he is back, having flown out just the previous day. But already he is bored. As he later writes:
We all trooped into a dreary hall at the international press centre in the Motzstrasse. Most of the questions
came from tame East German journalists and the wait for a chance to get the microphone was almost
unbearable. It seemed like a non-event.
17:10 Schabowski has opened the conference by reading a list of names from the days Central Committee meeting,
and is now chewing through his boring business.
Among his papers is a copy of Lauters draft law, thrust into his hands by Krenz himself shortly before he left for the
conference. Krenz has told him it is important, but has not told him about the 4am embargo.
It is not even clear if he has read the document. Schabowski will later claim he skimmed over it in the car, but others
who rode with him will say he did not.

Gnter Schabowski

17:05 Gerhaud Lauter, an ambitious young official in the East German Interior Ministry, is on his way home to the
office.
Lauters job today has been to draft the new travel laws and make sure copies are sent to all the state ministries so
they have the chance to object. Tonight he will be attending the theatre with his wife; as far as he is concerned, the
politicians can handle it from here.
Most of the ministers, however, are still in a meeting of the party's Central Committee. Their deadline to object to the
new laws has just expired.
17:00 It is 6pm, German time, and at the International Press Centre in East Berlin, the GDR's unofficial spokesman is
opening his daily press conference.

Gnter Schabowski is an experienced Party man, who formerly ran its official newspaper. While he has done such
conferences before, this is the first to be broadcast live on state television. He is tired, hungry, and running mostly on
adrenaline.

Introduction
In November, 1989, East Germany - known officially as the German Democratic Republic - is in crisis. The communist
nation, established by the Soviets at the end of the Second World War, is deeply in debt to the capitalist West German
state. Meanwhile, a wave of revolutions is sweeping across the rest of the Eastern Bloc. Poland has already held free
elections, and Mikhail Gorbachev, the reform-minded Soviet leader, has not stopped them.
The GDR is still ruled by the hardline Erich Honecker. In August, Hungary opens its borders, allowing thousands of
East Germans to emigrate via Austria. In Czechoslovakia, Easterners occupy the West German embassy. Mass
demonstrations in Dresden and Leipzig demand democratic reforms. But the Berlin Wall, built practically overnight in
1961 to stop the 'brain drain' of talented people from East into West Germany, still stands.
On October 17, Honecker is ousted as General Secretary of the Communist Party by his right-hand man, Egon Krenz.
Known to ordinary East Germans as 'horseface', he promises reform, but it is only a few months since he praised the
Chinese crackdown in Tiananmen Square during a state visit. The demonstrations - and the emigrations - continue. In
the first nine days of November, another thirty thousand East Germans flee through Czechoslovakia, and the Czech
government is nearing the end of its patience.
Under pressure from his allies, Krenz convenes a set of meetings designed to head off the crisis. The task of drafting
a new travel law falls to four mid-level bureaucrats. What they come up with slightly exceeds their authority: more than
allowing permanent emigration, it opens the borders to casual travel, and includes the divided city of Berlin. The law is
carefully written to keep the regime in controle, noting that passports and permissions are still required, and does not
come into effect until 4am on November 10. Events, however, are about to intervene.
........................................
Further reading:
This account is greatly indebted to the following authors:
Mary Elise Sarotte - The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall (Basic Books)
Peter Millar - 1989 The Berlin Wall: My Part In Its Downfall (Arcadia)
Michael Meyer - 1989: The Year That Changed The World (Simon and Schuster)
Victor Sebestyen - Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire (Phoenix)
Thanks must also be given to Barrie Dunsmore, Bernard Becker, Daniel Johnson, Kristina Spohr, and the press office
of VfB Stuttgart, for their willingness to help; also to Der Spiegel, the Cold War International History Project, and the
National Security Archive of the George Washington University, for assiduously indexing and providing online various
pieces of evidence related to what Germans now call the Mauerfall.