Something was certainly in the air twenty years ago during that mild German November: Communist boss Erich Honecker had been driven from power, thousands of East German political refugees had fled to the West through Hungary and Czechoslovakia, million-strong street protests were demanding real political reform in Leipzig and East Berlin. Changes in the East Block were dramatic and tangible. But no one, not even the most optimistic political observer in the West, ever thought for a moment that the Berlin Wall could virtually disappear within a manner of minutes. Yet this, as is known now, is precisely what happened.
The Cold War German-German Border
To make this highly unlikely, world-shattering Cold War tale all the more dreamlike and bizarre, the so-called "decision" to open the German-German border in the way it did was no decision at all. It was a near-comical accident.
November 9th, 1989 in Berlin
The communist leaders now in charge, intent on painting themselves as reformers in an attempt to stem the rising tide of protests coming from the streets, sought to appease the Volk by issuing what they called new travel regulations, actually the first real travel regulations ever, regulations that would finally allow citizens of the GDR, under certain very well-regulated conditions, to travel to the West. No concrete preparations had been made, however, and the slow-moving communist bureaucratic machinery needed was in no way in place to initiate these regulations any time soon, much less on November 9th. Opening a deadly border that had stood near-impregnable since 1961 was not a matter that could be done in an orderly manner overnight, or so it seemed.
"New" Travel Regulations from East to West?
Shortly before East German Politburo spokesman Guenter Schabowski opened a news conference that evening, he had been handed an update from his comrades concerning the status of the new travel regulations, but he did not have the time to read through it carefully, nor had he been personally involved in the discussions. A journalist's relatively harmless question at the end of what was an otherwise very tedious news conference then led to the verbal shot that was soon heard around the world. Confused and under time pressure, Schabowski tried to summarize the new regulations as best he could by saying that a decision had been made "as far as I know, immediately, right now," in reference to allowing "exit via border crossings... for every citizen." In fact, the new travel regulation was not to take effect until the following day, and only then after all responsible officials, travel visa authorities and border guards included, had been properly informed.
The Virtual Fall of the Berlin Wall
Needless to say, this information was immediately broadcast by an astounded press corps in the West and East Germans, who regularly watched western broadcasts illegally, quickly began to gather on their side of the Berlin Wall. Before all too long, guards at several crossing points, Bornholmer Street in particular, were outnumbered by tens of thousands of people. Unaware as to what was going on on the one hand, and many of their commanders physically unavailable on the other, communication soon became even more muddled and the guards, alarmed themselves by what they had seen and heard themselves, and perhaps hoping to ease the ever-increasing pressure of the crowd, decided to let a few select through at 9 pm. The pressure grew even more and more, however, and the pushing and shoving chants from crowd to open the gate soon became too much for the confused and once-feared officials. And then, at 11:30 pm., they opened the gates for good and the Berlin Wall became the historical footnote it is today.
Sources:
Remembering the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Davide Pryce-Jones, The National Review Online
Freedom Without Walls - 20 Years Fall of the Wall, Welcome to Germany website
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