Word: schabowski
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...escaped, the Berlin Wall trail follows a green scar of borderland between Wedding and Prenzlauer Berg, districts linked in Cold War days only by a crossing at Bornholmerstrasse. This was the first of seven inner-city checkpoints to abandon controls in 1989 after an apparatchik named Günter Schabowski announced the lifting of travel restrictions on G.D.R. citizens. At first officers tried to turn away the many thousands who congregated, pedestrians just wanting a look at the other side, and lines of olive green and turquoise blue Trabant cars. Finally the numbers forced the authorities to open the gates...
...press conference hosted by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) on Nov. 9, 1989, was about to come to an end when Ehrmann, who worked for the Italian news agency ANSA, inquired about the new travel law for East German citizens. Gunter Schabowski, a ruling party official, replied by announcing the introduction of new regulations that would make it possible for the people of the GDR to travel abroad. When will this take effect?" a voice from the auditorium demanded. Schabowski, after taking a quick look onto his notes through his frameless glasses, haltingly replied: "That...
...Although the new regulations merely meant that citizens could apply for permission to travel abroad, a procedure that would take some time, and while the rule was not supposed to come into effect until the next day, the majority of the gathered press had no doubt that Schabowski's statement meant the end of the Berlin Wall. The news quickly spread and brought thousands of people to the border crossings where they demanded to pass. The border guards eventually gave in. (See TIME's cover story on the wall's fall...
...Gunter Schabowski, meantime, insists that his announcement at the press conference was spontaneous and called Ehrmann's new version of the story "completely absurd...
...story entirely plausible. Hans-Hermann Hertle from the Potsdam-based Center for Research on Contemporary History tells TIME that he had "already wondered about that 15 years ago." Hertle cites the fact that an American reporter present at the press conference, when attempting to speak, was cut short by Schabowski, who then allowed the Italian journalist to ask his question first, as an indication that Ehrmann's question had been prompted by the party. But neither Ehrmann, Potschke nor Schabowski confirmed Hertle's suspicion back then...