Fall of the Berlin Wall

The fall of the Berlin Wall began with an hour-long press conference. The press conference, introducing the new travel policy, was moderated by East Berlin Party leader Günter Szabowski and other government spokespersons. It started at 18:00 CET on 9 November and was broadcast on GDR TV and Radio. )broadcast. In addition to Schabowski, the officials on stage were Minister of Foreign Trade Gerhard Beil, members of the Socialist Unionist Party of Germany Helga Labs and Manfred Bar Nashak (German: Manfred Banaschak)

Schabowski was not involved in discussions of the new regulations and was completely unaware of the latest situation. Shortly after the meeting, Krenz handed him a small note announcing the new rules, but did not instruct him further to process the information. The new provisions allow East Germans to apply to leave the country even if they do not meet the required conditions, and to emigrate across all borders, including east and west Berlin

At 18:53, as the press conference drew to a close, Riccardo Ehrman of ANSA asked if the new travel regulations on 6 November were a wrong decision. Schabowski gave a confusing answer, asserting that the new rules were necessary because West Germany had exhausted its capacity to accept fleeing East German migrants, then suddenly remembered the note he received, adding that it was allowed New laws for permanent immigration across the border are on the way. Schabowski's remarks sparked an uproar. During the repeated questioning, Schabowski was surprised that the reporter had not read the law, so he began to read the contents of the note again. Afterwards, Ehrman and Bild reporter Peter Brinkmann, who were sitting in the front row of the press box, asked when the new regulations would hit the road. Schabowski hesitated for a moment, and replied: "As far as I know, the law comes into effect immediately without delay." (German: Das tritt nach meiner Kenntnis … ist das sofort … unverzüglich.) However, according to the opening paragraph of the note, this is an obvious assumption. Bell wanted to save the field, clarifying that the effective time of the new regulations must be decided by the Council of Ministers, but Schabowski continued to read the manuscript, saying that the new regulations had come into effect until the "People's Assembly" passed a bill on the matter. Crucially, when a reporter asked if the new rules were approved for applications to West Berlin, Schabowski shrugged and read item 3 of the note, confirming it.

After the exchange, Daily Telegraph reporter Daniel Johnson asked about the impact of the new law on the Berlin Wall. Shabowski sat sullenly, before responding nonchalantly to the question, alluding to the larger issue of withdrawal.

Shabowski ended the press conference hastily at 19:00 and was surrounded by reporters when he left the venue

After the press conference, Schabowski was interviewed by NBC reporter Tom Brokaw and reiterated that the new rules would be implemented immediately and that East Germans could emigrate across the border.

The news spread quickly: West German News Agency issued a bulletin at 7:4 p.m. announcing that East German residents could immediately cross the German border. At 7:17, the press conference was over. The key news program "Today" of German TV 2 reported the live news of Schabowski's press conference, and then the program "Today News" of the German Public Broadcasting Union focused on the news of the conference. The German Public Broadcasting Union and German Television have been broadcast in almost the whole of East Germany since the 1950s. Both of them were approved by the East German authorities and their ratings were much higher than those of East German channels. At that time, the people of East Germany mostly passed the two Get the news. Later in the day, PBS host Hanns Joachim Friedrichs stated on the show "Tagesthemen", "Today November 9 Today is a day in the annals of history. The GDR announced the opening of its borders to all, effective immediately. The gates of the wall will remain open

In 2009, Ehrman said that a member of the Central Committee had called him to urge him to ask questions about the new regulations at a press conference, but Schabowski found his claims absurd.[22] Ehrmann later reiterated this claim in an interview with Austrian journalists in 2014, acknowledging that the caller was Günter Pötschke, director of the East German news agency Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst. ), he just asked if Elman would be in the press conference

After hearing the broadcast, East Germans began to gather among the six checkpoints along the wall, demanding that the border guards open the gates immediately. The guards were overwhelmed and hurriedly called their superiors several times for instructions. At first they were asked to identify the "more aggressive" people in the crowd, put a special stamp on their passports and bar them from returning to East Germany, in other words depriving them of their nationality. However, the gathered crowd was still reluctant to disperse and demanded customs clearance, saying "Shabowski said we can do it". However, no one from the East German authorities was willing to take responsibility and issued instructions to use force to clear the field. Even if the soldiers were numerous, they did not dare to stop a large number of East German residents. Mary Elise Sarotte wrote in The Washington Post in 2009 that the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall were purely accidental, stating that "the most monumental event of the last century, It was actually an accident, a semi-caricature and bureaucratic error that owes much to the Western media and historical trends [

Finally, on November 9, at 10:45 pm (say 11:30 pm), the commander of the border checkpoint on Bornholmer Street, Harald Jäger, allowed the soldiers to open for inspection Stations, so that people need to undergo identity checks in transit. East German residents swarmed to receive flowers and champagne from those who waited in ecstasy. Soon after, a group of West Berliners jumped on the wall, followed by East German youths. On the night of November 9, the Berlin Wall fell