BLUNDER THAT BROUGHT DOWN THEWALL
++ The East German guards ogling a waitress across the border ++ The young Angela Merkel walking into history
++ The cafe that ran out of bubbly toasting new neighbours ++ And the lazy apparatchik whose error triggered it all ++ 30 years on, a stunningly vivid account of the . . .
On August 13, 1961, the government of East Germany gave the order to seal its border with West Berlin. The reason? Too many of its citizens were leaving for the more prosperous West Germany.
on a single day the previous week, nearly 2,000 had left the German Democratic Republic (GDR) for good.
Berliners on both sides wept as 7,000 soldiers erected barricades and barbed wire, blocked almost 200 roads and bricked up doors and windows in apartment blocks that faced the border. The 96-mile wall that followed became the most potent symbol of the cold War.
But, by 1989, East Germany was on the brink of bankruptcy, its productivity 40 per cent lower than West Germany. And, as glasnost — the policy of openness espoused by Russia’s president, Mikhail Gorbachev — took hold, East Germany’s Politburo, the executive body of its communist Party, found itself under increased pressure to reform.
When Gorbachev visited the GDR in october 1989, demonstrators on the streets shouted: ‘Gorby, help us! Gorby, help us!’ NOVEMBER 9, 1989 Midnight
DAy 10,316 of the Berlin Wall. This is the fourth version of the structure dividing the city; it is currently made up of concrete sections originally designed for storing liquid manure on East German farms.
Since 1961, more than 5,000 people have successfully escaped from the GDR — half of them East German border guards. But 138 people have died trying to flee to freedom.
The Western side of The Wall is covered in graffiti and one of the most prominent slogans is: ‘Die Mauer Muss Weg’ — ‘The Wall Must Go’. 7am
IT IS a mild late-autumn morning in Berlin and the smell of sulphur from the crumbling East German factories hangs in the air. Beneath the feet of the GDR guards making their regular morning patrols are the remains of more than 40 escape tunnels. Some were made by West Germans trying to save friends and relatives, but most began in the East, dug by people of all ages.
In May 1962, over 16 days, a 12strong group of mostly East German pensioners dug their way to freedom. Their tunnel was 104 ft long and just under 6 ft high. Asked why it was so tall, one of the escapees said: ‘We wanted to walk to freedom with our wives, comfortably and unbowed.’ 8am
ThE morning commute begins for Germans on both sides of The Wall. West Berlin has smart shops and well-lit streets, while East Berlin’s commuters are walking past bomb sites and buildings still riddled with World War II bullet holes. 10am
SIncE the border with czechoslovakia was opened on november 1, East Germany has been haemorrhaging people using that route to get to West Germany.
In East Berlin, hospitals are short of doctors and some schools have closed because so many teachers have left their jobs.
This morning, the GDR newspaper neues Deutschland pleads with its readers: ‘We beg you, stay in our homeland, stay with us.’
In the Ministry of the Interior building, close to the most famous of the seven border crossings, checkpoint charlie, four officials are meeting to draw up new travel regulations on behalf of the East German Politburo to deal with the exodus via czechoslovakia. 4pm
AT ThE hQ of the East German communist Party, chiefs agree to the new regulations; travel will be allowed to West Germany, but only after an application has been lodged. Visas, with a passport, will be granted for visits of up to 30 days.
The government knows that only a small proportion of the population has a passport and a new one takes at least a month to process. They expect orderly queues to start at passport offices in the morning. The Wall will remain closed. 5.40pm
EAST German leader Egon Krenz hands over the new travel policy document to Gunter Schabowski, the government’s spokesman. he will inform the public about the new rules at a live Press conference this evening.
Krenz is confident that the new system will prevent a mass exodus and ensure some state control.
‘here, friend, this is something that will do us a power of good,’ Krenz says.
6pm
ThE large room at East Berlin’s International Press centre is packed with the world’s media. Schabowski welcomes everyone, but he is tired and distracted.
he wasn’t in this afternoon’s meeting of the communist Party chiefs and has not read the full document — he’s only skim-read it in the car on the way here.
Schabowski doesn’t know about the vital waiting period while applications are processed.
he has a cavalier attitude to his daily Press conferences and believes the only qualities you need are ‘to be able to speak German and read a text without mistakes’. The Press conference starts with dull news about the latest ministerial appointments and administrative reforms.
6.30pm
AT chEcKPoInT charlie, East German guards are using binoculars to ogle an attractive waitress serving coffee and beer in cafe Adler on the other side of the border. It’s part of their daily routine.
Astrid Benner, 29, knows she is being watched but doesn’t mind — in fact, she feels sorry for them. ‘over there it was so sad,’ she said looking back many years later. 6.53pm
SchABoWSKI finally turns to the new travel policy. Sweating under the television lights, he describes it as best he can.
‘We have decided today, er, to implement a regulation that allows every citizen of the GDR, er, to, er, leave the GDR through any of the border crossings.’
Journalists shout questions asking if that means leaving without a passport and — crucially — when it takes effect. Schabowski scratches his head and shuffles through his papers. ‘That comes into effect, to my knowledge, immediately, right away.’
A German newspaper reporter asks: ‘Does that apply also to West Berlin?’
Schabowski shrugs his shoulders and reads from the document: ‘Permanent exit can take place via all border crossings from the GDR to the FRG and West Berlin.’
The Berlin Wall has been opened by mistake — earlier than the Politburo intended.
‘It was a simple cock-up,’ one party official said later.
7.01pm
As the Press conference ends, at the largest of the border crossings, Bornholmer strasse, the officer in charge, Lieutenant-Colonel harald Jager, shouts at the television: ‘Bull **** !’ Furious at schabowski’s inaccurate statements.
Jager is part of the Ministry for state security, the stasi, and he calls his boss, Colonel Rudi Ziegenhorn, at its operational hQ to find out what is going on.
Ziegenhorn tells him nothing has changed. But Jager, who began work as a border policeman aged 18 and had helped in the construction of the Wall, is convinced something momentous is about to happen. 7.05pm the Associated Press news agency headline is: ‘the GDR is opening its borders.’ 7.15pm
With remarkable speed, 80 east Berliners arrive at the checkpoints at invalidenstrasse, heinrichheine-strasse and Bornholmer strasse and ask the guards’ permission to cross the border.
they are told they need a passport and a visa and to come back tomorrow.
in Cafe Adler by Checkpoint Charlie, waitress Astrid hears the news on the radio and calls the cafe’s owner, Albrecht Rau. ‘You have to get here because i’m totally alone and thousands of people may be coming at any moment! this is the first place they’ll reach!’
in east Berlin, a democracy campaigner called Aram Radomski walks into a bar where he knows his friends will be.
he’s just watched the Press conference on television and wants to test out what schabowski’s phrase ‘right away’ means.
he urges them to come with him straight away to the nearest border crossing. Only his fellow campaigner siggi schefke agrees to come.
Radomski shouts as they leave: ‘if we are not back in two hours, we are in the West!’ 7.50pm
At CheCkPOint Charlie, Cafe Adler owner Albrecht is carrying a tray with coffee, sparkling wine and glasses towards the east German guards. Astrid and some of his customers have come with him to offer support.
As they cross the painted white line between east and West, two
GDR guards come out of their hut. Astrid offers them champagne, but they tell her to go back.
she says: ‘But we have to celebrate this exciting day, don’t you want to celebrate with us?’
they reply: ‘no, no, we don’t want that, please go back.’
Albrecht and Astrid retreat across the line and share a drink with the West Berliners who have been watching their daring gesture. 8pm
West German television station ARD announces that ‘this is an historic day’. the newsreader hanns Joachim Friedrichs jumps the gun and says: ‘the GDR is opening its borders. the gates in the Berlin Wall stand open.’ 8.15pm
At the Bornholmer strasse crossing, the number of people is now in the hundreds and things are getting tense. Lieutenant-Colonel Jager is concerned his men might shoot into the crowd or that the crowd might try to grab their weapons. he has no idea what is happening at the other border crossings as only stasi hQ is able to communicate to all seven checkpoints. 8.47pm the east German government Politburo meeting that started this afternoon finally ends. they have no idea what happened at schabowski’s Press conference or what is occurring at the border. 9pm
DeMOCRACY campaigners Radomski and schefke are at Bornholmer strasse and demanding loudly, along with scores of others, to be allowed to pass. they have Western money with them in case they are successful.
in the nearby barracks, Lieutenant-Colonel Jager is on the phone to stasi hQ asking yet again what to do. they tell him to pull the most aggressive members out of the crowd and let them pass through to the West, calling it the ‘let-off steam solution’.
Jager is sceptical, but agrees to carry out the plan. Radomski and schefke are among those plucked