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Drop Us a LineWho Brought down the Berlin Wall?
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On Monday, November 10 will be the 20th year anniversary of Berlin Wall’s collapse. It’s a metaphor of the demise of East Germany’s communist system, but how much do we know of what really happened? What causes it? Who’s responsible?
It was a Freaky Friday back then when it happened. Early morning that day East and West Germans were standing atop Brandnburg Gate which confused the German guards. They did not know what to do, their first option was to shoot, but there’s no one brave enough to give the order to cause harm to the tens of thousand of people who were there that moment. And the rest was history.
According to Marcus Walker of Associated press,
“At Bornholmer Strasse, one of the main checkpoints in central Berlin, confused border guards couldn’t get clear orders on how to deal with the crush, and debated whether to open fire. Instead, they opened the barrier, and the Berlin Wall was history. The events have been chronicled by Hans-Hermann Hertle, a historian who specializes in the fall of East Germany.”
The mass movement which eventually tipped-off to tearing down the wall was a result of an error in an international press conference conducted by Gunter Schabowski, East German Politburo official, on November 9, Thursday the day before the breakdown.
Wikipedia wrote,
On 9 November 1989, after a misunderstanding, Schabowski famously announced in a live broadcast international press conference that (effectively) all rules for travelling abroad were lifted, in effect “immediately” (”sofort, unverzüglich”). However, the misunderstanding was only with regards to the date; the plan had been to lift the rules, found to be unsustainable after mass defections of East Germans to West Germany via Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the next morning.
Tens of thousands of people immediately went to the Berlin Wall where the vastly outnumbered border guards were forced to open access points and allow them through, which proved to be the end of the Wall regime. During the following purges of the “old guard”, Schabowski was quickly thrown out of the SED, which then morphed into the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), even though earlier in 1989 he had been awarded the party’s prestigious “Karl Marx medal“.
There were actually five people responsible for tearing down the wall sooner than the party had expected: Gunter Schabowski, Riccardo Ehrman (reporter, ANSA), Peter Brinkmann (reporter, Bild), Krzysztof Janowski (reporter, Voice of America), and another Un-identified reporter who asked the effective date of the alleged directive.
Wall Street Journal’s account of that controversial press conference:
Gunter Schabowski was supposed to announce eased travel restrictions for East Germans. Instead, his answers left reporters with the impression the Berlin Wall had fallen. Here’s an excerpt from the Nov. 9, 1989, news conference:
Riccardo Ehrman (reporter, ANSA): Don’t you think it was a big mistake, this draft law on travel that you presented a few days ago?
Gunter Schabowski (East German Politburo official): No, I don’t think so. Ah… [talks for three minutes] And therefore, ah, we have decided on a new regulation today that makes it possible for every citizen of the GDR, ah, to exit via border crossing points of the, ah, GDR(West Germany).
Ehrman: Without a passport?
Krzysztof Janowski (reporter, Voice of America): From when does that apply?
Schabowski: What?
Peter Brinkmann (reporter, Bild): At once? At…?
Schabowski: [Scratches head] Well, comrades, I was informed today …[puts on his glasses, reads out press release on visa authorization procedure]
Ehrman: With a passport?
Schabowski: [Reads out rest of press release, says he doesn't know the answer on passports]
Second East German official: The substance of the announcement is the important thing…
Schabowski: …is the…
Fourth reporter: When does that go into effect?
Schabowski: [Rustles through his papers] That goes, to my knowledge, that is…immediately. Without delay.”
There folks, without taking credit from the people who trooped to and tore down the wall, it’s indeed ironic that the symbol of dissent that separated two ideologies for years was just torn down that easily by a mere press conference, and an erroneous one at that.
Hello. An interesting piece of article you’ve written,Tats.Often times, subject matters like the ones you mentioned are way over my head but do allow me to put in my two cents worth of opinion:
Months before the wall was actually torn down, there was a climate of instability and unrest in all of Eastern Europe.Not surprisingly, the political pundits have been predicting the collapse of Mother Russia, economically.A nation whose status is that of a “Second World” cannot continue to exist by exhausting three fourths of its resources in military spending just so they can keep up with the West in global presence and dominance.It was a country who had a hard time feeding its own citizens.And it doesn’t stop there. They have to provide sustenance to the rest of their communist satellites (I hope I spelled that word right),among many - Cuba and yes, East Germany.But in the end, the whole Soviet Union was dismantled just the same.Now imagine this: East Berlin, having for years lived on a steady diet of explicit instructions from the Soviet Union on just about anything from hygiene to helicopter maintenance, one fine day found it missing.Nobody knew what to do. For days, not even the high ranking officials dare to make any decision for fear that they would be disciplined.But eventually somebody improvised.Like they say - if you don’t have a tire gauge, well,do something.Give the tire a kick. It’s the least you can do. If you don’t have a sheet music in front of you, then my friend , play it by ear.
So there you go, Tats, I think that’s what happened there. Not exactly a precise account but close enough (give or take a kilometer or so. Ha ha ha)But kidding aside, what happened in that decade was symptomatic of our changing world.The people power in the Philippines that ended the Marcos’ rule.Then the regime change in Burma.And the nature of politics between the feuding countries of the Middle East. They all have one thing in common. That the citizens of this planet have power enough to make change happen.
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I have read about this somewhere..its true.
History is very interesting..specially for us Filipinos who were fed with lies and incorrect stories of what really transpired long time ago. One of which is Churchill, according to our history, he was a hero, while its true that he played a major role in WWII, it wasnt true that he or the british was the reason of the nazis falldown..it was simply because the nazis were never destined to win the war..and before churchill became PM of britain, he was responsible for some horrible things in africa and in britain as well.
In our case, we have heroes listed in our history when they in fact are not worth to be named as such. As for me, the only true hero we have is andres bonifacio together with those who truly fought and died fighting during the spaniards time. However, since we Filipinos are really good at covering up the bad things and bad deeds of a popular person…we hailed some as heroes and glorified them, and still glorifying them until now.
Some Filipinos even considered the NBN whistle blower Lozada as a hero, when he was just as dirty and as corrupt as those he accused in the NBN deal.
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