November 9, 2009
Freedom Department
It Was 20 Years Ago Today...
At the end of a plodding news conference, Politburo spokesman Guenter Schabowski offhandedly said East Germany was lifting restrictions on travel across its border with West Germany.
Pressed on when the regulation would take effect, he looked down at his notes and stammered: "As far as I know, this enters into force ... this is immediately, without delay."
Schabowski has said he didn't know that the change wasn't supposed to be announced until the following morning.
East Berliners streamed toward border crossings. Facing huge crowds and lacking instructions from above, border guards opened the gates -- and the wall was on its way into history.
I guess they saw that the fall of the wall was inevitable, so everybody just decided to roll with it.
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Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! I feel like listening to that speech now. (Understanding that the speech was 2 years earlier, it's just always what I think of when I think of the wall.)
Me too. I remember thinking it would happen eventually, but never imagined how quickly it would come.