Günter Schabowski
Born in 1929. Former top official of the dictatorship of the GDR. In 1997, he was tried and convicted to three years of imprisonment for his role in the GDR, but was pardoned within a year.
The German revolution has been called a strange revolution without notable leaders. This was a revolution carried out by the people on the street.
One of the reasons why there was no one in the position of authority was the habit of the West-German government to pay for the freedom of East-German dissidents serving their prison sentences. Depending on the dissident, the FRG could transfer up to $20 000 to the accounts of the GDR – quite a good business for a communist regime hungry for cash.
Be as it may, there is no revolution without heroes: their place is taken by ordinary people, for whom history assigns revolutionary roles.
Among such heroes was also Günter Schabowski, a communist, a grey official of the GDR regime. By chance he became the man who in the press conference of 9 November announced that the Berlin Wall was from this moment on open. This very announcement unleashed the stormy events in the same night, which saw exultant crowds penetrating the Wall, marching into West-Berlin and starting to demolish the border constructions. This proved one of the most dramatic events of the revolution of 1989.
There had been no indication that Schabowski would be assigned such a role. For decades he had served as a faithful Party-soldier. Only in the beginning of autumn, when the mass movement of East-Germans to the West via Hungary had began (400-500 per day), his eyes were beginning to open. “Only in these days... my inner doubts grew to proportions that I began to ponder about the need for a speedy change in the leadership of the SED [communist party] and its policies”, Schabowski remembers.
For many years there was the theory that Schabowski had made a mistake or had violated his instructions, when he declared the Berlin Wall open. In fact, he was only mistaken about the date: the government of the GDR expected the new regulations for travel to become valid the next day. But the instructions for Schabowski, who only recently had arrived from vacation, were vague. This is why he replied “Sofort, unverzüglich!” (at once, without delay!) This was when a journalist asked him about the date of start of the free travel for East-Germans.
Schabowski is the only top official of the GDR, who has condemned the dictatorship unconditionally. He is deeply sorry for his part in the retention of the GDR.
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