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My Profile Top News Reuters top ten news stories delivered to your inbox each day. Subscribe You are here: Home > News > International > Article Home Business & Finance News U.S. Politics International Technology Entertainment Sports Lifestyle Oddly Enough Health Science Special Coverage Video Pictures Your View The Great Debate Blogs Weather Reader Feedback Do More With Reuters RSS Widgets Mobile Podcasts Newsletters Your View Make Reuters My Homepage Partner Services CareerBuilder Affiliate Network Professional Products Support (Customer Zone) Reuters Media Financial Products About Thomson Reuters WITNESS: The news conference that toppled the Wall Mon Nov 9, 2009 9:36am EST Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single Page [-] Text [+] Volker Warkentin, a correspondent for the German language service in Berlin, has worked for Reuters for 31 years. In the following story, he describes the East German government news conference on travel freedom that unexpectedly led to the opening of the Berlin Wall. By Volker Warkentin BERLIN (Reuters) - It's not often that a historic announcement comes, as an afterthought, almost by accident, at the end of an otherwise stultifyingly tedious press conference. But that's how the Communist East German government told an incredulous world that the Berlin Wall, that most potent symbol of the Cold War, would be thrown open after three decades. I was fortunate enough to witness that most famous news conference of modern German history on November 9, 1989, called with no great fanfare by Politburo member and spokesman Guenter Schabowski. For an hour he had rambled through the dull deliberations of a meeting of the Communist Party's ruling Central Committee. Many journalists had already left the small, stuffy windowless room on the first floor of the International Press Center where news conferences were held. Some had headed home, some drifted to the restaurant where the Stasi security police routinely observed foreign reporters by hidden camera. Even though pressure had been building on the East German government for months to grant "Reisefreiheit" -- or freedom to travel -- Schabowski had nothing to say about that until near the end of his presentation when he was asked about travel rules by Riccardo Ehrman of the Italian news agency ANSA at 6:53 p.m. "Therefore...um...we have decided today...um...to implement a regulation that allows every citizen of the German Democratic Republic...um...to...um...leave East Germany through any of the border crossings," said Schabowski. He appeared scarcely to believe his own words and we were all dumbfounded. What did he just say? Schabowski was asked when the new rule would take effect. "That comes into effect...according to my information.... immediately, without delay," Schabowski stammered, shuffling through the papers spread in front of him as he sought in vain for more information. It later emerged the announcement was not supposed to be released until 4 a.m. the next morning. He also meant to say East Germans could apply for visas in an orderly manner at the appropriate state agency. The sudden rush to the border that so overwhelmed the guards there was the last thing he had in mind. TEARS OF JOY My colleague Herbert Rossler-Kreuzer and I looked at each other in disbelief. "That's a snap," we said in unison, already writing the top-priority report in our heads. I sprinted up three flights of stairs to the Reuters office with the biggest piece of news in my life. Years of heavy smoking didn't seem to matter. Continued... View article on single page Share: Del.icio.us Digg Mixx Yahoo! Facebook LinkedIn Next Article: WITNESS: Strangers united in a euphoric moment Berlin Wall: 20 Years On The Wall's economic legacy Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, much of the East German economy has cast off the shackles of its Communist past. But some of the changes have come at a price. Full Article | Full Coverage Slideshow: The life of the wall Interactive: Explore the Berlin Wall More World News Merkel hails East German bravery 20 years after Wall | Video Karzai seeks closer trade ties with Muslim nations Ida weakens to tropical storm in U.S. Gulf | Video Suicide bomber kills three in Pakistan | Video Iraq election set for January 21 after new law passed | Video More World News... Related News Winners and wastelands: the Wall's economic legacy 9:36am EST Kohl's dream of united Europe remains incomplete 9:36am EST TIMELINE: The rise and fall of the Berlin Wall 9:36am EST WITNESS: Back in Berlin to remember the Wall 9:36am EST WITNESS: The day Checkpoint Charlie came back to haunt me 9:36am EST WITNESS: The Wall loomed bigger than the Alps 9:36am EST WITNESS: Strangers united in a euphoric moment 9:36am EST WITNESS: A march that presaged Wall's fall -- in retrospect 9:36am EST FACTBOX: November 9 not just a Berlin Wall red letter day 9:36am EST TIMELINE: East Germany - From wartime ashes to unity 9:36am EST Editor's Choice Slideshow A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. Slideshow Most Popular on Reuters Articles Video GE, Comcast agree on NBC Universal valuation: source Witness: The news conference that toppled the Wall WRAPUP 3-U.S. healthcare measure faces tough path in Senate Healthcare bill faces tough path in Senate | Video Ida weakens to tropical storm in U.S. Gulf | Video UPDATE 1-Hurricane Ida threatens Gulf of Mexico oil output Thinking negatively can boost your memory, study finds Hurricane Ida aims for Gulf of Mexico oil fields Britney Spears "upset" over Australian tour complaints Kraft turns hostile in $16 billion bid for Cadbury | Video Most Popular Articles RSS Feed Video UK remembers fallen House passes U.S. health bill Japanese protest against U.S. base Mass bikini parade in South Africa Andorra bridge collapses Blast hits busy Pakistan market Man walks into his own funeral. Pakistan blast kills 3 Dozens die in El Salvador floods Chavez, troops to prepare for war Most Popular Videos RSS Feed Witness Afghan night mission ends in bullets Deborah Gembara, a reporter for Reuters Television embedded with the 1-501st Infantry Battalion, recounts a harrowing raid in eastern Afghanistan. Blog | Video Reuters.com: Help and Contact Us | Advertise With Us | Mobile | Newsletters | RSS | Labs | Journalism Handbook | Archive | Site Index | Video Index Thomson Reuters Corporate: Copyright | Disclaimer | Privacy | Professional Products | Professional Products Support | About Thomson Reuters | Careers International Editions: Africa | Arabic | Argentina | Brazil | Canada | China | France | Germany | India | Italy | Japan | Latin America | Mexico | Russia | Spain | United Kingdom | United States Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. 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