That was a great day.
#GDR #OTD 1989 – Politburo member Günter Schabowski holds a press conference on new travel regulations for East Germans. This will lead to the opening of the Berlin Wall. (1) pic.twitter.com/mqWuqjpfhY
— Ned Richardson-Little (@HistoryNed) November 9, 2018
Second most enjoyable foreign event of my lifetime. First being when somebody threw a bucket of water on the Soviet Union and it dissolved into the floor, of course. Man, the Oz metaphor really works here, huh? And they say there’s no value to the classics.
Moe Lane
PS: There’s nothing political in enjoying the well-deserved death of something evil.
And the USSR WAS evil. Too many people have forgotten that, and too many of the youngsters never knew it.
If this is the incident that I think it was, then the relaxing of the travel ban wasn’t even intentional. It was just one of those situations in which someone got caught off guard by a question at the wrong moment and gave the wrong answer. The response that the border was to open immediately was *not* the correct answer. But once it was out in the open, news got out to the East German population. They showed up at the crossings, and the East German guards ended up letting them through.
There’s an interesting two-player board game about the collapse of the Iron Curtain. 1989: Dawn of Freedom is a two player game by GMT Games similar to Twilight Struggle (which it’s essentially a sequel of). The game literally covers exactly one year. At the start of that year, people are a bit restless in Poland. At the end of that year, the Ceaucescus(sp?) are dead, and David Hasselhoff is leading a New Years Eve party in Germany.
The Tiananmen Square demonstrations also took place that year, and they get a nod as well (taking the place of the Space Race from Twilight Struggle). Sadly, things didn’t turn out as well for those protestors.
When a hundred thousand Germans show up at the gates and politely point out to the German guards that of course they were allowed through, did you not also hear someone from the government say exactly that on the television? — the German guards are going to let those people through, ESPECIALLY when they do not have specific orders countermanding what someone from the government did indeed say on the television.
I wrote this up for In Nomine once: http://moelane.com/2016/11/13/the-collapse-the-accidental-opening-of-the-berlin-wall-hermann-in-nomine/
My wife was in high school in West Germany (as an Air Force brat) when the Wall came down. When she got back state-side, her HS History teacher asked her about what it was like. Her response was that *everyone* was surprised – there weren’t any indications it would actually happen before it did.
There’s a section of the Wall in the Cosmosphere (an hour or so from where I live). When I went on a tour with my son’s class, trying to explain the significance of it, and what it represented to people who grew up while it stood is challenging. I mean, even the teacher would’ve been a kid when it happened. She didn’t grow up in the Cold War (I’m old! Get off my lawn! 🙂 )
I had a fine old time explaining to my eldest’s classmates what the Berlin Wall at the Museum was, what the guard tower there was for, why there was graffiti on only one side, and why it was all because Commies were evil murderers who hated freedom and human dignity.