09 November 1990

Friday

1990-11-09

Events

 * In order to ease the growing flow of refugees from East to West Germany, the Politburo decides to allow them to cross directly via exit points along the borders. During a rather fumbled press conference the East German spokesperson Günter Schabowski announced that exit could also be made via the Berlin Wall with immediate effect. The announcement soon made it to West German news programmes that evening, also watched in the East, and crowds started to gather by the Wall, overwhelming the surprised guards. Finally, at 10:45 p.m., Harald Jäger, the commander of the Bornholmer Straße border crossing yielded allowing for the guards to open the checkpoints and allowing people through with little or no identity checking. During celebrations between East and West citizens that night and over the coming days, the Wall was triumphantly brought down piece by piece.
 * see also Mary Elise Sarotte -- How an accident caused the Berlin Wall to come down - washingtonpost.com