A piece of paper brought down a dictatorship:on the morning of November 9, 1989, the high-ranking functionary Gerhard Lauter - colonel of the People's Police - drafted new travel regulations in the GDR Ministry of the Interior, intended to save the GDR from collapse. On his own authority, against the orders of the SED Politburo and the concerns of the Stasi, Lauter decreed freedom of travel for all GDR citizens - albeit in an orderly and bureaucratic manner. A little later, the paper was presented to the Central Committee of the SED - as one of dozens of points discussed in the group. The new travel regulations passed the Central Committee unopposed.
Schabowski announces freedom of travel for GDR citizens
In the afternoon, State Council Chairman Egon Krenz hands the paper to Günter Schabowski, spokesman for the SED Politburo. Schabowski does not know that the content will not be announced until the next morning and that the new regulation will not come into force until November 10th. On a handwritten piece of paper he made the note "Read out the text of the travel regulations" for the forthcoming press conference. There he stammers and confuses the text live on GDR television and explains that the new regulation applies "immediately, without delay".
Citizens storm the border
"Schabowskis Zettel" immediately unfolds its full explosive power. In the hours that follow, people flock to the border crossings in droves. Harald Jäger, head of passport control on Bornholmer Strasse, made the fateful choice that night:open the borders or have them shot. A last, desperate attempt by the Stasi to get rid of the loudest screamers through a covert expatriation and thus take the pressure off the borders fails.
The order is getting out of joint
On November 9, 1989, something unique happens:the laws of the authoritarian state are suspended for a few hours. Improvisation and spontaneity prevail instead of control and obedience. What politicians on both sides cannot imagine, the people of Berlin are taking matters into their own hands. On Invalidenstrasse, a handful of West Berliners led by the student Benedikt Sedlmaier advanced into East Berlin and stormed the Brandenburg Gate. A revolution from below - and from both sides. The fall of the wall is taking place behind the backs and beyond the intentions of all politicians and state organs.
Since 2015 in the museum:Schabowski's note
For a long time, Schabowski's note with his handwritten notes for the press conference and the momentous note on travel regulations was considered lost. It reappeared in 2015 and is now owned by the "House of History" foundation in Bonn.
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