Former East German
Communist official who accidentally revealed that GDR citizens would be
free to travel to west dies Günther Schabowski, the former senior East
German Communist official who accidentally announced the opening of the
Berlin Wall, has died aged 86, German media have reported. His widow,
Irina Schabowski, told the German news agency dpa that he died in a
Berlin nursing home. Politburo spokesman Mr. Schabowski’s halting words
at the conclusion of a plodding evening news conference on Nov. 9, 1989,
put an end to Berlin’s 28 years of division by the wall.
Border
guards had received no orders to let anyone across, but gave up trying
to hold back the crowds. East German leader Egon Krenz later insisted he
told Mr. Schabowski to tell reporters to withhold news about the new
travel regulation until 4 a.m. The next morning, so citizens could line
up properly to get exit visas. Mr. Schabowski, a trained journalist,
said he never heard Mr. Krenz say that and it would have been
unrealistic anyway.
The German agency DPA
said Schabowski's wife Irina had reported his death early on Sunday,
reportedly after a series of strokes. The young Schabowski studied
journalism after World War Two and rose to become editor of the "Neuen
Deutschland," a newspaper closely aligned to Honecker's regime.
Schabowski became Politiburo member in 1984 and had been tipped as
potential successor to party chief Honecker alongside contemporary Egon
Krenz.
After reunification, Schabowski and
two other Politburo members were sentenced to jail terms for their role
in the shootings of people who tried to escape over the Wall. In another
turnaround for East Germany, he also voiced support for "approved and
well-ordered" demonstrations. But amid mounting pressure from the
emboldened pro-democracy movement, he resigned along with the rest of
the Politburo weeks after the Berlin Wall fell.
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