30 years after the fall of the berlin wall on t. W. Little he wrote it. He passed it on. And he read it to the. Globe ever 9989. The story behind one of the most remarkable days in recent german history. Schabowski is known the night the wall came down. Next to. The timeless way to discover the pulse of. Stuarts nov 14th on the job. In. East berlin november the 8th 1989 surveillance cameras operated by the east German Secret Police the stasi showed suspicious activity right by the wall of the Brandenburg Gate. As the officer requested information about a tall mosque picked up on the images. Are about whatever. You know them and avoided. The suspicious mosque was being a reacted by an American Television broadcaster which had sent its top reporter. At the same time in the east German Ministry of the interior. A colonel of the Peoples Police was given a secret mission by his superiors. He
was to write a paper intended to save the country from just master at the last minute but the new tr
was of that pussy that. on t.v. he d been watching the dramatic events unfolding in eastern europe. the east german authorities were alarmed at those events somebody had to fix the situation. that somebody was gaffed lauter a senior official in the ministry of the interior known for his level headed approach. it was on the 1st of july 989 i was made the head of the central department of passports and registration was i knew there were big problems but people wanted to travel to other countries i knew about id cards and passports but i didn t have much specialist knowledge i had to rely on my staff it quickly became clear that it was mainly political decisions that were needed and pretty to try to understand. more you know. the so right among the day s
the phone to him and hadn t realized that 6 minutes to 7 going to have presented the document to the world or the government one even taking a final decision which was. a few minutes later hearts lauter left his office in the firm belief that his news and barker was being maintained. that says that. i had failed to fish or give in the meantime the press conference had come to a claim its end that. none of us really knew what to do and nobody drew the real conclusion that this was it was as was. going on the way the american and british reporters were confused they suspected the
the country s very existence. the stasi officers presented a draft version of new travel regulations. for it. was shocked by the suggestions. for the stand they had proposed the regulation permitting permanent departure meaning that from the 10th of november anyone would have been allowed to leave the country for good. but they still wouldn t have been allowed to leave and come back leave and just see a bit of the world or stroll through west berlin or visit their relatives. again that meant no freedom of travel just 3 days earlier lauter had had to defend the government s half hearted stance in the east german media against opponents like greegor gleeson lout i became the scapegoat of the nation he didn t want that to
happen again. i said this would be the final straw this would break the camel s back. so he refused to accept the half measure. a largely just question followed in which lauter called for everyone to be given the freedom to travel abroad to hold the officials knew the people of east germany was still fleeing via hungry in czechoslovakia they knew things couldn t stay as they were but they couldn t agree on a solution. although i did tell you that after a few kilometers further north was the bornholmer strasse a crossing point between east and west berlin one of the busiest border posts in the divided city lieutenant colonel how he got started work at passport control at 8 am i recall because of all the morning almost cross the crossing point was basically the purpose of my life everything happened there my entire professional