the east from the west. east berlins could ease at the west if their apartments were on high enough floors. for most, that was foreboden. but this man announced that night an hour into an otherwise unremarkable press conference, that east germans could leave the country as they wished. this new policy, he said, mistakenly, was effective immediately. that night the berlin wall began to fall. those were heady days. they held much promise for the future, but 30 years later, what does europe have to show for that promise? joining me now is the senior fellow at brookings. so, where were you when the berlin wall fell? well, i was on the wrong side of the atlantic for the action. i was a 27-year-old graduate
30 years ago this weekend on november 9, 1989, an east german functionary altered the course of history by accident. the cold war was still chilly and the berlin wall separated the east from the west. east berliners could gaze at the west if there apartments were on high enough floors. for most that was forbidden. but this man announced that night an hour into an otherwise unremarkable press conference, that east germans could leave the country as they wished. this new policy, he said, mistakenly, was effective immediately. that night the berlin wall began to fall. those were heady days. they held much promise for the future, but 30 years later, what does europe have to show for that promise? joining me now is the senior fellow at brookings.
so, where were you when the berlin wall fell? well, i was on the wrong side of the atlantic for the action. i was a 27-year-old graduate student at harvard, and i was sitting in my bedroom at my desk, working on a chapter of my doctoral thesis when a friend called and said turn on the tv. the wall is down. i thought she was pulling my leg. i said you re an idiot. leave me alone. i m working. she said turn on the tv. i on auto pilot went into the next room and turned on the tv. saw the people on the wall laughing and cheering and waving sledge hammers and bottles and i started crying. i burst into tears. it was incredible. when you get there, what did you realize about germany that you had not really understood? so many things. i sometimes think that in retrospect, particularly for my generation which literally grew
sure that our poll in terms of its competition is accurate and right on the sort of characteristics that are likeliest to whether you support the democratic president or his opponents. fascinating stuff. come back soon. i will. thank you. next on gps, this weekend marks 30 years since the berlin wall began to fall. we ll look at europe three decades later. what happened to that moment of great promise? introducing in-garage delivery, just in time for the holidays!
consistently find is that if you control for partisanship, if you control for demographic characteristics like race and education, the people who respond to telephone surveys aren t that different than the people who don t respond. if we didn t have the power to make sure we had the right number of registered democrats or republicans or didn t have the ability to up weight less educated voters, our polls would have serious issues. but we think that because we can account for those things, that we think our results are pretty good. they re not perfect. no one can make that promise. i think that the we can make sure that our poll in terms of its competition is accurate and right on the sort of characteristics that are likeliest to whether you support the democratic president or his opponents. come back soon. i will. thank you. next on gps, this weekend marks 30 years since the berlin wall began to fall. we ll look at europe three