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
and there weren t that many party press conferences or. people in west berlin could also receive east german television medical students ben it exceeded my i was watching the live broadcast of the press conference. that he supposed he then started reporting on the day s count topics i wasn t really taking him seriously at 1st i just thought he s sitting there saying whatever it s going to hurt us. just a few minutes before the end of the press conference there was an unexpected twist ending could this. possibly john securitas us is voting to an italian journalist the kargil was invited to ask a question should not strictly not going to the concept take out a free card to him and was standing to the left. he d arrived he couldn t get a seat and he will he was 2 meters away from me and only to me just to the right of . mr schabowski you spoke of mistakes because don t you think the draft
momentous import of the paper they didn t realize it would allow all these german citizens to travel that s the only explanation of why the draft was passed without much discussion at the end times also said the information should be withheld until the following day. it would be typed the attached press release regarding the transitional regulations is to be published on the 10th of november. but the one member of the central committee who was absent at that moment was going to schabowski. visions that i wasn t there i wasn t out that central committee session because it s a. shop off he didn t return until about half past 5 just before his press conference had been to be there when i returned to the central committee meeting all of these things had already taken place i sat down next to kranz on the discussion continued we spoke quietly and he pushed the nose over to me he told me to take it with me to today s press conference sure but then the indian with
we were if you like or a bit angry should use books to. me to use the tension was rising all the time. shifting the danger that someone would lose their nerve it was quite high you know been pushed to. the border crossing point upon harm national asset. i ll feel that i didn t have to wait long for people to arrive after i d been there for our own 20 minutes the 1st came and asked if they were allowed out. the officer asked if they had a passport in a reserve part of the night as a plane to resume no they said but he said we were allowed to leave no. and it was now that the explosive nature of schabowski is no to became clear while
a good plaza got. a go on plans fail to mention an important detail to show. that it was to be embargoed until the following morning. i didn t know anything about the news embargoed i had no idea. and so good to schabowski went to his press conference. here we are back at the international press center in berlin with a live report a tradition that was started yesterday is to be continued every evening after the end of the day sessions of the central committee of the socialist unity party a representative of this committee will talk to each german and. foreign journalists to answer their questions as you can see huge numbers are assembled here them as in they don t under. one of the journalists present was american news anchor tom brokaw. i m pretty draw