Leaning on a lampost at the centre of the universe
Well it would be reasonably difficult to resist the temptation especially in a place like
Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) where the Berliners, on November 9th 1989, seemed to follow Ronald Reagan's advice and tore down the wall.
It has changed immensely since I watched those events live on televison and leaves one with the sensation that you have seen the Forum of present day Rome - the parliament building is just around the corner behind me in this photograph.(It is almost directly behind our dear friend Peter, who can be seen smoking possibly his 20th cigarette that morning in order to counter the high doses of vitamin C he swears keep him chipper.)
Well done Günter Schabowski who surely deserves some sort of award from The School of The Cock-Up Theory of History- he was the DDR minister who having just arrived back from a long holiday, lacked sufficient information about what the party line was on the checkpoints and announced on television that he believed East Germans could cross into the civilised world:
"As far as I know effective immediately, right now". With these immortal words he accidentally signed the DDR's suicide note and let it metaphorically jump out of the window or perhaps, headfirst off the highest point of the Berlin Wall.
Tens of thousands of East Germans arrived at the wall within the hour.
Less than a year later on October 3rd 1990, East Germany ceased to exist.
Germany was reunified.
The Rest is History.
Well it would be reasonably difficult to resist the temptation especially in a place likeBrandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) where the Berliners, on November 9th 1989, seemed to follow Ronald Reagan's advice and tore down the wall.
It has changed immensely since I watched those events live on televison and leaves one with the sensation that you have seen the Forum of present day Rome - the parliament building is just around the corner behind me in this photograph.(It is almost directly behind our dear friend Peter, who can be seen smoking possibly his 20th cigarette that morning in order to counter the high doses of vitamin C he swears keep him chipper.)
Well done Günter Schabowski who surely deserves some sort of award from The School of The Cock-Up Theory of History- he was the DDR minister who having just arrived back from a long holiday, lacked sufficient information about what the party line was on the checkpoints and announced on television that he believed East Germans could cross into the civilised world:
"As far as I know effective immediately, right now". With these immortal words he accidentally signed the DDR's suicide note and let it metaphorically jump out of the window or perhaps, headfirst off the highest point of the Berlin Wall.
Tens of thousands of East Germans arrived at the wall within the hour.
Less than a year later on October 3rd 1990, East Germany ceased to exist.
Germany was reunified.
The Rest is History.
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