When one of the regime’s most loyal subordinates, a Stasi officer named Harald Jaeger who was working the 9 November shift at a crucial checkpoint in the Berlin wall, repeatedly phoned his superiors with accurate reports of swelling crowds, they did not trust or believe him. They called him a delusional coward.
Insulted, furious and frightened, he decided to let the crowds out [at 11:30 p.m], starting a chain reaction that swept across all the checkpoints that night.
In short, the fall of the wall came about because of the complex interplay among Soviet reforms, East Berlin’s incompetence and, crucially, rising opposition from everyday Germans.
Earlier that night, Politburo member Guenther Schabowski said — mistakenly, as it turns out — at an evening news conference on Nov. 9, 1989, that East Germans would be allowed to cross into West Germany, effective immediately.
Jaeger refused to leave East Berlin because he said he was "on duty". Stasi officers didn’t get permission to cross into the West until just before Christmas. Red tape involving his travel documents delayed the trip for another month.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Nov 10, 2015 @ 16:27:40
Reblogged this on Utopia – you are standing in it!.
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