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20 years ago, Lieutenant Colonel Harald Jäger was at his post with no idea of what was about to happen.
This was the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing point in Berlin.
A press conference was taken place at the time. It was 9 November 1989.
Günther Schabowski, member of the Politbüro, made a mistake.
He had been handed a piece of paper on which was written something about visas.
Regulations for outbound traffic.
But there were a couple of facts he had no idea about.
He hadn’t been told.
Responding to a question, he read from the paper,
but didn’t know two things.
First, that it was necessary to apply for a visa.
Second, that it was supposed to be put into effect the following day.
So there was of course a question from the floor:
“Herr Schabowski, when does this take effect?”
“As far as I know...
...immediately, without delay.”
West German television reported it something like this:
“Ladies and gentlemen, the Berlin Wall is open.”
Most East Germans watched West German television.
It was illegal, but they did it anyway,
and flocked to the border crossing points,
expecting simply to be allowed to travel to West Berlin.
It was a dangerous situation.
The police knew nothing about this.
The officials at the border crossings knew nothing about this.
The Soviet Army knew nothing about this.
In that moment, anything was possible.
At the Bornholmer Strasse crossing point, people arrived, becoming more and more frustrated at being denied exit.
So Lieutenant Colonel Jäger had a tough decision to make.
Do nothing and risk a bloodbath?
Or open the border and...
risk World War Three?
He opened the border.
And so history was made.
That was 20 years ago, the anniversary is approaching: we should be celebrating.
It was a big event!
But there’s one small problem.
9 November is not just the fall of the Berlin Wall;
9 November is also “Reichskristallnacht”.
9 November 1938.
On that night, countless synagogues were set on fire and around 400 Jews murdered.
This event is seen as the beginning of a systematic persecution of Jews in Germany:
a day that Germans don’t want to forget.
As such, Germans feel uneasy at the thought of celebrating on this day.
Does this mean that Germans have still not come to terms with their own past?
Or is it right that such a terrible event should never be forgotten,
because it must never be allowed to happen again?
As part of the celebrations, U2 are playing at the Brandenburg Gate.
Is this appropriate? Or should we not be doing that?
After all, the public holiday, the “Day of German Unity”,
was set not on 9 November, but on 3 October,
the day of political reunification.
For this very reason.
What do you think? Comments, as always, below.