Perhaps the only man who changed the geo-political world by bumbling at a press conference has died.
Günther Schabowski, dead at 86.
Mary Elise Sarotte's masterful account of the events leading to the collapse of the DDR, appropriately titled The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall, gives a great account of what happened in that press conference.
It wasn't all Schabowski's fault, because he hadn't been properly briefed. The American broadcaster Tom Brokaw scored the scoop of as lifetime when he got Schabowski to "confirm" that the opening of the borders would proceed immediately.
All kinds of things could have gone wrong still; disaster was just one itchy trigger-finger away.
The thread title is really a pun. Schabowski wasn't an altogether lovely fellow. He was culpable in the crimes of a totalitarian regime. But to his credit, he issued repentance for his role in them.
Günther Schabowski, dead at 86.
Mary Elise Sarotte's masterful account of the events leading to the collapse of the DDR, appropriately titled The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall, gives a great account of what happened in that press conference.
It wasn't all Schabowski's fault, because he hadn't been properly briefed. The American broadcaster Tom Brokaw scored the scoop of as lifetime when he got Schabowski to "confirm" that the opening of the borders would proceed immediately.
All kinds of things could have gone wrong still; disaster was just one itchy trigger-finger away.
The thread title is really a pun. Schabowski wasn't an altogether lovely fellow. He was culpable in the crimes of a totalitarian regime. But to his credit, he issued repentance for his role in them.
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