Berlin wall facts and information

1. The fall of the Berlin Wall happened by mistake.

At a press conference on the evening of November 9, , East German politburo member Günter Schabowski prematurely announced that restrictions on travel visas would be lifted.

Berlin wall facts and information

When asked when the new policy would begin, he said, “Immediately, without delay.” In actuality, the policy was to be announced the following day and would still have required East Germans to go through a lengthy visa application process.

Schabowski’s confused answers and erroneous media reports that border crossings had opened spurred thousands of East Berliners to the Berlin Wall. 

At the Bornholmer Street checkpoint, Harald Jäger, the chief officer on duty, faced a mob growing in size and frustration.

Receiving insults, rather than instructions, from his superiors and nervously expecting results of his cancer diagnostic tests the next day, the overwhelmed Jäger opened the border crossing on his own, and the other gates soon followed.