It is 9:20 p.m. November 9, 1989 when the gate opens at the border crossing Bornholmer Strasse.
To understand how the Berlin Wall was opened, it must return a few hours earlier. At a press conference broadcast live on radio and television, the government spokesman, Günter Schabowski announced that visas to travel or emigrate abroad will be issued "without preconditions" to every citizen of the GDR would request.
In Berlin, the news spread like wildfire. Every night, hundreds of thousands of Berliners rushed to the crossing points. Overwhelmed, the border police eventually let them pass.
Former opponent of the communist regime in East Germany, Ralf Hirsch back on this historic night, whose appearance had taken everyone by surprise the world.
"There were a lot of fears. And the first was the risk of possible fire from border guards. We knew they had received the order to shoot, people had already been killed by trying to cross the wall. And the first was the risk of possible fire from border guards. This peaceful revolution, the person opening the wall could not imagine like this, "he says.
Amazing scenes unimaginable, will take place before the cameras that capture the history. A prerequisite for future generations evidence when we know that many of those who witnessed the fall of the wall, who saw open their own eyes had trouble believing it. Impossible to achieve now.
"I was working at home and I did not know what was happening. When I turned on the TV and I saw the fence the border crossing open, I thought it was a fiction. I could not believe it. I asked, "but how did they do to make this film?" And I thought that the film in question was exciting. I zapped and it was the same on all channels. It made no sense. It was only the next day that I realized what had happened. It was really cool, "said Rainer Mellink.
These scenes of jubilation finally born a spluttering, that of Günter Schabowski at the famous press conference on 9 November. When an Italian journalist asked him "when" travel authorizations come into force, Günter Schabowski, taken aback, then improvise a "AFAIK ... Immediately, immediately."
"At the time, we had a Traban. We jumped in with the kids to see what was happening. It was ... Today, I still have tears in my eyes when I think about all this, "said excited, Isolde Nedbal a Berliner.
And the story does not end to accelerate. The Wall pave the way for reconciliation. The reunification of Germany will be less effective than a month later, October 3, 1990.
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