Word: schabowski
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Dates: during 1989-1989
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...East Germany threw open its borders, Egon Krenz, 52, President and party leader, promised "free, general, democratic and secret elections," though there was no official word as to when. Could the Socialist Unity Party, as the Communists call themselves in East Germany, lose in such balloting? "Theoretically," replied Gunter Schabowski, the East Berlin party boss and a Politburo member...
When the great breach finally came, it started undramatically. At a press conference last Thursday, Schabowski announced almost offhandedly that starting at midnight, East Germans would be free to leave at any point along the country's borders, including the crossing points through the Wall in Berlin, without special permission, for a few hours, a day or forever. Word spread rapidly through both parts of the divided city, to the 2 million people in the West and the 1.3 million in the East. At Checkpoint Charlie, in West Berlin's American sector, a crowd gathered well before midnight. Many...
...Schabowski, the East Berlin party chief and aleading reform advocate, gave no timetable ordetails, and said the party would not embark onsuch a course "with the suicidal notion that itcould be swept from the political stage...