It was November 9th 1989 and Günter Schabowski, a high-ranking official in East Germany’s Unified Socialist Party (SED) and spokesperson for the DDR, held an international press conference at the crowded East Berlin Press Centre. The atmosphere was tense but no one could have imagined what was about to happen. The Minister spoke reassuring those present. The past weeks had been characterised by public demonstrations and protests. Tension was very high. At 6.53 P.M. Riccardo Ehrman, for years the Berlin correspondent for ANSA, asked an apparently simple question, but one filled with consequences. He asked Schabowski if it had been a mistake to draft a law allowing the citizens of East Germany to travel to the West for thirty days. The question was intentionally provocative.
Ehrman knew that this law was only a propaganda move to pacify the citizens of the East who longed for freedom. Looking clearly irritated Schabowski initially denied this. Then he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and read a statement that had the effect of a bombshell. From that moment onwards, all DDR citizens would be permitted to travel to the West without presenting a formal request to the police authorities. Perhaps Schabowski did not take into account the effect of his words, or maybe he forgot that this live press conference was being watched by millions of Germans. Hundreds and then thousands of people started to gather at the check points attempting to cross to the West. The police had not yet received specific orders and did not know how to react. But the Minister’s words had been clear. There was no longer any need for a permit to travel to the west. In the meantime Riccardo Ehrman ran to a border check point at the Friederichstrasse Station, he called ANSA and his title for the news flash he dictated was “The Berlin Wall has collapsed.” In Rome people thought he had lost his mind. Someone recognised Ehrman in the crowd that had gathered at the check point. He was the journalist who had asked Minister Schabowski the famous question live on TV. Ehrman was surrounded by the celebrating crowds and carried high and feted. Soon after, the wall was physically destroyed marking the beginning of a new era for the world.
Could you tell was the atmosphere was like at the time?
As everyone now knows there was a great deal of tension because in almost all the cities of the DDR (East Germany) there were daily demonstrations. These protests were not openly against the regime, because in that case they would have been forbidden. They were however requesting greater freedom. The atmosphere was extremely tense.
What about the press conference held by the Minister Schabowski?
At the beginning of this famous press conference, the Politbüro’s spokesman, Günter Schabowski, said very clearly from the very start that “We know about this tendency in the population, this need of the population, to travel or to leave the GDR. And (um) we have ideas about what we have to bring about.” Then he continued to speak for over half an hour before taking any questions.
There was already the famous draft law that would have effectively allowed the citizens of East Germany to travel abroad although it had not yet been approved…
The draft law that Schabowski later mentioned was not yet common knowledge. What was known was a law announced by Schabowski about ten days earlier, on the basis of which citizens of the DDR could travel if equipped with a passport and a visa. This was clearly not possible in a communist regime because obtaining a passport was already extremely difficult. Obtaining an exit visa was more difficult if not impossible. So this was all propaganda.
At a certain point during this press conference you posed a specific question to Minister Schabowski. What exactly did you ask him?
What I asked was “Mr. Schabowski, don’t you believe that it was a big mistake to introduce this travel law several days ago?” Sounding very annoyed he answered “No, I don’t believe so.” One must remember that in a totalitarian regime, accusing the spokesman of the Politbüro, hence the highest authority in power in the country, of having made a mistake was rather unbelievable. In fact, later on Schabowski told me that I had annoyed him intensely. However, after saying that no mistake he been made, he added “A decision was made today, as far as I know.” He took a piece of paper out of his pocket and read an announcement stating that citizens of the DDR were permitted to cross the border by simply showing an ID card and without presenting a formal request to police authorities. In my opinion this clearly meant that the Wall had fallen.
After this amazing statement you asked him two more questions point blank. What were they?
“Does this also apply for West Berlin?” And he immediately said “Via all border crossings.” Then I asked “When does it come into effect?”. And he answered “That comes into effect, according to my information, immediately, without delay.”
What happened in the hours that followed this statement was made live on TV?
The border police had not received any orders, so nothing had changed and the borders remained closed. After the press conference and after dictating the first flash news reports to Rome I ran to the border closest to the press centre at the Friederichstrasse railway station. There was already a queue of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people waiting to cross over to the West. The policemen kept saying “Stop. Stand in line if you want to. For the moment we have received no orders.” What happened was that someone in the crowd recognised me from the press conference and said “It is him. It is him!” Others joined in. They cheered me and carried me high above their heads and hugged me enthusiastically, It was an extraordinary experience.
East Germans had already understood the importance of Schabowski’s statement, while the press and the authorities were slow to react…
The surprising fact is that East Germans believed Schabowski’s words more than any of the journalists present did. The people of the DDR instantly understood the importance of those words, while colleagues who were present did not react. Unbelievably I was the only one who ran to call ANSA and dictated the news flash “The Berlin Wall has collapsed.” ANSA had an amazing 31 minutes advantage over the competition. I must also add that, as colleagues later told me, in ANSA there were some who immediately said “Riccardo has lost his mind.” Luckily for me and for Germany and perhaps even for the world, I had not gone mad.
How did your German colleagues react?
I think my German colleagues could not believe what Schabowski had said, this because there had been other similar announcements made previously that had turned out to be untrue. They did not consider it important, while to me it seemed clear from the very first moment. I never doubted the words. If I had any doubts at all I would never have reported this news on the phone.
Is it true as some say, and as you yourself appeared to indicate in an interview with the Corriere published in April 2009, that the famous question had in fact been “prompted?”
This is what happened. A German colleague working for an important German daily newspaper, Die Welt, wrote that everything I had done had happened quite by chance. The question was fortuitous and so was my report. Frankly this annoyed me so I made it known that it had not all happened by chance and that I had prepared for these events. I had been in East Berlin for eleven years and I had a series of well-established ‘high-ranking’ sources who provided me with information regarding ‘their take’ on what was happening. I can quote two of them. Klaus Gysi, former Minister for Culture and former Ambassador to Rome for the DDR, at the time also Secretary of State for matters concerning the Church. He was an extremely influential man, a dear friend, a person of immense culture who liked Italian cuisine and grappa. He visited me often and we spent many pleasant evenings together. He was one of my sources. Another source was a journalist called Günter Pöetzsche, director of the East German press agency ADN. Just before the press conference he called me and said “Ask a question about freedom to travel.” I did so, but not precisely in those terms, because my question addressed the mistake made in approving a law allowing citizens of the East to travel abroad and not on freedom to travel. As the English say it was a “tip”. Then I understood that Pöetzsche himself did not know, and could not have known what was going to happen and the importance of this statement. That same evening, as he told me at a later date, having filed a report saying that the travel ban had undergone a number of changes, he himself returned home and went to bed. And he slept well until the following morning without his colleagues calling him since they too had not understood that the Wall had fallen. Later, another German newspaper said that I had been used by the communist regime to pose that question. That was just another of those amazing lies one rejects instantly since it is not credible that a regime would need to use an intentional question to make such an important statement such as the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The behind the scenes story of that famous question was only told many years after those events took place. Were you just protecting your sources, or, as people said in the years that followed the fall of the Wall, did you fear possible retaliation?
No, not retaliation. There are strict but very simple rules in journalistic ethics. Sources are not identified unless they personally authorise one to do so. I did not speak until I learned that poor Mr. Pöetschke has been dead for a few years.
The words you wrote probably represent one of the greatest pages in Italian journalism although you are perhaps better known in Germany than in Italy…
I don’t know about that. There is however one last thing I would like to emphasise. Should I be remembered, I do not wish to be remembered as the journalist who asked the question, because in such a case, as in all life’s events, it is not the questions that matter but the answers. In this case the answer was phenomenal and changed the world. I would like people to acknowledge that I understood the answer. I understood instantly. Perhaps that is the only credit I believe I am owed.
Translated by Francesca Simmons