The moment that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall

Our Breakthrough Media Moments column airs every Wednesday on George Hook’s High Noon. We look at the moments that unfolded in front of our eyes and changed the world.

This breakthrough media moment looks at how the improvised answer of an uninformed PR person led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

On the evening of November 9th, 1989, Gunter Schabowski returned to work after a short break. He felt relaxed and laid back – he usually did. But his post-holiday demeanour wouldn’t last long.

On the way to his daily briefing of the international press in East Berlin, Schabowski stopped by the office to check in with his boss Egon Krenz – head of the communist German Democratic Republic.

Krenz had recently come to power in East Germany and took Schabowski along with him by making him the spokesman for the government. He handed Schabowski a two-page memo as they chatted. You can see Krenz pictured below.

Schabowski had studied journalism at the Karl Marx University in Leipzeig. After graduation, he became the editor of trade union magazine, Tribune. Later in life, he became a member of the The Socialist Unity Party and the chief editor of the party’s official newspaper – Neues Deutschland. With all this experience, he was the perfect candidate to be the government party’s spokesperson.

Faced with mass protests, the new regime sought to be the face of change. This was the aim of Schabowski’s daily press conferences.

Schabowski had plenty of media experience, but he was also accustomed to a climate where reporters were told what to write after events had happened. Dealing with the international press was very different.

You can read more about Gunter Schabowski in this detailed article from the New York Times.

The PR slip that led to the fall of the wall

Schabowski quickly scanned the memo as he was chauffeur driven to East Berlin’s International Press Centre. It was a brief on new legislation that Krenz had forced through a reluctant parliament earlier that day.

He didn’t take much notice and forgot about it altogether as he conducted a mind-numbingly boring press meeting during which he droned through lists of the governments member who had spoken in parliament that day.

But just five minutes before the press conference was due to end, a journalist’s query about travel regulations jogged Schabowski’s memory and he took out the memo. He read it aloud. You can watch more of the press conference with subtitles here.

It stated that every citizen was now entitled to leave East Germany, even permanently, and to travel between East and West Berlin – which up until this had been restricted by the Berlin Wall.

For East Berliners, the wall was a symbol of repression and the border guards had a reputation for viciously stopping those who tried to cross it. Many people had died trying to get past the wall into West Berlin, which was a gateway to the western world.

Schabowski’s statement shocked the reporters in the room; they were suddenly awake and asking questions. Schabowski was taken aback by the reaction. He presumed every reporter in the room had a copy of the memo too, but he was wrong.

Responding to reporters’ questions, Schabowski began to get flustered. One asked when these new rules would come into effect; he shuffled his papers and looked over his glasses searching through the memo for answers.

“Immediately, right away,” he said.

At those words, wire reporters ran out of the room to share the news. There was no going back now.

You can listen to Tom Brokaw’s recollection of the press conference – he was a news anchor with NBC at the time.

You can hear Brokaw talk more about his experiences of reporting from Berlin here. He discusses how NBC was lucky enough to have a live satellite feed as the wall came down back in 1989.

The reality versus the statement

In reality, the government hadn’t introduced free travel at all. Actually, the intention was far from that.

Many requirements had to be met to travel between West and East Berlin. The new laws were just an attempt to show the new regime in a positive light.

Krenz had discussed the law changes with some Politburo members during a smoke break earlier that day. It was mentioned again at government meetings, but as Schabowski was on holidays, he hadn’t been there to hear what was said. All he had to go by was a misleading memo.

As word spread of the immediate opening of the border, Berliners began to approach the wall. The gates were still sealed.

During our research for this column, we discovered into some interviews with people who lived in Berlin when the wall. This piece from The Guardian spoke to people from both sides of the wall:

We delved into some interviews with border guards, tunnelers and some of those who wanted to escape.

Border guards had no new instructions and were confused by the news coming from the government’s spokesperson. In a panic, they tried to get in touch with members of the government to verify the news, but they were completely incommunicado.

As the night went on, crowds swelled. People began to climb the wall.

Border guards had recently been ordered by the new regime not to shoot those attempting to cross the wall – this was part of the governments attempt at a new and improved image for the world’s media. Instead the guards used water cannons, but this did little to deter the masses gathered at each of the border crossings.

Eventually at 11.30pm, police officer Harald Jager flung open the gates at the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing. As news hit the airwaves, other guards along the border followed his lead.

Once the border opened, people with chisels and sledgehammers filled the air with grey powder. The wall began to crumble and chaos turned to celebration.

During our digging for the column, we found some news reports on the fall of the wall. You can listen to some of RTE’s coverage here or watch the BBC’s below.

The consequences of the wall’s fall were huge and changed the world forever. And it all started with a mislead spokesman. That’s why you should always have your PR person in the room when making decisions.

If you would like to find out more about storytelling and how it can boost your brand, get in touch.