No. 4The Berlin Wall4 of 5 issues

WaybackWire

The news as it was reported

The Berlin WallFriday, November 10, 1989Issue the Fourth

Berliners pour through the Wall

eight new crossings promised

East Berliners crossed into the West by the thousand through the night and all day Friday, as border guards began chipping at the Wall and the Interior Ministry promised eight new crossings.

Crowds of visitors at the Friedrichstrasse crossing, Checkpoint Charlie, overnight into Friday after the new travel rules were announced. East German border troops and customs officers check travellers through.
Crowds of visitors at the Friedrichstrasse crossing, Checkpoint Charlie, overnight into Friday after the new travel rules were announced. East German border troops and customs officers check travellers through.Photograph by Klaus Oberst, Nov. 10, 1989 · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

BERLIN, Friday.—Thousands of East Germans walked through Berlin’s border checkpoints today, testing the new travel rules ordered Thursday, after crowds crossed and celebrated through the night.

Late tonight East German border guards began chipping away at part of the Wall at Potsdamer Platz, West German police said. The Interior Ministry said eight new crossing points would be carved out before Nov. 14.

UPI said the eight existing crossing points were jammed. At Checkpoint Charlie cars were backed up for blocks, and the Glienicke Bridge, known as Freedom Bridge, opened to regular traffic for the first time in decades.

Open the gate! Open the gate!East Berliners at the Wall

Thousands of East and West Berliners gathered at the Brandenburg Gate, where East Berliners chanted through the night, “Open the gate! Open the gate!”

At the Bornholmer Strasse crossing a line of cars more than half a mile long piled up, and border police stopped checking people. “We’re off to the Kudamm,” said pedestrians crossing there, heading for West Berlin’s main boulevard.

At Checkpoint Charlie, West Berliners cheered the first East Germans across, danced on the Wall and chipped off souvenirs. The Chicago Tribune reported the same scenes at all 12 crossing points in the city.

“The Berlin Wall no longer divides Berliners,” said Walter Momper, the governing mayor of West Berlin.

West German officials estimate the opening could bring up to 1.2 million East Germans west, the Tribune reported.

Politburo member Guenter Schabowski, who announced the opening on Thursday night, called the measure temporary until parliament passes a new law, and said the Wall would remain until other, largely unspecified, steps are taken.

Authorities. United Press International · Chicago Tribune · The Guardian; all Nov. 10, 1989.

East Berliners cross to see the West for themselves

East Berliners Marion, 23, a factory worker, and Peter Rose, 27, a mechanic, take their children to visit relatives in West Berlin for the day.
East Berliners Marion, 23, a factory worker, and Peter Rose, 27, a mechanic, take their children to visit relatives in West Berlin for the day.Photograph by Bernd Settnik, Nov. 10, 1989 · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

BERLIN, Friday.—“Can you believe this is happening?” asked Angela Ebertus, an East Berlin clerk, at Checkpoint Charlie.

One excited man heading for the Bornholmer Strasse crossing said, “I’m just going over to have a look.” Another man there said, “My wife is at home crying her eyes out because she has to look after the kids and can’t come.”

Near the Brandenburg Gate, a woman in her early 40s remembered 1961. “I was a little girl when the Berlin Wall was built. It was terrible,” she said. “From now on, I will be able to visit my friends and relatives without the emotional strain and bureaucratic obstacles.”

Can you believe this is happening?Angela Ebertus

A 19-year-old woman’s close friend left for the West only three weeks ago. “I can’t believe it, it is wonderful, now I can go and visit her,” she said.

Authorities. Chicago Tribune · The Guardian; all Nov. 10, 1989.

In Brief

Party insiders say Wall could become a relic

EAST BERLIN, Friday.—Fifteen East Berlin Communist intellectuals and officials have told the party’s Central Committee that the Wall may not last. In a letter printed in the Berliner Zeitung, they wrote: “It is also imaginable, even in the foreseeable future, that the wall will become a relic of the past.” In Washington, Secretary of State James A. Baker III called East Germany’s announcement a “very positive development.”

Daily Tar Heel (Associated Press report), Nov. 10, 1989.

Poland backs German self-determination but wants calm

WARSAW, Friday.—Poland accepts the Germans’ right to decide their own future but does not want East Germany destabilised, Foreign Minister Krzysztof Skubiszewski said. “Poland recognizes the right of Germany to self-determination,” he said. Polish concern about the western border with East Germany is growing.

United Press International · Chicago Tribune; all Nov. 10, 1989.

In January, Honecker gave the Wall 100 years

LONDON, Friday.—The Berlin Wall went up overnight on Sunday, Aug. 13, 1961. As recently as January, Erich Honecker, then East German leader, said it would “still stand in 50 or 100 years.” Visiting Bonn this summer, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged that the Wall need not be “eternal.”

The Guardian, Nov. 10, 1989.

Comment: Moscow probably approved, argues Cambridge fellow

CAMBRIDGE, England, Friday.—Commentary. Writing in The Guardian, Orlando Figes, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, argues that Moscow probably approved East Berlin’s move. “It is hard to believe that the Krenz government would have begun to dismantle the Berlin Wall without formal approval from Moscow,” he writes. His advice: “Until called upon to help out, the West should stand well back.”

The Guardian, Nov. 10, 1989.

Young border guards stunned at Checkpoint Charlie

EAST BERLIN, Friday.—East German border police at Checkpoint Charlie were stunned last night to learn that citizens could now travel freely to the West.

“People are going to read this and say ‘there must be some mistake’,” said one young guard.

Another guard spoke an hour after the decision was announced. “It’s not good,” he said. “We will lose our jobs.”

People are going to read this and say 'there must be some mistake'a young East German border guard

The Wall the guards patrol cuts 28 miles through the city and runs 75 miles around West Berlin, The Washington Post reported.

Near the Brandenburg Gate, hundreds of youths clambered up to dance on top of the Wall. Border guards at times sprayed the crowd with water cannon, but otherwise let it revel on unchecked.

Authorities. The Washington Post · The Guardian; all Nov. 10, 1989.

Thatcher hails ‘a great day for freedom’ but urges caution

LONDON, Friday.—Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, speaking outside 10 Downing Street, today called the scenes in Berlin “a great day for freedom,” but warned that talk of German reunification was moving too quickly.

Reunification should be taken step by step, she said, and the task now was to build a genuine democracy in East Germany. “I think you are going much too fast, much too fast!” she told reporters.

In Washington, the Bush administration has welcomed the opening while avoiding any note of triumph. “It’s a dramatic happening for East Germany and, of course, for freedom,” President Bush told reporters in the Oval Office.

I think you are going much too fast, much too fast!Margaret Thatcher

In Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Gerasimov said: “These changes are for the better, that is for sure.” The Kremlin has signalled that it could accept a non-Communist government in East Germany if the country stays in the Warsaw Pact, The Washington Post reported.

Authorities. Chicago Tribune · The Washington Post · The Guardian · Margaret Thatcher Foundation, as reproduced by World History Commons (Making the History of 1989, item 70); all Nov. 10, 1989.

Kohl breaks off Poland visit to speak to Berliners

WEST BERLIN, Friday.—Chancellor Helmut Kohl interrupted his visit to Poland today and flew home for a special government meeting in Bonn and a rally in West Berlin.

“I have to interrupt my visit,” Kohl said. At a hurriedly assembled midnight news conference in Warsaw, he had called developments in East Germany unforeseeable. “How long I can continue my visit as scheduled I must leave completely open,” he said then.

His trip is the first by a West German chancellor to Poland in 12 years. Kohl cancelled a meeting with President Wojciech Jaruzelski but plans to return Saturday night and resume talks Sunday.

I have to interrupt my visitHelmut Kohl

In West Berlin, Kohl, Mayor Walter Momper and former Chancellor Willy Brandt spoke at a rally in front of Schoeneberg Town Hall. Press reports put the crowd at about 20,000.

“We Germans are now the happiest people in the world,” Momper said, in an English translation of the speeches as broadcast by West German television’s Tagesschau. Brandt said: “It is certain that nothing in the other part of Germany will ever be the same again.”

Kohl told the crowd: “Clear the path so that the will of the people can be formed by the people and for the people.”

Authorities. United Press International · Chicago Tribune · The Washington Post · Tagesschau (ARD), via German History in Documents and Images (GHDI); all Nov. 10, 1989.

East Berlin party purges hard-liners as reform pressure grows

EAST BERLIN, Friday.—East Germany’s Communist Party purged two hard-line Central Committee members and four Politburo members, United Press International reported.

Hans Modrow, the reform-minded party chief of Dresden, has been nominated for prime minister, and parliament is to meet on Monday. Modrow told the Central Committee that the party’s existence was at stake. “Despite the seriousness of the situation, socialism still has a chance in the GDR,” he said.

Western diplomats in East Berlin say the party is being forced into fundamental reforms, and predict it will have to concede free elections in the Western sense. One diplomat said “this is the end of the power monopoly the Communist Party has had.”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, socialism still has a chance in the GDRHans Modrow

“What’s happening here is as though someone has a video machine on fast-forward and can’t turn it off,” a Western diplomat said.

The opposition group New Forum said it had been granted initial recognition, and it claimed 200,000 supporters.

Authorities. United Press International · Chicago Tribune · The Guardian; all Nov. 10, 1989.

Elsewhere Today

News of the wider world, by wire and correspondent

  • SOFIA.—Todor Zhivkov resigned after 35 years as head of Bulgaria’s Communist Party and government and was replaced by Foreign Minister Peter Mladenov.

    United Press International, Nov. 10, 1989.

  • AMMAN, Jordan.—Islamic candidates won at least 32 of 80 seats in Jordan’s first election in 22 years; none of the 12 women standing won a seat.

    Chicago Tribune, Nov. 10, 1989.

  • WASHINGTON.—The Pentagon says Soviet ships may have fired lasers at four US military aircraft in the Pacific; asked why, chief spokesman Pete Williams said: “Ask them.”

    Chicago Tribune, Nov. 10, 1989.

  • WASHINGTON.—President Bush met Philippine President Corazon Aquino at the White House ahead of talks next month on US bases in the Philippines.

    Chicago Tribune, Nov. 10, 1989.

  • NEW YORK.—NBC outbid CBS for National Basketball Association television rights, agreeing to pay $600 million over four years.

    Chicago Tribune, Nov. 10, 1989.

Everything in this issue was published on or before November 10, 1989.

Wayback Wire · No. 4 · Friday, November 10, 1989