A simple question and a silly mistake that changed the world forever

The Berlin Wall came to symbolise the ‘Iron Curtain’ – an ideological split between the East and the West.

But a simple question and slip up by East German Communist Party official Günter Schabowski during an otherwise boring press conference changed the course of Europe’s future.

He was outlining new measures that meant citizens could apply for travel permits without any conditions. A journalist asked: ‘When does this go into effect?’

Schabowski mistakenly answered: ‘Immediately – without delay.’ It later emerged that this information was embargoed until 4am the following day.

And with those three words, after 28 years of pain the Berlin Wall became redundant. Within hours, huge crowds gathered at the border and eventually the guards let them through.

What happened afterwards was the merger of East and West, separated for so long by a physical wall.

But what mistakes and human stories led to the Berlin Wall eventually falling much earlier than previously planned?

Was the fall of the Berlin Wall a mistake?

The short answer to this question is yes and Günter Schabowski’s slip up certainly didn’t help.

This encouraged massive crowds of people to gather at the wall because of the expectation that travel restrictions had suddenly lifted.

Border guards weren’t given much information from their superiors and so, just like that, the barriers were opened.

This created a domino effect, where thousands of people flooded through the Bösebrücke crossing.

Initially the guards turned people back, but with growing crowds and no backing offered by the Soviets, the crossings were opened one by one.

What was life like for people at the time the Berlin Wall was built?

Built in 1961, there was already tension between the East and West thanks to a diplomatic stand-off that almost caused World War III.

Senior US diplomat General Lucius D. Clay was sent to Berlin to deal with the Soviet Union following the erection of the wall in West Berlin.

He was stopped by East German border guards while on his way to an opera house in East Germany. As his car had diplomatic plates, he was not meant to be stopped.

The East Germans said they needed to see his passport but he insisted only the Soviets had to check it and so he was forced to turn back.

He said that the next diplomat sent to Berlin had to be escorted by armed US military police in jeeps.

As a result, ten American M48 tanks headed for Checkpoint Charlie and sent black smoke into the air as they raced along.

This set alarm bells off for the Soviets who matched their fire power, sending 10 T55 tanks down. The following stand-off lasted 16 hours.

It could have led to war early on and General Clay was reminded that Berlin was not ‘so vital’ an interest to be worth risking an all-out war with Moscow.

Soon after tanks reversed back thanks to John F. Kennedy himself, who told Khrushchev to remove his tanks.

Controls tightened and so life was hard for people and in 1962, a group of German students dug a 135-metre tunnel called Tunnel 29 – named after the number of people it helped escape from the east to the west.

It was dug between a factory in West Germany and another friend’s flat in East Germany.

Diggers were used to build the tunnels but the students eventually ran out of money.

The tunnel collapsed and after 11 days it was discovered by the secret police and closed up.

What was the significance of the fall of the Berlin Wall?

The story is an early demonstration of the Berlin Wall’s physical importance because it was the only city divided by the Cold War between the Soviet Union and its allies in the Eastern Bloc and the West.

As part of this, differences between the two sides slowly emerged such as wealth disparity and freedom of expression.

Psychologically it was also important because it came to symbolises the differences between the two ideologies.

But when the wall finally fell, Professor Jan Palmowski, from the University of Warwick, told Metro how this was the beginning of the end of the division.

‘After being a divided country for forty years, the Wall marked the beginning of the end of that division,’ he said.

‘Once the wall was down, unification became possible and imaginable.

‘Since 1945, the divided city of Berlin had been a symbol of the Cold War, a symbol cast in concrete by the Wall built in 1961.

‘The fall of the Wall demonstrated that the Soviet Union was no longer willing to defend its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. The Wall thus also marked the end of the Cold War.’

Could a wall be built somewhere again and what would it be like?

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, other walls have been built across Europe and the world too.

Viktor Orbán’s Hungarian government built a wall in 2015 on its border with Serbia and Croatia in response to migration from the south.

Construction started in 2018 of Donald Trump’s wall on the Mexico-US border which faced backlash and was halted under the Biden administration.

But is there any likelihood a wall could be built somewhere else in the world as well? Like in the UK or London?

Professor Palmowski believes not and confirmed walls only really divide nations.

He said: ‘Don’t forget that such a wall was built to differentiate two very different political, ideological systems – as is the case with the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.’

While the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is a heavily militarised buffer zone, it has not yet been formed into a physical wall.

Therefore if anywhere was to get a wall in the near future it could potentially be these two nations.

What impact did it have on Europe?

If you ever wanted to visualise the separation between capitalist, democratic west, compared to the communist and command-and-control system of the east – this was the Berlin Wall.

Berlin is a place where you could physically walk from one world and into another.

These two worlds then became one and for one side, it reaped these benefits more so than the other.

‘It accelerated the decline – and ultimately the end – of the Soviet Union two years later,’ Professor Palmowski said.

‘This is because once the Soviet Union could no longer control other eastern European states and they launched their quest for independence.

‘It also realigned European politics, as the unification of Germany led to a closer European Union.

‘It led – ultimately – to the widening of the European Union, as newly independent eastern European states made every effort to be part of the EU.’

Did the wall’s fall have a positive or negative impact?

While the fall of the wall helped eastern European countries fall more in line with the western sphere of influence, the impact was not all positive.

Professor Palmowski said: ‘Many communities lost major employers, and regions were affected by large-scale emigration, especially of young and educated people across eastern Europe.

‘In the speed of the transitions, many mistakes were made, many concerns overheard, many promises exaggerated.

‘Looking back, we need to be much more mindful of these costs which are still reflected in protest votes politically but we also need to acknowledge just how much progress East Germany, Poland, or the Baltic States have made, and not just economically.’

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