6 ms·

The story is a bit more complex than that. Günter Schabowski, who announced the "new travel law" as they called it, only got a note right before a press confere

• layer8 3y ago
  Yep, history might have turned out quite differently if Schabowski had refrained from answering with what was just his supposition.
  • varjag 3y ago
    Not too differently. East Germany was a goner at that point in history.
    • lisasays 3y ago
      Its days were numbered -- but the system could have easily come crashing down very violently, or remained intact but with a massive crackdown (in fact the party leadership was making explicit plans or the latter of these -- "Day X", as they referred that eventuality -- while a "Chinese Solution" was a tacitly acknowledged outcome as well). And then plodded along for another 10 years or so. That's why the events as they unfolded were surprising.
      • varjag 3y ago
        East Germany was not sustainable without Soviet Union. That strip of land in the middle of Europe with barely 16 million people isn't quite China. But yes it certainly was surprising, without the benefit of hindsight now.
        • mcv 3y ago
          It doesn't have to be China. There are far smaller countries in Europe that are perfectly viable, and even countries that aren't viable, like North Korea, can still continue to exist despite that. In this case, it's good that it happened so fast. It could have gone a lot worse.
          • varjag 3y ago
            Hardly any state in Europe can afford full self-sufficiency in isolation without enormous suffering. North Korea (with more population than DDR) survived Soviet collapse but just barely, losing hundreds of thousands in a protracted famine, until landing on client relationship with China. Not a realistic scenario for East Germany.
      • MichaelZuo 3y ago
        In hindsight, considering the modern rise of the AfD in German politics, and various other oddities now and that will arise in the future, perhaps a gradual wind down transition would have been better. The lack of a Deng Xiaoping equivalent figure in Germany meant that the old hardline party core, and the favourable to Russia fraction of the population, were never mollified. It was a sharp and abrupt transition for them.
        • pjc50 3y ago
          AfD is not a specifically East German or DDR-nostalgic faction though, but a traditional European fascist party, such as exists elsewhere?
          • MichaelZuo 3y ago
            There's several dozen, recent, news stories that pop up on Google when searching 'AfD East Germany'. Such as: https://unherd.com/thepost/afd-support-surges-in-east-germany/ https://unherd.com/thepost/afd-support-surges-in-east-german... https://www.politico.eu/article/german-election-far-right-afd-loses-nationally-but-wins-in-east/ https://www.politico.eu/article/german-election-far-right-af... https://www.dw.com/en/why-young-eastern-german-voters-support-the-far-right-afd/a-57847028 https://www.dw.com/en/why-young-eastern-german-voters-suppor... etc... If your genuinely unaware of this phenomena, then I suggest to do some reading.
            • lisasays 3y ago
              AfD support is definitely stronger in the East, but it is not exclusively an Eastern party, and (unfortunately) has very significant representation in the West as well -- and in fact more supporters in the West than in the East (though percentage-wise the support in the East is much stronger). It's also not a "nostalgia", or regional grievance party in any meaningful sense. In other words, observations in the parent message that you are vociferously attacking ... are basically valid. If you're genuinely unaware of these facts, I would suggest you attempt to inform yourself at a level beyond that of a few casual keyword searches.