Günter Schabowski, Whose Gaffe Helped Burst the Berlin Wall, Dies at 86

By MELISSA EDDY

BERLIN — Günter Schabowski, whose bumbling answer to a reporter’s question on the night of Nov. 9, 1989, inadvertently led throngs of East Germans to force their way across the Berlin Wall, effectively opening the Cold War’s most notorious closed border, died here on Sunday. He was 86.

His wife confirmed the death to the German news agency DPA. She did not provide the cause, but he had battled diabetes for years and had suffered several strokes.

As the leader of the East Berlin Communist Party at a time when tens of thousands of people had been agitating for reforms and others were already leaving for the West, Mr. Schabowski was chosen to announce reforms to travel restrictions that would allow East Germans to leave the country.

When asked during a news conference, broadcast live on international television and carried on radio stations on both sides of the border, when the changes were to take effect, he paused, studying the piece of paper before him with a furrowed brow. Then he stumbled through a partially intelligible answer, telling reporters, “It takes effect, as far as I know ... it is now ... immediately.”

The paper he was reading from had indicated that East Germans would be required to obtain visas, presumably the next morning. But many took his response literally, and journalists from the West sent out reports that, effectively, the Berlin Wall had fallen.

Within hours, thousands of East Germans were thronging the checkpoints to West Berlin, demanding to be allowed to cross. By midnight they had clambered atop the wall in the heart of the city, popping champagne corks and setting off fireworks in celebration.

“No, I didn’t expect what happened,” Mr. Schabowski told The New York Times in 1990, two months before East and West Germany were reunited.

Mr. Schabowski was one of the few former party members to later express guilt about their roles in a corrupt system.

“I can’t regret what has happened,” Mr. Schabowski said of that night in 1989. “We in the former political leadership have to be honest with ourselves. The system was not capable of surviving. I was one of those who tried to change it, but we did it too late, and under pressure from the people’s movement. There was no room left to maneuver.”

In the upheaval that followed, Mr. Schabowski resigned from his party position, along with the last Communist leader of East Germany, Egon Krenz.

In 1997, a Berlin court sentenced Mr. Schabowski to three and a half years in prison for complicity in the East German government’s policy of shooting people who tried to cross the border to the West. He quietly accepted his sentence, but only served part of it. He was pardoned in 2000.

Mr. Schabowski was born on Jan. 4, 1929, in the northeastern city of Anklam, to a plumber and a housekeeper. He started his career as an intern at East Germany’s trade union newspaper. He later joined the Communist Party’s newspaper, Neues Deutschland, which he took over as editor in chief in 1978.

A member of the Communist Party since 1952, Mr. Schabowski had risen to its upper ranks by 1980, and four years later was appointed to its highest echelon, the Politburo. He later wrote books about the East German power structures and the country’s final days.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Schabowski is survived by two sons, Jan and Alexander.

He lived the final years of his life in the former West Berlin.

口誤開放柏林圍牆 夏波夫斯基辭世

德國媒體報導，前東德共產黨政治局委員夏波夫斯基（Günter Schabowski）一日在安養院離世，享年86歲。夏波夫斯基1989年11月9日口誤宣布開放柏林圍牆，改寫德國甚至全球歷史。

夏波夫斯基的遺孀艾麗娜透過德通社宣布丈夫離世消息。

夏波夫斯基1989年11月9日晚間出席一場實況轉播的記者會時說：「我們今天決定，每位東德公民都能穿過檢查哨離境」。東德當時禁止大部分的國民離開國境。在場記者聞訊追問新法何時生效；夏波夫斯基結結巴巴的回答：「據我所知是即刻生效，不會延遲。」他快速翻閱眼前的講稿文件，卻找不到相關佐證資訊。

後來才發現，這項聲明應該在當年11月10日清晨4點宣布，正確內容是：「東德民眾可以透過適當機構申請出境簽證」。夏波夫斯基不僅說漏嘴，還記錯內容。

夏波夫斯基一時口誤在東德政壇投下震撼彈，東柏林民眾的反應也非常迅速，成千上萬市民聚集在兩德邊界，要求穿越柏林圍牆到西柏林。武裝衛兵和憤怒群眾僵持不下，最後邊界衛兵逕自決定放行。

柏林圍牆開放後，東德共產黨迅速垮台，民主選舉隨後舉行，東西德1990年10月統一。

兩德統一後，1997年夏波夫斯基被判定是下令射殺翻越圍牆東德人的官員之一，被判刑3年，坐牢1年後獲特赦。夏波夫斯基為「道德缺失」感到自責，並表示願意承擔責任。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/world/europe/gunter-schabowski-whose-gaffe-helped-burst-the-berlin-wall-dies-at-86.html

2015-11-02．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯陳韻涵