Günter Schabowski
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (May 2019) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
Günter Schabowski | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General Secretary | |||||||||||||
Preceded by | Joachim Herrmann | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Position abolished | ||||||||||||
First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party in Berlin | |||||||||||||
In office 22 November 1985 – 10 November 1989 | |||||||||||||
Second Secretary |
| ||||||||||||
Preceded by | Konrad Naumann | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Heinz Albrecht | ||||||||||||
Editor-in-chief of Neues Deutschland | |||||||||||||
In office 15 March 1978 – 26 November 1985 | |||||||||||||
Deputy |
| ||||||||||||
Preceded by | Joachim Herrmann | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Herbert Naumann | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||||||
Born | University of Leipzig | 4 January 1929||||||||||||
Occupation |
| ||||||||||||
Awards | |||||||||||||
Signature | |||||||||||||
Central institution membership
Other offices held
| |||||||||||||
Günter Schabowski (
Early career
Schabowski was born in
SED career
From 1967 to 1968, he attended the party academy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Afterwards, he began a career in the newspaper Neues Deutschland ("New Germany"), which as the official organ of the SED was considered to be the leading newspaper in the GDR.[3] He first was a deputy editor-in-chief before becoming First Deputy in 1974. In 1978, he rose to the position of editor-in-chief when Joachim Herrmann became a full member of the Politburo and Central Committee Secretary for Agitation, replacing the deceased Werner Lamberz.
In 1981, he became a member of the Volkskammer,[2][4] the SED Central Committee and candidate member of its Politburo.
In November 1985, he rose to become the
Before the Peaceful Revolution, Schabowski was not known as a reformer. In 2009, writer Christa Wolf called Schabowski "one of the worst" East German politicians before the Wende, saying: "I remember a few appearances of him in front of the writer's guild. You were scared of him."[5]
Opening of Berlin Wall
In October 1989, Schabowski, along with several other members of the Politbüro, turned on the longtime SED leader
On 9 November 1989, shortly before that day's press conference, Krenz handed Schabowski a text[9] containing new, temporary travel regulations.[8] The text stipulated that East German citizens could apply for permission to travel abroad without having to meet the previous requirements for those trips, and it allowed for permanent emigration across all border crossings, including those between East and West Berlin. The text was supposed to be embargoed until the next morning.[10]
Schabowski had not been on hand when Krenz read the text earlier in the day to several Politbüro members during a cigarette break at that day's Central Committee plenum or when it was discussed before the full committee. However, he felt comfortable discussing it at the press conference; he said later that all one needed to do to conduct a press conference was to be able to speak German and read a text without mistakes.
Later, when asked whether the new regulations also applied to travel between East and West Berlin, Schabowski looked at the text again and discovered that they did. When Daniel Johnson of The Daily Telegraph asked what that meant for the Berlin Wall, Schabowski sat frozen before giving a rambling statement about the wall being tied to the larger disarmament question.[16]
After the press conference, Schabowski sat down for a live interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw. When Brokaw asked him if it was indeed true that East Germans could now travel without having to go through a third country, Schabowski replied in broken English that East Germans were "not further forced to leave GDR by transit through another country," and could now "go through the border." When Brokaw asked if this meant "freedom of travel," Schabowski replied, "Yes of course," and added that it was not "a question of tourism" but "a permission of leaving GDR."[17]
The West German public national television channels showed parts of Schabowski's press conference in their main evening news reports at 7:17 PM on
As the night progressed, thousands of East Berliners began proceeding to the
The fall of the Berlin Wall was the key event leading to the end of the East German regime, a state that had been crumbling for many weeks as citizens had been fleeing through intermediate countries surrounding East Germany. Indeed, Victor Sebestyen later wrote that when the gates were opened, for all intents and purposes, East Germany "ceased to exist". He also wrote that many of Schabowski's colleagues suspected he was either an American or West German agent and could not believe that he had made "a simple cock-up".[6] In 2014, his wife claimed that Schabowski had been well aware of the possible consequences of what he said in the press conference.[11]
In the following purges of the "party's old guard", Schabowski was quickly expelled from the Party of Democratic Socialism, the successor to the SED, in an attempt to improve the party's image. Just months earlier, he had been awarded the country's prestigious Order of Karl Marx.[2]
Political life after reunification
After
His support for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) prompted some of his former comrades to call him a wryneck (German: Wendehals), a bird that can turn its head almost 180 degrees and a popular term used to mock communists who have turned capitalist.[20]
Together with other leading figures of the GDR regime, he was charged with the murders of East Germans attempting to flee the GDR. In January 1995, Berlin prosecutors pressed charges against him.[2] In August 1997, Schabowski was convicted along with Egon Krenz and Günther Kleiber. Because he accepted his moral guilt and denounced the GDR, he was sentenced to only three years in prison. In December 1999, he began serving his sentence in Hakenfelde Prison in Spandau. However, in September 2000, he was pardoned by Governing Mayor Eberhard Diepgen and released in December 2000 after he had served only a year.[21] He was critical of the PDS/Left Party, the successor to the Socialist Unity Party. In 2001, he collaborated with Bärbel Bohley as advisor to Frank Steffel (CDU).[22]
Death
According to his wife, Schabowski lived in a Berlin nursing home during the last years of his life, after a number of heart attacks and strokes.[11] He died in Berlin, after a long illness, on the morning of 1 November 2015, aged 86.[23]
References
- ^ Schmidt, Arthur. "Volkskammer der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik 1986-1990, Seite 27" (PDF). gvoon.de. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
- ^ a b c d e "Günter Schabowski geb. 1929" (in German). Lebendiges Museum Online. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Former East German Communist official Günter Schabowski dies in Berlin". DW.COM. 1 November 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
- ^ "Im Alter von 86 Jahren: Günter Schabowski gestorben". Faz.net (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 1 November 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "DDR-Geschichte: "Schabowski war einer der Schlimmsten"" (in German). Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. 12 March 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-375-42532-5.
- ISBN 9780465064946.
- ^ a b c Sarotte, p. 115
- ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
- ^ Sarotte, pp. 107–108
- ^ a b c d "Schabowskis Ehefrau: "Mein Mann wusste, was er sagte"". Faz.net (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 7 November 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Hemmerich, Lisa (9 November 2009). "Schabowskis legendärer Auftritt: Das folgenreichste Versehen der DDR-Geschichte". Der Spiegel – via Spiegel Online.
- ^ Walker, Marcus (21 October 2009) "Did Brinkmannship Fell Berlin's Wall? Brinkmann Says It Did" The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ You Tube
- ^ Press Center of the GDR: Plenty of Space for Free Speech. In: Sites of Unity (Haus der Geschichte), 2022.
- ^ Sarotte, p. 118
- ^ Sarotte, p. 129.
- ^ Wroe, David (8 November 2009). "It was the best and worst night". Al Jazeera America. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- ^ "Günter Schabowski: Der Mann, der aus Versehen die Mauer öffnete" (in German). Focus. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ISBN 0-8157-7154-1.
- ^ "BEGNADIGUNG: Günter Schabowski/Günther Kleiber" (in German). Der Spiegel. 11 September 2000. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Frank Steffel: CDU-Spitzenkandidat fragt Schabowski um Rat" (in German). Tagesspiegel. 8 August 2001. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Im Alter von 86 Jahren: Ex-SED-Funktionär Schabowski gestorben" (in German). Tagesschau. 1 November 2015. Archived from the original on 1 November 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
External links
- Media related to Günter Schabowski at Wikimedia Commons