A Fatal Error

At about 7 o&s;clock on the evening of November 9, 1989, some 300 journalists from all over the world are crammed into a room in East Berlin for a routine press conference. For months past they have been covering a great story. For the first time since the foundation of a separate Communist East German state in 1946, the German Democratic Republic, there have been massive demonstrations against the regime.

The East German regime is clinging desperately to control of its border with West Germany and especially to the section that slashes through Berlin—the Wall. The November 9 press conference is handled by Günter Schabowski. He was once editor of Neues Deutschland (New Germany) , a government newspaper famous for printing more photographs of Honecker than any other journal.

He has also been the Party&s;s Central Committee secretary for the (control of the) media and a member of the Politburo.