On 9 November 1989 at 18:57, the apparently sleep-deprived Günter Schabowski read the following at a news conference: ‘Requests for private trips abroad can be filed with no need to present preconditions, special reasons for travel and kinship. The permits will be issued without delay. The relevant departments and passport and resident control authorities of police stations in the GDR have instructions to immediately deliver definitive exit visas without applying the conditions currently in force. Definitive exits may be made via all border posts from the GDR to the FRG.’

Lieutenant-Colonel Harald Jäger who was in charge of an East Berlin checkpoint told SPIEGEL ONLINE, that he thought, ‘”what’s he going on about?” He’s reading something off and doesn’t have any idea what the impact’s going to be. He himself seemed very surprised at what he was saying, like someone who was reading it for the first time.”

Hundreds and then thousands of people gathered on both sides of the wall that night to test the announcement. Jäger was the first border guard to allow East Germans to cross over to the West when he gave his people the historic order: Open the barrier!

And that was more or less the end of the rooi gevaar – so said De Klerk in February 1999 when he unbanned the ANC.

To celebrate – if you’re in Joburg – go to the Goethe Institute where they’re having a big Fall of the Wall party tonight. And if you are in Berlin today you would have noticed angels as part of the celebration:

An angelic celebration in Berlin today.

An actress dressed like an angel stands on the roof of a building in Berlin today. Eight actors with artificial wings are part of the installation ‘Angels over Berlin’ to symbolise the destiny of various people in Berlin before the Berlin Wall came down. REUTERS

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