Guenter Schabowski, East German who announced Berlin Wall opening, dies

AGI

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Guenter Schabowski, a senior East German official whose cryptic announcement that the communist country was opening its fortified border precipitated the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, died Nov. 1 in a Berlin nursing home. He was 86.

His widow, Irina Schabowski, confirmed his death to the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Mr. Schabowski, who was a spokesman for the Eastern German Politburo, delivered his halting words at the conclusion of a plodding evening news conference on Nov. 9, 1989. He offhandedly said East Germany was lifting restrictions on travel across its border with West Germany.  Continue reading at the Washington Post.

 

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