Günter Schabowski
East German Politburo member whose mistaken statement at a press conference on 9 November 1989 that new travel rules applied “immediately” opened the Wall
Born in Anklam, he worked as a journalist and rose to edit the SED newspaper Neues Deutschland, joining the Politburo in 1984 and becoming party chief of East Berlin in 1985. In October 1989 he sided with Egon Krenz in ousting Honecker and became the Politburo’s spokesman. At a live press conference on the evening of 9 November, reading out new exit rules, he was asked when they took effect and replied, “As far as I know, immediately” — and the Wall opened that night. After unification he was sentenced to prison for his share of responsibility for the shootings at the border, was pardoned, and became one of the few East German leaders to condemn the old system.