The East German Politburo spokesman whose mistake brought down the Berlin Wall
Asked 'When does it take effect?' at the press conference, he shuffled through his papers and replied: 'As far as I know… immediately, without delay.'
The GDR's leading propagandist, he rose from editor-in-chief of Neues Deutschland to SED Politburo member and First Secretary of East Berlin. On 9 November 1989, asked at a press conference when new travel regulations would take effect, he answered 'immediately, without delay,' triggering the rush that breached the Berlin Wall that night. He later called his mistake 'the final nail in the coffin' of the regime; after reunification he was convicted for the border deaths, but his public acceptance of moral guilt earned him a reduced sentence.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1947Began journalism career as editor at FDGB paper Tribüne
- 1952Joined the SED
- 1967–1968Studied at the CPSU party academy in Moscow
- 1978–1985Editor-in-chief of Neues Deutschland, the SED central organ
- 1981–1989SED Central Committee member and Politburo candidate, full member from 1984
- 1985–1989First Secretary of the SED East Berlin district
- 1989.11.09Triggered the Wall's fall by announcing travel rules effective immediately
- 1997–2000Sentenced to 3 years for border deaths; pardoned after serving one
Related historical events
Criminal reckoning and moral responsibility after reunification
After the collapse of the GDR Schabowski faced criminal proceedings for the deaths at the border. Charged in January 1995 with multiple counts of homicide, he went on trial on 13 November 1995 before the Berlin regional court. The proceedings were disrupted: the presiding judge withdrew four days in over bias, and on 30 November 1995 the trial collapsed when co-defendant Guenther Kleiber fell ill; it reopened on 15 January 1996. On 25 August 1997 the court held him jointly responsible with Egon Krenz and Guenther Kleiber for the border shooting order and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment. He appealed against the judgment's legal reasoning but acknowledged moral responsibility for the deaths at the Wall. The prosecution had sought nine years; the court settled on three, noting that he accepted moral guilt and denounced the GDR. Contrary to the defendants' claim of victors' justice, courts rejected the GDR border law as a justification and held that shooting unarmed fugitives was unlawful even under GDR law. The PDS called the proceedings a continuation of the Cold War; some jurists criticized the retroactive application of West German law, while the Federal Constitutional Court in 1995 and the European Court of Human Rights in 2001 found no violation of the prohibition on retroactivity. The verdict became final on 8 November 1999, and in December 1999 he began serving his sentence at Hakenfelde prison; in September 2000 Governing Mayor Eberhard Diepgen pardoned him, and he was released on 2 December 2000 after about a year.