Günter Schabowski quotes

Günter Schabowski was an East German journalist and politician, notable for his role in the events leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall. A member of the Socialist Unity Party, he became internationally known after a press conference where he mistakenly suggested that East Germans could immediately cross into West Berlin. He inadvertently contributed to a historic turning point that led to German reunification. Here are 3 of his quotes:

Ostalgie [≈ "East German Nostalgia”] is not my kind of thing. To some, the GDR appears in a backward-looking bleary-eyed view as a palladium of social security. In truth, the GDR collapsed not least because, being economically inefficient, it could not finance its social promises.

Günter Schabowski

What upsets me the most is that I was an accountable representative of a system under which people suffered, also under which repression was aimed at individuals, who were persecuted because of their oppositional stance. Their position was the right one. My position was the wrong one. We were not capable of democracy, but rather tried in the absence of better arguments to get rid of the other opinion with direct violence.

Günter Schabowski