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A minor East German official made a mistake and an Italian journalist asked a simple but a very important question.

The mistake that toppled the Berlin Wall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4VDwaV-oo

https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-wall

One needs to also look at the events of September 11, 1989, when Hungary lifted restrictions on travel to Austria. Once that happened, cheap two-stroke Trabant And Wartburg cars from the east started flowing into Austria and Germany and puttering along on the autobahns. It was just a matter of time before the whole border collapsed and hoards of people yearning for freedom and liberty were able to escape Communism. I was stationed in Bamberg, Germany, at the time and I remember all of this. After the Berlin Wall fell, my GDP on the Czech border became moot.

https://www.rferl.org/a/hungary-1989-ea ... 56892.html

pzgndr wrote: Fri Nov 10, 2023 2:30 pm One needs to also look at the events of September 11, 1989, when Hungary lifted restrictions on travel to Austria.

Hear, hear.

pzgndr wrote: Fri Nov 10, 2023 2:30 pm One needs to also look at the events of September 11, 1989, when Hungary lifted restrictions on travel to Austria. Once that happened, cheap two-stroke Trabant And Wartburg cars from the east started flowing into Austria and Germany and puttering along on the autobahns. It was just a matter of time before the whole border collapsed and hoards of people yearning for freedom and liberty were able to escape Communism. I was stationed in Bamberg, Germany, at the time and I remember all of this. After the Berlin Wall fell, my GDP on the Czech border became moot.

https://www.rferl.org/a/hungary-1989-ea ... 56892.html

There were a lot of things that contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall, but this was the date that it happened and the press conference where the critical question was asked.

I was in the Western German Bundeswehr back then. Like it was yesterday.

As I understand it, both West and East Germany had a party that lasted for about one month. The people still went to work and school but then partied.

I also read something written about an American soldier on a border Observation Post near Rasdorf in Hesse and across from Geisa in Thuringia, he wrote that suddenly there was a mass of East German civilians headed to the border. The Americans there did not know what was going on. I am sure that there was a rather significant "pucker factor" among the Americans at that place.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_ ... ingia.html

Alert drill at OP Alpha:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO71LjkB-X8

I saw a German language youtube video on that place, I used English auto translate close captioning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ORsF3b64gY

If they had listened to Patton, there wouldn't have been a Cold War.
Russians should have returned (or been forced to return), to their pre-War borders.

I was stationed at Mainz Gonzienhiem (sic) at the time with 4/34 armor (US).

It was such a monumental mistake which truly brought about great change. Also largely because it’s evidence to discredit Reagan as having any influence on the fall of the Berlin Wall.