1
00:00:05,520 --> 00:00:07,127
The Berlin Wall

2
00:00:08,666 --> 00:00:12,282
part of the Iron Curtain
that cut Europe in two.

3
00:00:15,980 --> 00:00:17,187
Beyond the wire,

4
00:00:17,447 --> 00:00:21,855
armed force had always held down
the peoples of the Communist world.

5
00:00:26,270 --> 00:00:27,898
In 1989,

6
00:00:28,158 --> 00:00:30,167
the Wall was still intact,

7
00:00:30,744 --> 00:00:33,085
but there was a new mood in Moscow.

8
00:00:35,193 --> 00:00:38,326
The use of force had discredited
itself completely.

9
00:00:40,704 --> 00:00:45,287
It was no longer possible to stabilize
the world by military methods.

10
00:00:46,342 --> 00:00:49,462
We saw a real opportunity,
because of this...

11
00:00:49,582 --> 00:00:52,131
recognition on the part
of the Soviet Union,

12
00:00:52,251 --> 00:00:54,114
that they weren't going
to win an arms race.

13
00:00:54,234 --> 00:00:57,083
They weren't going to, quote,
'Bury you,' unquote.

14
00:00:57,203 --> 00:00:59,496
We were the beneficiaries of this.

15
00:01:38,385 --> 00:01:40,170
December 1988.

16
00:01:40,876 --> 00:01:45,006
Gorbachev met George Bush and
outgoing President Ronald Reagan.

17
00:01:45,265 --> 00:01:49,490
Gorbachev had decided that the
Cold War must be brought to an end.

18
00:01:50,695 --> 00:01:53,016
The Americans remained cautious.

19
00:01:53,790 --> 00:01:55,328
There were pressures...

20
00:01:55,573 --> 00:01:59,191
on Mr. Gorbachev from his right,
if you want to call it that,

21
00:01:59,311 --> 00:02:01,748
from his military, God knows
from who else,

22
00:02:02,344 --> 00:02:06,229
who didn't want to see the
rapidity of this change.

23
00:02:08,103 --> 00:02:12,631
By 1989, Gorbachev was determined
to loosen Soviet control

24
00:02:12,751 --> 00:02:15,605
over the nations in the
Communist bloc.

25
00:02:20,906 --> 00:02:23,456
Gorbachev told the peoples
of Eastern Europe

26
00:02:23,576 --> 00:02:26,996
that they had the right to
choose their own futures.

27
00:02:28,351 --> 00:02:32,980
But his listeners wondered what would
happen if non-Communists won power.

28
00:02:33,706 --> 00:02:36,933
Would the Soviet Union
really stand aside?

29
00:02:39,512 --> 00:02:43,611
Gorbachev was convinced that when
these countries got their freedom,

30
00:02:43,731 --> 00:02:46,976
they would choose socialism
with a human face.

31
00:02:48,585 --> 00:02:53,332
He believed they would not turn away
from Moscow, nor run off to the West.

32
00:02:54,843 --> 00:02:57,514
He thought they would be
grateful to Moscow

33
00:02:57,634 --> 00:03:00,825
and keep up ties of friendship
with the Soviet Union.

34
00:03:04,330 --> 00:03:07,257
But not everybody wanted
freedom from Moscow.

35
00:03:07,670 --> 00:03:10,793
Communist leaders like East
Germany's Erich Honecker

36
00:03:10,913 --> 00:03:13,961
relied on Soviet support
to stay in power.

37
00:03:16,967 --> 00:03:21,196
To imagine that the Soviet Union,
after 40 years of alliances,

38
00:03:21,316 --> 00:03:24,602
would leave every socialist
country to fend for itself

39
00:03:24,722 --> 00:03:29,186
and turn its back on them, as if there
had never been a brotherly community

40
00:03:29,306 --> 00:03:31,085
this was unheard of.

41
00:03:34,844 --> 00:03:36,994
Hungary 1956.

42
00:03:37,904 --> 00:03:40,605
Soviet tanks smashed
the Hungarian attempt

43
00:03:40,725 --> 00:03:42,876
to win democracy and independence.

44
00:03:44,246 --> 00:03:48,365
Imre Nagy and the other leaders
of the uprising were executed.

45
00:03:49,622 --> 00:03:54,447
Economic reforms improved life
for a while, then hit disaster.

46
00:03:54,997 --> 00:03:59,046
By 1989, the Communist government
was losing control.

47
00:04:02,066 --> 00:04:04,655
But Soviet troops remained
in the land.

48
00:04:05,086 --> 00:04:08,123
The Hungarian people were
growing angry again.

49
00:04:08,492 --> 00:04:11,991
Fear drove the regime to
promise political changes,

50
00:04:12,964 --> 00:04:14,620
and more democracy.

51
00:04:16,653 --> 00:04:19,957
The country was in a...
close to an abyss,

52
00:04:20,077 --> 00:04:24,100
close to a... total crisis situation.

53
00:04:25,112 --> 00:04:30,574
Economically... we accumulated
by that time a huge debt.

54
00:04:31,099 --> 00:04:36,804
Politically... all the key players
within the country

55
00:04:36,924 --> 00:04:40,091
realized that... there is no way

56
00:04:41,025 --> 00:04:45,522
to get a better life via reforming
the socialist model.

57
00:04:46,315 --> 00:04:50,330
In March 1989, Prime Minister
Nemeth visited Moscow.

58
00:04:50,758 --> 00:04:54,841
The Hungarian leaders were planning
free multi-party elections.

59
00:04:55,124 --> 00:04:57,821
But would this be too much
for Gorbachev?

60
00:04:58,323 --> 00:05:00,889
I said, 'I don't know
as of this moment

61
00:05:02,484 --> 00:05:05,978
when we will have
the first elections.

62
00:05:07,264 --> 00:05:10,182
But knowing that you stationing...

63
00:05:11,201 --> 00:05:16,755
in the territory of the country
roughly 80,000 soldiers,

64
00:05:17,515 --> 00:05:21,389
and having in mind the
experience of '56,

65
00:05:21,621 --> 00:05:25,349
when your tanks crushed... the...

66
00:05:25,728 --> 00:05:28,830
...revolutionaries and
all the forces

67
00:05:28,950 --> 00:05:31,067
who fought at that time for freedom,

68
00:05:31,327 --> 00:05:32,802
will you repeat...

69
00:05:33,207 --> 00:05:37,290
the '56, er... exercise or not?'

70
00:05:37,584 --> 00:05:39,743
And Gorbachev without hesitation

71
00:05:40,698 --> 00:05:45,370
responded quite clearly
to me, 'I don't agree...

72
00:05:45,983 --> 00:05:48,098
with the... multi-party system...

73
00:05:48,218 --> 00:05:51,127
the introduction of the multi-party
system in Hungary,

74
00:05:51,382 --> 00:05:54,891
but that's not my responsibility,
that's your responsibility.

75
00:05:55,151 --> 00:06:01,298
There will be no instruction or
order by us to crush it down.'

76
00:06:01,742 --> 00:06:04,795
So that was quite important message.

77
00:06:06,646 --> 00:06:12,142
A nameless grave in Budapest hid the
murdered leaders of the 1956 uprising.

78
00:06:14,051 --> 00:06:16,713
Now the government agreed
to rehabilitate them,

79
00:06:16,833 --> 00:06:18,515
the dead and the living.

80
00:06:19,844 --> 00:06:23,630
Erzsebet Hrozova was 18 when
she fought in the uprising.

81
00:06:23,750 --> 00:06:26,051
She spent 12 years in prison.

82
00:06:28,860 --> 00:06:31,589
I felt as you do when
a plaster is removed

83
00:06:31,709 --> 00:06:34,334
and at last you can breathe freely.

84
00:06:35,897 --> 00:06:38,671
You don't have to lower
your head any more.

85
00:06:39,530 --> 00:06:41,706
I felt I could breathe again.

86
00:06:44,375 --> 00:06:47,811
Imre Nagy and his comrades
were given a public funeral.

87
00:06:49,414 --> 00:06:53,981
The government declared that the
1956 revolution was justified.

88
00:06:56,452 --> 00:06:59,455
The crowd listened to the
names of the martyrs.

89
00:07:16,442 --> 00:07:20,410
I was stunned to see that er...

90
00:07:20,870 --> 00:07:23,491
on that list...

91
00:07:24,350 --> 00:07:30,420
young boys when they imprisoned
them, arrested them, they were...

92
00:07:32,028 --> 00:07:34,787
14... 16 years old...

93
00:07:35,338 --> 00:07:41,223
and... they waited till they
celebrated their 18th birthday.

94
00:07:43,277 --> 00:07:47,093
And next morning they
killed... some of them.

95
00:07:59,997 --> 00:08:03,353
The reburial meant to us

96
00:08:03,473 --> 00:08:06,694
a reconciliation with
our past and history.

97
00:08:07,947 --> 00:08:13,178
It meant a new start,
a fresh start,

98
00:08:13,906 --> 00:08:17,814
especially in the political
side of our life

99
00:08:18,772 --> 00:08:20,304
and a renewal.

100
00:08:22,239 --> 00:08:26,377
A month before, the Cold War
had lost a symbol.

101
00:08:27,259 --> 00:08:30,271
The Hungarian government
took down the barbed wire

102
00:08:30,391 --> 00:08:33,031
on its border with Austria
and the West.

103
00:08:34,139 --> 00:08:36,171
The Soviet Union did nothing.

104
00:08:38,347 --> 00:08:41,157
Although travel was still
not completely free,

105
00:08:41,604 --> 00:08:44,718
the Iron Curtain was
starting to unravel.

106
00:08:48,468 --> 00:08:51,869
I refused to give to
the Home Minister...

107
00:08:52,487 --> 00:08:55,097
...money in that year's budget

108
00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:59,395
for the renewal or the refurbishment
of the old,

109
00:08:59,882 --> 00:09:02,479
old barbed wire system.

110
00:09:05,152 --> 00:09:08,487
They said that the Iron Curtain was technically obsolete

111
00:09:08,607 --> 00:09:10,689
it didn't work as a barrier any more.

112
00:09:13,311 --> 00:09:17,900
They should not maintain a construction
that endangered people's lives.

113
00:09:20,401 --> 00:09:24,954
Hungary's boldness alarmed the
hard-line Warsaw Pact leaders.

114
00:09:25,913 --> 00:09:30,074
None was more shocked than the East
German ruler, Erich Honecker.

115
00:09:30,874 --> 00:09:34,618
His state formed the Soviet empire's
frontier with the West.

116
00:09:38,454 --> 00:09:40,314
Honecker's first reaction

117
00:09:40,697 --> 00:09:43,890
was to send the minister of
foreign affairs to Moscow

118
00:09:44,115 --> 00:09:46,358
to protest against this decision.

119
00:09:49,569 --> 00:09:51,229
Moscow's answer was:

120
00:09:51,620 --> 00:09:53,630
'We can't do anything about it.'

121
00:09:54,722 --> 00:09:56,073
This was unique.

122
00:09:56,940 --> 00:10:01,184
It was the first time that Moscow
had said anything like this to us.

123
00:10:08,581 --> 00:10:13,159
The Poles, like the Hungarians, were
breaking with the communist system.

124
00:10:17,194 --> 00:10:19,513
Faced with a wave of political strikes,

125
00:10:19,633 --> 00:10:22,256
led by the opposition movement
Solidarity,

126
00:10:22,376 --> 00:10:24,588
the regime had given way.

127
00:10:27,428 --> 00:10:30,295
I knew that the communist
system was finished.

128
00:10:30,415 --> 00:10:35,338
The only problem was, what would be
the best way to get rid of communism.

129
00:10:40,674 --> 00:10:43,436
In 1981, with Soviet approval,

130
00:10:43,556 --> 00:10:47,123
Solidarity had been crushed
by the Polish army.

131
00:10:47,540 --> 00:10:49,390
Its leaders were imprisoned.

132
00:10:50,641 --> 00:10:53,056
Now, in early 1989,

133
00:10:53,316 --> 00:10:56,760
the government opened round-table
talks with Solidarity.

134
00:10:58,042 --> 00:11:01,298
The Polish Communists were
prepared to share power,

135
00:11:01,729 --> 00:11:04,127
to discuss a shift towards democracy.

136
00:11:07,488 --> 00:11:10,550
Democratic institutions
were being formed.

137
00:11:10,670 --> 00:11:13,976
They were substitutes for a full democracy,

138
00:11:14,096 --> 00:11:17,757
but we were different compared
to the other countries of the bloc.

139
00:11:17,877 --> 00:11:20,727
We were in a way a heretical island.

140
00:11:24,011 --> 00:11:26,187
In June, elections were held.

141
00:11:27,884 --> 00:11:28,858
"Solidarnosc."

142
00:11:29,118 --> 00:11:30,026
"Solidarnosc."

143
00:11:30,286 --> 00:11:31,361
"Solidarnosc."

144
00:11:32,467 --> 00:11:35,815
They produced a stunning
defeat for the Communists.

145
00:11:37,059 --> 00:11:40,804
Solidarity won 99 out of
100 seats in the Senate.

146
00:11:41,064 --> 00:11:43,640
Within weeks the first anti-communist

147
00:11:43,789 --> 00:11:46,907
prime minister in the
Soviet bloc took office.

148
00:11:49,667 --> 00:11:53,133
When we knew that Gorbachev
was thinking about reform,

149
00:11:53,524 --> 00:11:56,235
we saw he would not
oppose our reforms,

150
00:11:56,688 --> 00:11:58,706
and that was important to us.

151
00:12:03,398 --> 00:12:06,789
At the Warsaw Pact Summit, the leaders were divided.

152
00:12:07,593 --> 00:12:10,702
Honecker, like Romania's
Nicolae Ceausescu,

153
00:12:10,822 --> 00:12:14,518
was alarmed by what was happening
in Poland and Hungary.

154
00:12:17,576 --> 00:12:22,212
Honecker and particularly Ceausescu
were against our reforms.

155
00:12:23,126 --> 00:12:25,914
On one occasion we were
having a meeting with him

156
00:12:26,034 --> 00:12:28,807
in his residence on the
outskirts of Bucharest.

157
00:12:31,361 --> 00:12:35,916
He and his wife, Raisa and myself,
were having a discussion.

158
00:12:38,876 --> 00:12:41,086
Our passions really ran high.

159
00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:45,214
We spoke in such loud voices

160
00:12:45,334 --> 00:12:48,070
that we had to remove
all our security people

161
00:12:48,190 --> 00:12:50,176
so that they wouldn't hear us.

162
00:12:55,734 --> 00:13:00,711
We heard that Ceausescu of Romania,
Jakes of Czechoslovakia and Honecker

163
00:13:00,831 --> 00:13:03,320
were organizing some sort of conspiracy.

164
00:13:05,473 --> 00:13:08,635
They wanted to talk Gorbachev
into intervention against Poland

165
00:13:08,755 --> 00:13:09,795
and Hungary.

166
00:13:12,270 --> 00:13:15,265
They said that these nations
had already passed the limits

167
00:13:15,385 --> 00:13:18,500
of what was acceptable
in socialist countries.

168
00:13:20,964 --> 00:13:25,700
When I heard the first proposal from Ceausescu on this,

169
00:13:26,967 --> 00:13:32,550
I looked at... look at the
other side of the table

170
00:13:32,670 --> 00:13:35,379
at the Soviet delegation was...

171
00:13:35,828 --> 00:13:41,535
seated... and our eyes crossed
each other's eyes.

172
00:13:41,862 --> 00:13:47,477
He was signaling to me that, 'OK,

173
00:13:47,815 --> 00:13:51,946
don't argue against it.' So in
other words he send me...

174
00:13:52,793 --> 00:13:59,972
by... by his eyes an important message:
that you don't have to say a word.

175
00:14:01,263 --> 00:14:03,008
It will not happen.

176
00:14:04,493 --> 00:14:05,913
And it did not.

177
00:14:07,725 --> 00:14:11,659
In July, President Bush visited
Poland and Hungary.

178
00:14:12,882 --> 00:14:18,082
The West gave them moral support for
democratic change, but little more.

179
00:14:18,841 --> 00:14:21,865
We did have some modest
economic packages

180
00:14:22,433 --> 00:14:25,123
for both countries, but really...

181
00:14:25,730 --> 00:14:29,182
we did not want to kind of pump
money down a rat hole either.

182
00:14:29,302 --> 00:14:30,731
We wanted to be sure

183
00:14:30,851 --> 00:14:35,129
that the economic reforms, the moves
towards free markets - those things

184
00:14:35,249 --> 00:14:37,647
were for real, that they
were going to continue.

185
00:14:39,964 --> 00:14:43,872
In Hungary, Bush was presented
with a piece of barbed wire,

186
00:14:44,198 --> 00:14:47,657
a souvenir of Hungary's
dismantled Iron Curtain.

187
00:14:48,034 --> 00:14:51,174
...We believe that the
artificial, physical

188
00:14:51,294 --> 00:14:55,708
and spiritual wall still existing
in the world some day

189
00:14:55,828 --> 00:15:00,103
shall collapse everywhere. And that
is just beautiful. Thank you, sir.

190
00:15:00,223 --> 00:15:03,044
I don't know I'm kind of an emotional
sort of person anyway.

191
00:15:03,164 --> 00:15:05,619
I cry too easily. I did then.
I do now,

192
00:15:05,921 --> 00:15:12,241
and I had tears in my eyes when I...
when I... was given this symbol

193
00:15:12,361 --> 00:15:14,050
of the end of the Cold War.

194
00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:19,510
On his Wyoming ranch, James Baker,
Bush's secretary of state,

195
00:15:19,630 --> 00:15:22,712
discovered a real friendship
for Eduard Shevardnadze,

196
00:15:22,832 --> 00:15:24,538
the Soviet foreign minister.

197
00:15:24,658 --> 00:15:28,057
"Excuse me, I'm from the Park Service.
Do you guys have a fishing license?"

198
00:15:28,177 --> 00:15:31,119
"Absolutely... Two of them!"

199
00:15:33,583 --> 00:15:36,577
Baker confirmed to Shevardnadze
that the United States

200
00:15:36,697 --> 00:15:38,970
would tread carefully in Eastern Europe

201
00:15:39,090 --> 00:15:42,006
and would not exploit
Soviet problems there.

202
00:15:43,439 --> 00:15:49,029
What was achieved at Jackson Hole was,
I think, a new atmosphere of trust.

203
00:15:50,054 --> 00:15:53,385
Everyone on the American side,
as a matter of fact, felt it was

204
00:15:53,505 --> 00:15:56,536
very important that we...

205
00:15:56,656 --> 00:15:59,139
assist Gorbachev and Shevardnadze

206
00:15:59,259 --> 00:16:02,840
and the reformers in the Soviet
Union in any way we could

207
00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:04,924
to arrive at a soft landing.

208
00:16:05,586 --> 00:16:08,041
The Cold War didn't have
to end with a whimper

209
00:16:08,161 --> 00:16:09,975
it could have gone out with a bang.

210
00:16:12,470 --> 00:16:14,532
Already, in communist China,

211
00:16:14,725 --> 00:16:18,248
a surge of demands for human
rights and democracy

212
00:16:18,368 --> 00:16:19,843
had ended in tragedy.

213
00:16:21,524 --> 00:16:23,906
On Tiananmen Square, in Beijing,

214
00:16:24,152 --> 00:16:27,814
tanks and troops had attacked
peaceful demonstrators

215
00:16:28,107 --> 00:16:29,426
and slaughtered them.

216
00:16:50,067 --> 00:16:51,561
The world shuddered.

217
00:16:51,956 --> 00:16:55,065
Would reform in Eastern Europe end like this?

218
00:16:58,359 --> 00:17:00,294
Erich Honecker, in East Germany,

219
00:17:00,414 --> 00:17:03,743
admired the Chinese solution
to political protest.

220
00:17:04,918 --> 00:17:08,787
Honecker refused to admit that anything
was wrong with his own system.

221
00:17:12,070 --> 00:17:14,225
I told them that they
were responsible

222
00:17:14,345 --> 00:17:16,785
for the situation in their
own countries

223
00:17:16,905 --> 00:17:19,078
'You decide what reforms you need.

224
00:17:19,377 --> 00:17:21,228
We need perestroika.

225
00:17:21,879 --> 00:17:24,654
Whether you need perestroika
is up to you.'

226
00:17:26,270 --> 00:17:29,149
Honecker said, 'We've done
our perestroika,

227
00:17:29,269 --> 00:17:31,119
we have nothing to restructure.'

228
00:17:33,887 --> 00:17:36,760
But in reality, East Germany
was rotting away.

229
00:17:37,419 --> 00:17:40,142
Pollution, poisoned air and water;

230
00:17:40,262 --> 00:17:42,198
the economy was running down;

231
00:17:42,943 --> 00:17:45,692
the police state stifled
all initiative.

232
00:17:47,972 --> 00:17:49,660
There was apathy in public,

233
00:17:50,716 --> 00:17:52,306
daydreams in private.

234
00:18:00,387 --> 00:18:04,698
Most people in the GDR withdrew
into their private lives.

235
00:18:06,491 --> 00:18:07,939
You went to your job,

236
00:18:08,168 --> 00:18:11,576
saw to it that your private life
was protected from harm.

237
00:18:13,839 --> 00:18:16,888
Then you withdrew into your
home, with your friends,

238
00:18:17,008 --> 00:18:18,804
in your own private world.

239
00:18:23,442 --> 00:18:25,838
You criticized society at home,

240
00:18:27,154 --> 00:18:29,864
but only among people
you trusted.

241
00:18:36,053 --> 00:18:38,861
There was a video camera
installed in the building

242
00:18:38,981 --> 00:18:41,650
opposite us which was
trained on our window.

243
00:18:43,822 --> 00:18:46,011
Every private word we said,

244
00:18:46,131 --> 00:18:48,656
every dispute about who
had to do the dishes,

245
00:18:48,776 --> 00:18:52,736
every argument with the children
was listened to and noted down.

246
00:18:53,412 --> 00:18:56,617
Everyone who entered our
house was videotaped.

247
00:19:00,487 --> 00:19:04,826
That summer, East Germans rushed
to take holidays in Hungary.

248
00:19:04,946 --> 00:19:06,750
There was an escape hatch;

249
00:19:08,388 --> 00:19:10,921
Hungary's border with the
West was weakening.

250
00:19:11,619 --> 00:19:15,697
In Budapest, East Germans besieged
the West German Embassy,

251
00:19:15,817 --> 00:19:17,900
demanding help to emigrate.

252
00:19:21,782 --> 00:19:24,222
It was known that every
German from the GDR

253
00:19:24,342 --> 00:19:26,794
who chose to live in freedom
and democracy

254
00:19:26,914 --> 00:19:29,364
would get all possible support from us.

255
00:19:30,925 --> 00:19:33,380
The West German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl

256
00:19:33,500 --> 00:19:35,181
had confidence in Gorbachev.

257
00:19:36,288 --> 00:19:39,037
Kohl planned to rescue
the Hungarian economy

258
00:19:39,157 --> 00:19:42,301
if the East Germans were allowed to go West.

259
00:19:42,966 --> 00:19:47,357
He trusted Gorbachev not to block
the deal with the Hungarians.

260
00:19:58,261 --> 00:20:02,373
The Hungarians agreed to let the
East Germans cross to the West.

261
00:20:06,635 --> 00:20:10,013
Honecker called the refugees moral outcasts.

262
00:20:12,932 --> 00:20:16,851
I believe he felt a mixture of
anger and utter contempt

263
00:20:17,169 --> 00:20:18,803
for these masses of people

264
00:20:24,816 --> 00:20:26,484
these ungrateful people

265
00:20:27,734 --> 00:20:30,033
who had run over to
the 'other side.'

266
00:20:34,690 --> 00:20:38,425
The refugees had been traveling
from East Germany to Hungary

267
00:20:38,545 --> 00:20:40,703
in the hope of getting to the West.

268
00:20:40,985 --> 00:20:43,935
Now East Germany blocked
travel to Hungary.

269
00:20:45,166 --> 00:20:49,658
Desperate, the fleeing East Germans
turned to Czechoslovakia.

270
00:20:52,003 --> 00:20:55,463
They gathered at the West
German Embassy in Prague.

271
00:21:02,238 --> 00:21:03,646
We had no prospects.

272
00:21:03,766 --> 00:21:06,700
I didn't want my child to grow up
under that repression.

273
00:21:06,908 --> 00:21:11,241
It wasn't just that we couldn't
travel; it was small everyday things.

274
00:21:12,975 --> 00:21:17,259
When the embassy was full, the
refugees climbed into the garden.

275
00:21:18,635 --> 00:21:21,324
We didn't know what was
going to happen to us.

276
00:21:21,444 --> 00:21:23,472
We knew there were many
people inside waiting,

277
00:21:23,592 --> 00:21:25,953
but we weren't sure whether
there would be police inside

278
00:21:26,073 --> 00:21:29,027
or even the state security
police, the Stasi.

279
00:21:31,164 --> 00:21:33,280
We walked fearfully along the fence

280
00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:36,188
and then people from inside the
embassy came up and said:

281
00:21:36,308 --> 00:21:37,804
'Don't you want to come in?'

282
00:21:37,924 --> 00:21:39,743
We were astonished and said 'Yes.'

283
00:21:39,863 --> 00:21:42,138
'Wait,' they said,
'we'll get a ladder.'

284
00:21:42,704 --> 00:21:44,893
We climbed the fence
and were inside.

285
00:21:45,013 --> 00:21:47,040
At first we saw just people.

286
00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:49,713
It was frightening. People
everywhere.

287
00:21:50,522 --> 00:21:54,210
More and more refugees crammed
themselves into the embassy

288
00:21:54,330 --> 00:21:56,203
and refused to leave.

289
00:22:10,990 --> 00:22:15,405
The Czech police made futile
attempts to stop the inrush.

290
00:22:16,580 --> 00:22:21,857
Inside the embassy, the overcrowding
and squalor grew worse day by day.

291
00:22:23,435 --> 00:22:28,008
Both German governments, East and
West, were at their wits' end.

292
00:22:30,404 --> 00:22:35,356
West Germany's foreign minister, Hans
Dietrich Genscher, came to Prague.

293
00:22:35,681 --> 00:22:38,170
Under Soviet and West
German pressure,

294
00:22:38,290 --> 00:22:41,331
Honecker had consented
to a face-saving deal.

295
00:22:58,001 --> 00:23:00,933
The refugees could go to
West Germany,

296
00:23:01,053 --> 00:23:05,180
but only if their train crossed
East German territory first.

297
00:23:05,454 --> 00:23:08,242
Then Honecker could claim
that he had expelled them

298
00:23:08,362 --> 00:23:10,527
and canceled their citizenship.

299
00:23:30,373 --> 00:23:33,730
The train stopped. Two men
opened the doors.

300
00:23:34,154 --> 00:23:36,581
'Good day, we are from
the state security

301
00:23:36,701 --> 00:23:39,279
and will collect your
identity cards now.'

302
00:23:39,974 --> 00:23:43,843
And I will never forget how they had to
bend down to collect these documents,

303
00:23:43,896 --> 00:23:47,265
because the people threw their
identity cards at their feet.

304
00:23:47,546 --> 00:23:51,868
The feeling was, 'There's your card,
you can't threaten me anymore.'

305
00:23:52,681 --> 00:23:54,468
It was very satisfying.

306
00:23:57,042 --> 00:24:01,931
Back in Prague, a new wave of
refugees stormed the embassy fence.

307
00:24:09,575 --> 00:24:12,956
Their last chance of reaching the
West seemed to be vanishing.

308
00:24:18,394 --> 00:24:19,635
Within a few days,

309
00:24:19,755 --> 00:24:23,855
another 7,000 people had scrambled
into the embassy gardens.

310
00:24:27,099 --> 00:24:30,539
Some East Germans chose
to stay and protest.

311
00:24:34,504 --> 00:24:37,881
The Lutheran churches were sheltering
an opposition movement.

312
00:24:38,773 --> 00:24:40,545
Inspired by Gorbachev,

313
00:24:40,665 --> 00:24:45,014
the protesters dreamed of turning
East Germany into a democracy.

314
00:24:49,093 --> 00:24:51,360
Gorbachev gave us great hope.

315
00:24:52,903 --> 00:24:55,776
First of all, he tried to
change his country

316
00:24:55,896 --> 00:24:59,001
in the same way as we wanted
to change our country,

317
00:24:59,121 --> 00:25:00,863
through perestroika

318
00:25:01,697 --> 00:25:04,080
a gradual liberalization.

319
00:25:07,650 --> 00:25:10,165
In Leipzig, the police struck back.

320
00:25:10,486 --> 00:25:13,563
On September 4, Western
journalists filmed

321
00:25:13,683 --> 00:25:15,352
plainclothes security men

322
00:25:15,503 --> 00:25:17,679
as they attacked the demonstrators.

323
00:25:29,478 --> 00:25:31,933
Soon came a new chant of defiance:

324
00:25:32,142 --> 00:25:33,561
We are staying here!

325
00:25:34,798 --> 00:25:38,837
We are staying here' was a protest
against what the GDR had done

326
00:25:42,132 --> 00:25:44,794
namely to drive young people
to leave the country

327
00:25:44,914 --> 00:25:46,873
because they had no prospects.

328
00:25:47,954 --> 00:25:52,684
That was a turning point, and
people said, 'We still have hope.'

329
00:25:54,730 --> 00:25:59,162
Every Monday in Leipzig, there were
demonstrations at the Nikolai church.

330
00:25:59,968 --> 00:26:02,391
They swelled into mass protests.

331
00:26:06,208 --> 00:26:08,124
The police tried to stop them.

332
00:26:14,117 --> 00:26:16,680
But the government was
losing its nerve.

333
00:26:20,449 --> 00:26:25,100
In short, we were speechless
because we were helpless.

334
00:26:28,488 --> 00:26:31,771
Because this country
and this leadership

335
00:26:32,605 --> 00:26:35,719
never before experienced a conflict

336
00:26:36,839 --> 00:26:40,500
which was so openly expressed.

337
00:26:42,565 --> 00:26:45,647
Only Honecker seemed
to notice nothing amiss.

338
00:26:45,767 --> 00:26:49,517
On the eve of East Germany's 40th
anniversary that October,

339
00:26:49,637 --> 00:26:52,969
he was confident as he waited
with his colleague Egon Krenz

340
00:26:53,089 --> 00:26:54,575
to greet his senior guest,

341
00:26:54,744 --> 00:26:56,292
Mikhail Gorbachev.

342
00:26:59,134 --> 00:27:01,427
The Soviet delegation already knew

343
00:27:01,547 --> 00:27:04,267
that the East German
regime was tottering.

344
00:27:07,915 --> 00:27:11,498
The outward show of victorious
celebration went ahead.

345
00:27:15,797 --> 00:27:18,964
Then, at the torchlight parade
of Communist youth,

346
00:27:19,084 --> 00:27:22,247
the marchers dropped
their rehearsed slogans.

347
00:27:23,224 --> 00:27:26,156
They began to chant another name

348
00:27:27,420 --> 00:27:28,866
"Gorby!"

349
00:27:46,624 --> 00:27:48,996
Honecker pretended not to notice.

350
00:27:53,269 --> 00:27:55,953
These were specially
chosen young people,

351
00:27:56,461 --> 00:27:58,350
strong and good-looking.

352
00:27:59,719 --> 00:28:01,712
They were in a cheerful mood,

353
00:28:02,181 --> 00:28:04,187
but they started chanting slogans

354
00:28:07,784 --> 00:28:09,270
'Gorby help us!

355
00:28:10,442 --> 00:28:12,045
Gorby stay here!'

356
00:28:15,811 --> 00:28:18,534
Rakowski the Polish leader
came up to us and said,

357
00:28:18,654 --> 00:28:21,830
'Do you understand German?'
I said, 'I do, a little bit.'

358
00:28:21,950 --> 00:28:24,207
'Can you hear?' I said, 'I can.'

359
00:28:24,579 --> 00:28:26,807
He said, 'This is the end.'

360
00:28:27,602 --> 00:28:30,638
And that was the end:
The regime was doomed.

361
00:28:33,452 --> 00:28:36,409
This was a vote of no
confidence against us.

362
00:28:38,103 --> 00:28:39,888
'Gorby, Gorby' did not mean,

363
00:28:40,008 --> 00:28:43,198
do it exactly as it was done
in the Soviet Union.

364
00:28:43,471 --> 00:28:47,575
'Gorby, Gorby' meant, we need
change here in the GDR.

365
00:28:51,001 --> 00:28:54,180
In a series of increasingly
surreal meetings,

366
00:28:54,300 --> 00:28:56,948
Gorbachev tried to inject
a sense of reality.

367
00:29:00,953 --> 00:29:03,935
Honecker and I spent about
three hours talking.

368
00:29:05,943 --> 00:29:08,951
He couldn't understand why
I wanted a meeting.

369
00:29:10,112 --> 00:29:12,167
But we had a serious discussion.

370
00:29:15,550 --> 00:29:17,365
I told him what we were doing.

371
00:29:17,485 --> 00:29:19,396
He told me what they were doing.

372
00:29:19,926 --> 00:29:23,102
He described it all as one
victory after another.

373
00:29:24,522 --> 00:29:25,516
But I said,

374
00:29:25,890 --> 00:29:28,925
'He who lags behind events,
loses.'

375
00:29:33,810 --> 00:29:36,284
It was absolutely clear to me
that both sides

376
00:29:36,404 --> 00:29:39,121
spoke about two completely
different things.

377
00:29:42,289 --> 00:29:44,604
They did not try to meet
in the middle.

378
00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:51,661
During the whole conversation they
did not agree on a single thing.

379
00:29:56,084 --> 00:29:58,735
As the leaders met at the
closing reception,

380
00:29:58,995 --> 00:30:01,909
a plot was hatching against
Erich Honecker.

381
00:30:02,156 --> 00:30:06,834
A group in the East German Politburo
had decided to try and get rid of him.

382
00:30:09,688 --> 00:30:13,479
We could no longer afford to
hesitate in removing Honecker.

383
00:30:15,825 --> 00:30:17,120
We had to act fast.

384
00:30:23,981 --> 00:30:27,577
You could see that he did not
understand what was going on.

385
00:30:28,558 --> 00:30:32,014
He had an autocratic approach
to what was happening around him.

386
00:30:32,535 --> 00:30:35,049
He couldn't cope
with the situation.

387
00:30:49,790 --> 00:30:53,521
At dinner with Gorbachev and the
leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries,

388
00:30:53,641 --> 00:30:56,026
Honecker was a complacent host.

389
00:30:56,659 --> 00:31:00,849
Meanwhile, a hostile crowd
was gathering outside.

390
00:31:01,068 --> 00:31:04,508
Gorby Help Us!
Gorby Help Us!

391
00:31:31,287 --> 00:31:34,623
Honecker was planning to
stamp out the new opposition.

392
00:31:34,925 --> 00:31:37,374
No one was sure how
far he would go.

393
00:31:39,751 --> 00:31:41,294
There was a permanent fear

394
00:31:41,414 --> 00:31:44,750
that there might be a 'Chinese
solution' to the problem

395
00:31:44,870 --> 00:31:47,225
and that weapons might be used.

396
00:31:49,949 --> 00:31:52,529
We could never ignore
this possibility.

397
00:31:55,995 --> 00:31:59,825
Sometimes we even thought
that Soviet tanks might appear.

398
00:32:03,056 --> 00:32:06,463
That evening the demonstrations
in Berlin continued.

399
00:32:06,723 --> 00:32:09,271
Pig! Pig! Pig!...

400
00:32:22,167 --> 00:32:24,447
In Leipzig earlier that day,

401
00:32:24,567 --> 00:32:28,966
the authorities made ready to meet
the demonstrations with armed force.

402
00:32:31,701 --> 00:32:33,553
On the afternoon of October 7,

403
00:32:33,673 --> 00:32:37,047
the entire square was
cordoned off by the police.

404
00:32:39,298 --> 00:32:42,658
It was the first time I saw
the power of the police.

405
00:32:44,092 --> 00:32:48,128
They stood in a phalanx with their
helmets and shields and face masks.

406
00:32:55,633 --> 00:33:00,283
And standing there right up to them
we felt their force and violence.

407
00:33:08,075 --> 00:33:11,720
That night, the police charged
and scattered the demonstrators.

408
00:33:16,089 --> 00:33:20,250
But an even larger protest rally
was called for two days later.

409
00:33:20,976 --> 00:33:22,802
The army was on standby.

410
00:33:25,219 --> 00:33:28,046
They realized that they could
no longer control the events

411
00:33:28,166 --> 00:33:29,931
with the police alone.

412
00:33:31,406 --> 00:33:35,075
They wanted to use us to increase
the pressure on the situation.

413
00:33:38,611 --> 00:33:41,813
Almost all paramilitary brigades
were mobilized.

414
00:33:42,722 --> 00:33:45,482
The voluntary police force
were out in strength.

415
00:33:48,667 --> 00:33:53,678
More than 8,000 men were armed and
sent with their equipment to Leipzig.

416
00:33:57,314 --> 00:34:00,316
We were issued with twice as
much ammunition as normal.

417
00:34:00,436 --> 00:34:04,327
Usually we had 60 rounds.
Now they gave us 120 rounds.

418
00:34:07,673 --> 00:34:09,873
One of us had a friend
at the hospital

419
00:34:09,993 --> 00:34:12,698
and he'd heard that blood
reserves had been ordered

420
00:34:12,818 --> 00:34:15,992
and spare beds were to
be kept free on that day.

421
00:34:19,379 --> 00:34:21,860
The city was in a state
of emergency.

422
00:34:23,226 --> 00:34:25,341
Shops had to close at 5 o'clock

423
00:34:26,002 --> 00:34:28,135
we felt very intimidated.

424
00:34:32,095 --> 00:34:36,012
At work, people warned each other,
'Don't go into town tonight.

425
00:34:37,306 --> 00:34:39,850
Who knows what's going to happen?'

426
00:34:43,790 --> 00:34:46,177
As the Leipzig demonstration
moved off,

427
00:34:46,297 --> 00:34:49,846
the local Communist Party leaders
realized that 70,000 people

428
00:34:49,966 --> 00:34:51,828
were already on the streets.

429
00:34:53,497 --> 00:34:55,373
Alarmed, the Soviet ambassador

430
00:34:55,493 --> 00:34:58,800
telephoned the commander
of Soviet forces in the region.

431
00:35:03,645 --> 00:35:07,764
'I urge you to immediately order the
troops to go back to the barracks.

432
00:35:08,131 --> 00:35:09,724
That's the first thing.

433
00:35:10,766 --> 00:35:13,426
Secondly, stop all maneuvers.

434
00:35:17,229 --> 00:35:21,123
Third. Stop all flights
of military planes.

435
00:35:24,775 --> 00:35:28,787
And under no circumstances
interfere in the developments.'

436
00:35:32,189 --> 00:35:35,966
The Leipzig Communists begged
the opposition to talk with them.

437
00:35:36,517 --> 00:35:38,326
Then, without higher orders,

438
00:35:38,446 --> 00:35:41,595
they pulled back the East
German police and troops.

439
00:35:43,396 --> 00:35:45,864
The demonstration
went off peacefully.

440
00:35:47,024 --> 00:35:49,892
For East Germans, this
was the turning point.

441
00:35:53,077 --> 00:35:56,171
People almost fell into each
other's arms and said,

442
00:35:56,291 --> 00:35:57,455
'Oh my goodness,

443
00:35:57,575 --> 00:35:59,123
now something is happening,

444
00:35:59,243 --> 00:36:02,400
and now finally we're starting
to talk to each other.

445
00:36:04,709 --> 00:36:08,669
And if we talk to each other
we won't shoot at each other.

446
00:36:13,861 --> 00:36:16,649
Now Honecker's allies deserted him.

447
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:19,553
He was voted out of
power by Egon Krenz

448
00:36:19,673 --> 00:36:22,876
and the entire Politburo
on October 17.

449
00:36:26,511 --> 00:36:28,857
It was high time for him to go.

450
00:36:29,209 --> 00:36:32,570
It would have been impossible for
us to get out of this deep valley

451
00:36:32,690 --> 00:36:33,807
with him at the top,

452
00:36:33,927 --> 00:36:38,485
even if he had mustered all
his authority for change.

453
00:36:39,275 --> 00:36:43,740
Now Egon Krenz was in charge.
He promised democratic reforms.

454
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,402
He assured the people that
he would make it easier

455
00:36:46,522 --> 00:36:48,395
for East Germans to travel West

456
00:36:48,515 --> 00:36:51,514
the issue which had
set off the whole crisis.

457
00:36:54,997 --> 00:36:57,759
Of course we felt under
tremendous pressure

458
00:36:58,111 --> 00:36:59,727
it was non-stop.

459
00:37:03,818 --> 00:37:05,721
We had to make a move.

460
00:37:08,715 --> 00:37:13,041
On November 1, Krenz visited
Gorbachev in Moscow.

461
00:37:20,026 --> 00:37:23,309
We talked very openly about
the question of free travel.

462
00:37:23,429 --> 00:37:24,612
And he said to me,

463
00:37:24,732 --> 00:37:29,147
'If you don't find a new formula which
allows the GDR citizens to travel,

464
00:37:29,267 --> 00:37:31,909
then things won't look
good for you.'

465
00:37:33,629 --> 00:37:38,281
Egon Krenz was unfortunately devoid
of any charismatic qualities.

466
00:37:44,278 --> 00:37:49,668
He wasn't accepted by the people;
he wasn't attractive to the masses.

467
00:37:53,594 --> 00:37:56,461
He couldn't find the words
to speak to people

468
00:37:56,754 --> 00:38:00,093
because he only spoke
the old party jargon.

469
00:38:05,173 --> 00:38:08,738
By '89 many people, myself included,

470
00:38:08,858 --> 00:38:11,930
were no longer prepared
to look for dialogue.

471
00:38:12,050 --> 00:38:16,376
I remember that we said, 'Now our
readiness for dialogue has expired

472
00:38:16,496 --> 00:38:18,493
now it's confrontation.'

473
00:38:21,603 --> 00:38:24,681
In vain, Krenz offered new freedoms.

474
00:38:24,991 --> 00:38:28,818
The street demonstrations grew
bigger, and asked for more.

475
00:38:30,154 --> 00:38:34,731
In East Berlin on November 4, a crowd
of half a million people gathered.

476
00:39:00,610 --> 00:39:03,980
If you live in a system
that is suppressive,

477
00:39:05,151 --> 00:39:09,138
you don't walk upright,
you always go this way,

478
00:39:09,795 --> 00:39:11,320
with your head...

479
00:39:12,088 --> 00:39:13,144
down,

480
00:39:14,250 --> 00:39:19,137
and now was a chance to walk
upright and to show your face

481
00:39:20,727 --> 00:39:23,300
and to show the power of the people.

482
00:39:24,284 --> 00:39:29,639
On November 9th, 1989, Gunter
Schabowski told journalists in Berlin

483
00:39:29,759 --> 00:39:33,508
that restrictions on travel
to the West would be lifted.

484
00:39:34,629 --> 00:39:38,485
The government meant the
change to start next day.

485
00:39:38,851 --> 00:39:41,795
But Schabowski mistook the timing.

486
00:40:04,946 --> 00:40:07,070
The news flashed round the city.

487
00:40:07,190 --> 00:40:10,046
East Berliners rushed to see
if the checkpoints in the Wall

488
00:40:10,212 --> 00:40:12,031
were really opening.

489
00:40:13,676 --> 00:40:17,220
"We'll be coming back!"
"We'll be coming back!"

490
00:40:24,454 --> 00:40:26,737
The border guards were baffled.

491
00:40:29,343 --> 00:40:33,343
We didn't get any instructions
from our superiors, none.

492
00:40:34,763 --> 00:40:37,290
Only: Observe the situation.

493
00:40:40,215 --> 00:40:43,079
We tried many times to
speak to our superiors,

494
00:40:44,111 --> 00:40:45,987
but nobody got back to us.

495
00:40:57,518 --> 00:41:01,479
You have to bear in mind that our
soldiers were fully armed on this day

496
00:41:01,599 --> 00:41:02,756
as always.

497
00:41:03,577 --> 00:41:05,453
And they had one order.

498
00:41:07,616 --> 00:41:11,004
That order was to stop
anyone trying to escape,

499
00:41:11,394 --> 00:41:13,701
but the crowds were huge now.

500
00:41:15,329 --> 00:41:17,531
Suddenly the guards gave in.

501
00:41:21,714 --> 00:41:23,512
They opened the barriers.

502
00:41:42,770 --> 00:41:45,780
They opened the borders and didn't
take any countermeasures.

503
00:41:46,223 --> 00:41:49,024
They didn't consult me
or get my approval.

504
00:42:16,387 --> 00:42:19,670
I found myself in a group of people
who were applauding.

505
00:42:19,790 --> 00:42:22,328
I didn't understand right away why.

506
00:42:22,797 --> 00:42:26,367
Then I realized. I really
was in West Berlin,

507
00:42:26,487 --> 00:42:30,453
and West Berliners had come to the
border and they were applauding us.

508
00:42:33,821 --> 00:42:36,883
We were all crying and
embracing each other.

509
00:42:37,264 --> 00:42:40,295
Even now when I think about it,
my heart is racing.

510
00:42:40,477 --> 00:42:42,083
It was so moving.

511
00:43:08,877 --> 00:43:12,329
West Berliners arrived from
the other direction.

512
00:43:12,589 --> 00:43:16,666
They began to demolish the Wall
in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

513
00:43:34,257 --> 00:43:38,621
There was a common idea. Now
we have to get rid of the Wall.

514
00:43:40,706 --> 00:43:42,934
Everybody had different reasons.

515
00:43:46,167 --> 00:43:51,079
For me it was that I had relatives on
the other side who couldn't come over.

516
00:43:59,661 --> 00:44:02,101
When I remembered my aunt,
and how I couldn't see her

517
00:44:02,221 --> 00:44:04,720
before she died, it made me so angry.

518
00:44:04,980 --> 00:44:08,719
It was liberating to do something
against the Wall.

519
00:44:26,583 --> 00:44:29,873
It was emotional for me,
but I must confess

520
00:44:30,028 --> 00:44:33,497
that I had in mind not overreacting.

521
00:44:34,263 --> 00:44:35,898
The stupidest thing...

522
00:44:36,018 --> 00:44:38,675
that any president
could have done then

523
00:44:38,795 --> 00:44:41,827
would have been going over there,
danced on the Berlin Wall,

524
00:44:41,947 --> 00:44:44,133
and stick his fingers
 right into the eyes

525
00:44:44,253 --> 00:44:46,471
of the Soviet military and of Gorbachev.

526
00:44:46,763 --> 00:44:49,626
Who knows how they would
have had to react?

527
00:45:05,101 --> 00:45:08,679
Next morning I got a phone call.
They told me what had happened.

528
00:45:08,799 --> 00:45:10,855
I said, 'You made the
right decision,'

529
00:45:10,975 --> 00:45:12,784
because how could
you shoot at Germans

530
00:45:12,904 --> 00:45:15,781
who walk across the border to meet
other Germans on the other side.

531
00:45:15,901 --> 00:45:18,355
So the policy had to change.

532
00:45:24,754 --> 00:45:28,899
Across this Wall, two worlds
had faced each other in arms.

533
00:45:32,752 --> 00:45:35,803
Now their enmity was
dumped into history.

534
00:45:38,902 --> 00:45:40,777
Germany would be reunited.

535
00:45:41,934 --> 00:45:44,558
But Europe's revolution
against communism

536
00:45:45,046 --> 00:45:46,299
was not yet done.

537
00:45:49,645 --> 00:45:53,167
Subtitles by
Juan Claudio Epsteyn

538
00:45:54,005 --> 00:45:57,243
E-mail:
epsteyn@hotmail.com