Günter Schabowski Quotes

Günter Schabowski was an official of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , the ruling party during most of the existence of the German Democratic Republic . Schabowski gained worldwide fame in November 1989 when he improvised a slightly mistaken answer to a press conference question, raising popular expectations much more rapidly than the government planned, so that massive crowds gathered the same night at the Berlin Wall, forcing its opening after 28 years; soon after, the entire inner German border was opened. Wikipedia  

✵ 4. January 1929 – 1. November 2015
Günter Schabowski photo
Günter Schabowski: 3   quotes 0   likes

Famous Günter Schabowski Quotes

“Private travel into foreign countries can be requested without conditions (passports or family connections). Permission will be granted instantly. Permanent relocations can be done through all border checkpoints between the GDR into the FRG or Berlin (West).”

Privatreisen nach dem Ausland können ohne Vorliegen von Voraussetzungen (Reiseanlässe und Verwandtschaftsverhältnisse) beantragt werden. Die Genehmigungen werden kurzfristig erteilt. Ständige Ausreisen können über alle Grenzübergangsstellen der DDR zur BRD beziehungsweise zu Berlin (West) erfolgen.
Press conference, 9 November 1989.

“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.”

Am meisten bedrückt mich, dass ich ein verantwortlicher Vertreter eines Systems war, unter dem Menschen gelitten haben, dass Repressionen gegen einzelne Menschen gerichtet waren, die wegen ihrer oppositionellen Haltung verfolgt wurden. Ihre Einstellung war die richtige. Meine Einstellung war die falsche. Wir waren nicht demokratiefähig, sondern haben versucht, mangels besserer Argumente uns der anderen Meinung mittels direkter Gewalt zu entledigen.
[citation needed]

“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.”

Ostalgie ist nicht mein Ding. Manchem erscheint die DDR in rückblickender Verklärung als ein Hort sozialer Sicherheit. Tatsächlich ist die DDR nicht zuletzt daran zugrunde gegangen, dass sie infolge wirtschaftlicher Ineffizienz ihre sozialen Verheißungen nicht finanzieren konnte.
from: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, 6 November 2004.

Similar authors

Otto Stern photo
Otto Stern 2
German physicist
Erich Maria Remarque photo
Erich Maria Remarque 63
German novelist
Ernst Ruska photo
Ernst Ruska 2
German physicist
Werner Heisenberg photo
Werner Heisenberg 42
German theoretical physicist
Ernst Jünger photo
Ernst Jünger 16
German writer
Hermann Hesse photo
Hermann Hesse 168
German writer
Herta Müller photo
Herta Müller 28
German-Romanian novelist, poet and essayist
Max Planck photo
Max Planck 30
German theoretical physicist
Thomas Mann photo
Thomas Mann 159
German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate
Christian Morgenstern photo
Christian Morgenstern 21
German author