In a last-ditch effort to preserve the essence of the SED regime, Erich Honecker was forced to resign his offices as head of state and General Secretary of the SED on 18 October 1989. He was succeeded by Egon Krenz, but the latter’s promise of “change” was drowned by the protests of the people, who did not trust him. Under the pressure of events, the council of ministers and the SED Politburo resigned en bloc. The peaceful revolution seemed to paralyze the authorities. As a result, a casual and awkward announcement by Giinter Schabowski, a member of the SED Politburo, that travel restrictions were to be eased prompted the opening of the border crossings in Berlin on the evening of 9 November 1989, ushering in a night of indescribable joy.

The GDR authorities could only watch numbly. The Wall was open. Soon it would be broken down and tiny pieces offered as souvenirs. News of the breach in the Wall reached Chancellor Kohl while he was on a visit to Warsaw. He suspended his engagements for a day and hurried to Berlin, where he addressed a crowd from the balcony of Schoneberg Town Hall. He asked them to remain calm in that joyous hour and thanked Gorbachev and Germany’s friends in the West for their support. He said the spirit of freedom had gripped the whole of Europe. Upon his return to Warsaw he signed a declaration in which Germany and Poland promised to intensify their cooperation in the cause of peace, security and stability in Europe.

The revolution in the GDR opened up the opportunity for Germany’s reunification after a wait of decades. But caution was required. Paris and London did not have German unity on the agenda. Gorbachev, during talks with U.S. President George Bush off the coast of Malta (December 1989), warned against any attempt to force the German issue. And in the GDR itself the new government under Hans Modrow, though demanding rapid reform, also wanted the GDR to keep its statehood. Helmut Kohl therefore published a ten-point program on 28 November 1989 which envisaged a “contractual arrangement” based on a confederal system leading to fundamental political and economic change in the GDR.