You write :"Another journalist (it is unclear who) again asked when the new rules came into force." oh,no -it s very clear : Peter Brinkmann from BILD, the German tabloid. http://www.brinkmannpeter.de/pageID_4010743.html (with engl. transl.)

An outstanding article on what has been one of the darkest realities of the oppressive rule of human socialism and communist propaganda. Cosmin Pascu Editor of Bisericata.com

Great article! I hope that today cast light to our future, because we live difficult days, socialism is still strong in our schools and in our politicians. Best, Pedro Erik

A footnote to Johnson's moving story: I was in the room myself that evening, as a correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and I was the only journalist who pursued Schabowksi to his waiting limousine. We had a brief conversation, in English, that went like this. It is verbatim. ME: "Mr. Schabowski, are you really saying that the Wall is now open?" HIM: "We intend to give the people who are in this situation, and which believe that they can't find another way, relief. And on the other hand it is relief for our friends in Czechoslovakia." ME: "Aren't you afraid that there will be a huge exodus as a result of this?" HIM: "Nobody can say what will be the result of this step, you see, but we try to do the best for the people." With that, Schabowski ducked into his waiting car, and left. In fact, of course, the "people" reacted by doing what was best for themselves, and Schabowski and his crew were consigned to the dustbin of history.

Thank you, sir! Were it not for you, I would still be living in my small village outside Moscow, sleeping each night on a straw mat in a mud hut with too many fleas and too little wood to create heat in this bitterly cold Russian winters, with only a used bottle filled with locally made Vodka for comfort.

Interesting article so far(one minor correction: it was Walter Ulbricht, not Honecker, who erected the Wall in 1961. Honecker didn't become dicator of the GDR 'til 1971, although I think it was he that initiated the 'shoot to kill' policy against attempted defectors) Mr Barbieri's words above are beautiful btw.

By the summer of 1940, liberty in Europe was confined to the besieged British archipelago; elsewhere it had gone down in flames, except for the remote vastness of North America. People seriously believed that history had condemned what they saw as the West's brief flirtation with representative government. Within fifty years, liberty and representative government were to reach into the most remote corner of Europe and become living realities over vast swathes of the rest of the world. We have seen it happen; and while it is always true that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, nevertheless I do not fear for it, myself. The history of liberty is only just begun.