Keep your papers at hand: a different change in Germany

Well, this is my first timeline, English is not my first language and I'm not very sure of how this is going to develop, so I'll be expecting your ideas and suggestions.

[Berlin, Capital of the GDR, November, 9, 1989]


The Council of Ministers was over. Grey, tired men, who in the last weeks had seen their world quickly crumble apart, raised from their chairs and slowly started to pack their papers to go home. Egon Krenz, nominally the boss of it all, probably looked the worst of the lot. The generous amounts of drink imbibed during his lifetime surely weren't helping him now. He, also, was ready to head directly to the official Volvo and then to his house in the SED complex in Wandlitz. But, suddenly, he got a hitch, and took a beeline to Günter Schabowski, the spokesman for the regime, who was quickly scribbling the conclusions of the meeting in a piece of paper.
— Günter?
— Yes, comrade general secretary.
— Look, forgot what I said from the new travel law. Comrade Mielke wants to iron some details in the documentation he's going to send to the People's Police and the Border Guards, and we had programmed a cable from ADN at 4 a. m. tomorrow. Leave it out from the press conference tonight [1].
Schabowski doubted for a second.
— Are you sure, comrade general secretary? I'm certain it will take some pressure from the streets tonight.
Krenz sighed. This Schabowski oaf certainly wouldn't have doubted if it were the Old Man doing the asking. But he barely contained himself and insisted:
— I do. We need to take double care of everything we are doing right now. A mistake could be fatal.

[First German Television, Tagesthemen, November, 9, 1989, 22.15]

"... a party conference has been scheduled on December 15 to discuss the changes under the pressure of the streets and the critical sectors within the party. During the press conference, Schabowski dismissed the questions of the journalists [2] about the rumours of changes in the travel policy".

[Zinnwald-Georgenfeld border crossing, Dresden district, November, 10, 1989, 0.05]

— OK, we are closing.
The guards were awed to see his boss getting out of the cabin with a paper in his hand.
— Sir?
— New orders from Berlin. New rules apply. An exit permit is needed to cross to the CSSR. Only those with a permit could leave. With immediate effect.
— What do we do say?
The boss received the question with some shock. No wonder the country was going into the drain!
— What do you mean 'What do we do say?'. It's closed. That's it.

[ABC News, World News Tonight, November, 10, 1989, 18.30 Eastern Time]

"From Monday on, the government has promised, East Germans could ask for a permit in every police station to travel freely to West Germany. This young student is already in the queue. He wants to be the first to have a permit, he says. [VOICEOVER] "The police is allowing me to wait here, and that's new, too. It wouldn't had been possible before". [VOICEOVER ENDS] But the fact is that, right now, the country is closed out from the world again. And most people are not sure of how long and how freely can they travel. [VOICEOVER] I'm not going to ask for a permit. I live here, I like it here. I want to visit the West, but I want to come back, and what if the government changes their minds?" [VOICEOVER ENDS] Still, this gap in the Berlin Wall can be a portent of new changes to come in East Germany".

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[1] This, of course, is the POD. IOTL, Schabowski do announce the new travel law in the press conference, but blunders: he says that it applies "with immediate effect". In hours, people flood and then overpower the border crossings, and the Wall crumbles.

[2] Some people say that the blunder was not actually a blunder, because some Western journalists knew already it was going to happen. True or not, here, with express orders from Krenz, Schabowski does what he does best: he lies.
 
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