The opening of the border crossings in the Berlin Wall was announced almost casually. In the evening, Thursday 9 November 1989 r. Schabowski said at a press conference, that East German citizens can leave the country on the basis of valid exit visas, which were immediately to be delivered to everyone without delay, who will ask for it. Journalists did not believe their ears; or a message, they had just heard meant they could cross the border freely? As the news spread. confirmation of this information was sought - the television broadcast Schabowski's speech several times a day, nevertheless, the phone calls on the radio stations were cut off. Still not quite trusting, with or without visas, crowds of citizens headed for the nearest border crossings. The first people, who took advantage of the new rules was a couple, which crossed the border crossing on Bornholmer Strasse o 21: 25.
In both East and West Berlin, people started gathering near the wall. Huge crowds gathered around the Brandenburg Gate, where an impromptu street party took place. When the West Berliners were firing champagne corks and the Germans from both sides of the wall fell into their arms, Volkspolizei stopped checking documents and simply allowed the Germans from the GDR to go to West Berlin, from which they were fenced off by 28 years. Scenes of joy and disbelief spread quickly around the world, they were a surprise for everyone. The Chancellor of the Federal Republic, Helmut Kohl, even interrupted the official state visit to Poland, to go to West Berlin, where journalists from all over the world flocked. In the GDR, disbelief turned to joy, when it was realized, that it just happened, which seemed impossible for so long.
It was impossible at this time to reverse the course of events. 10 November, after 28 In the years, the Jannowitz underground station was reopened, thus restoring the underground rail link between East and West Berlin. On Saturday 11 On November, half a million Berliners from the East visited West Berlin. There were 1.5 km long queues at border crossings, and during that first weekend it was released 2.7 million exit visas. TV viewers in West Germany, and with them, viewers around the world looked with amazement at the endless lines of Trabants heading for West Berlin, where the real bonanza was experienced by shops, in which the citizens of the GDR busily spent 100 DM. each received a greeting from the federal government. 12 November Walter Momper and Erhard Krack, the mayors of both cities - East and West Berlin met, to exchange a handshake at the newly opened border crossing at Potsdamer Platz. Two years earlier, Krack refused to accept the invitation to the celebration 750 city anniversary to West Berlin, which, as he then stated, “does not exist for us”.