Open the Wall

East Berlin, 1989. A rumor has crowds waiting at the Wall. Clearly, orders were the thing first to flee the country, so chief border guard Schafer takes a little decision that will change the world... East Berlin, 1989, the twilight of the communist empire. It starts with a few curious East-Germans gathering around the border-crossing between East and West Berlin at Bornholmer Strasse on the evening of November 9th, 1989. They had watched TV, just like chief border guard Lieutenant Colonel Harald Schafer. They had all heard what an official announced: East-German citizens allowed to cross the border, effective immediately. Coming from a communist official, this couldn't be a joke. For a nation kept behind gates and fences for 28 years, the news sounds so strange it could be true. As the handful of East Germans begins to grow, Schafer needs something to calm his nerves and his stomach: an order. But his superior is in no condition to give orders, since he can't get an order himself. Orders were apparently the first thing to flee the country. The crowd grows and West Berliners are now coming to watch, with TV crews in tow. Schafer, orderless, confused, forced to assert himself so as to prevent a massacre, tries a different tactic: taking a decision instead of an order. Just as Schafer's men can no longer control the surging crowds, Schafer takes a little decision that soon assumes a dimension that will literally change the world.