One of the great unsung heroes of modern times is Lt Colonel Harald Jäger, an East German border guard who was the commanding officer at the Bornholmer Strasse checkpoint in central Berlin on that wondrous night of 9 November 1989.
There are heart-rending stories of those who were shot ‘wall jumping’, the near-impossible method of escape
By 10.30 p.m., 20,000 people had massed in a narrow street, demanding to be allowed into the West, on the other side of the Wall – though at that crossing point the border was just a pair of gates. The mood was extraordinarily tense as the crowd became angrier. Whenever Jäger asked for instructions from his bosses in the Politburo or the higher brass in the army they panicked and told him to do nothing and wait. But things were too urgent. For the first time in his army life, I recall him telling me later, he disobeyed orders: ‘All I was concerned with was to avoid bloodshed.
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