Riccardo Ehrman represented the Italian news agency ANSA at Schabowski’s press conference.
Ehrman was ANSA’s Berlin correspondent when he attended the East German government press conference on 9 November 1989. Near its conclusion, he asked Günter Schabowski whether the recently announced travel rules were a mistake and then pressed him about when they would take effect.
Schabowski consulted a paper and answered that the regulations would take effect immediately, or “without delay.” That answer was not what East German officials had intended to communicate: the new travel arrangements were supposed to be introduced through an orderly process. News reports nevertheless spread quickly, and Berliners soon gathered at the Wall’s checkpoints. Border guards, lacking clear instructions, eventually allowed people to pass.
Ehrman is therefore closely associated with the Wall’s opening, but he did not personally order the borders opened. His questions exposed the confusion in the new policy and helped produce the live broadcast that sent crowds toward the checkpoints. ANSA was an Italian agency; AFP, DPA and Reuters were different news organizations.