One of the Most Important People You've Probably Never Heard Of

We teach children that in history things have long term causes and short term causes. It can't be true that the First World War broke out because an Archduke was assassinated; no one is that popular.

The spectacular collapse of the Eastern Bloc between 1989 and 1991 has many long term causes. The structural economic problems of command economies, political repression, the inability of the Soviet Union to keep pace with NATO's defence spending, the courage of a handful prepared to stand and fight, peacefully, for a better life. All helped to fatally undermine the Eastern Bloc.

And short term? On 9th November 1989, the East German government announced a package of measures, designed to relax border controls with West Germany. These were designed to be phased in over a series of months. But no one had thought to tell Guenter Schabowski, the government spokesman sent out to face the media. When asked when these measures were to be introduced, he replied:

"This occurs, to my knowledge... immediately... without delay."

The rest, as they say, was history:

Guenter Schabowski died over the weekend. His cock up on that November night stands as a reminder that, for all the deep underlying currents which drive history, sometimes individuals act as the trigger for massive change.