Günter Schabowski (4 January 1929 – 1 November 2015) was an East German politician who served as an official of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. He gained worldwide fame in November 1989 when he improvised a slightly mistaken answer to a press conference question. He died in a car crash in Germany on November 1, 2015, at the age of 87.
About Günter Schabowski in brief
Günter Schabowski (4 January 1929 – 1 November 2015) was an East German politician who served as an official of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany during most of the existence of the German Democratic Republic. He gained worldwide fame in November 1989 when he improvised a slightly mistaken answer to a press conference question, raising popular expectations much more rapidly than the government planned. In October 1989, he turned on longtime SED leader Erich Honecker and forced him to step down in favor of Egon Krenz. He was named the regime’s unofficial spokesman, and he held several daily press conferences to announce changes. In 2009, writer Christa Wolf called him ‘one of the worst’ East German politicians before the Wende, saying: ‘I remember a few appearances of him in front of the writer’s guild.
You were scared of him.\’ He died in a car crash in Germany on November 1, 2015, at the age of 87. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, a son, and a daughter-in-law. His funeral was held in Berlin on November 2, 2015. He died of a heart attack in his sleep at his home in Leipzig, Germany, on November 3, 2015; he was buried in a private ceremony in the town of Wurzburg, Germany. He had a son and two step-daughters, both of whom are still living in the U.S., and a step-grandchild, who was born in Germany in 1961. He has a daughter and a son- in-law who are both living in New York, United States. He also has a son who lives in Germany.
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