The Collapse Quotes

“Rather than rely on false assumptions that matters were inevitable and preordained, we should remember Bloch’s warning about the bias of hindsight. The paradox of unexpected events, such as the opening of the Wall on November 9, 1989, is that they are improbable outcomes—but after they occur, they seem inevitable”
― Mary Elise Sarotte, The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall

“Another young woman, an employee of the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry, was on her way home from a visit to a sauna when the news of the night inspired her to head for Bornholmer. Her name was Angela Merkel. She had chosen a career in chemistry, not in politics, but that night would change her life. Merkel had been born in Hamburg in 1954, and even though she and her immediate family had moved to East Germany in 1957, she still maintained contact with an aunt in her hometown. On the night of November 9, once she made it to West Berlin, Merkel would call that aunt to say that she had crossed the border. It would be the first of many nights of crossing the East-West divide for Merkel, in both literal and figurative terms.72 She would soon become active in the new East German party Democratic Awakening, which would enter into an election alliance with the CDU, eventually bringing Merkel into the latter party’s ranks. As a member of the CDU, Merkel would start her phenomenal rise to the chancellorship of united Germany.73”
― Mary Elise Sarotte, The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall

“According to one analysis of dictatorships, people living under dictators have essentially three choices: to remain loyal, to find some means of exit, or to voice their discontent.50 Denied the possibility of exiting the GDR, the citizens of East Germany found their choices limited to expressing loyalty or voicing discontent, and an increasing number chose the latter in October 1989.”
― Mary Elise Sarotte, The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall

“Fleeing East Germans were to be either caught or “destroyed,” nothing else. Unpleasant details, if needed, could always be manipulated for later reports. Since, for example, shooting to defend one’s own life was always considered acceptable, troops could justify any gunfire by stating that they had believed their lives to be in danger.”
― Mary Elise Sarotte, The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall