Berlin, Nov. 10 : Günter Schabowskim, the spokesman of the erstwhile East German regime, has admitted that he triggered the collapse of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 by mistake when he announced that travel restrictions on East Germans had been lifted.

The order to lift travel restrictions was supposed to be implemented the next day, Nov 10, with the intention of overseeing a more orderly process of exit visas, stamps and passports.

However, the Communist bureaucrat failed to realize that there was an embargo on his announcement.

During his live interview, he told a TV channel that travel restrictions had been removed and the Berlin Wall would be opened to allow the citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) to leave.

On being asked "when?" he answered prematurely: "immediately".

Within hours, the frenzied crowds clamoured to cross the border. The combination of confusion and disintegrated the Communist government within weeks.

Schabowski was expelled from the party in 1990 for bringing down the wall, and then sentenced to prison in 1997 for his earlier complicity in the shoot-to-kill policy enforced by border guards against those trying to flee to the West.

He was freed in 2000.

"I wouldn''t say I was a hero who opened the border - truth be told, I acted to try to save the GDR. On Nov 9, I was still a committed communist. The opening of the Wall wasn''t a humanitarian, but a tactical decision taken because of popular pressure," Schabowski, 80, said.

"I don''t think that history gave me a thankless task because even though my role was an involuntary one, it helped bringing the confrontation between east and west to an end," he added. (ANI)