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Let me tell you about the most consequential mistake in modern history. It happened on a Thursday evening. November 9th, 1989. In a small press conference room in East Berlin. A man sat down at a table in front of a room full of journalists. His name was Günter Schabowski. He was a spokesman for the East German Communist Party — not a general, not a president, not a world leader of any kind. A spokesman. A mid-level party official whose job was to stand in front of cameras and read announcements