Günter Schabowski

Günter Schabowski (4 January 1929 – 1 November 2015) was an East German journalist and politician. He was an official of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), the ruling party during most of the existence of the German Democratic Republic.
Schabowski gained worldwide fame in November 1989 when he improvised a slightly mistaken answer to a press conference question, raising popular expectations so rapidly that massive crowds gathered the same night at the Berlin Wall, forcing its opening after 28 years.
Schabowski died from complications of a stroke in Berlin, aged 86.