People
Mary Elise Sarotte

Mary Elise Sarotte Quotes

Total quotes: 1

Mary Elise Sarotte

Birthname

Total quotes: 1

“The Wall’s opening was not a gift from political elites and was in no way predetermined. It resulted from a remarkable constellation of actors and contingent events that came together in a precise but entirely unplanned sequence. 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. In 1989, on both sides of the border between the two Germanys, hundreds of thousands of troops along with thermonuclear weapons stood at the ready. Gorbachev had certainly been trying to reduce tensions, but he could have been felled by a single bullet, and the capability of the Soviet Union to start a nuclear war remained. Local actors were capable of using force as well. If a member of what Karin Gueffroy had called the brutal quarter had been on duty at Bornholmer Street on the night of November 9, the outcome of the events of that night could have been very different.”

— Mary Elise Sarotte, The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall

Tagged: The Butterfly Effect of History, How Things Could Have Been Different, Berlin Wall

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