Frieder Reimold, journalist who wrote AP’s iconic ‘East Germany opens borders’ bulletin, dies at 80

Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Frieder Reimold, the former Berlin bureau chief of The Associated Press German-language service who wrote the iconic 1989 bulletin that East Germany had opened its borders, has died aged 80, his family said. Reimold was listening to a televised evening briefing by an East German official on Nov. 9, 1989, who announced that the the country was lifting its travel restrictions across its border into West Germany. The offhand comment — that East Germany was opening the Berlin Wall and the heavily fortified border with West Germany — led Reimold to type out what has become his iconic alert: “DDR oeffnet Grenzen” — “East Germany opens borders.” He died Thursday in Berlin of complications related to cancer, his daughter Nancy Stephan told the AP.