Letter, General Secretary of the SED Egon Krenz to General Secretary of the CC CPSU Mikhail Gorbachev

General Secretary

CC CPSU

comrade Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev

Moscow

Dear comrade Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev!

In connection with the developments of the situation in GDR, tonight it became necessary to make a decision to permit the exit of citizens of the German Democratic Republic to West Berlin as well.  A large gathering of people at the KPP [Kontrollpassierpunkt - checkpoint] to West Berlin demanded a quick decision from us.  Denying passage to West Berlin could have led to serious consequences whose scale would become unforeseeable.  The articles of the Quadripartite agreement on West Berlin does not bear on this decision, since permissions for exit into West Berlin to visit relatives have been given out up until now as well.  

Last night, about 60 thousand citizens of the GDR crossed the KPP into West Berlin.  Of these, about 45 thousand returned back to the GDR.  

From 6 o’clock in the morning today, only persons having the appropriate visa from the GDR can go into West Berlin.  The same also applies for permanent exit from the GDR.

I request, dear comrade Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev that you instruct the USSR ambassador in the GDR to get in touch without delay with the representatives of the Western powers with the aim of ensuring normal order in the city and of averting provocations on the state border from West Berlin.

With communist greetings

Egon Krenz

General Secretary of the SED

Berlin, 10 November 1989.