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The East German border guard who gave the order to open the Berlin Wall 25 years ago this weekend has spoken about his momentous decision.

Lt-Col Harald Jager told how after several hours of a tense stand-off with a crowd of 20,000 protesters demanding to be let through, at 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 9, 1989, he ordered 46 armed guards to open the barrier and stand aside.

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It was the moment the Berlin Wall fell. The other border crossings followed Lt-Col Jager’s lead, and thousands of jubilant East Germans poured into West Berlin, among them the future chancellor, Angela Merkel. Some even began to climb over the wall. Its years dividing the city were finally over.

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As the crowds rushed through his checkpoint, Lt-Col Jager wept – from a combination of relief that the confrontation had ended without violence, and despair that the communist ideal he had served for much of his life had failed.

“My world was collapsing and I felt like I was left alone by my party and my military commanders,” he said. “I was on the one hand hugely disappointed but also relieved that it ended peacefully. There could have been a different outcome.”