Former E. German Wall guard recalls 1989

BERLIN, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- A former East German border guard says he was "no hero" for allowing people to swarm over the Berlin Wall the night the communist regime fell in 1989.

Harald Jaeger told Euronews.net Sunday he reluctantly decided to let East Germans freely cross the border on the night of Nov. 9, 1989.

"I am no hero," he said. "I've did what was the only right thing to do on that evening back then. For everything else we have to thank the citizens of (East Germany) who stood in front of us."

Twenty years after the historic occasion, Jaeger told the Web site he "had the most beautiful and most terrible night at the same time."

"It was terrible because I realized that the party and the authorities had let me down and that my own colleagues did not stand behind me," he said. "And particularly, my ideology completely fell apart back then."

The one thing he did take credit for, he said, is that "no blood was shed that evening, just tears of joy and cold sweat, nothing else."