In November 1989, the Berlin Wall was breached by large numbers of East German street protestors. To the surprise of commentators (and others) it quickly became apparent that the Soviet troops observing events had received no instructions to intervene. Seeing this, the protestors got sledgehammers and began demolishing the wall. A succession of events now unfolded which led - seemingly inexorably - to East Germany's first and last free election. To Chancellor Kohl of West Germany, who had already had opportunities to discuss the situation with President Gorbachev in some detail, it may already have been apparent that the way was opening up to reunification. For most people that was not yet so obvious. Nevertheless, during November and December 1989 the East German political establishment underwent a terminal loss of collective confidence, while East German citizens cautiously concluded that they were not, after all, about to experience a re-run of 1953. The Party Central Committee and Politburo (including Jarowinsky) resigned en masse on 3 December 1989. That was the context in which, in November 1989, Werner Jarowinsky had become a deputy president of the People's Parliament ("Volkskammer"). Between 11 November 1989 and 10 January 1990 he also served as leader of the SED parliamentary group in the People's Parliament ("Volkskammer").