Showing posts with label DDR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DDR. Show all posts

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Freedom Trains! ~ The Weeks Before Mauerfall, Part 3


By late September 1989, East Germans were attempting to flee to the West in unprecedented numbers. The decision to leave the country without permission was treated similarly to how going AWOL is treated in the US military. The East German word for it was "Republiksflucht" (fleeing or deserting the republic). Getting arrested for Republiksflucht meant lifetime imprisonment and forced labor, along with severe consequences for the offender's family members, such as being denied a phone (that would be a land line, not a cell), a car, a promotion or admission to college.

The East German dictatorship had a strange way with words. Republiksflucht was akin to treason, yet East Germany wasn't a republic. The country's official name was DDR = Deutsche Demokratische Republik (Democratic Republic of Germany). Yet democracy was nowhere to be found, freedom was what you had when the baker had more than two kinds of bread to sell, and choice was an alien concept for many East Germans, as evidenced in this excerpt from an earlier blog entry:
Around 1990, in my hometown Bad Oeynhausen, soon after West Germany made the unprecedented decision to exchange worthless Eastern currency 1-to-1 for hard currency Deutschmarks, I ran into a woman, 40ish, in a supermarket, who was clearly from the East, based on her clothing. I decided to be a good Western ambassador and introduced myself. She regarded me with the kind of suspicion born from a lifetime of living in fear, but then opened up a little. She told me this was her first trip to the West. That she’d come across the border from her small town in the East by train to shop in the Western markets she’d heard about. She’d been told my hometown was a small, safe place with plenty of shops far enough away from the former East/West border that they weren’t continually picked clean. We were right next to the train station. I realized this woman was likely experiencing her first exposure to what food shopping in the West is like, what I took for granted my entire life. She looked at the large display of meats and sausages in front of us and frowned. She asked me "What do I get?" "Anything you want!", I answered, with a smile that was supposed to convey "Isn’t it GREAT?" She kept frowning and said "But who tells me what it is that I want?"




In September 1989, East Germany mobilizes its army in anticipation of squashing internal dissent by deploying trained troops in groups of 100. Government-controlled newspapers in large cities print propaganda in the form of "letters from readers" demanding an end to the "anti-socialist witch hunt" and the right to live in peace and apart without being bothered by other governments or countries. None of this stops East Germans from trying to reach West German embassies in Eastern Europe. The situation in Prague is growing particularly dire. As fall weather sets in, more people are forced to sleep outdoors.






September 27, 1989: The number of East Germans at the embassy in Prague climbs to 1380. There are not enough tents for the stream of new arrivals.






September 27, 1989: Efforts to stop East Germans from fleeing are becoming more desperate. A train with East German soccer fans en route to a game in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, is turned back and nobody is allowed to get off in Ostrava or anywhere else in Czechoslovakia. East German soldiers use dogs, tear gas and batons as the train stops in Prague. The train with all passengers aboard returns to East Germany.

 







September 28, 1989: 2,500 East Germans are camped on the grounds of the West Germany embassy in Prague. More are arriving constantly.



September 29, 1989: The grounds at the West German Embassy in Prague have turned to mud. More refugees are sleeping outdoors as temperatures plunge. The German Red Cross warns about inadequate sanitary conditions and the risk of infectious diseases. Every hour, the need for a resolution grows more urgent.





From the Stasi archives - September 29, 1989: Stasi report on the "repatriation" of 95 East German citizens who were arrested at the Czech border.  The total number of arrests at that border crossing in September is 1083.





September 29, 1989: East Germany's supreme dictator (Erich Honecker, here seen in his younger years) is pressured by Soviet government representatives as well as members of his inner circle to let the refugees at the Prague embassy travel to West Germany. Honecker finally relents and permits refugees at West German embassies to board special trains that will take them to various entry points in West Germany. 

 That same week, the East German government is gearing up for a massive celebration and show of force to commemorate the 40th anniversary of East Germany. Honecker derides and dismisses the refugees, saying they aren't worth shedding a tear for. Another of his famous quotes has him proclaiming that the Berlin Wall will persevere for a thousand years, so there! (What is it with German dictators and thousand-year rule?) 

 Rumors that Honecker is gravely ill surface at about the same time. His most likely successor will be Egon Krenz.





September 30, 1989: West Germany's foreign minister and a representative from the Chancellor's Office arrive at the embassy in Prague. The atmosphere is tense and expectant.





September 30, 1989, early evening: West Germany's foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher appears on the embassy balcony in Prague to announce that those who have been waiting in uncertainty, deprivation and fear will be allowed safe passage to West Germany. Hundreds of East Germans camped at the West German embassy in Warsaw, Poland, receive similar good news. 

Here is video clip of the moments just before and after Genscher delivers the good news. Listen to the crowd's reaction as he utters the words "Ihre Ausreise" ("your departure")! Many had been camped on embassy grounds in horrible conditions for weeks.




 Preparations begin immediately. Refugees are taken by bus to the train station. Six trains are chartered, bound for various destinations in West Germany. Trains must travel through East Germany en route and many refugees are nervous, fearing the Stasi will snatch away their dream of freedom at the last minute. West Germany's Genscher assures the crowd of safe passage through East Germany.

 That weekend, the word "Freiheitszϋge" (Freedom Trains) becomes a household word - in BOTH Germanies. It may well be the first language-based concept that transcends division by way of shared experience. Like Mauerfall.

 
The above events mark a major turning point, highlighting that East Germany lost its iron grip of control over its citizens. Power had shifted. The will of the people MATTERED, for the first time in 40 years. I remember calling my dad on Sunday morning, October 1, 1989 (US coverage on pre-Mauerfall events was pitiful and I called Germany to get good info). He read me the headline of the largest German daily that covered half of the front page: "Jubilation in Prague! All can leave!" I said "What!?" and he replied "Yeah." (We never did need many words to communicate a lot). Like most Europeans, we had both feared a much grimmer outcome. He and I both knew, somehow, the world wouldn't be the same after this day. This is one reason why the new all-German holiday celebrating German unity is October 3. The world media would focus on Berlin soon enough, but it was here, in Prague, more than a month before Mauerfall, that the Iron Curtain's unrelenting stranglehold on Eastern Europe finally eased.






September 30, 1989: The first East German refugees from the embassy in Prague board one of the Freedom Trains.





October 1, 1989: The head of the German Red Cross in Prague reports that living conditions at the embassy had been catastrophic. The extent of it is becoming clear only during cleanup. For the first time in weeks the embassy grounds are deserted.



 

From the Stasi Archives - October 1, 1989: A Freedom Train from Prague - code named "Sonderzug 23 362" travels through Dresden. The trains are locked and no stops are scheduled on East German territory. Still, trains must slow down to pass through major city centers. In Dresden, three people jump the train. East German police can't stop them.

 

October 1, 1989: The last of six Freedom Trains departs Prague, leaving the embassy empty.

 

October 1, 1989: Joyous reunions in Hof, Bavaria. West German soil! Scenes like this are typical of events that transpire at a handful of West German train stations that day. Families that were forcibly separated are reuniting, for good. Many meet adult relatives for the first time. Others had not seen each other for decades.



 



October 1, 1989: Good bye, East Germany. Refugees from the embassy in Warsaw, Poland, are overjoyed to arrive in Helmstedt, West Germany. Notice the sign the guy in the middle is holding up. It is an oval international car symbol (metal, like they used to be) that says "D" for West Germany at the time (now Germany). Look closer and you'll see that something on either side of the "D" was X'd and whited out. That would be the "D" and "R" that spelled DDR (East Germany). Naturally, nobody could find anything in East Germany that in any way, shape or form referenced West Germany in a neutral, much less positive way. So this guy improvised and did it well. In coming months and years it would become evident just how resourcefully clever East Germans had grown at improvisation. Like almost superpower clever - also a skill conspicuously lacking in their West German counterparts.
 


October 1, 1989: The first train from the Prague embassy arrives in Hof, Bavaria, in the West. The German Red Cross distributes warm meals. Those arriving at West German train stations during the first days of October are largely families with children and young adults.









From the Stasi archives - October 1, 1989: Meanwhile, back at Stasi Central... A Stasi agent reports that arrival of the Freedom Trains in West Germany caused media spectacles most decadent. He also notes that it was "disgusting" to witness the new arrivals cheer with joy.







October 2, 1989: Let us in! One day later, a new wave of East German refugees arrives at the embassy in Prague. They are eventually let in.





From the Stasi archives: October 2, 1989: An East German government official tells the West German Office of the Chancellor that "Allowing East Germans to leave from embassies was a one-time event and won't be permitted again!"



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Saturday, November 1, 2014

The West German Embassy In Prague ~ The Weeks Before Mauerfall, Part 2


After hundreds of East Germans were able to depart East Germany for West Germany once Hungary temporarily opened one border crossing in September 1989, what everybody wanted - nobody more so than the East German communist power structure - was for things to "go back to normal". That is to say, everybody hoped East German citizens would quiet down now and go back to suffering and living in fear without complaints. It was a nice fantasy that would be shattered within a few short weeks. East Germans had gotten a taste of freedom. The most determined of them continued to risk their lives in a desperate bid to make sure the door that briefly opened to the West would not slam shut again for good. Hungary wasn't the only escape route to the West. East Germany also shared borders with Poland and Czechoslovakia - Warsaw Pact countries - where it was easier for East Germans to travel. 

 The West German government always made it clear that its standing policy was to welcome and support any East German citizen who could make it to West German soil. By definition, this included West German embassies. Not long after the first few hundred East Germans arrived in West Germany via Hungary, East Germans began an Occupy movement way before it was a thing and crossed into other East European countries, making their way to West German embassies there, seeking asylum and refusing to leave. This soon caused a worsening refugee crisis at the West German embassy in Prague, Czechoslovakia, which was unprepared to deal with the influx of people. The situation grew increasingly desperate as basic services such as sanitation or tents were in short supply. The fall weather grew inclement. Hunger and disease were pressing concerns. Yet more and more East Germans continued to arrive at the embassy in Prague, hoping for a path to freedom.

 West Germany did not have an embassy in East Germany. The closest thing to an embassy that existed in East Germany during the Cold War was a position entitled "Permanent representative of the West German government in East Germany". This accommodation was in title only, and did not confer diplomatic status or treat the space were the representative worked as sovereign West German soil. In order to reach a West German embassy, East Germans had to leave their country. And so people fleeing East Germany headed for Prague.


Meanwhile, inside East Germany, the council of Protestant Churches urges internal reform: Demands for more than ONE party, newspaper and TV channel, as well as unrestricted travel and economic reforms. For 40 years in East Germany, churches were neglected. The brand of communism practiced in East Germany had no use for religious or spiritual pursuits. Many churches in larger cities were never rebuilt after they were bombed out during WWII. Religion and religious services did not figure prominently into East German daily life. On the surface. In reality, religious practices continued, partly in "approved" churches, partly underground. The social networks people formed through church involvement eventually became stepping stones of peaceful dissent. Pastors like Christoph Wonneberger at Nikolai Church in Leipzig became the face and organizers of church-centered demonstrations that grew from a few hundred initially to attract more than 1 million protesters in the final weeks before Mauerfall.




From the Stasi archives: A telegram from supreme dictator Erich Honecker to the East German communist party, SED (Socialist Unity Party) sent on September 22, 1989. Yes, it really does start off with "Dear Comrades". It admonishes party members to squash enemy activities at the root as well as to target and isolate the leaders of these "counter-revolutionary activities". East German communism was based on Marxism and the concept of The Revolution that would transform society so that all the wealth is spread around, private ownership doesn't exist and everybody is equal. That was, in theory, East Germany's goal, so any activities threatening the status quo were branded as "counter-revolutionary".





September 22, 1989: Refugees at the West Germany embassy in Prague. The West German Red Cross uses a portable kitchen to serve a meal: pork chops, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. It seems like a small detail, yet that meal is as German as German gets. The fact that both East and West Germans knew this foreshadows how much East Germans weren't really refugees, but simply Germans looking for a new home.





September 23, 1989: More and more East Germans arrive at the West German embassy in Prague. The portable kitchen is being moved to another location where it is needed. 





September 23, 1989: Governments watching events unfold don't really grasp what is coming down the pike. This document transcribes a conversation between Gorbachev and U.K. prime minister Thatcher, where she insists that Great Britain totally opposes German re-unification. Umh... okay, noted.





September 20, 1989: Internally, the Soviet ambassador to East Germany reveals his government's position - "We will support East Germany, but not at the cost of our interests in West Germany and Europe. Translation: "No. We will not send troops, guns and tanks to East Germany to keep their people from fleeing to the West." This Soviet hands-off approach to events in East Germany was crucial in allowing the events to unfold that led to Mauerfall. Soviet invasion was also the One Thing many West Germans feared, including my mother. The U.S. also showed restraint, despite military advisers to Bush Sr. pushing him to "take Eastern Europe". Whenever I hear an American claim that "we won the Cold War!" I point out that, no, we didn't. First, events leading up to Mauerfall were about peaceful change, not war. Second, if anyone won anything, it was Mikhail Gorbachev for choosing to de-escalate. 





September 19, 1989: 510 East Germans refugees are now camped out on the grounds of the West German embassy in Prague. The flag in the picture is that of West Germany.





September 19, 1989: Correspondence between West Germany's secretary of state and embassy in Prague. A decision is made to close the embassy temporarily. This does not discourage the arrival of more refugees.





From the Stasi archives: September 20, 1989 - Secret police report regarding flyers in the city of Arnstadt, inviting East Germans to come to a peaceful protest on September 30 and to openly criticize the arbitrary policies of East Germany's communist ruling party, SED. The Stasi documented the flyer, reproducing it in full, including the poem that appeared on the flyer. Here's a translated sample:

What kind of life? - When freedom was stillborn and everything seems lost.
What kind of life? - When fear rules every day, where the end never seems to end.
What kind of life? - When a very few have everything and there's no way out for people like us.






September 24, 1989: The number of East German refugees at the embassy in Prague climbs to 865. In the previous 24 hours alone, 135 East Germans scaled the fence of the shuttered embassy to reach West German soil - or at least the glimmer of a chance to reach West Germany itself.





September 24, 1989: Possibly due to pressure from East Germany, the Czechoslovakian government begins tight controls on its borders with Hungary in a bid to prevent East Germans from leaving the country and to persuade them to return to East Germany. Instead, refugees continue to mass at the embassy in Prague, as the weather turns frigid.




September 25, 1989: A demonstration in Leipzig, East Germany, attracts a record 5,000 participants demanding internal reform. A few days earlier, protesters had filed for permission to make Neues Forum (New Forum) on officially permitted group working to have a voice in government. East German functionaries turned down the request. Protesters chant "Legitimize Neues Forum!"





From the Stasi archives - September 26, 1989: East German secret police is out of its league, unable to stem the flood of protests and acceptance of Neues Forum. The report states that some East Germans were overheard saying that "These sort of things simply cannot continue to happen on Monday evenings!" The document also contains a lot of waffling about how the Neues Forum movement itself isn't an actual threat to anything and that it can be made to go away if they just zero in on the "instigators". 
Translation: "Gaahh!! What are we gonna do?!"





From the Stasi archives - September 27, 1989: East Germany's defense minister calls for increased army mobilization in East Berlin as well as for more effective "border protections". Like many alarmist Stasi documents from the time, specific details on how to accomplish all that are conspicuously absent. 






September 26, 1989: West Germany's intelligence service (BND) concludes that "there is nothing about these current events that suggest they are an explosive mix that could lead to a repeat of June 17th, 1953", the date of an uprising in East Berlin of the type that hastened the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961.





From the Stasi archives - September 25, 1989: Stasi telegram about a demonstration at the Nikolai Church in Leipzig. Protest organizers used the term "Monday Prayer Services" and "Prayer Services For Peace" to refer to gatherings that doubled as demonstrations for the Neues Forum platform. Whoever wrote this report appears to be particular incensed by this use of language and constantly puts the words "Montagsgebet" (Monday Prayer Services) and "Friedensgebet" (Prayer Services For Peace) in quotes. The author is also alarmed at the pastor's calls for expanding Monday Prayer Services to other days and locations since the Nikolai Church in Leipzig can no longer accommodate the number of protesters.







September 25, 1989: Czechoslovakian military police guard the entrance of the closed West German embassy in Prague. East Germans refuse to move.






September 25, 1989: Owning a Trabant (aka Trabi) was a sign of being a good East German citizen loyal to the party line. The East German state did produce cars (a single make and model, of course) and doled them out via waiting lists and background checks to people the government considered somehow deserving. The fact that East Germans were photographed fleeing East Germany in their Trabants was particularly embarrassing to the East German propaganda machine. Photo shows refugees arriving at West German embassy in Prague.






From the Stasi archives - September 24, 1989: A telegram from the Stasi leadership to its rank and file exhorting Stasi agents to step up detention of East German citizens attempting to cross East Germany's border with Poland. This may have been a rare instance of actual foresight by the Stasi leadership, but... too little, too late.






September 26, 1989: East Germans continue to arrive on the grounds of the West German embassy in Prague. Children peak through a fence, facing an altogether uncertain future.




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