Читать книгу Where in the World is the Berlin Wall? - Группа авторов - Страница 18

Despite the deadly threat and many failed escape attempts, 40,101 people managed to flee from the GDR to the West during the 28 years that Germany was divided by the Berlin Wall and the barriers along the Inner-German border. 5,075 escaped over border fortifications in Berlin.⁴⁴ In order to alleviate the inhumane situation resulting from German division, the government began looking for humanitarian solutions for those who had been affected. In December 1963, the West Berlin Senate negotiated a pass agreement with the GDR authorities that allowed West Berliners to visit their relatives in East Berlin for the first time since the Wall was built. 730,000 citizens made use of this between 19^th December 1963 and 5^th January 1964. In total, 1.2 million visits were registered. In the same year, after holding dificult negotiation talks, the Federal Republic managed to buy the first political prisoners in the GDR out of prison. This is how 33,755 political prisoners were bought out of prison and resettled in the West by the time the GDR had collapsed. Large sums per capita had to be paid for this.⁴⁵

New rules to allow pensioners to travel were also agreed in 1963. The real breakthrough came in the course of the German government’s “Neue Ostpolitik” (new politics for the East) under Willy Brandt. The GDR wanted to be accepted as an equal partner under international law on the international stage. In order for this to happen, the GDR had to adhere to humanitarian and political norms. In 1972, as a result of the social, political and economical agreements made between West Germany and some of the Eastern Block, new rules were put in place in relation to travel and visits (these were referred to as the Ostverträge in German). It was also agreed at the same time that East Germans would be allowed to visit relatives in the West in exceptional circumstances.

Following the Helsinki Declaration in 1975, scores of GDR citizens called upon the last act of the Declaration to demand the right to choose their place of residence and made applications to emigrate. The wave of people escaping East Germany had been dramatically reduced due to the laying of mines and automatic firing devices along the Inner-German border. However, in 1975, there was a wave of people applying to emigrate.⁴⁶

In 1975 alone, there were over 20,000 applications made by people wishing to leave the GDR and the numbers were increasing. The state security apparatus was purposefully expanded in order to reduce the number of people wishing to leave.

Under domestic pressure in 1984, the GDR government let 21,000 applicants leave the country and started a surge of arrests as a deterrent.The hope that this would solve the problem was not fulfilled. In view of the successful applications to leave the country, the number of applications rose sharply. Even when travel opportunities for GDR citizens to the West were further relaxed in 1986 and visits to relatives became possible to a greater extent, the desire to leave the country did not decrease, but increased again by leaps and bounds. The discontent amongst the population of the GDR had rapidly increased as a result of a worsening economic situation and daily indoctrination.