Former East German refugees have marked their successful 1989 escape to West Germany at the German Embassy in Prague. The event would eventually lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification.
Advertisement
A ticket to freedom
03:37
Hundreds of former refugees returned to the German Embassy in Prague on Saturday to commemorate their escape from the former East Germany via the Czech capital 30 years ago. Accompanied by visitors that included children and grandchildren, many wept as they remembered the momentous day.
"Emotions are welling up," Hilmar Zander, a 65-year-old former refugee in attendance, told the dpa news agency. Zander came to the embassy with his wife and two small children in 1989. "It was worth it," he said.
In commemoration of the day, the embassy recreated the scene from 1989, including emergency tents and large pots of soup similar to the food refugees ate at the time.
Desperate measures
Starting in the summer of that year, more and more East German refugees made their way to the West German Embassy in Prague with the goal of emigrating. Many scaled the fence surrounding the embassy to enter. By September, thousands of men, women and children were living in makeshift tents on the property.
On September 30, West Germany's then foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, announced their fate from the embassy balcony. "Fellow countrymen, we've come to you to share the news that as of today…." The rest of his statement ("…your departure into the Federal Republic of Germany is now possible") was famously drowned out by the cheers of thousands of refugees.
Between September 30 and October 4, 1989, around 13,000 East German citizens traveled by train from Prague to their new home in West Germany.
World commemorates victims of communism
Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, around a third of the world’s population lived in communist countries. The collapse of the Eastern Bloc was followed by a worldwide rehabilitation, in which Germany had a special role.
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
The Czech Republic: Memorial for the victims
Seven bronze sculptures stand on a white stairway at the foot of the Prague Petřin Hill. Inaugurated in 2002, the memorial was originated by sculptor and former political prisoner Olbram Zoulbek. In the inscription of the pedestal it is not only dedicated to those, "imprisoned or executed but also for all those whose life was ruined by totalitarian despotism."
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
Germany: Hohenschönhausen Memorial
More than 11,000 people were imprisoned between 1951 and 1989 in the remand center of the GDR secret police (Stasi). Previously the grounds, in the Berlin neighborhood of Hohenschönhausen, were used by the Soviet occupying power as a special camp for alleged regime opponents. From there, the prisoners were transported to the Nazi-built concentration camp Sachsenhausen.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/P. Zinken
Romania: Remembrance of the resistance
Since 2016, this 20-meter-high memorial made up of three wings by the sculptor Mihai Buculei has stood on the pedestal of a torn-down Lenin statue in Bucharest. It is situated in front of one of the most important buildings from the Stalin era, at Free Press Square. The initiative was the idea of the Association of Former Political Prisoners.
Image: Florian Kindermann
Albania: "House of Leaves"
In Tirana, the first memorial after the overthrow of the Stalinist regimes was opened in 2017. During the Nazi era, the German occupiers had used the building as a prison. After the Communists came to power in 1945, people were tortured and killed here. Later the secret police used the "House of Leaves," which got its name because of the climbing plants on the exterior of the building.
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
Georgia: Museum of Soviet Occupation
In Gori, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator still enjoys hero status in the museum named after him – 65 years after his death and 27 years after Georgia regained its independence. Currently there are plans to overhaul the exhibition. The crimes committed under Stalin have only been a central issue at the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi since 2006.
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
Kazakhstan: Victims of the famine
Around 1.5 million Kazakhs fell victim to the famine of 1932/33, caused by mismanagement and forced collectivism. The sculpture ensemble in Astana is dedicated to the dead. It was inaugurated on 31 May 2012, the national day of remembrance to the victims of political repression.
Image: Dr. Jens Schöne
Latvia: The Freedom Memorial
"Milda" is the nickname given to the 19-meter-high obelisk of a woman’s enthroned figure in Riga. It was erected in the 1930s, before the Soviet occupation in 1940. The statue is the central memorial for Latvians for their will to freedom and self-determination. In past decades it has repeatedly served as the starting point for protests and resistance.
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
Mongolia: Victims of political repression
Located between Russia and China, Mongolia suffered under foreign occupation and exploitation for nearly all of the 20th century. For a long time, it was both politically and economically dependent on the Soviet Union. The museum to the memory of the victims of political repression was opened in 1996 in Ulan Bator; a year later, the memorial was added.
Image: Torsten Baar
Korea: "Bridge of Freedom"
The bridge over the Imjin River, erected at the beginning of the 20th century, is the only bridge connecting North and South Korea. It was of great military importance during the 1950-1953 Korean War. On the southern side via a wooden pier you can reach the border. Many visitors leave flags and personal messages at this place.
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
Cambodia: Victims of the Khmer Rouge
An estimated 2.2 million Cambodians were killed during the terror regime of the Khmer Rouge. That was approximately half of the population. After the invasion, also by communist troops from Vietnam, human remains and skulls were publicly exhibited, in order to document the crimes. Even today, many mass graves have yet to be discovered.
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
USA: Goddess of Democracy
This statue in Washington DC, inaugurated in 2007, is a replica of the "Goddess of Democracy" erected by Chinese students in 1989 during their fatal protests on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Local politicians worked alongside eastern European freedom fighters such as Vaclav Havel and Lech Wałesa to erect this memorial in the US capital.
Image: Prof. Dr. Hope Harrison
USA: The victims of Katyn
In 1940, Soviets murdered around 4,400 Polish prisoners of war – mainly officers – in a forest near the Russian village of Katyn. In Poland, the massacre is synonymous for a series of mass killings. The initiative for the memorial in New Jersey, which is dedicated to all the victims of Soviet communism, started with Polish migrants in the US.
Image: Dr. Jens Schöne
12 images1 | 12
'First stone to break from the wall'
"That was essentially the first stone to break from the wall," said Rudolf Seiters, a former government minister who had stood at Genscher's side during the announcement, on Saturday. The Berlin Wall, the physical barrier that separated East and West Germany, fell just weeks after the Prague announcement, leading to Germany's reunification in 1990.
"We can never cast aside the memories of this time," Christian Bürger, a spokesman for the refugees in 1989, told the EPD news agency on Saturday.
"We, too, should offer a hand to people in danger," said former refugee Markus Rind, today the director of the Dresden Symphony, as a plaque remembering the events was unveiled at a Prague train station.