Exit permits for DDR citizens

East Germans cheer the West German Foreign Minister in Prague 

The DDR was one of the few Eastern bloc states to reject Gorbachev’s policies of reform and set its face against the growing trend towards democratization. Despairing that they would ever see change in their country, and seeing that all the other socialist states were granting their people freedom of travel, a wave of East Germans decided to leave for the West via Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Making their way to the West German embassies in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw to collect entry permits to West Germany, this mass of East Germans overwhelmed the embassies’ capacity to process their applications, forcing the missions to close. After East Germany closed its borders to Poland and Czechoslovakia, the East Germans were trapped in diplomatic limbo. 

Meeting their West German counterparts in order to resolve the matter, East German diplomats demanded the return of their errant citizens, but then agreed to a compromise whereby the refugees would be allowed to travel to the West in special trains routed through East Germany. On 30 September 1989, the West German Foreign Minister Dietrich Genscher attempted to make an announcement from the balcony of the embassy in Prague: “We have come to tell you that today your departure…” The rest was drowned out by the deafening cheers of the 4,000 refugees. As the trains passed through the DDR, East Germans on the platform tried to jump onto the carriages, fearing they had missed their chance to leave. Shortly afterwards, however, all East Germans were allowed to leave for the West directly from Czechoslovakia.