It’s significant that the translation into English is “desertion from the republic.”Īn unapproved exit from East Germany soon became punishable by imprisonment. Republikflucht was the term given to those who sought to leave the GDR.
Is it not an act of political depravity when citizens, whether young people, workers, or members of the intelligentsia, leave and betray what our people have created through common labor in our republic, to offer themselves to the American or British secret services or work for the West German factory owners, Junkers, or militarists? Does not leaving the land of progress for the morass of an historically outdated social order demonstrate political backwardness and blindness?” Workers throughout Germany will demand punishment for those who today leave the German Democratic Republic, the strong bastion of the fight for peace, to serve the deadly enemy of the German people, the imperialists and militarists.” Is it not despicable when for the sake of a few alluring job offers or other false promises about a ‘guaranteed future’ one leaves a country in which the seed for a new and more beautiful life is sprouting, and is already showing the first fruits, for the place that favors a new war and destruction? Those who let themselves be recruited objectively serve West German Reaction and militarism, whether they know it or not. “Both from the moral standpoint as well as in terms of the interests of the whole German nation, leaving the GDR is an act of political and moral backwardness. A propaganda booklet published at that time read: Just a formality, folks, sorry for the inconvenience.īut then, with little fanfare, East Germany was officially declared the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and the prospect of international travel began to change.Įmigration laws were tightened. Today, as in Germany in 1945, the would-be traveler is getting used to the idea of gaining approval to travel. Not so much a ban on travel as a nuisance. Shortly after World War II in 1945, the USSR occupation began limiting the freedom of East Germans to travel into West Germany.Īt first, the restrictions were mild, much as we’re seeing in countries like the US today – more red tape, longer waits, etc.
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