Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Day)
Germany is celebrating its unity since 1990 today, before this date there have been East and West Germany (German Democratic Republic and Federal Republic of Germany). Actually, the GDR was not as democratic as it claimed to be. There was no free speech, only one party and surveillance everywhere. Many people worked for the secret police (Stasi) as so called inofficial employees (Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter) to have an eye on their neighbours.
If people were seen trying to escape from East Germany to West Germany they were shot. The border between both parts of Germany (not the wall in Berlin) included mines and spring guns. Some people still managed to escape: Somebody crossed the wall in Berlin with a rope over a small street, another family escaped to Bavaria with a balloon.
Image of the wall taken by carlos_seo
In 1989 then, people in East Berlin started to demonstrate against the government together (if they had been too few, everbody would have been arrested) and called for the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Meanwhile Hungary began opening the wall and many people tried to reach Austria from there. Others escaped to the West German embassies.
From November 9, 1989 on East German citizens were allowed to travel to West Germany, some more border crossings have been built. As time passed by, people going to West Germany illegaly were more and more tolerated, until there was the official union at midnight of October 3, 1990.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
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