- Title: Let history be a lesson, say former East German refugees
- Date: 28th September 2019
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (German) EYEWITNESS AND FORMER REFUGEE AND ARMY DESERTER, IN EMBASSY, ANDRE REMISCHBERGER, SAYING: "All the things we had to leave behind, just left. We didn't have that much in GDR (East Germany) times, but people just left everything behind, in the night, with the intention of fleeing. This isn't going anywhere here and the Stasi are breathing down our necks. The people opposite were spying on us. And then there were 30 or 40 of us, and we said we are not leaving here. It doesn't matter what comes next. Even if we have to sit here for three years, even if it is our prison or the like. But that it happened the way it did, thanks to Mister Genscher (Former West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher) and all the others, a thousand thanks." ETCHING OF EAGLE DRAWN BY REMISCHBERGER WHEN HE WAS IN THE EMBASSY (SOUNDBITE) (German) EYEWITNESS AND FORMER REFUGEE IN EMBASSY, ANDRE REMISCHBERGER, SAYING (SPEAKING WHILE POINTING TO GERMAN FLAG REMISCHBERGER HELPED STITCH TOGETHER) "And then we decided we were going to sew a black, red and gold flag. So we collected rags that had been left behind. This (points to black) was a kid's t-shirt, this (points to black) was part of a sleeping bag and this (white) was also a kid's t-shirt. And my first wife from back then - we didn't have any stuff like sewing kits, so I don't know where she got it from, probably the Red Cross - sewed it all together to make the flag and we hung it in our tent. And I drew this small eagle, which didn't turn out that well, but we were proud to have the tent hanging on our tent." REMISCHBERGER, HUGGING AND TALKING TO FORMER GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER, RUDOLF SEITERS WHO WAS ON THE BALCONY WITH GENSCHER IN 1989 VARIOUS OF REMISCHBERGER AND SEITERS TALKING SEITERS WALKING PAST ON BALCONY / EMBASSY GARDENS WITH RED CROSS TENTS COMMEMORATION PLAQUE WITH QUOTE FROM GENSCHER, READING (German): ''We have come here to tell you that today your departure to the West has become possible.'' SEITERS WAVING TO VISITORS IN GARDEN SEITERS SAYING (German): '' It is always a good view from up here.'' VISITORS LOOKING AROUND AND SITTING IN COMMEMORATION RED CROSS TENTS (SOUNDBITE) (German) FORMER GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER, RUDOLF SEITERS, SAYING: "I think that the citizens of the GDR (East Germany) and the peaceful demonstrators of Leipzig and the refugees can be proud of what they set in motion. At the end of the day, they participated in the bringing down of a dictatorship. And without their actions and without their stamina and without their emotion, that they showed over and over again, the reunification of Germany would probably not have happened at that time." EYEWITNESSES AND VISITORS HAVING PICNIC (SOUNDBITE) (German) FORMER GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER, RUDOLF SEITERS, SAYING: "A lot of people don't know exactly what happened then and I say, it isn't just nostalgia that we have here. In my opinion, if you don't know history then you can't forge the future and that, I think, is the most important message you can take from this." RAMONA ROHLING AND SON DANNY WALKING DOWN STAIRS (SOUNDBITE) (German) EYEWITNESS AND FORMER REFUGEE, RAMONA ROHLING, SAYING: "The final straw was actually a whole collection of many things. I wasn't happy with many things and after so many people dared to come here and then also made it then… I was always quite brave and I had a quite free upbringing, we watched West TV and my father was self-, so those were my reasons for saying, I want to live in freedom, and I want it, above all for my son so that he has a future where he can grow up in a democracy and not in a state where he has everything dictated to him." (SOUNDBITE) (German) EYEWITNESS AND FORMER REFUGEE, SON OF RAMONA ROHLING, DANNY (AGED 4 WHEN THEY CLIMBED OVER THE FENCE), SAYING: "All I can say is that I am incredibly grateful to my parents. I also have a small daughter - and that they were so brave and were able to say: No, we want to live in freedom. As I say, I have a small daughter and to have so much courage to just come with just one suitcase and to have to rebuild everything in the West. The more I think about it and the older I get the more wonderful I find it and I am just so grateful." (SOUNDBITE) (German) EYEWITNESS AND FORMER REFUGEE, RAMONA ROHLING, SAYING: (ON AFD POPULARITY) "I find it very alarming and I am also furious that the AfD or the Pegida, or whatever they are all called, that they have taken this motto: we are the people! I can't even say (cries) because, "we are the people" came from something peaceful, from something positive. And that it is being so abused now. And we fought for democracy. I mean that is why we fled because we didn't have democracy and they want to destroy this. And it makes me so mad that some people are following so blindly. And you really, really have to be careful, and you can't stay silent. You have to shout from the rooftops just how quickly a democracy can be taken away." VARIOUS OF RAMONA AND HER SON TALKING CLOSE OF RAMONA CRYING GROUP PHOTO OF EYEWITNESSES AND FORMER REFUGEES AT EMBASSY FENCE TO SHOW GARDENS
- Embargoed: 12th October 2019 18:05
- Keywords: Prague Embassy Velvet revolution Former West German Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters refugees reunification Iron Curtain Berlin Wall democracy
- Location: PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
- City: PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
- Country: Czech Republic
- Topics: Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA002AYKM3P5
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: In September 1989 a mother packed a suitcase, took her four-year old son and fled from the East German town of Greppin, near Bitterfeld to the West German embassy in Prague.
Ramona Rohling and her son Danny were part of the second wave of refugees that poured over the embassy fence hoping for safe passage to freedom and the west.
Rohling, born in 1961 the year the Berlin Wall went up, remembers how men who were safely inside the embassy grounds, willingly left again to make room for women and children.
The family was given a spot on the landing of the first floor of the embassy. Just three steps away from another little girl. Danny and the girl played together for the three days they were stuck inside.
The little girl went on to become German singer Jeanette Biedermann, also in Prague to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of German reunification.
Another former refugee Andre Remischberger was the 31st East German to arrive at the embassy.
A deserter from the army, Remischberger vowed not to leave until he could be assured of getting safely to the west.
On September 30th 1989, the former West German Foreign and Interior Ministers Hans Dietrich Genscher and Rudolf Seiters stepped onto the embassy balcony and told the crowd they would be able to leave for West Germany.
Seiters, who went on to become the head of the German Red Cross, often comes to the Prague embassy to 'enjoy the view' from the balcony. For him it is not only vital to remember the lessons the peaceful revolution taught us but to thank the people who took part in events that brought about the fall of the Berlin Wall.
On the first of October 1989 the first refugees travelled in chartered trains from Prague and Warsaw across East German territory into West Germany.
By the end of the summer of 1989 the movement of refugees into West Germany could no longer be stopped and then it was only a matter of days until the Berlin Wall finally fell.
(Production: Tanya Wood, Inke Kappeler) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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