- Title: Let history be a lesson, say former East German refugees
- Date: 28th September 2019
- Summary: PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC (SEPTEMBER 28, 2019) (REUTERS) GERMAN SINGER JEANETTE BIEDERMANN SINGING AT GERMAN EMBASSY COMMEMORATION EVENT FORMER GERMAN REFUGEE AND EYEWITNESS TO PEACEFUL STORMING OF PRAGUE EMBASSY IN SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1989, RAMONA ROHLING LISTENING BIEDERMANN SINGING ROHLING WITH HER SON DANNY LISTENING TO CONCERT DANY'S FACE LISTENING WITH TEARS IN EYES BIEDERMANN SINGING TO HER MOTHER IN THE CROWD AND MOTHER MAKING HEART SIGN WITH HER HANDS IN RESPONSE
- 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: LVA001AYKM3P5
- 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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