GERMANY/FILE: Former West German foreign minister and ambassador remember Prague Embassy refugees of 1989

Record ID: 722411

  • Title: GERMANY/FILE: Former West German foreign minister and ambassador remember Prague Embassy refugees of 1989
  • Date: 25th September 2009
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (RECENT) (REUTERS) FORMER WEST GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER HANS-DIETRICH GENSCHER DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (German) FORMER WEST GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER, HANS-DIETRICH GENSCHER, SAYING: "Once the border was closed between Czechoslovakia and Hungary the refugee movement started to make its way to Prague, and to the embassy there because in comparison with Hungary the then Czech leadership could not ensure that if you were in the city then you would not be brought back to the GDR. I of course spoke with the Czech Foreign Minister in New York. He was very cold and short and said 'You will have to talk to the government of the GDR about that. If they let them leave, we will let them. If they are against it however, then we will not do it'."
  • Embargoed: 10th October 2009 13:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA91JDEI6FNHYB26X36O1VRSMCP
  • Story Text: In 1989 hundreds of East German refugees gathered at the West Germany embassy in Prague. On September 30th they were given the news they had been waiting for, that they could leave and travel to the West.
    During the summer of 1989, thousands of East German refugees attempted to move to the West by travelling through other Warsaw Pact countries such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia By September, crowds of East Germans had gathered at the German Embassy in Prague, climbing the embassy fence to seek refuge inside.
    At first refugees were housed in the attic of the building, which was later extended to make room for the emergency accommodation. But as the numbers grew, tents were built in the embassy garden.
    Twenty years later, the ambassador at the time, Hermann Huber, says there had been a good atmosphere amongst the refugees.
    "We put up some tents in the park," Huber said.
    "In August the weather was still reasonably good. We even put up a tent as a school. My wife went to Weiden in Bavaria and bought school bags so that the little ones could be sent to school on September 1st like normal. We even had teachers, the wives of colleagues who were qualified but were unable to work because they were posted with their husbands," he added.
    But soon the embassy was facing major logistical problems.
    "It started to get difficult once there were more than 600 or 700 people. We realised that we were unable to buy everything, things like fresh vegetables and above all it was no longer possible for the refugees to cook for themselves, of course every tent had its own kitchen," Huber said.
    On the 24th of September there were more than 800 people living in the embassy grounds, Huber said.
    Meanwhile, Hungary had opened its border with Austria, allowing some 30,000 people to travel to the West by the end of September, a move condemned by the East German government.
    But Czechoslovakia had no intention of working against East Germany's wishes.
    "In comparison with Hungary the then Czech leadership could not ensure that if you were in the city then you would not be brought back to the GDR," said the then West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who had previously travelled to New York to discuss the precarious situation with his counterparts from the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany.
    "I of course spoke with the Czech Foreign Minister in New York. He was very cold and short and said: 'You will have to talk to the government of the GDR about that. If they let them leave, we will let them. If they are against it however, then we will not do it'," Genscher said.
    Genscher spoke mainly with the Foreign Minister of the GDR, Oskar Fischer, who Genscher said was interested in achieving a human solution.
    "And then on the Friday evening, it was the 29th of September...a message came from the office of Mr Fischer saying it would be worthwhile to speak to Mr Fischer about the exit possibilities," Genscher said.
    On the 30th, Genscher travelled to Prague where he was taken to the German embassy. There, he addressed the crowds of refugees from an embassy balcony, having managed to agree terms for them to leave.
    Looking down over the crowds in the garden, he told them they were being allowed travel to West Germany.
    "At that point you have the feeling that the many years of work were worth it," he said.
    "Then I asked if there were any people from Halle there and some shouted 'yes, here we are'. Suddenly I was among my own people," he added.
    Halle was the East German town in which Genscher went to school, studied and later worked as a trainee lawyer. In 1952 he fled the GDR for West Germany via Berlin.
    On the first of October 1989 the first refugees travelled in chartered trains from Prague and Warsaw across East German territory into West Germany. Within just a few days thousands of new refugees arrived at the embassy in Prague and were able to leave shortly thereafter.
    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.
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