HiStory

The opening of the border 1989

This is a translation of the german story
“Grenzöffnung 1989″
written by Peter Baudenbacher and posted by Horst Hommel.

November 1989 until January 1990

A Utopian dream come true

The border in GDR times.

Impermeable for over 40 years, inhuman and as it seemed, unchangeable for ever and ever. The inhabitants of the borough Rhön Grabfeld had come to terms with it. No one ever imagined the GDR changing or the borders opening.

How wrong they were!

Suddenly, over night, the border to the GDR opened and everything changed.

People who lived in our neighbourhood in the east, they came – unstoppably, they came in droves.

The night the Trabants arrived

9^th November 1989

As locals we were literally overrun by them. Everywhere in the border villages and towns there were shattering scenes and real celebrations. People who hadn’t seen each other for 40 years–separated by the fencing–suddenly there they were again, now they could see each other and speak to each other again.

A lot also changed directly at the border. At first, slowly but then….!

All of a sudden the border troop soldiers, the ones who hadn’t bid anyone the time of day or talked at all before, SPOKE

really!

in German too!

The relatives of the border troops, the border snoopers, soldiers and officers, all the “mute counterparts”, as they had been up until then.

Slowly things went back to ‘normal’. We held long conversations with the relatives of the border troops, about everything possible. Residents from the Federal Republic and from the GDR, who were seeing the border for the first time from its western side, all stood together at the border, everyone was happy and glad that the years of separation were finally over.

After the first few weeks had passed and in the whole of the Federal Republic one crossing after another had opened, only here in Grabfeld things remained still, the call for a border crossing grew ever louder, even more acute.

In order to reinforce the claim for a border crossing, the neighbouring GDR boroughs organised a demonstration at the border near Eicha. This event was admittedly made known, but no one had thought of it as a spontaneous opening of the border.

On Saturday 2^nd December 1989 I came to a dead end in Trappstadt / Eicha when I was on

GAD duty. A federal border patrol was already present, as well as 3 GAK (border snoopers). During the course of conversation the border snoopers told us that a demonstration was currently taking place in Eicha with the aim of opening the border. The GDR however was doing everything possible to prevent an illegal border crossing. Then the federal border patrol returned to their duty at the border. Suddenly, at about 1.30 p.m. calls could be heard:

“Down with the fence, the border’s got to go!”

The GDR troops positioned at the border fence in Eicha saw no other alternative to prevent violence than to open up the barbed wire fence and to allow the protestors to pass through to Trappstadt. I immediately alarmed the Federal Border Forces and Police by radio. The mayor of Trappstadt and its inhabitants were also informed immediately. Although the entire campaign had not been prepared for this at all, it developed into a huge welcome party! The pleasure of finally seeing each other again was indescribable. This kind of emotion can only be felt by people who witnessed it themselves.

This spontaneous campaign by the citizens of Eicha and Linden led to a much quicker expansion of the Trappstadt / Eicha crossing than had been expected. Just a few days later, on 5^th December 1989, work had already begun to expand the road between Trappstadt and Eicha and it was formally released for traffic on 23.12.1989.