East German refugees on the way to West Germany, 8 November 1989. The border to Czechoslovakia had been reopened on 2 November, and tens of thousands of people continued to leave the GDR by this route. The government hoped to stem the tide of refugees with a new travel law.
Quelle: ullstein bild/Werek
The border to Czechoslovakia had been reopened on 2 November, and tens of thousands of people continued to leave the GDR by this route. The government hoped to stem the tide of refugees with a new travel law. The draft legislation was published in the party newspaper Neues Deutschland on 6 November.
Quelle: Neues Deutschland, 06.11.1989
The well-known theatre and film actress Käthe Reichel put the general outrage over the new travel regulation in a nutshell in an open letter to the government.