Punishment upon return to East Germany for East Germans overstaying visa in the West
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 1 November 1989 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | DEU2913 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Punishment upon return to East Germany for East Germans overstaying visa in the West, 1 November 1989, DEU2913, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ac5d68.html [accessed 7 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
On 27 October 1989 Egon Krenz, three days after becoming head of the East German Communist Party and head of state, declared an amnesty for most refugees and demonstrators, stating that all those refugees who left East Germany before 27 October "will not be persecuted or punished if they return either permanently or to visit". [ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Cologne (West Germany), 28 October 1989, as reported in The German Tribune (Weekly Review of the [West] German Press), (Hamburg, Freidrich Reinecke Verlag GmbH), 5 November 1989, p. 1.] The amnesty was described by the leader of the newly-formed opposition party Opposition New Forum as a "genuine first step", which reportedly cleared "untenable vagaries of legal treatment given to refugees". [ Ibid.] According to one report, the amnesty announcement included appeals to East Germans to return home. [ "Events of three turbulent weeks", in The Globe and Mail, 8 November 1989, p. A4.] The Prosecutor-General of East Germany, Guenther Wendland, reportedly said the day the amnesty was declared that "planned changes in the penal code will scrap prosecution of those who do not return from trips abroad". [ "East German demonstrators, escapers granted amnesty by Krenz government", in The Globe and Mail, 28 October 1989, p. A1.]
Various news broadcasts and reports indicate a virtually free passage of East Germans to and from East Germany, particularly Berlin. Reports on the enforcement of the abovementioned amnesty or of reprisals against those returning to East Germany are not available among the sources currently available to the IRBDC.
