Milestone fall of the Berlin Wall in Prague
When Genscher spoke the famous half-sentence
September 30, 2024, 9:58 a.m
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In 1989, thousands of GDR citizens sought refuge in the West German embassy in Prague. They hope to be able to travel to West Germany from there. On September 30th, Federal Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher finally released those waiting. A contemporary witness reports.
Jens Hase remembers the embassy fence well, which meant the leap into freedom for him. “Today the fence is a beautiful anthracite color, but back then it was rusty,” says the 54-year-old. The rust gave the hands support when climbing up. That wasn’t safe. “I still have a scar on my right hand today because I tore my hand a little on my thumb,” says Hase. “But I’m proud of it.” In September 1989, the Eisenach native was one of thousands of GDR refugees who climbed over the fence of the West German embassy in Prague and sought refuge there.
Without knowing it at the time, with their escape from the so-called workers’ and farmers’ state they also set the great wheel of history in motion. “We just wanted to get away,” says Hase, who now lives in Swabia. “Everyone had a different reason why they left.” As a 19-year-old, he remained alone in Eisenach. His parents had submitted an application to leave the country for the West, which was approved – but his own was not. The GDR did not want to do without young workers.
Now the wall and closely guarded border fortifications between the two German states separated the family. “Of course I missed my parents,” remembers Hase. “And then I noticed that they were making life more and more difficult for me at the automobile factory where I worked.” In mid-September 1989, Hase saw a report on Western television about the embassy refugees in Prague. He packed his backpack with the essentials and drove off to what was then the Czechoslovak capital.
On the train he met a suspicious GDR customs officer who subjected him to a body search. “And then she got out, the train moved on and I was shaking all over.” When he arrived at the embassy, he met many like-minded people. Day by day there were more and more refugees until the number of refugees in the “Palais Lobkowicz” swelled to around 4,500. The conditions ranged from precarious to catastrophic. Long queues formed in front of the few toilets. People slept on steps or in cots. Many had been waiting there for weeks. The risk of epidemics, a major fire or mass panic increased.
“We have come to you to tell you…”
“Looking back now, I didn’t see it as a burden because I was safe,” says Hase. The situation of the refugees caused a lot of activity between Bonn, Moscow and East Berlin – but for a long time without any results. On September 30, 1989, Rabbit was lying on “his step” to catch up on some sleep. “I woke up because it was loud. And then I immediately recognized Genscher.” An unusual experience for the 19-year-old: “I was fascinated that someone you only know from TV existed in reality.” Federal Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher asked people to go into the courtyard because he wanted to tell them something.
One of the famous half-sentences of history was then spoken on the balcony: “We have come to you to inform you that you are leaving the country today…” said Genscher, who was accompanied by Federal Minister Rudolf Seiters. The rest of the sentence was lost in the cheers of the people. Exit had become possible – but it was supposed to take trains across the territory of the GDR. “The celebratory mood immediately disappeared again,” remembers Hase.
Many believed that the Honecker regime was setting up a perfidious trap. When the people on the first train crossed the GDR-FRG border a few hours later, the cheers and relief were even greater. “The train shook,” says Hase. “It was gigantic. Everyone was hanging on the windows. It was twilight. That was the West – and we were in the West.”
A few weeks later the wall came down
The flow of refugees from the GDR could no longer be stopped. The embassy in Prague did not remain empty for long. On October 3rd, around 4,000 people were already there again. More special trains followed. When the GDR closed the border with Czechoslovakia to stop the wave of people leaving the country, it only fueled the discontent of its own population even further.
The mass demonstrations in Leipzig grew larger and larger. Under pressure from the protests, travel to Czechoslovakia resumed on November 1st. Two days later, the GDR leadership allowed its citizens to leave directly from there to the Federal Republic.
The gate in the Iron Curtain was open. It didn’t take long before even this detour via socialist countries became unnecessary: on November 9, 1989, the Wall fell in Berlin. When Jens Hase tells students about his experiences today, he is often asked why he didn’t save himself the stress and wait a few more weeks. Then he says: “Nobody knows how things would have turned out if there hadn’t been the refugees in Prague.”
