Jumping across the inner-German border
For most of my life I lived in southern Thuringia, part of it before the Wall was taken down. Within my family we look back at many moments about which we smile today or that make us think.
In June 1928, my grandma Inge was born on the later western side of Mödlareuth. Later the family moved to a rental apartment in Gefell until Hitler supported families with many kids to become homeowners and they moved into our current house. Together with my grandma they were seven kids. When she was seven years old, she regularly worked with different farmers, sometimes entire summers, especially during the food shortage at the end of the Second World War, to support the family. During her first marriage she lived in Plauen from about the end of the 50s until the end of the 60s. Her second marriage to Hugo brought her back to Gefell, where my dad René was born in 1964. They lived with grandma’s parents Ida and Alfred in our current house. In East Germany women retired at the age of 60, men at the age of 65. Since Hugo was born in 1903, he was able to visit his daughter Margot, from his first marriage, and her husband Jochen with a visa in the Stuttgart area. When the two of them came to visit, they had to register in Schleiz first. My grandma was also able to visit her family in West Germany, shortly before she retired in 1988. She brought kiwis, sand box toys and a drill. Letting retired people go to West Germany was a strategic move – if they didn’t come back, the government didn’t have to pay them. My dad was a soldier in the East German army from November 1988 until technically April 1990. However, since the border came down in 1989 and West Germany required only one year of service, he was able to leave earlier. When he was stationed in Berlin, he was able to visit West Germany once. Dad only wanted to serve 1,5 years and was therefore called to the army rather late at the age of 24. At that time he was married and had two kids. Because of his long experience as driver, he was stationed in Berlin Strausberg and drove around high-ranking military personnel. Being close to the family wasn’t important to the officials.
My mom Maren’s family lived directly in the restricted area in Hirschberg. Before that her father Wolfgang’s family came from the Sudeten German territories, where part of them live up to this day because not everyone was exiled. Originally her mother Karla grew up in Merseburg, after her wedding she moved to Hirschberg with her first husband Wolfgang because he was stationed there. My parents met in 1984. Dad had a green certificate because he had to enter different restricted areas as a truck driver e.g., the protective strip in Mödlareuth. For work he was allowed to go to Hirschberg, but if he wanted to visit my mom, he had to show a red certificate – since the police at the tollgate in Dobareuth knew him, he was sometimes allowed to pass with his motorcycle. The tollgate was originally further north until the mid-eighties, at so called Binsenfleck about 1 km past Gefell and the area to the border was known as border area. The restricted zone came into being after that. My mom and one of her brothers were once in Schleiz and they didn’t get a bus ticket because they forgot to bring evidence that they live in the restricted area. Luckily the secretary of her school was able to convince the lady working in the ticket shop, that she knew them, and they really lived in the restricted area. Directly behind her house was the fence and the wall, behind that the river Saale. Mom and her brothers often fed the dogs which were replaced regularly because they didn’t bark at the residents anymore. Armed soldiers patrolling the border belonged to everyday life. I remember them when we played behind the house as little kids. Once my mom and her friends climbed the cliff to the castle which was part of the border strip where no one was allowed to go. One day after that, soldiers came to her school and looked for three boys, who had climbed the cliff. They got lucky because everyone knew that within the border strip, they had order to shoot.
Karla’s second husband Wolfgang came from Gefell. He remembers that his grandparents were exiled to Oßmannstedt in 1952 by action vermin (Aktion Ungeziefer). They got notice and were taken by a truck two days later with their belongings and some furniture. Others e.g., from Birkenhügel, report that people were just gone sometime the next morning, and nobody knew what had happened. The houses were expropriated and five families in Gefell were affected. In another project like that in 1962 families received money for their expropriation. The carpenter family was exiled to Oßmannstedt at that time and was able to build a house there from that money. Wolfgang’s mother had to buy back their house in Gefell, where he then grew up. His grandpa was detained by the Americans in Kornwestheim. Since he wanted to return to the East, he had to stay a full year. Others were able to leave a lot sooner. His parents once crossed the border illegally to visit him and were arrested in Hof although they just wanted to return to East Germany. Moreover, he worked in Hirschberg where he met my grandma. If Wolfgang missed the bus, he couldn’t go with his private car, but had to wait for the next one.
When the wall came down, we drove to the border in Mödlareuth, like many others. Everyone was laughing and cracking up over jumping the borderline over and over: “Now I am in the West [jump back]. Now I am in the East”. We also did that, which was a strange feeling unparalleled by any up to this day.
