Der geteilte Ostblock: Die Grenzen der SBZ/DDR zu Polen und der Tschechoslowakei

Abstract

In the summer of 1984, the well-known molecular biologist Peter Bohley celebrated his mother’s birthday with his family close to Prague. Earlier the same year, Bohley had been expatriated from East Germany due to his critical views of the Communist Party and the state. Prague was the most convenient location for him to meet with his family, since travel to East Germany—thanks to laws established in 1977—was off limits for former citizens of the GDR. This is but one episode in Dominik Trutkowski’s erudite study of ‘The Divided East Bloc’. Trutkowski’s book explores the development of border security between East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland. Hungary makes occasional guest appearances, as do Bulgaria and the Soviet Union, but Trutkowski is primarily interested in East Germany’s ironic posture towards its immediate socialist neighbours: on the one hand, both Poland and Czechoslovakia were socialist brethren; on the other hand, East Germany strictly monitored the movement and contact of citizens within these countries. Proceeding chronologically from the immediate postwar period to the peaceful revolutions in 1989, Trutkowski describes not only the development of East Germany’s travel regime, but also the contacts between the Stasi and their foreign counterparts, as well as citizens’ attempts to flee.