Border, Everyday Life, Politics, East

Travel permits for East German pensioners

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locations

information

The Wall opens to East Berliners for the first time. The GDR Council of Ministers has decided that pensioners from the GDR will be allowed to travel to the West.

The pensioners are allowed to visit relatives in the Federal Republic of Germany or West Berlin once a year for up to four weeks. When they return via border crossings in West Berlin, their bags are packed full of Western goods.

The GDR authorities see this as a minimal risk: the economy has little need for elderly East Berliners. As it is, only one in a thousand stay in the West anyway.

locations

  • Bahnhof Friedrichstraße
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    1
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    52.5196615
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    13.3881497
  • Bornholmer Straße
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    1
    latitude
    52.519171
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    13.4060912
  • Chausseestraße
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    1
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    52.5387322
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    13.3769708
  • Oberbaumbrücke
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    1
    latitude
    52.5012424
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    13.4450414
  • Heinrich-Heine-Straße
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    1
    latitude
    52.5079941
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    13.4141298
  • Sonnenallee
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    1
    latitude
    52.4748634
    longitude
    13.4538055
  • Invalidenstraße
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    1
    latitude
    52.5291873
    longitude
    13.3784823