Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume X, Eastern Europe

269. Telegram From the Embassy in the Federal Republic of Germany to the Department of State¹

9557.

Bonn, April 10, 1984, 1433Z

SUBJECT

• More on Immigration to the FRG.

REF

• (A) State 97758,²
• (B) Berlin 1074.³

1. Summary: The government here has confirmed that the case of the “Prague 35” was resolved along the lines of earlier cases (i.e. the persons involved would come to the FRG after return to the GDR). Reacting to assertions made by the GDR in its first official comment on the immigration wave, officials here have also indicated that they have no knowledge of East German immigrants wishing to return to the GDR. The immigration wave, meanwhile, continues amid some sharply worded appeals to the West German citizenry to assist in the integration process in a spirit of solidarity. End summary.

2. Government spokesman Boenisch confirmed to journalists on Friday⁴ that the case of the 35 asylum-seekers in the West German Embassy in Prague would be handled along the lines of earlier cases (i.e. the persons involved would return to the GDR and subsequently be permitted to come to the FRG). The same arrangement would reportedly also apply to three asylum-seekers in the FRG’s Permanent Representation in East Berlin. Boenisch warned again in strong terms that immigration to the FRG was not to be forced by asylum actions in Western diplomatic missions. He repeated Chancellery Minister of State Jenninger’s earlier suggestion that the would-be asylum-seeker could find himself at the end of the line. It is widely asserted in the press here that this case of the “Prague 35” represents East Berlin’s last concession on the asylum front: from this point on, it is reported, the GDR intends to hold firm.

3. Last week’s first official GDR comment on the immigration wave described in Ref B, and in particular the reference to the “many former GDR citizens” who had emigrated and now wished to return to the GDR, has predictably also been the subject of attention here. The GDR’s Permanent Representation in Bonn has pointedly declined to make any statements about former GDR citizens applying to return to the GDR. Spokesmen for the Ministry for Inner-German Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior indicated late last week that the government had no knowledge of whether or how many of the Germans who had recently immigrated to the FRG had sought to return to the GDR and been prevented by GDR authorities from doing so. It was to be assumed, according to these ministries, that some immigrants wished to return to the GDR, but hard facts were simply not available, since no one in the FRG was obligated to make known the destination of his travels. It was also indicated that GDR authorities, according to all experience, were particularly cautious in granting permission for emigrants to return.

4. The prospect of Russian-German emigration to the GDR, noted in Ref B, has also garnered attention in the FRG. The press reported last week that there were indications that the Soviet Union was permitting increasing numbers of ethnic Germans, particularly from the eastern provinces of the Soviet Union, to emigrate to the GDR. Several hundred families, according to these reports, had already moved into the Dresden area over the past several weeks—and indeed into the very dwellings that had once been inhabited by those GDR citizens who recently emigrated to the FRG. Red Cross sources here reportedly have indicated that some 50,000 Russian-Germans have applied for permission to be united with family members in the FRG. Last year, however, only 1447 Germans received permission to move to the West. According to the Red Cross, this was the lowest number in 12 years. Reports here have also suggested that Russian-Germans were increasingly being forced to choose between withdrawal of their applications and emigration to the GDR (rather than the FRG).

5. The wave of East German immigration to the FRG, meanwhile, continues. Figures just released by the Ministry of the Interior reveal that during the month of March 10, 778 Germans immigrated from the GDR to the FRG. This figure compares with 2,626 in February and 1,545 in January. During the first three months of 1984, therefore, a total of 14,949 immigrants from the GDR have arrived in the West.

6. The integration of the new arrivals into West German society has continued to elicit commentary from political figures here. Last week Chancellor Kohl sharply rejected suggestions that the immigration wave could have negative consequences for the labor market in the FRG. Kohl said that if Germans were serious about the idea of a common German people and a common German destiny, the least that Germans in the FRG could do was to accept the new arrivals in a spirit of solidarity and helpfulness. If the FRG could not deal successfully with the integration of these East Germans, Kohl said, “then we can give up the thought of the future unity of the nation.”

7. Kohl’s call for solidarity has been echoed by others in the government. State Secretary Hennig at the Inner-German Ministry appealed to West German states and cities to assist the immigrants quickly and flexibly. The example of “family sponsor” programs adopted in some communities, Hennig said, should be emulated elsewhere. State Secretary Waffenschmidt at the Interior Ministry, who visited the reception center at Giessen last week, similarly called upon German citizens to show solidarity in meeting the “challenge” of integration. The chairman of the inner-German working group of the CDU/CSU Bundestag Caucus, Eduard Lintner, declared that if sixteen million persons could be integrated successfully in destitute post-war Germany, it was surely possible to integrate a few thousand into this nation of prosperity today.

8. Lintner’s Inner-German Working Group, however, has gone beyond general expressions of solidarity. The group recently visited the reception camp at Giessen and issued a 10 point paper calling attention to some very specific areas in which the integration process needed improvement. Among the points made by the committee were these:

— The federal government and concerned states should quickly join forces to provide increased financial resources for the reception camp at Giessen.

— Better medical care should be provided for former political prisoners.

— Unemployment compensation, to which the immigrants can make claim, should be paid more quickly by local employment offices. In some instances immigrants have had to wait for over seven weeks for such payments. The compensation, moreover, should be commensurate with the actual employment level of those involved and not simply with the last position held, since after applying for emigration many of those concerned were forced to take positions in the GDR that did not accord with their level of training and experience.

— Insurance offices here should be informed that the immigrants have automatic health insurance for three months. Some immigrants have encountered financial difficulties flowing from mistaken information regarding their insurance status.

— The various West German institutions involved with the integration process should perform their work more quickly. Physicians, for example, have discovered in many instances that recognition of their professional status can take a long time.

— The issue of which governmental entities should contribute what financial resources to assist the immigrants should be regulated as quickly as possible.

9. Increasingly, officials here have taken the occasion of the immigration wave to suggest that the GDR should liberalize its travel regime. Last week, for example, government spokesman Boenisch told journalists that increased travel opportunities constituted for the GDR the best means to stem the flow to the West. The suggestion has been voiced in other political quarters as well. Chairman of the FDP Bundestag Caucus Mischnick said last week that if the GDR would loosen up on its travel restrictions, fewer GDR citizens would seek to leave the GDR for good. Mischnick added that of those GDR citizens who had been permitted to come to the FRG for specific reasons (such as family emergencies), less than 1 percent had chosen to remain and two thirds of those had declared that they would never even have thought of remaining in the FRG if they had been permitted to make regular visits here. In a similar vein, SPD Praesidium Members Bahr and Wischnewski issued a joint declaration at the end of last week stressing the advantages that would accrue to the inner-German relationship if the immigration wave were to lead to a normal visit regime between the GDR and the FRG.

Burns

1. Source: Reagan Library, Paula J. Dobriansky Files, Germany, Democratic Republic of (2). Confidential. Sent for information to West Berlin, the mission to NATO, East Berlin, London, Moscow, Paris, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia, Belgrade, Copenhagen, European POLADs Collective, and POL FRG Collective.
2. In telegram 97758 to East Berlin, April 4, the Department reported GDR Ambassador Herder’s explanation as to why his government was allowing the level of emigration that it was. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D840220–0115)
3. Telegram 1074 from East Berlin, April 5, reported the GDR’s public statement regarding its surge in emigration. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D840224–0392)
4. April 6.