"Permanent departure. Difficult ways out of the GDR"
Adult education centre: Book presentation on 16 March, 7 p.m., TIETZ
On Monday, 16 March, from 7 to 8.30 pm, the Chemnitz Adult Education Centre invites you to the Neue Sächsische Galerie in the TIETZ. The book "Ständige Ausreise. Difficult ways out of the GDR" will be presented by the two editors Jana Göbel and Matthias Meisner. Admission is free.
In this anthology, journalists from all over Germany have compiled 24 stories. They talk about their motives for leaving the GDR.
And they ask: How did people live in the time between submitting an application and leaving the country, when it was better not to fall in love, when they were sitting on packed suitcases for months or years? After reading passages from the book, all those present are invited to take part in a discussion.
Anyone who submitted a so-called "departure application" in the GDR and thus applied for "release from GDR citizenship" had to expect harassment. People were also sometimes called traitors and egotists by colleagues, neighbours and even their own families. By 1989, almost 400,000 people had left the GDR by applying for "permanent emigration" because they did not want to risk their lives trying to escape. Many waited a long time to actually be allowed to leave the country.
This event is a co-operation between Weiterdenken - Heinrich Böll Foundation Saxony and the Chemnitz Adult Education Centre.
Link to the event:
https://www.vhs-chemnitz.de/suche/kursdetails.html?courseId=557-C-S2010130