Here you can read the first part of the escape memories of our author Airen.
That we were one of the first inhabitants of the "Pioneer Camp" of Csillebérc, was a huge hit: We caught another place in one of the bungalows. From the very first day, August 22, 1989, all buildings were completely occupied. At high pressure, the Maltese built one disaster relief tent after another on the grounds in the Budapest mountains.
While my dad helped to set up, Mom and I tried to kill time with board games. The radio was always running. Behind the scenes politicians and diplomats were fighting for a solution. Hungary would have preferred to leave GDR citizens today rather than tomorrow, but was pressured by the SED government in Berlin. And how would Russia react? Rumors went around: On 1 September, it was said, the Hungarians would open the border - so in a week! The "star", on the other hand, spoke of four to six weeks. Ultimately no one knew how it would go on.
The then 32-year-old paramedic Markus Bank from Freiburg traveled to Budapest with five brothers and his mother to help. In Csillebérc, the Maltese led the "Pamperslager", cared for babies and toddlers.
"We were on duty 24 hours a day," recalls Markus Bank, then on the spot as a Malteser helper. "Often there were so many people in the evenings that we did not know how to accommodate everyone, but the motivation was huge, and seeing how much our work was needed has given us so much energy."
Night watch against Stasi kidnappings
When Markus Bank was traveling the streets of Budapest with his Maltese vehicle, he was looking for refugees. Her eyes were full of hope, but also scared, and everyone was terrified of the Stasi. "
Everyone suspected that GDR intelligence had its agents in the camp. Newcomers often mounted the license plates of their Trabis as soon as they arrived. On 24.8. noted my mother: "Young woman was raided on toilet at night - assuming that Stasi was trying to kidnap." Refugees are organizing night watch. "
The next evening screaming cries of children came from a bush. A dozen men fell into the darkness with flashlights. There was a couple sitting in front of the fence with a tape recorder. "Again conjecture that Stasi wants to bring unrest among the campers."
During an excursion with the "Pioneer Railway" we also felt persecuted. A man took pictures of us, followed us through the compartments. Only when we got out of the train surprisingly and jumped in a departing tram, we could shake him off.
Helper Markus Bank remembers how the Stasi filmed from the rooftops opposite the Zugligetkirche into the first refugee camp. According to Bank, the press has expressed its solidarity: "Whenever agents appear on the rooftops, a camera team put a huge headlight on them - suddenly the Stasi was in focus."
A bright spot: On August 28, my parents received their FRG passports. They signed that they expected two years in prison when they returned to the GDR.
Waiting for the departure
And then it started to rain. The ground turned to mud, the people in the tents cowered on their cots. Between the catastrophic tents of the Maltese crowded more and more small tents. 1200 people were now in Csillebérc. The Red Cross had come, distributed baby food and diapers.
"Help is taking effect everywhere," my mother wrote. Refugee teachers organized lessons against the incipient camp roller, offered painting and handicraft courses. Students from Austria sent Carepakete, Hungary donated clothes. Because autumn was getting closer. How long would it be possible to sleep in the tents with babies and small children?
"4.9.1989 - No departure, disappointment," my mother noted. The night before, a family with three children moved into our bungalow. Now we were 18 people in ten beds. "6/9 - No signs of imminent departure."
photo gallery
9 pictures
East German escape over Hungary: camp, Stasi terror includedIn the second week of September, the number of refugees throughout Hungary was estimated at 45,000. Hardly anyone left the camps for fear of Honecker's captors and about missing the date of departure.
"We are happy, we are running tears"
September 10, 1989 was a warm day. The sun had come out again, and you could feel that there was something in the air that Sunday. This morning, Csilla von Boeselager, president of the Hungarian Malteser, asked for a press conference on the steps of the Zugligetkirche. Together with Wolfgang Wagner, the head of the Maltese camp, she had announced that now 6500 people were in the camps. Further details should be announced in the evening. Until then everyone should return to their camps.
At seven o'clock in the evening, a huge crowd had gathered in Csillebérc. Everything was waiting with high tension. Finally, an official of the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs took a microphone and spoke to the people.
My mother noted: "7:20 pm - Mr. Jansen from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gives the floor to the Red Cross, and the Red Cross announces that the borders are open from midnight, and anyone can leave the country in any direction Strangers embrace each other I look for Lutz We are happy and moved, we run into tears Sitting together until 10:45 pm and drinking champagne Our thoughts are going home - are they bumping into us? "
The next day, ten buses left the Csillebérc refugee camp under the press flash of lightning. We were sitting in bus number 3. Outside the windows the citizens of Budapest beckoned to us. Markus Bank recalls, "People sometimes asked us how long we would stay in Budapest, and we always said: 'We stay until the last one leaves.' Thankfully, we were able to keep that promise, and that was a wonderful experience. "
At half past five we crossed the border to Austria. "With identity card of the GDR!", Marveled mother. Press helicopters accompanied our journey from the air. Shortly before midnight we reached the Nibelungenhalle in Passau.
Traces of the Stasi
A reception like for a rock star! Everywhere cameras, cheering people - "overwhelming," wrote my mother. "Hundreds of citizens welcome us warmly, a man helps us carry our bags and invites us to dinner for the next day." Someone gave me a cherry-colored helium balloon. I had never seen anything like it. This sparkling, the bright, rich red!
My father gave interviews for French television, the BBC, the London Daily Express, a reporter from Holland. When a camera crew asked me what I wanted to do first in the West, I peeped into the microphone: "Buy Donald books!" In the first few days I was given so many bananas on the street that I could not touch them for years afterwards.
Just one week after arrival, my father found a job as an engineer and we moved to Rosenheim. The demonstrations in Leipzig and Berlin we were now pursuing from the West. "Brutal police operation," my mother noted. My grandparents were also among the demonstrators. On the phone told grandma, that time and again employees of the Stasi came to visit and asked for us.
Finally, my mother made the entry: "9.11.1989 - Incredible The borders between Germany and the GDR are on."
The day before Christmas we drove to the GDR. We entered our new apartment, which we had left four months earlier. There was no grain dust. Someone had dismantled the superstructure from the bedroom furniture. In the living room were two piles of letters. On one side stood: "Letters from Mr. K. to Mrs. K.". On the other: "Letters from Mrs. K. to Mr. K.".
In the fall of 2001, I began my civil service at the Malteser Hilfsdienst in Rosenheim. Our "escape album" is in a wooden cabinet in my parents' living room. There my mother brings it out again and again, when it is autumn and the day of our departure year.
