Table of Contents
How many died trying to escape East Germany?
At least 140 people were killed or died at the Wall in connection with the East German border regime between 1961 and 1989. 101 East German fugitives, who were killed, died by accident, or committed suicide while trying to flee through the border fortifications.
How many people died trying to escape East Berlin Berlin?
During the history of the Berlin Wall (1961 to 1989), nearly 80 people were killed trying to cross from East to West Berlin.
What percentage did East Germans flee?
In the following 12 years, when travel between the two Germanies was possible, if increasingly difficult, the GDR haemorrhaged citizens. By 1961, 3.5 million East Germans had fled to the other side, 20% of the entire East German population.
How many East Germans lost their jobs?
In the years immediately following German reunification in 1990, over 14,000 East German companies were privatized and as many as four million East German workers lost their jobs.
Did anyone escape East Germany?
Refugee flows and escape attempts. Between 1945 and 1988, around 4 million East Germans migrated to the West. 3.454 million of them left between 1945 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. However, escapees were never more than a small minority of the total number of emigrants from East Germany.
Why did East Germans leave?
Escapees had various motives for attempting to flee East Germany. The vast majority had an essentially economic motive: they wished to improve their living conditions and opportunities in the West. Some fled for political reasons, but many were impelled to leave by specific social and political events.
What did West Germans call East Germans?
Ossi and Wessi (German pronunciation: [ˈɔsiː] – “easterner”; German pronunciation: [ˈvɛsiː] – “westerner”) are the informal names that people in Germany call former citizens of East Germany and West Germany before re-unification.
What happened to the East German mark?
Destruction of East German currency Around 4,500 tonnes of East German coins were melted down at the Rackwitz metal works in 1990. The currency became the property of the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) in 1994 through its merger with the Staatsbank Berlin (the post-reunification name for the Staatsbank der DDR).