25 Years Fall Of The Wall – A Unique Passport
Do you remember where you were when the wall was falling? Instantly I wanted to travel to Berlin from my city in South Germany to join this historical event of my generation – but I couldn’t. It took me till May 1990 when I entered East Germany (DDR) for the very first time. My family didn’t have any relatives in the DDR, but I had a pen pal for years as we shared the same hobby – collecting coins. The wall was down, but the East German borders were still in place. I keep my Federal German passport safe with this DDR border stamp. It’s history, it’s German history, and it’s MY history. TODAY, Nov 9, 2014, GERMANY is celebrating 25 years of the FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL! fall of the wall
Besides early DDR passports, which you can find online at my website, I like to share this unique DDR passport. One of a kind indeed! Why? Because it was still used for traveling after the reunification in Oct 1990. Impossible? Possible because the German Reunification Treaty stated that DDR passports are valid latest until Dec 31, 1995. Yes, you read right! They remained valid for another five years AFTER reunification. fall of the wall
Look at the document. Issued in Berlin on March 3th, 1990, and officially expired ten years later in 2000 at the same date. The passport was given to a man from KARL-MARX-STADT (today Chemnitz). We can see stamps from Hungary in 1993 + 1994; in 1994, he moved to the city of Nürmberg (see stamp). He had frequent travels to Hungary to the border town of Hegyeshalom, which is close to the Austrian border and less than 15km away from the Slovak border. fall of the wall
The last stamp in his passport from Hungary was stamped Nov 18, 1994. So it’s indeed ONE OF A KIND! I believe you will not find such documents frequently as usually everybody was keen to get a German passport after the reunification. fall of the wall
