German Passport History and Borders (3/4)

New Travel Freedom? German Passports Global Travel

It was now particularly important to them to control the borders. Political troublemakers were not to be allowed in or out. In order to maintain an overview, passports were standardized.

These documents were large-format papers, which typically included a description of the person and an itinerary. In the 19th century, you couldn’t just travel around at will; the country and destination of the journey were specified. And on the route itself, a visa was also issued in the respective jurisdictions, i.e. a stamp was affixed to the documents so that you could prove that you had actually followed the route and had not traveled across Europe.

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