German Passport History and Borders (4/4)
Part 4: History German Travel
Introduction of the Passport Booklet History German Travel
It is 1871 and freedom of movement now applies to the entire national territory. Even those who want to emigrate no longer need permission from the authorities. A North German Confederation template is introduced as a passport for everyone.
Until the Weimar Republic, these passport booklets consisted of a small cover. About 7×13 cm in size, with a brown cover. Bound on the first page of the booklet with a beautiful, visible thread.
On the first green page is the state in the German Reich where the document was issued. Then the validity and the name of the passport holder are entered. A handy passport booklet was created from large sheets of paper.
This basic structure of the passport has not changed to this day History German Travel
But it was not only the passport system that developed. With the arrival of the railroad, travel took on unprecedented proportions. Like a herd, travelers were herded into a room at the station as soon as the train arrived to show their passports.
The Prussian judge and politician Jodokus Temme complained about the border in Aachen in 1851.
"Mobility was now seen as a sign of progressiveness and a strong economy. Passport controls were an annoying obstacle."
Global Travel History German Travel
From the 1850s onwards, the states therefore reacted with a step that is unusual from today’s perspective. They gradually abolished passport and visa requirements. The subjects became free citizens, at least in theory. History German Travel
The world was only open to Europeans with wealth. At the turn of the century, a 100 km journey by rail cost a tenth of a worker’s monthly salary, while a trip to the USA cost about a year’s wages.
Travel without a Passport
When the First World War broke out, this marked the end of freedom of travel. The borders closed. The author Stefan Zweig later recalled this time of freedom in his work, The World of Yesterday.
I was always amazed by the astonishment of young people as soon as I told them that I had traveled to India and America before 1914 without having a passport or ever having seen them.
You got on and off without asking or being asked. You didn’t have to fill in a single one of the hundreds of papers that are required today. After the end of the First World War, the League of Nations took up the issue of passports.
It was not just a matter of dealing with the many people who had become stateless. The requirements for the appearance of a passport were adapted worldwide. The Polish delegation also proposed abolishing the passport system.
Passport Conference 1926
The abolition of the passport system was one of several items on the agenda of a seven-day conference of the League of Nations in Geneva in 1926, but the position could not prevail in the face of opposition from Great Britain, Japan, Germany, France and many other nations.
The adopted agreement merely recommended facilitating the crossing of borders through agreements between countries. Passports and visas were now the global standard. And has remained so to this day.
Passport Power
At least for a large proportion of people. Citizens of the populous countries of China, India and Indonesia need a visa for over 110 countries, even if they only want to enter for a short time.
People from Nigeria even need a visa for 145 countries. German citizens, on the other hand, are allowed to enter over 193 countries without a visa. Of the 198 countries currently recognized by the UN. There is almost no better indicator that somehow says something about the reputation, political power and economic position of a country than the degree of visa exemption.
Says Steffen Mau, Professor of Sociology at Humboldt University in Berlin. He has studied how visa-free travel has developed from the 1950s to the present day. You can see that the OECD countries are the top countries.
So, they are open to each other. There is a kind of reciprocity, it’s all symmetrical. In the Schengen area anyway, but also beyond that. They have huge mobility advantages, so to speak, in relation to the Global South, for example, and in particular to the African countries.
Passport Diplomacy
This has only really crystallized in the last 30 or 40 years. It didn’t exist at the beginning of the 1970s. Until then, visa regulations were primarily determined by foreign policy motives.
Former colonial powers wanted to emphasize the new form of relationship with their now independent colonies. And granted the population visa-free entry. Until the 1980s, people from India, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Ghana, for example, were able to enter the UK without a visa.
It was an easy privilege to grant as long as only a few people took advantage of it. By the time people from countries in the Global South actually came to Europe, the freedom to travel was abolished.
Today, appointments at the embassy are part of every trip to the Global North. A pile of documents must be presented, ranging from proof of salary to letters of invitation. There are also interviews by the embassy staff.
Borders as Sorting Machines
Whereas in the Middle Ages people had to ensure that they were not vagabonds, today they have to prove that they are willing to return to their home country. The fact that people remain in the country despite their visa expiring is the concern of rich industrialized countries.
The number of rejected visas is therefore high, especially for people from Africa. 47% of applications for a short stay in Germany were rejected by the German embassy in Nigeria in the first half of 2019.
This not only affects tourists who want to see the Brandenburg Gate. It also affects students, athletes and researchers. People with European passports hardly notice this exclusion.
For travelers from Germany, Singapore or Japan, the doors to the world are now open. It’s a club of privileges that we actually find ourselves in. I think we have to keep reminding ourselves of that.
Tom Topol | Passport History Expert & Author.
Featured in media incl. CNN, BBC, Newsweek. Awarded by the U.S. Department of State.
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