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Escape Attempts And Victims Of The Inner German Border
There were numerous escape attempts and victims of the inner German border during its 45 years of existence from 1945 to 1990. 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. The great majority simply walked across the border or, after 1952, exited through West Berlin. After the border was fortified and the Berlin Wall was constructed, the number of illegal border crossings fell drastically. The numbers fell further as the border defenses were improved over the subsequent decades. In 1961, 8,507 people fled across the border, most of them through West Berlin. The construction of the Berlin Wall that year reduced the number of escapees by 75% to around 2,300 per annum for the rest of the decade. The Wall changed Berlin from being one of the easiest places to cross the border, from the East, to one of the most difficult. The number of ...
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Inner German Border
The inner German border ( or ''deutsch–deutsche Grenze''; initially also , zonal boundary) was the frontier between the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the West Germany, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. ''De jure'' not including the similar but physically separate Berlin Wall, the border was an irregular L-shaped line, long. It ran south from the Baltic Sea and then east to the border of Protection of Czechoslovak borders during the Cold War, Czechoslovakia. It was formally established by the Potsdam Agreement on 1 August 1945 as the boundary between the Allied-occupied Germany, Western and Soviet occupation zones of Germany. On the Eastern side, it was made one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers, defined by a continuous line of high metal fences and walls, barbed wire, alarms, anti-vehicle ditches, watchtowers, automatic booby traps and minefields. It was patrolled by 50,000 armed GDR borde ...
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East German Balloon Escape
On 16 September 1979, eight people from two families escaped from East Germany by crossing the border into West Germany at night in a homemade hot air balloon. The unique feat was the result of over a year and a half of preparations involving three different balloons, various modifications, and a first, unsuccessful attempt. The failed attempt alerted the East German authorities to the plot, but the police were unable to identify the escapees before their second, successful flight two months later. Background East Germany, then part of the Eastern Bloc, was separated from West Germany in the Western Bloc by the inner German border and the Berlin Wall, which were heavily fortified with watchtowers, land mines, armed soldiers, and various other measures to prevent illegal crossings. East German border troops were instructed to prevent defection to West Germany by all means, including lethal force (Schießbefehl; "order to fire"). Peter Strelzyk (1942–2017), an electrician and f ...
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National Defense Council Of East Germany
The National Defense Council of the German Democratic Republic (German: ''Nationaler Verteidigungsrat der DDR'' - NVR) was created in 1960 as the supreme state body of the German Democratic Republic (also known as East Germany or the GDR) in charge of national defense matters, including mobilization planning. The NVR held the supreme command of the GDR's armed forces (including the internal security forces), and the NVR's chairman was considered the GDR's commander-in-chief. Background The predecessor of the NVR, the ''Security Commission'' of the Politbüro of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), met for the first time on 6 July 1954. With the enactment of the "Law on the Formation of the National Defense Council of the GDR" on 13 February 1960, the Security Commission was transformed into the NVR. When the State Council was created on 12 September 1960 to replace the office of President, the law creating the State Council (which amended the ...
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Erich Honecker
Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the posts of General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and National Defence Council of East Germany, Chairman of the National Defence Council; in 1976, he replaced Willi Stoph as State Council of East Germany, Chairman of the State Council, the official head of state. As the leader of East Germany, Honecker was viewed as a dictator. During his leadership, the country had close ties to the Soviet Union, which maintained Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, a large army in the country. Honecker's political career began in the 1930s when he became an official of the Communist Party of Germany, a position for which he was imprisoned by the Nazi Germany, Nazis. Following World War II, he was freed by the Soviet army and relaunched h ...
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Ministry Of National Defence (East Germany)
The Ministry of National Defense ( – ''MfNV'') was the chief administrative arm of the East Germany, East German National People's Army. The MND was modeled on the Ministry of Defense (Soviet Union), Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union. The headquarters of the Ministry was in Strausberg near East Berlin. The Guard Regiment Hugo Eberlein provided security and guard services to the Ministry. The Ministry also had its own publishing house, . Minister of Defence The NVA was administered through the Ministry of National Defense, one of the principal branches of the national government. The ministers of National Defense were: Timeline Hierarchy The Minister of National Defence was assisted by a colloquium of deputy ministers who were also chiefs of certain key administrations within the ministry. In 1987 the deputy ministers and their assignments were as follows: * Chief of the Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic; * Chief of the (People's Navy); * Chief ...
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Heinz Hoffmann
Heinz Hoffmann (28 November 1910 – 2 December 1985) was a German military officer and politician who served as the Ministry of National Defense (East Germany), Minister of National Defense in the Council of Ministers of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic, and as a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Socialist Unity Party (SED). Youth Born in Mannheim, Grand Duchy of Baden, Hoffmann came from a working-class family. After attending school in Mannheim, he spent the 1925 – 1930 period learning to be an engine fitter at MWM (Motoren Werke Mannheim AG). From 1926 to 1930 he was a member of the Young Communist League of Germany, followed by membership in the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). During this time Hoffman served several short prison sentences for participating in demonstrations and fights. Immigration After the rise of the Nazi Party in 1933, he was faced with a warrant for his arrest. Hoffmann fled Ge ...
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Siren (mythology)
In Greek mythology, sirens () are female humanlike beings with alluring voices; they appear in a scene in the ''Odyssey'' in which Odysseus saves his crew's lives. Roman poets place them on some small islands called Sirenum scopuli. In some later, rationalized traditions, the literal geography of the "flowery" island of Anthemoessa, or Anthemusa, is fixed: sometimes on Cape Pelorum and at others in the islands known as the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or in Capreae. All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks. Sirens continued to be used as a symbol of the dangerous temptation embodied by women regularly throughout Christian art of the medieval era. "Siren" can also be used as a slang term for a woman considered both very attractive and dangerous. Nomenclature The etymology of the name is contested. Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. Others connect the name to σειρά (''seirá'', "rope, cord") and εἴρω (''eírō'', "to tie, join, faste ...
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Ranks Of The German Bundeswehr
The ranks of the German Armed Forces, (in German: Bundeswehr), were set up by the President of Germany, President with the ''Anordnung des Bundespräsidenten über die Dienstgradbezeichnungen und die Uniform der Soldaten'' on the basis osection 4 paragraph 3 of the ''Soldatengesetz'' (federal law concerning the legal status of soldiers). The ''Bundesbesoldungsordnung'' (Federal Salary Scale Regulation) regulates the salary scales of all Federal office holders and employees including soldiers. The 'ZdV-64/10 – Abkürzungen in der Bundeswehr' gives the abbreviations and a list of the abbreviations. Rank structure In all three branches of the German armed forces there are three career paths: officers (''Offiziere''), non-commissioned officers, NCOs (''Unteroffiziere'', non-commissioned officers) and enlisted soldiers (''Mannschaften''). Officers are subdivided into Lieutenants (''Leutnante''), Captains (''Hauptman''), Staff Officers (''Stabsoffiziere'') and Admirals (''Admiräle'' ...
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Cramer
Cramer may refer to: Businesses * Cramer brothers, 18th century publishers * Cramer Systems, a software company * Cramer & Co., a former musical-related business in London Other uses * Cramer (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters * Cramer, Minnesota, United States, an unincorporated community * Mount Cramer, Idaho, United States See also * * * Cremer Cremer is an occupational surname with the same origin as the name Kramer. Notable people with the surname include: * Bruno Cremer (1929–2010), French actor * Camille Crémer (1840–1876), French general * Christoph Cremer (born 1944), Germa ... * Kramer (other) {{dab, geo ...
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Böseckendorf
Böseckendorf () is a village in the Teistungen municipality in the district of Eichsfeld in Germany. It became famous during the Cold War for two mass escapes in 1961 and 1963 involving a total of 65 inhabitants – a quarter of the village's population – across the heavily fortified inner German border. The village is first recorded in a deed of about 1250 of Count Ulrich von Regenstein for the monastery of Kloster Beuren. The entire village became a monastic settlement in 1431, after which the villagers were required to pay tithes to support the monastery. Its monastic ties were abolished in 1809. After the end of the Second World War the village found itself just inside the Soviet occupation zone, which became the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1949. The village is situated in a salient of the German Thuringia, surrounded on three sides by the border with Lower Saxony. In 1952 the inner German border was fortified by the East German government, with access to ...
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Lolland
Lolland (; formerly spelled ''Laaland'', literally "low land") is the List of islands of Denmark#List of 100 largest Danish islands, fourth largest island of Denmark, with an area of . Located in the Kattegat, Belts and Sund area, it is part of Region Sjælland (Region Zealand). As of 1 January 2022, it has 57,618 inhabitants.statistikbanken.dk. People. Population. (Table) BEF4 (Islands). Danmarks Statistik. Retrieved 25 August 2022. Lolland is closely connected to the island of Falster to its east. The locality of Sundby, Lolland, Sundby forms a cross-island urban area with Nykøbing Falster, the largest conurbation partially on Lolland. The most populated settlement on Lolland proper is Nakskov. Overview Lolland is also known as the "pancake island" because of its flatness: the highest point of the entire island is above sea level, just outside the village of Horslunde. The island has been an important communication highway, among others for Nazi Germany during World War II. His ...
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