| East German passport | |
|---|---|
 East German passport. | |
| Type | Passport |
| Issued by |  East Germany |
| Purpose | Identification |
| Eligibility | East German citizenship |
The East German passport was issued to citizens of the former German Democratic Republic (commonly known as East Germany) for international travel. Since the reunification of Germany in October 1990, all German citizens have been issued German passports.
According to a Washington Post report in 1989, only 25% of East Germans were passport holders. [1]
According to an East German passport law in 1957, East German citizens needed an exit visa from GDR to travel abroad, including West Germany and West Berlin. [2] The penalty for making an unauthorized journey outside East Germany was imprisonment. [3]
Once they returned from their travels, the passports needed to be turned in. [1]
There were at least four types of passports: alien, service, standard, and diplomatic. [4] [5]
While standard passports were blue in color, alien and service passports were in different shades of green. [4] Diplomatic passports were in red. [4]
East German passports contained text in German, French, English, and Russian. [5] English, however, was omitted from the passport after a revision in or around 1988. [5]
East German passports contained a note to the effect that:
Versions issued in late 1989 forward to the country's demise in October 1990 omit the note. [5]
Following reunification in October 1990, the Unification Treaty provided that East German passports would remain in force until, at the latest, 31 December 1995. [6] After that date, East German passports were invalid for identification and citizens had to use German passports.
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic, was a country in Central Europe that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was commonly viewed as a communist state, and it described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state". Before the establishment, its territory was administered and occupied by Soviet forces with the autonomy of the native communists following the Berlin Declaration abolishing German sovereignty in World War II; when the Potsdam Agreement established the Soviet-occupied zone, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neisse line. The GDR was dominated by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), a communist party from 1949 to 1989, before being democratized and liberalized under the impact of the Revolutions of 1989 against the communist states, helping East Germany be united with the West. Unlike West Germany, SED did not see its state as the successor of the German Reich (1871–1945) and abolished the goal of unification in the constitution (1974). Under the SED rule, GDR was often judged as a Soviet satellite state; most scholars and academics described it as a totalitarian regime.
German reunification was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single full sovereign state, which took place between 9 November 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the "Unification Treaty" entered into force dissolving the German Democratic Republic and integrating its recently re-established constituent federated states into the Federal Republic of Germany to form present-day Germany, has been chosen as the customary German Unity Day and has thereafter been celebrated each year as a national holiday in Germany since 1991. As part of the reunification, East and West Berlin of the two countries were also de facto united into a single city; which later eventually became the capital of this country.
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Freedom of movement, mobility rights, or the right to travel is a human rights concept encompassing the right of individuals to travel from place to place within the territory of a country, and to leave the country and return to it. The right includes not only visiting places, but changing the place where the individual resides or works.
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The State Council of the German Democratic Republic was the collective head of state of the German Democratic Republic, most commonly referred to as East Germany, from 1960 to 1990.
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An Estonian passport is an international travel document issued to citizens of Estonia, and may also serve as proof of Estonian citizenship. Besides enabling the bearer to travel internationally and serving as indication of Estonian citizenship, the passport facilitates the process of securing assistance from Estonian consular officials abroad or other European Union member states in case an Estonian consular is absent, if needed. If an Estonian citizen wishes to receive an identity document, especially an Estonian passport, somewhere other than the foreign representation of the Republic of Estonia, then the bearer of the Estonian citizenship staying abroad could receive the travel documents in embassies of any EU country worldwide by paying 50 Euro. Many countries require passport validity of no less than 6 months and one or two blank pages.
Begrüßungsgeld was, from 1970 until 29 December 1989, a gift from the government of the Federal Republic of Germany to visitors from the German Democratic Republic. This situation originated with the policy of the GDR government restricting the amount of East German Marks (M) that could be exchanged into Deutsche Marks (DM) by GDR citizens when on approved travel to the West. At first, the GDR allowed the exchange of 70 M annually into DM, however by 1989, this sum was reduced to 15 M annually, which greatly restricted the ability of GDR citizens to travel to the West, even if they were approved to do so.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea passport, commonly referred to as the North Korean passport, is the passport which may be issued to North Korean citizens for international travel. Since the majority of North Koreans do not get opportunities to leave the country, DPRK passports are rarely issued.
Foreign relations exist between Australia and Germany. Both nations are members of the G-20 major economies, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the United Nations.
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The Monday demonstrations were a series of peaceful political protests against the government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) that took place in towns and cities around the country on various days of the week from 1989 to 1991. The Leipzig demonstrations, which are the most well known, took place on Mondays. The protests are conventionally separated into five cycles.
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Inner German relations, also known as the FRG-GDR relations, East Germany-West Germanyrelations or German-German relations, were the political, diplomatic, economic, cultural and personal contacts between the two countries; Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic, at the period of the official West-East division in the German history from the founding of East Germany on 7 October 1949 to Germany's reunification on 3 October 1990.
1957: A new passport law provided for three years' imprisonment for anyone making an unauthorized journey outside the borders of East Germany...
Einigungsvertrag vom 31. August 1990 (BGBl. II S. 889) mit der Maßgabe, dass die ausgestellten Pässe bis spätestens zum 31. Dezember 1995 in Geltung bleiben
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