January 1989
January 3: According to figures from the West German Interior Ministry, reception centres in West Germany registered 39,832 emigrants from the GDR in 1988, double the number in the year before (1987: 18,985). The number of immigrants of German descent, mainly from Poland, the Soviet Union and Romania, but also from other countries, also rose steeply in comparison with the previous year (1988: 202,673; 1987: 78,523). The number of asylum-seekers rose by 80 percent to 103,076 (1987: 57,379).
January 4: In a survey carried out by RIAS in Alexanderplatz square, GDR citizens reveal the high hopes they have of the process of reform taking place in the Soviet Union. They also want improved opportunities to travel.
January 11: On the strength of the promise of immunity given by GDR lawyer Wolfgang Vogel, more than 20 would-be GDR emigrants leave the West German Permanent Mission in East Berlin. They have been there several days in a bid to force the authorities to give them permission to leave the country. Vogel has given them the inofficial promise: "Your case will come to a good conclusion within this year." By as early as the end of January, most of them arrive in the emergency reception centre in Giessen.
January 15: The CSCE follow-up agreement is signed in Vienna. In it, the GDR, among other countries, undertakes not only to respect the right of every person "to leave every country, including his/her own, and to return to his/her country", but to guarantee this right by law and to allow the implementation of this obligation to be monitored. The Soviet ambassador to the GDR, Vyateslav Kotshemassov, later reports Honecker as having said: "We are giving instructions to sign this document, but we will not adhere to it."
January 15: Mass demonstration in Prague on the 20th anniversary of the self-immolation of Jan Palach. The police take brutal action against the demonstrators.
January 18: At a meeting of the Thomas Müntzner Committee, SED General Secretary Erich Honecker announces publicly that the Wall "will still exist in 50 and even in 100 years' time, if the reasons for its existence have not been removed." Honecker adds: "It is necessary to protect our republic from robbers, not to mention those who would like to disturb the stability and peace of Europe. The protection of borders is the sovereign right of every state, and thus also of the GDR."
January 20: The former American vice-president, George Bush, is sworn in as the successor to Ronald Reagan as the 41st President of the United States.
In January, 4627 GDR citizens manage to flee to the West; 3741 people are given permission to leave the GDR.
