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Chronicle 1983

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    • 5 June

      1983

      Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, the SED foreign-currency procurer and head of KoKo ("Commercial Coordination"), conveys Erich Honecker’s severe warning to Franz Josef Strauss that the "hatches" (to West Germany) would be "battened down" if trade with the GDR were to be "restricted or stopped". In this case, the GDR would "solve its tasks with the aid of Comecon". more
    • 8 June

      1983

      In a spectacular operation by the GDR State Security, Roland Jahn, a member of the Jena peace group, is deported to the West against his stated will. The Ministry for Security steps up its clampdown on dissident groups. Jahn had been arrested on 1 September 1982 after he took part in a demonstration in support of the Polish union "Solidarity".
    • 16 June

      1983

      Pope John Paul II visits his homeland, Poland, meeting among other things with the leader of the banned union "Solidarity", Lech Walesa, on 23 June.
    • 29 June

      1983

      The West German government approves a government guarantee for a loan of one billion DM that the GDR wants to take out from West German banks. The loan has been arranged over the past weeks by Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski as GDR representative and Franz Josef Strauss.

      A formal deal is not struck connecting the granting of the loan with humanitarian concessions; however, verbal agreements to this effect are made. The GDR introduces easier travelling and visiting regulations and a "more generous" approach to granting permission to leave the country to its citizens; the number of legal, permitted cases of migration rises from 7,729 in 1983 to 34,982 in 1984. The GDR also doubles the export of political prisoners to West Germany in 1984 and 1985 (1983: 1,105; 1984; 2,236; 1985: 2,676).

      Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski and Franz Josef Strauss (undated)
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    • 29 June

      1983

      The committee of the Ministry for Security deliberates on the global situation, the situation of the GDR (motto: "Behind every incident is an unknown enemy") and requests to migrate. Regarding "unlawful migration applicants," it states: "We must know what value these people have for our socialist society, what development they have undergone in our state, what they have become. more
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