How hard was it to get out of East Germany?

Kipperhell

I know East Germany was quite tightly controlled but was it really that effective at controlling people leaving the country? It seems that it would be difficult to secure the border so tightly considering the US can't keep their border secure. I know I am missing information but how did they keep people from trying more often?

mdebets

That's actually quite easy, if you have the will (financial and political) to do it and you have a population that can either be controlled or is supporting this measure.
Have a read here.
Basically they had a 1,381 km long border. On this border they had 1,277km of metal fencing (2.4m high), 232km of minefields and 832km of anti-vehicle trenches. A little bit behind they had a 3-4 m high fence, which was bobby-traped with automatic spring guns. In addition to this they had 48,000 soldiers and police officers on the border (around 36 per km). Most people were evicted from the area up to 10 km behind the border and you needed special clearence to live there. You then had only limited allowance for movement.
If the US would try something similar, alone the manpower would be over 500,000 soldiers (half the US army) to guard the Canadian and Mexican border. This would leave out the large coastline, which would need protection as well.

Zebra3

Would I be right to assume that only the border with West Germany was the only part of their border tightly controlled?

I remember in the late 80s when other eastern bloc countries opened their borders with the west and GDR citizens had no problems getting to the west via a third country.

FiSe

No 'eastern' or comunist country have opened borders with 'western' country in the 80's.
You could get easier to let's say Austria from Hungary or to Italy from Yugoslavia, but it was virtually impossible. You've been watched and guarded on approach roads to the borders and you've been watched even on roads which were in general use, if they were within certain perimeter /5-6kms/ from the borders.

Some countries had a bit more liberate policy, like Hungary and Yugoslavia, but still, borders were closed tight.
And travelling between the comunist countries wasn't as easy as it looks now.

In the 80s there was a collapse of comunist regime in general and, I think, that this made it much easier for 1000s of Eastern Germans to travel to Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
They did not get to the 'western' countries, but mostly occupied West German embassies in those countries. If I remember correctly.

97i9y3941

Kipperhell wrote: »

I know East Germany was quite tightly controlled but was it really that effective at controlling people leaving the country? It seems that it would be difficult to secure the border so tightly considering the US can't keep their border secure. I know I am missing information but how did they keep people from trying more often?

it was tight controlled,but people did escape,i remember discovery did a docu on this,some people used a car with good suspension and hid in the boot and went past the checkpoints,others took a small plane and flew over the wall,rlying on memory since the east german map did not show the western side...

peasant

Kipperhell wrote: »

I know East Germany was quite tightly controlled but was it really that effective at controlling people leaving the country? It seems that it would be difficult to secure the border so tightly considering the US can't keep their border secure. I know I am missing information but how did they keep people from trying more often?

The inner-german border was effectively a killing zone. The was an exclusion area of about 10 km which you could only enter with special permission, access was heavily controlled, so most people never got anywhere near the actual border.
The border itself was heavily fortified and patrolled/guarded at all times. You had watchtowers at regular intervals, patrol vehicles on special roadways, dogs running on guide wires along the border, a finely raked strip to show any footprints, minefields and self shooters at the actual fence. Plus all border guards were armed and under orders to shoot on sight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_German_border

Manic Moran

was tight controlled,but people did escape,i remember discovery did a docu on this,some people used a car with good suspension and hid in the boot and went past the checkpoints,others took a small plane and flew over the wall,rlying on memory since the east german map did not show the western side...

On the other hand, no small amount of people were killed trying to get to the other side as well.

The correlation to the US in the OP just doesn't work. Firstly, it's an issue of population density. The amount of people available to the amount of terrain to cover is much lower. Secondly, there's the issue of political will. For whatever reason, there is hostility to the concept of putting big wire and fences up along the border. No such political limitations existed in the Cold War WarPac countries. Any that did, were promptly shot.

NTM

Red_Marauder

Fred83 wrote: »

it was tight controlled,but people did escape,i remember discovery did a docu on this,some people used a car with good suspension and hid in the boot and went past the checkpoints,others took a small plane and flew over the wall,rlying on memory since the east german map did not show the western side...

There's a really interesting museum in Berlin, at the site of the old US Checkpoint Charlie, which documents interesting escape attempts.

In one attempt, a guy successfully literally sewed his East German girlfriend into the passenger seat of his car and drove across the border without being caught.

Red Sleeping Beauty

Red_Marauder wrote: »

In one attempt, a guy successfully literally sewed his East German girlfriend into the passenger seat of his car and drove across the border without being caught.

Have you anymore info about that one please?

Esel

Alan Rouge wrote: »

Have you anymore info about that one please?

Eh... why?

Red Sleeping Beauty

Just sounds like an interesting, unique stories. I like them

meathstevie

You have to remember that in the first few years of the DDR's existance the borders with the West weren't as rigidly enforced as they became after the Russians' bluff was called by the Americans during the Berlin Blockade.