Word: border
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Huge crowds of workers also poured into the streets of Bratislava, the east Slovak industrial center of Kosice, the mining center of Ostrava on the polish border, and Usti nad Labem, the heart of industrial north Bohemia...
...reminders of how it was until very recently. On the route to Friedrichstrasse, a main Berlin crossing point, the subway train glides through two empty stations bricked up since 1961, when the Wall rose. The platforms are bare, eerily lighted by a few dusty neon tubes. East German border guards have learned to replace their studied sullenness of old with the occasional smile, but West Germans and others still must file through cattle-chute-like passport control points, and are made to exchange 25 deutsche marks ($13.50) for East German marks, at the usurious rate...
...Rumania the harsh regime of Nicolae Ceausescu sought to immunize itself from any hint of change by locking its borders with reformist Hungary. Travelers trying to cross at five border points were turned back, possibly to prevent any disruption of a party Congress this week. With the Soviet Union now encouraging the reforms that felled other hard-line rulers, the tyrannical Ceausescu last week turned to China for support in standing firm. The tide of reform is not likely to reach Bucharest so long as its despotic leader survives. Any Rumanian bold enough to speak out is beaten, harassed...
...what a party it has been for the Germans. Through the Wall and the rest of the border fences, the flood of East Germans to the West continued all week long. Ten million East Germans -- nearly two-thirds of the population -- obtained permits to cross over. By the end of the week, upwards of 4 million had made the journey, crowding the autobahns and filling stores. Most had eyes bigger than their pocketbooks. They financed their mini-splurges with a one-time $55 in "welcome money" provided by West Germany...
...relief of politicians on both sides, no more than 15,000 East Germans elected to stay permanently in the West, joining the 225,000 who had fled before the border opened. Some -- East Germany says as many as 10,000 -- may return home. But the human hemorrhage stopped, confirming what common sense should have told East Germany's leaders years ago: people who feel free have no need to run away from home...