Word: east
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...refugees testify to a disillusionment with the rigid rule of East German President Erich Honecker, 77, who seems to offer no hope of future change. Most of them are young people, skilled workers or university-trained specialists. As yet, Honecker has done nothing to stanch the flow. One joke making the rounds last week asked, "Why will Honecker abolish East German identity cards by 1990?" The answer: "Because by then, Honecker will be personally acquainted with all the remaining citizens...
...mass exodus is no joke. In the past, the trickle of legal refugees primarily involved senior citizens, which was East Germany's way of palming off some of its pension burden on the capitalist West. But the loss of so many young professionals presents East Germany with the prospect of a serious brain drain...
...they receive $100, and within days they begin receiving unemployment benefits. West German citizens, who already must contend with a huge influx of ethnic German immigrants from Poland and the Soviet Union, are growing resentful of the refugee burden, which gluts the job market and strains housing resources. "The East German leadership carries exclusive responsibility for the situation," Chancellor Helmut Kohl charged last week. "We will not let them evade this...
...Bloch has modest tastes. He seems satisfied with his books, the theater, his stamp collection and a glass of good wine. Bloch resented serving under politically appointed ambassadors in Vienna, but his real complaint is with the State Department's failure to consider him for appointment as Ambassador to East Germany, and his later lack of success in becoming Deputy Ambassador to the Hague or Consul General in Munich, even though he had the backing of his immediate bosses...
...guilty? Bloch's Talmudic refusal to deny everything leaves the question open. After lunch we stopped in the men's room, where an FBI agent rushed in, standing, staring and listening as we washed our hands. Bloch agreed to meet again, "providing I don't defect to East Berlin before then...