Abstract
The first wave of refugees from the German Democratic Republic didn't come at the Prague Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany at the end of the summer of 1989, but five years earlier. Escapes through the embassies of Western countries appeared not only in Prague: the first larger groups of refugees were registered in East Berlin at the US Embassy and on the Standing Representative's Office of the FRG in the first half of the year 1984.
However, the real crisis erupted at the West-German Embassy in Lobkowicz Palace at Little Quarter in Prague at the beginning of October 1984. The number of refugees quickly surpassed the number of one hundred; the Embassy was closed to the public.
Searching of the solution took a long time. Comrades in the GDR could not rely on the support of traditional allies - the USSR and Czechoslovakia - because Moscow condemned the deepening of inter-German relations.
The interests of the East Berlin and Bonn, however, were the common: not even a single opening of the straight path leading to the West, because it would mean the repetition of similar situations in the future. Therefore, the aid to the people at the Embassy of the Federal Republic in Prague was limited.
Regime in the GDR didn't retreat even during the Christmas days: the only guarantees for the refugees were the impunity and the examination of applications for permanent exit assuming of return back to East Germany. All refugees from Prague came back to the GRD at the beginning of the year 1985.
On the basis of limited information, it can be assumed that the vast majority of these people then got the necessary stamps allowing emigration from the country.