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The Borders of Friendship: Transnational Travel and Tourism in the East Bloc, 1972-1989

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The Borders of Friendship: Transnational Travel and Tourism in the East Bloc, 1972-1989 The Borders of Friendship: Transnational Travel and Tourism in the East Bloc, 1972-1989 by Mark Aaron Keck-Szajbel A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor John Connelly, Chair Professor David Frick Professor Yuri Slezkine Professor Jason Wittenberg Fall 2013 The Borders of Friendship: Transnational Travel and Tourism in the East Bloc, 1972-1989 Copyright © 2013 by Mark Aaron Keck-Szajbel Abstract The Borders of Friendship: Transnational Travel and Tourism in the East Bloc, 1972-1989 by Mark Aaron Keck-Szajbel Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor John Connelly, Chair The “borders of friendship” was an open border travel project between Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Poland starting in 1972. The project allowed ordinary citizens to cross borders with a police-issued personal identification card, and citizens of member countries were initially allowed to exchange unlimited amounts of foreign currency. In this episode of liberalized travel – still largely unknown in the West – the number of border-crossings between member states grew from the tens of thousands to the tens of millions within a very brief period. This dissertation analyses the political, economic, social and cultural effects of this open border policy. It first clarifies what motivated authorities in Poland, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia to promote unorganized foreign tourism in the 1970s and 1980s. Then, it explores how authorities encouraged citizens to become tourists. Governments wanted the “borders of friendship” to be successful, but they were unsure how to define success. Each government had different understandings about what the project was supposed to entail. Whatever the case, officials worked to ensure that their population reaped the greatest rewards from the open border. For ordinary citizens, the “borders of friendship” were popular, but were fraught with problems. They liked being able to go abroad, but felt uneasy about foreigners entering their own lands, often plagued by shortages. Additionally, border guards and custom officials harassed people going abroad. Furthermore, people had not forgotten unpleasant chapters of World War II, including forced population movements and genocide. Finally, even if people gained a greater sense of “freedom” through open borders, few forgot the looming presence of the totalitarian state. Yet the open border project (like the travel it was meant to encourage) was not organized by the state. Contrary to commonplace views of the East bloc, officials did not act in unison, but rather struggled unsuccessfully to control undesirable travel and to gain reliable information to disseminate to socialist neighbors. Additionally complicating matters was the fact that everyone had different understandings as to what the open border project 1 was meant to entail. Nevertheless, even if locals were chagrinned by shortages in their supermarkets, the open border project provided everyday individuals with a new social environment. By 1989, travel had become engrained in the habitus not only of citizens in the West, but of East Central Europe, as well. In sum, I paint a picture of late state socialism which, on the one hand, alters our commonplace perceptions of life behind the “Iron Curtain,” but on the other, which also confirms views of governments hyper-sensitive to change. 2 Table of Contents Tables and Charts_____________ __________________________________________ii Images_________________________________________________________________iii Abbreviations_________________ _________________________________________v Acknowledgments_______________ ________________________________________vii Introduction____________________ _______________________________________viii Chapter 1: Integration, Socialist Cooperation, and the Borders of Friendship____________1 Chapter 2: Performing the Border__________________________________________ 20 Chapter 3: The Baltic Gives me the Runs!_____________________________________ 44 Chapter 4: Crossing the “Borders of Friendship”________________________________72 Chapter 5: Don’t think the World’s Yours_____________________________________ 91 Chapter 6: The Politics of Travel and the Creation of a European Society____________ 116 Conclusion: Legacies____________________________________________________ 137 Sources_______________________________________________________________144 Endnotes_____________________________________________________________ 156 i Tables and Charts Chart 1. Illegal Departures of GDR Citizens from the East Bloc____________________xiii Chart 2. Czechoslovak and East German Travel Statistics________________________ _11 Table 1. Czechoslovak and East German Travel Statistics________________________ _11 Table 2. Visitors from Other Countries to Eastern Europe in 1971__________________ 12 Chart 3. Poles in socialist countries, 1955-1988_________________________________ 29 Chart 4. Arrivals in Poland ______________________________________________ _ 29 Table 3. Border crossings, GDR to Poland, 1971-1980___________________________ 29 Table 4. Border crossings, GDR to Poland, CSSR to GDR _______________________ 30 Chart 5. Polish travelers to Czechoslovakia, 1978-1981__________________________ 30 Chart 6. Annual wage growth (in percentage) since 1970 by country________________ 55 Chart 7. Net growth in wages by country____________________________________ 56 Chart 8. Consumer prices, 1972-1975_______________________________________ 56 Chart 9. Labor income, 1972-1975___________________________________________56 Chart 10. Price of East German marks in Polish złoty____________________________ 59 Chart 11. Percentage of goods purchased and exported to Czechoslovakia____________ 63 Table 5. Amount of goods “exported” by citizens of the GDR and CSSR in one month__ 64 Chart 12. Czechoslovak koruna (in millions) spent by East Germans________________ 67 Chart 13. East German marks (in millions) spent by Czechoslovaks_________________ 67 Chart 14. Comparison (in koruna) of spending ratio______________________________68 ii Images Image 1. David Černý’s Quo Vadis (Prague)_____________________________________ix Image 2. Cars lining up for miles to enter the foreign country______________________ _x Image 3. East Central Europe, 1949-1989_____________________________________xvii Image 4. “Socialist Friendship”______________________________________________ 2 Image 5. ““From Correspondents around the World”____________________________ 4 Image 6. “What is your position on the Oder-Neisse?”__________________________ 10 Image 7. Willy Brandt’s Kniefall______________________________________________10 Image 8. Duna Intercontinental Hotel_______________________________________ 13 Image 9. The Panorama Hotel in Oberhof____________________________________ 21 Image 10. The Bastei in Dresden___________________________________________ 21 Image 11. Pioneer Greetings at the Monument of the Polish Soldier________________ 23 Image 12. Front page of Trybuna Ludu on 25 June 1972___________________________ 24 Image 13. Shoppers as the Centrum-Warenhaus in Berlin________________________ 33 Image 14. Josef Abrhám in Vrchní, prchni! _____________________________________ 40 Image 15. A rendition of Brno in a Hungarian travel brochure _____________________ 40 Image 16. “Dederonski” crossing the Czechoslovak border_______________________ 42 Image 17. “The Baltic gives me the runs!”____________________________________ 45 Image 18. At the Polish market ____________________________________________ 50 Image 19. An East German cartoon ________________________________________ 52 Image 20. A service route close to Zittau _____________________________________ 53 Image 21. “What if everyone returned a few kilos slimmer?” Scene from Miś__________ 54 iii Image 22. Closing scene from Die Architekten__________________________________ 74 Image 23. Position at the Czechoslovak border________________________________ 76 Image 24. Mauled sheep on the Polish-Czechoslovak border______________________ 77 Image 25. Approaching the border to Czechoslovakia from Poland__________________77 Image 26. A stamp (albeit to the West) to cross the international borders of Poland_____ 81 Image 27. A gasoline coupon for twenty liters of diesel in the GDR__________________82 Image 28. “Warmer, Warmer… Hot!”________________________________________ 84 Image 29. “A little present” ______________________________________________86 Image 30. East German and Polish youth groups in Frankfurt Oder_______________ 94 Image 31. Scene from Die Schlüssel________________________________________ 99 Image 32. Scene from Die Schlüssel_________________________________________ 101 Image 33. Scene from Nuit et brouillard_______________________________________ 101 Image 34. “Don’t get irritated that the natives aren’t singing”______________________104 Image 35. Karel Gott at the alter in a Czechoslovak kitchen______________________ 105 Image 36. Angela Davis at the World Youth Festival__________________________ 108 Image 37. Vacláv Havel meeting Lech Wałęsa on the Czechoslovak-Polish border_____ 112 Image 38. Walter Ulbricht, friend to Czechoslovakia? __________________________ 119 Image 39. Pat and Mat in Kut’áci____________________________________________121 Image 40. East Germans shopping in Poland in 1990___________________________ 136 Image 41. European leaders
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