Hallo guten Morgen Deutschland

FREEDOM July 23, 1986

Exhaustion, over boiling joy on a carpet of relieve.

Vogel’s white Volvo stopped at the last check point.

The bus driver switching on the PA for the first time.

“Welcome to the Bundesrepublik Deutschland fellows.

I’m glad we lost those bastards but I can’t even imagine how you feel about them.

We will take a quick stop in a couple of minutes, relax and sing, welcome home!”

Tears!

Trucker song: “Hallo guten Morgen Deutschland” by Tom Astor.

We drive through small, beautifully decorated villages on nicely paved roads.

The grass IS greener here and the sun DOES shine brighter in every way.

I only know this country from photographs and TV.

And my dad’s stories.

This is the first time I am not sad about my family.

I know that they’ve been waiting for this as much as I have.

And we will find ways to get together and be a family as much as it’ll be possible.

 

*Testimony -> Start. This blog entry is part of a linear narrated testimony of the contemporary witness Jens Thieme who was imprisoned 1985-1986 as a political prisoner in various GDR prisons by the GDR Ministry of State Security. Stasi prison, Stasi jail, Stasi detention.