Am 04.01.2012 22:41, schrieb Wolfgang Schwanke:

My memory is like a colander, but I use Google as a surrogate. Where I
find complaints by West German officials from the 1985/87 time frame
about East Germany letting immigrants to West Germany enter through its
airport.

OK, so you found it at acknowledged the truth of it. Right?

But none that ask for tougher control at border crossings at
the inner German border.

I do not have those old newspapers any more. But I followed the whole
campaign for the closure of the last hole in the wall very closely, and
it was engraved in my memory as something very significant.

Unfortunately I am currently not able to go to the DNB to look up the
old newspapers.

They were asking East Germany to reject certain would-be
immigrants at the airport, as was practice at West German airports.

Even those people who had a valid visa for the GDR?

I don't know what visa they had if any, it's not mentioned in the press
articles.

They had the right to transit the GDR, condeded by the GDR. If this
was stamped in their passports or not is quite irrelevant in my view.

Don't you see
this offence of Bonn trying to dictate to another sovereign state that
they should violate their own laws?

No. There's no dictation anywhere in sight. How would they have gone
about it?

Political pressure, and there might also have been financial
pressures. You will remember the West German credit of 1000 millions DM
to the GDR brokered by Franz-Josef Strauß. GDR was also dependent to a
certain extent on the FRG for their exports, as their factories worked
as "verlängerte Werkbank" (extended work bench) for West German industry.

In the fall of 1987, the GDR finally gave in to the pressure and did
what Westberlin and Bonn demanded of them: they closed the last hole in
the Berlin Wall.

No, the Bonn government was consistent in this.
What you appear to be saying is that West Germany demanded freedom of
movement for East Germans (which they did) but rejected it for foreign
asylum seekers coming in through East Germany. If that's not what you're
claiming I don't know what your point is. I'll refute it after you made
clear what it is you're actually claiming.

But then they should not complain that people travel from GDR to
Westberlin.

They didn't.

You are lying again. Read the papers of 1987.
I did. I don't find any such complaints. I do find complaints about
asylum seekers not being rejected by East Germany.

If they would have wanted to change that, they would have
to install immigration checks on_their_ side of the border.

They never did.

The very first correct statement from you! Incredible!
All my statements are correct. The trick is not to write about things
you're ignorant about. You should try it, it works wonders.

But if they did not want to implement immigration controls, then
they
had lost all right to protest against the immigration of people they
did not want.
According to what reasoning? It seems fair demand to me.

Instead they asked the GDR government to close the Berlin Wall
completly, and not let anybody cross the border unchecked.

No they did not.