La Guerre froide


Libellé	Début des échanges de prisonniers politiques en RDA contre paiement d'une rançon par la RFA
Date (début)	01/06/1963
Synopsis	The start of actually paying ransom for prisoners: after another trial run with eight prisoners, where both partners successfully test whether the other side is willing and able to guarantee the confidentiality of this trade, the GDR shows itself prepared to sell between 500 and 1,500 political prisoners to West Germany each year. At first, the ransom is agreed individually according to professional training and the length of the sentence; at the end of the eighties, a ransom of 95,847 marks per prisoner was standard. In return for recompense worth over 3.5 billion marks, the West German government gained the premature release of 33,755 prisoners, the relocation of 2,000 children to rejoin their parents, and some 250,000 family reunions between 1964 and 1989.