Tourism in East Germany - Formalities

Formalities

As with all states, foreign nationals from countries without the appropriate treaties were required to have visas to enter or exit the GDR. An exception involved military and civilian government personnel of the United States, the United Kingdom and France based in West Germany and West Berlin, who when transiting to and from West Berlin via land routes (i.e., road and rail) and when in East Berlin were under the jurisdiction of the Soviet military and not the East German government.

There were four basic types of visas:

• Non-stop transit visa (for example, for travellers transiting between West Germany and West Berlin)
• Transit visa (with 72-hour stopover)
• Standard entry and exit visa (Visum zur Ein- und Ausreise)
• Day visa (Tagesvisum) for tourists from West Berlin wanting to visit East Berlin.

Additional rules applied to diplomats, journalists, business travellers, and other non-tourist visitors.

All of the four basic visa types could, in theory, be arranged at the Reisebüro offices at the main border crossings. In practice, to avoid the bureaucracy in obtaining an entry visa – again, a process common to most modern states – it was simply easier to enter East Berlin on a day visa and then have an extension arranged at a Reisebüro office in the city. Visitors to East Germany could only enter the country by car, bus or train – not by bicycle or on foot. The exceptions to this were international airports, as well as Checkpoint Charlie. A special case involved the Friedrichstraße train station in East Berlin, which one could reach from West Berlin by U-Bahn, S-Bahn or long-distance train.

Visitors not on non-stop transit visas were required to change a minimum of DM25, or its equivalent in other hard currency, into GDR marks every day of their stay at the standard rate of 1:1, benefitting some travellers and disadvantaging others. An exception was made for persons booking overnight hotel stays in the GDR, as the hotel charges were payable in hard currency and almost always exceeded the minimum daily exchange amount. The visa fee itself was an additional DM5–15 (depending on the type of visa), as charging a fee for visas is common to many countries, irrespective of political persuasion.

In addition to visas, travellers to the GDR staying overnight (or longer) were required to register with the Volkspolizei. An "Aufenthaltsberechtigung" (residence entitlement) stamp would be placed in the traveller's passport; the names of each city or Bezirk (region) where the traveller was registered, as well as the expiration date of the registration, would be entered in the appropriate space. Many times, the hotel where the traveler stayed would take care of this for the traveller by taking the passport at check-in, giving the traveller a receipt, and returning the passport to the traveller the next morning, removing any inconvenience.