"I heard a strange rattling sound, then suddenly the first Trabi came out of the glaring headlights," Horst Schwanke from Schlutup recalls on the evening of November 9, 1989 is the first West German to receive a GDR citizen in Lübeck-Schlutup. "The man in the Trabi greeted me with a bottle of Pils," says the then 48-year-old bank employee.
On November 10, 1989, countless citizens drove their Trabis across the border crossing in Schlutup.Normally, his wife Traute would have taken him for a walk to the border crossing point - like almost every evening - but she is sick in bed at home with a fever. "We always found it so interesting and exciting to walk along the border in the forest and along the water and talk to the West German border guards about this and that," says Traute Schwanke, who is 68 years old like her husband. "Neither of us had followed the news that evening and knew nothing about the press conference with Günter Schabowski."
Overwhelmed by history
No wonder her husband was literally overwhelmed by the events:"Because after a while, another Trabi came, then another, and suddenly there were hundreds - a kilometer-long mixed brown and blue car avalanche went through Schlutup. Again and again I asked where the way to Lübeck was," Horst Schwanke remembers that evening.
The very next day it is clear to both of them that Schlutup has "gone from a village to the navel of the world". Thousands of Lübeckers come to the district to greet the GDR citizens at the border - and the Trabi convoy doesn't break off. "The state of emergency prevailed, meanwhile it stank everywhere of the exhaust fumes from the two-stroke engines, the air was blue and to cut, the streets were blocked almost around the clock." After a few days, the mood among the border residents begins to change. After the initial euphoria, many Schlutupers, like the Schwankes, are annoyed by the massive onslaught. "Once I couldn't get home from my work in Scharbeutz on the Baltic Sea coast because of the traffic jam, so I just left my car at home and walked four kilometers home in the freezing cold on high heels until I had blisters on my feet, " tells Traute Schwanke.
Blue haze at the Lübeck-Schlutup border crossing
On November 11, 1989, people from Lübeck lined up to greet the East Germans.Suppliers can't get through either, slowly but surely food is becoming scarce in Schlutup and the Schwankes would not have touched the fruit and vegetables in the displays in front of the shops anyway:"We were afraid of the pollutants!" says Horst Schwanke with a smile. Despite all the problems at the time, the Schwankes look back on this exciting time with joy:"We are grateful that we were able to experience the unimaginable so closely."
The years before had not always been funny:in 1967, Schwankes lost their son Sören at the border by a hair's breadth. He had made off on the ice at the age of four. Father Horst didn't pay attention for a moment. Shortly before the border, Horst Schwanke was just able to hold his son:"We didn't know what they would have done - maybe they would have shot a meter further." Although the couple lived right on the border, it was not an everyday occurrence:it remained unpredictable. The constant barking of the dogs was particularly bad for Traute Schwanke. "We could always hear them and also see them on their leashes. They were so emaciated - they must have barked from hunger," she says.
Horst Schwanke (right) in the late 1950s in front of the Schlutup border crossing.Shortly after the end of the war, Horst Schwanke remembers, his uncle still owned a piece of garden land in the east:"He went into his garden as if there were no zones. But then, around 1948, he came back one evening and told my father that the Russians had chased him away and stolen his gold watch, telling him not to show up there again, they had told him at gunpoint."
Treasure hunt in the GDR
But somehow, as border residents, the Schwankes have always felt drawn to the East. The Schwanke family played a big role in local border traffic:since 1973 they have been to the GDR 30 times. They were able to experience changes well - and also saw many similarities in West and East:"We noticed that there were handbag robberies on the open street just like here in the West. And over time, people picked up more and more alcohol bottles - I will never forget how I saw four or five drunk people singing around on the bus with beer bottles in their hands at lunchtime. I couldn't have imagined that until then," Horst Schwanke is still a little surprised today.
Both of them still remember their first trip to the GDR in 1973 very clearly - they had driven to Boltenhagen in their red VW Golf, and even the encounter with the GDR border guards remains unforgotten:"They were really unfriendly during the check, we had to Open the trunk and bonnet. Everything in the interior was searched," says Traute Schwanke. "Then we were in Boltenhagen and left our car, which our son had covered with at least 100 stickers, on the market square. After a five-hour stroll through the town, we came back and looked for the Golf covered in stickers - only found it We didn't see the car at first. Then we saw what had happened:Unbelievable, all of our son's stickers had been scratched off - when he saw that, the ten-year-old cried bitterly."
Looking for antiques
At that time there were no tropical fruits. "A few years later, you could buy tropical fruits." Nevertheless, the mood among the population had deteriorated over the years:"In the 1980s, people seemed to become more and more indifferent - nobody wanted to believe that the divided country would one day be reunited," says Horst Schwanke. This may also explain the increasing alcohol consumption that the Schwankes observed near Schwerin when they visited Traute Schwanke's cousin more and more frequently in the 1980s.
Traute Schwanke with her smuggled iron in the eighties.For the passionate collector of embroideries and antique irons, the GDR was an Eldorado:"I often smuggled something over there and was always very afraid of being caught. I once had an embroidery from the 19th century in my tights on my stomach - it everything went well." Another time, when she smuggled an iron in a bag disguised as a garbage bag, she was not caught.
"It's great when you consider that today we can just go to Schwerin without any problems and without all the stress," says Traute Schwanke and her husband adds:"The anniversary made all these memories really present again:It was an exciting time, especially the turning point, nice that we were able to experience it!"