456 MAREN MÖHRING
eign countries were therefore akin to a third space where it was possible
to keep up contacts that were otherwise barred. If, following Hill and
Williams, “return travel” to the old home country is an integral element
of migration, then the signifi cance of these substitute locations in light of
the lack of freedom to travel can be seen as a combination of migration
and tourism.^53 Both these forms of mobility were in fact interlaced in a
symptomatic way because “staying” in the West was one way for travel-
ers from the Eastern Bloc to bring their trip to an end.
Offi cial travel was permitted between East and West Germany, espe-
cially in the case of trips that were organized for young people on both
sides of the Wall to meet one another, as well as exchanges for academic,
cultural, and sport purposes.^54 In 1982, eleven thousand West German
teenagers visited the GDR, and this fi gure jumped to 36,500 by 1984.
Visits to relatives accounted for a large proportion of the travel between
East and West. Not only were such visits a perpetual topic of negotiation
between the two countries, but also they were a key form of German-
German interaction.
The fi rst travel permit agreement was made in 1963, which allowed
residents of West Berlin to visit their families in the eastern part of the
city for the fi rst time since the Wall had been put up. In 1964, the SED
introduced the fi rst minimum currency exchange requirement for West
Germans traveling to the GDR; as of 1968, a fee-based visa was needed
for trips to West Berlin. Applications for vacation trips were seldom
approved. Approvals were granted when relatives in the GDR sent an
invitation or trips were planned to the Leipziger Messe (Leipzig Trade
Fair). As part of the Four Power Agreement on Berlin in 1971, the two
German states worked out a transit treaty that was supposed to regulate
the unimpeded transport of goods and people, which led, among other
things, to the construction of the Hamburg-Berlin transit route. This ma-
jor German-German infrastructure project, which served as a bridge of
sorts—depending on the perspective—created a very specifi c space of
German-German experience. It was opened to traffi c in 1982, and the
fl at rate transit fees helped the GDR to acquire badly needed cash in for-
eign currency.^55 Visits across the border were made easier with the Basic
Treaty of 1972: close relatives were permitted to enter West Germany in
the event of family emergencies, even if they were not yet of retirement
age. Pensioners (whose loss the GDR thought it could bear) had been
allowed to make such family visits since as early as 1964. Within the
framework of what was referred to as minor border crossing, West Ger-
mans who lived near the border to the GDR were permitted to travel for
thirty days a year in the nearby border region of the GDR. As part of the
billion-dollar loan that the Federal Republic granted to the GDR in 1983,