Manuela Weiß

"Of course the media knew about it, people in East Germany saw the balcony scene, so of course many others wanted to get on the train to the West. The first trains went through the main station in Dresden, but there was chaos: a police contingent and people trying to get on the train heading to the West. When we were passing through Dresden, we noticed that the train was going around the main station by a special route. A lot of people didn't even know that the fifth train was still passing through Dresden."

"The ambassador received us in groups in his office, where he told us, 'We did not invite you, but we will not send you away. ‘We’ll see how the talks with the GDR government go; we need to find a solution.’ The situation was unbearable because of the appalling sanitary conditions, as more and more people were climbing over the fence day and night. But the solution was open. At one point we were then offered to go back to the GDR and from there to the West. But nobody wanted to do that; people's trust in the East German state was broken. But then I noticed that some people accepted the offer - families with small children crying in tents at night, or the sick - but most of us thought, 'No, I'm not going back to the GDR. I'll wait and see how things develop here, and for now I'll stay here.'"

"There was chaos in the embassy compound. The beautiful park with the avenue was trampled, there were crowds of people everywhere. When we arrived, the tents of the German Army or the Red Cross were just beginning to be set up. Thanks to the German Red Cross, hot soup was being distributed. I got an army tracksuit because we didn't have enough clothes with us. My husband was trying to get us a place in one of the tents. Inside the embassy building people were sleeping even on the stairs, everything was crowded so it was impossible to lay your head inside the building. Therefore, we sought one bed on a bunk bed in the tent, which was even heated by oil stoves. We managed to get at least that one bed and that's where you spent your days. The sanitary conditions were also disastrous, one stood forever in line for the toilet or for washing. The situation was getting worse all the time, more and more people were arriving, but we didn't see it as bad because we were aware that we were safe in West German territory. The embassy area was a piece of West Germany in Prague."