Talk:Tourism in East Germany

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Right now this reads like a travel guide. There should be some information on the role tourism played in the economy, the government's attitude towards it, etc. Alr 03:26, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Description concerning restrictions to travellers is exaggerated. I indeed drove with a car freely from Sassnitz to Berlin, camped there with my friend, continued to Dresden and crossed the border going to Prague in 1981 and nobody asked any minute details about our plans, just had make an approximate number of days staying in the GDR. We even picked up local people into our car, once the People´s Police stopped us and checked for id´s, that was all. Stayed in a camping area with locals, cheap local camping area, no Intercamp. Nobody tried to isolate us from local people and we had a complete freedom of movement. Of course it may be that being a Finn fluent in German I received different treatment compared to English-speaking people from NATO countries - many Finns lived there and probably we were considered as allies. My experience with the customs regluations is also different. Everything was checked but left intact, for example audio tapes. Crossed border also several times in Berlin. Treatment from the border guards and the police was firm but friendly. So I think this article is not neutral, it exaggerates the restrictions put on tourists. Sorry, yankees, but this is typical for wiki - US point of view comes first. --Pekkaroponen 19:35, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Speaking as a former East European who travelled to the former GDR, I really liked it. Travel and food were inexpensive, the museums holding a lot of cultural treasures were well kept and people were friendly. Having said that, there was also the Newspeak and the schizophreny of the Socialist German nation. --Vladko 05:48, 7 December 2006 (UTC)