I'm interested in learning more about what happened after someone successfully escaped from East Germany to the West.
Was everyone welcome in West Germany, are there cases of (non-criminal) people who were handed back to East Germany?
Did these people just walk to the police or other authorities to announce their arrival or what was the typical procedure? Were they interrogated and/or put under surveillance?
And how were they integrated into West German society? Did escapees get any kind of (financial) support to build a new life in the West?
Unfortunately I can't answer all your questions. Before the wall was built in 61, over 4 million people fled to west Germany (49-61) 1/4 of them went to the refugee transit camp in Marienfelde. They we're taken care of there (housing, medical treatment, ID etc). So I guess they had to provide who they were, but most of them didn't get surveillanced (it was far too many people!!). I guess some people could have been suspicious and got surveillanced because they could have been spies, but this was clearly an exception.
The refugees were very welcome, became citizens fast, so I guess most people registered because they didn't have to be afraid of anything, they didn't have to hide, instead they got help from west Germany.
West Germany even "bought" political inmates from the DDR, to get them to western G. were they could be free.
Very interesting is the fact, that refugees who got to the west went back to the DDR again, some had a hard time to integrate into the western world, were homesick, some couldn't start a life (hard time finding jobs, higher costs if living)