The act of unauthorized fleeing over the border- Republikflucht- was a crime under GDR law. This meant that there was a serious investigation into the perpetrator and his social connections whether it was successful or not. This put the families of those who fled under the lens of state security and other organs of the dictatorship. But this experience could be somewhat variable depending on circumstances and the wider geopolitical context.

The SED tacked to a more punitive approach towards Republikflucht in the late 1940s and 1950s. Individuals who fled could find their property in the GDR confiscated and their remaining families forcibly relocated into a different part of the country. This punitive approach remained a weapon in the state's arsenal against Republikflucht, but the 1953 revolt marked a more pragmatic shift in the state's approach to this problem. Families were definitely investigated in the aftermath of an escape attempt and those who aided could be prosecuted. Moreover, a family Republikflucht also meant a black mark for family members' careers and future prospects. But the SED authorities also recognized that making martyrs out of these families could be counterproductive for the larger cause of staunching Republikflucht. Existing family networks were a substantial "pull" factor for those East Germans who fled and wished to return. Although this was a small percentage of the total number who fled, returnees were valuable propaganda capital for the dictatorship. One of the subthemes of DEFA films and some popular literature was the idea that naive East Germans were lured by the West's promises of glitz and glamor only to return to their respectable lives in the GDR once they realized the FRG's prosperity was not all it was cracked up to be. The SED also did not blanch from exploiting the image of families torn apart by the selfish actions of individual members deciding to flee to the West. Public denunciations of family members was not unheard of and the state actively encouraged such activities and gave them a public platform.

Of course, the actual state of the family in question was a very low priority for the SED and the needs of the state trumped those of the family. This was clear in how it treated those families who were killed trying to cross the Wall or inner German border. The SED obviously did not want to publicize that it had shot its own citizens, so the deaths were a secret. The corpses were under state authority and the state performed the autopsy. Family members were not allowed to see the body and only learned of the fate of their relation in fits and drabs. The corpses were then typically cremated and the families received their ashes with the instructions that the burial of the remains would only take place with only a small circle of relations. The MfS would naturally monitor such occasions as part of normal routine to determine potential subversives within such groups. Even though the Border Police and MfS maintained exhaustive investigations of crossing attempts, the official death certificates for those killed tended to be brief and obfuscate the details and often placed the onus for the death on the escapee.

As the above indicates, the experience of those killed attempting Republikflucht was seldom pleasant. At best, the state would use them as propaganda tool for how the West was tearing families apart. A family history of Republikflucht was also a red flag for the extensive security apparatus and either provided a barrier to further career advancement or a means to compromise these people into becoming IMs (the MfS's unofficial collaborators) with the threat of further punishment. Even in cases where the family in question were allowed to live out the rest of their lives after an escape attempt there seldom was a return to normalcy.

Sources

Dennis, Mike. Stasi: Myth and Reality. London: Routledge, 2016.

Hertle, Hans-Hermann, and Maria Nooke. The Victims at the Berlin Wall 1961-1989: A Biographical Handbook. Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag, 2011.

Major, Patrick. Behind the Berlin Wall: East Germany and the Frontiers of Power. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.