Resettlers from the former GDR , format: Article, area: Authority , Follow-up tasks of the former Federal reception centres in Gießen and Berlin

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Contact details

Andreas Pithan

Lufthansastraße 13
35394 Gießen

Phone +49 911 943 71155
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The former Federal reception centres in Gießen and Berlin were responsible for implementing the reception procedures for resettlers from the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). The legal basis for this was formed by the Reception Act (Aufnahmegesetz) of 22 August 1950, which was repealed with effect as per 1 July 1990 by the Act Repealing the Reception Act (Gesetz zur Aufhebung des Aufnahmegesetzes) of 24 June 1990. All the personal files that were created in the course of the implementation of these reception procedures are stored at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) in Gießen.

The BAMF carries out the following tasks with regard to the reception procedures and to the files that were related to the procedures:

Requests for administrative assistance

  • Reception files are sent to authorities and to other institutions that are entitled to view them.
  • Information is provided to health and pension insurance funds regarding periods spent by resettlers in camps.
  • Facts and data are forwarded to social welfare and compensation offices on the basis of the implementation of the Federal Expellees Act (Bundesvertriebenengesetz - BVFG) and of the Act on Assistance for Prison Inmates (Häftlingshilfegesetz - HHG).
  • Enquiries coming from units of the police are answered that relate to criminal offences.
  • Information is provided to missing persons tracing services.
  • Other official enquiries are processed.

Private requests for information

  • Enquiries are replied to coming from individual former applicants in order to clarify pension insurance periods, as well as property ownership issues, inheritances, etc. (within the framework of the Federal Data Protection Act [Bundesdatenschutzgesetz]).
  • Information is provided on the basis of the Criminal Law Rehabilitation Act (Strafrechtliches Rehabilitierungsgesetz - StrRehaG), which came into force as per 1 November 1992.
  • Parties with an entitlement are permitted to view the files.