"\"Republikflucht\" (\"desertion from the republic\") and \"Republikfl\u00FCchtling(e)\" (\"deserters from the republic\") were the terms used by authorities in the German Democratic Republic (GDR \u2013 East Germany) to describe the process of and the person(s) leaving the GDR for a life in West Germany or any other Western (non-Warsaw Pact) country (Eastern Bloc emigration and defection)."@en . . .