BBC World Service - Selling People by the Pound

Over the years, East Germany sold over 20,000 citizens it no longer wanted to the West German government. Was it a slave trade or the cost of freedom?

Picture: Map of Germany, Credit: Thinkstock

19 June 1984

Available now

44 minutes

1984: How the World Sounded the Year You Were Born—BBC World Service Archive

Stevie Wonder on tour, VS Naipaul and the decline of marriage

BBC World Service Archive

This programme was restored as part of the World Service archive project