On Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 2:11:08 PM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
I wonder how many gliders flew from East Germany into West Berlin or
Germany...

Dan, 5J

None.
If you wanted to pursue Soaring in East-Germany, you had to join the GST (Gesellschaft fuer Sport und Technik), essentially the Hitler-Youth with colors changed from brown to red.
I had a coworker (in the mid '90s, after the reunification) who was a GST glider flight instructor. He got grounded after some infractions and not being in line anymore with the system. Anyhow, for anyone wanting to fly XC, they had to file for some kind of a permit 12 months in advance with info like date, glider type, take-off and landing site, exact times, flight path, etc., etc., you know, just the basics. So in essence, there was no spontaneous XC.
The area my coworker flew at had frequently wave conditions. After the big-wigs became aware of the height they could achieve and they figured out how far they could glide from that height, it was also curtailed. Oh - the joy of living in the proletarian paradise ...

Uli
'AS'