For some years after the establishment, in 1949, of separate West and East German states, the frontier between the two was completely porous. During the 1950s the economic performance of the two states diverged as West Germany recovered strongly and East Germany did not. Sources differ over the extent to which political repression also triggered or exacerbated discontent, but a spate of high-profile show trials in East Berlin followed by a forcibly suppressed uprising in 1953 make it clear that the methods employed by the party to consolidate and maintain power in East Germany were not universally accepted. Through the 1950s there was a steady stream of East Germans migrating to the west, with the working age demographic featuring disproportionately. Birgitte Klump was part of that. By August 1961, when the Berlin Wall made escape from East Germany not merely illegal but also under most circumstances impossible, East Germany was desperately short of workers. The closing of the frontier had been a progressive process, however, and it left many families physically and apparently permanently divided. In 1979 the issue became personal when Brigitte's nineteen year old nephew, Klaus Klump, attempted to escape across the border in order to become a journalist with the Hamburg newspaper edited by his uncle, Wolf Heckmann. The escape attempt failed, and 1980 found young Klaus Klump still imprisoned in a Cottbus jail.