long term stays in Europe before the Schengen Zone

When I moved to Germany in 1986, all I got was a 3 month visa. I had to find a job with the military to get a SOFA stamp to stay.
Doesn't wiki have information like what you are looking for?

Basically in non-commie countries in the Cold War days, there were no visa requirements. When I landed in London Gatwick in June 1971, ie the first time over, the passport was stamped 6 months in the UK. I could stay up to six months from the date stamped. No time limits when the passport was stamped crossing by ferry or train in western Europe. Landing in Paris in 1973 from SFO, I didn't even get a passport stamp.

The commie East Bloc countries were different re the red tape and rules that western tourists had to comply with, such as in July 1973 when I went to Czechoslovakia (CSSR). There were mandatory requirements prior to entry and while you were in the country, likewise in East Berlin when I went there in the mid-1980s and 1989 too.

For the US tourist visiting western Europe, there were no visa rules. Only exception was in 1987 when France imposed a tourist visa on Americans. I had planned on visiting Paris (for the 4th time) and France again in 1987, along with Germany, England. So, I had to get a visa from the French Consulate in SF, still have that passport too to prove that was the case. Only France imposed the visa, not Germany, Holland, etc.

My first trip to Europe, I flew to London from NYC in September, 1977. I flew home from London in January, 1978.

It was passport checks at every border and currency changes for every country. I worked my way down, north to south, spending time in the UK, Scandinavia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, southern France, Spain and Greece. I only passed through West Germany and Austria. I spent a total of 5 weeks in Italy, 3 of them in Florence.

I had a Britrail Pass and a 2-month Eurail Pass. The latter ran out about Christmas in Florence. I had no idea my money would last so long, so I kept on going.

I took the "Magic Bus" from Athens to Amsterdam. The route was partly through Eastern Block countries. Every border meant a stop for passport control, with a little more scrutiny through those areas.

During that whole trip, there were never any situations where anything more than my passport was needed.

When I moved to West Germany in 1982 for my job with the Army in the Nürnberg Military Community, things were still pretty much the same. Border checks, different currencies, the whole lot. One difference is that I had my car.

I did go on an organized trip with mostly Germans to Moscow and Leningrad. We had to get visas for that, but they were handled by the the Army for us.

I returned to the States in 1985, and didn't go back to Europe until 2009. It was definitely a new, and easier world in some ways, but not in others. One thing was the same as far as I know. It wasn't easy to stay long-term or to get a job in Europe. The hook was to get the job first. In some rare situations, it was possible to get a real, legal job while there, but not many.

in 1987 when France imposed a tourist visa on Americans.

I remember that. I think it was retaliation for something the US did vis-a-vis France.

All very accurately described here...traveling in the 1970s and 1980s was pretty much the same, passport checks at every border crossing when crossing by train, mandatory exchange amounts per day in commie countries like Czechoslovakia and East Germany, such as going to East Berlin solo, as opposed to a group. I don't recall if the tour I took from (west) Berlin in 1984 to East Berlin had this mandatory one day exchange.

Those times when I went solo to East Berlin in the summer of 1987 and 1989 (ie, in August, three months before the Wall fell) through Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse the mandatory exchange was imposed for that one day you're over there. If you came back the next day, there would be the minimum mandatory exchange again you had to go through before the one day visa was issued to you. You had until midnight to get back. I always made sure I got back by 8-9 pm.

There was one time in August 1984 as a passenger in a car with French license plates crossing from France into Belgium, I was told by my French friend to get my passport out but she said "I don't think he will check yours." As she said, I placed it on my lap so it could be seen by the Border Control guy. When we got to check point, he may have looked at the French passport of my friend, saw my passport through the windshield, then just wave us through.

My friend was right...the guy didn't require me to hand it to him....such were the days of yesteryear.

1975... I spent a year in Paris and didn’t need a visa. I miss those good ol’ days...

Yes, that is correct. The French imposed a visa on American tourists in 1987 (I know that since I got that for my 1987 trip) as retaliation. Visa or not I was still going, but by 1989 this visa requirement had been dropped. When I went back in August of 1989, no visa.

But when Americans went over there in the 1970s as I did for the first time in '73 without a visit or in the '80s , except in '86-'87 when the French visa was in effect, it certainly was not reciprocal for them coming to visit the US. French tourists coming here were required to have US visa. I met some then and was told that by them.

In 1987 I told a French exchange professor in the US about this visa imposed on US tourists which had not been the case previously, such as on my trips in the 1970s and in '84, and that no other western European country was doing that, only France.

She just said, "well, you do that to us." That served as good reminder. She had been one those visiting French who had to secure a US visa before being allowed to come to the US.

I stayed in the old Yugoslavia for 6 months in 1981. I got the visa for about $10 at the consulate in NY in about 5 minutes. It was good for one year. It was more expensive at the border.

In the mid-90's, American tourists could stay for 90 days or three months per country in most of western/central Europe without a visa, so I did travel about 6 months continuously within what's currently the Schengen Zone, first in 1994 and again in 1996. Only went home because I had roundtrip plane tickets and limited money.

regarding the French visa requirement:

New York Times September 15, 1986

"FRANCE TO REQUIRE VISAS FOR VISITORS TO COMBAT TERROR"

Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, speaking minutes after a fatal bomb explosion in Paris, announced measures tonight to combat a wave of terrorism, including a requirement that Americans and most other foreign visitors obtain visas.

Only citizens of the 11 other countries of the European Community and Switzerland will be exempt from the visa requirement, which Mr. Chirac said would take effect Monday. The move is part of a French effort to monitor better the movements of potential terrorists from abroad.

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/15/world/france-to-require-visas-for-visitors-to-combat-terror.html