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The Stasi and how it worked

Monday, February 29th, 2016

The STASI was the secret police agency of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The name stands for Ministerium fuer STAatsSIcherheit (Ministry for State Security). In keeping with their motto “Schild und Schwert der Partei” (Shield and Sword of the Party) the Stasi became one of the most repressive and feared institutions that ever existed.

How the Stasi got its start

The Stasi grew out of the internal security and police agency that was launched by the Soviets in their occupation zone of Germany in the aftermath of World War II. On 8 February 1950, four months after the East German state was established, the state’s new legislature established the Ministry for State Security. The agency’s initial responsibility was limited to domestic political surveillance and foreign espionage. Soon its power grew exponentially.

What made the Stasi so powerful?

Under Erich Mielke http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/erich-mielke-master-of-fear/, director of the agency from 1957 to 1989, the Stasi gained access to every aspect of the daily lives of East German citizens: Aside from foreign espionage, it suppressed internal political opposition; it imprisoned hundreds of thousands of citizens; it infiltrated every major East German institution; it even went so far as to analyze the garbage for suspect western food and/or materials. In addition, the Stasi maintained detailed files on family and personal relationships.

It accomplished these tasks with approximately 100,000 full-time Stasi officers, 15,000 soldiers, army officers and police in addition to a vast network of full-time and part-time citizen informants and unofficial collaborators. The number of these citizen-helpers has been estimated at somewhere between 500,000 and 2,000,000. These unpaid collaborators were often recruited from people whose jobs entailed frequent contact with the public. They included doctors, nurses, clergy, lawyers, teachers, trolley conductors, waiters, janitors and actors. In return for small incentives designed to make them feel important, they were asked to spy on and denounced colleagues, friends, neighbors and family members. By 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell the Stasi employed one full-time agent for every 166 East Germans. Adding full-time and part-time informers and collaborators, the Stasi relied on one informer per 6.5 people. https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/koehler-stasi.html The agency maintained files on more than one-third of the East German population.

By the 1970s, the Stasi decreased its number of overt persecutions, such as arrests and torture, and increasingly focused on the use of psychological tactics, called Zersetzung (undermining). Favored methods included gaslighting, which is a form of mental manipulation with the intent to make the victims doubt their sanity. Gaslighting tactics included breaking into homes and moving furniture, changing the time on the clock, removing pictures from walls or simply replacing one variety of tea with another.

End of the Stasi

Soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the East German legislature tried to rebrand the Stasi as the Amt fuer Nationale Sicherheit (Office for National Security). But because of a public outcry this agency was never established. Instead, the Stasi was formally disbanded in February 1990. But before the agency was dissolved, Stasi officials destroyed a vast amount of the organization’s files. East German citizens occupied the Stasi’s main headquarters in Berlin on 15 January 1990, stopped the destruction and saved the remaining files.

Attempted destruction of files by the Stasi and bags of files recovered – photos on exhibit in “Haus in der Runden Ecke”, Leipzig.

Since 2015, East German Stasi files are open to the public online for the first time. Please visit http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/stasi-files-online-now/

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

Tags: Amt fuer Nationale Sicherheit, Erich Mielke, fall of the Berlin Wall, foreign espionage, gaslighting, mental manipulation, Ministerium fuer Staatssicherheit, Ministry for State Security, occupation of Stasi headquarters, Office for National Security, Stasi, surveillance, Zersetzung
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Allied Control Council governs Germany

Monday, November 30th, 2015

Originally headquartered in the Kammergericht building in Berlin http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/berlins-kammergericht-appellate-court/, the Allied Control Council (Allierter Kontrolrat) was in operation for only three years – 1945 to 1948. The following year, it morphed into the Allied High Commission (Allierte Hohe Kommission), which met at the Hotel Petersberg, near Bonn, Germany. The Allied Control Council was disbanded when the final peace treaty of 1990 restored full sovereignty to the reunified Germany.

Location of the Allied Control Council between 1945 and 1948. Today, Berlin's Kammergericht is housed again in the building, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Location of the Allied Control Council between 1945 and 1948. Today, Berlin’s Kammergericht is again housed in the building, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Creation of the Allied Control Council

Preparations for the postwar occupation and administration of German affairs following the surrender of the Third Reich began during the second half of 1944. The European Advisory Commission – formed in 1943 – did most of the planning. It recommended shared-power administration. Therefore, following Adolf Hitler’s death in 1945 and Germany’s unconditional surrender, the Allies signed a four-power document that created the Allied Control Council. The Allied Control Council’s initial members were Marshal Georgy Zhukov (Soviet Union), General Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States), Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (Great Britain) and General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (France).

Potsdam Conference of 1945

The European Advisory Commission was dissolved at the Potsdam Conference. Germany was officially divided into four military occupation zones: American, British, French and Soviet. It was agreed that each occupying power would govern its zone. It was also agreed that all four Allies would jointly rule on all matters affecting Germany as a whole. A representative from each of the four powers would sit on the Allied Control Council.

Allied Occupation Zones of Germany (British, French, American and Soviet) – 1945 to 1990

Purpose of the Allied Control Council

During its three-year existence the Allied Control Council issued a substantial number of proclamations, laws, orders, directives and instructions. These dealt in large part with the abolition of Nazi laws and organizations, demilitarization and denazification.

Breakdown of the Allied Control Council

As time passed, the quadripartite meetings got more and more cantankerous. Relations between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union deteriorated, as did their cooperation in the administration of occupied Germany. On 20 March 1948, the Soviet representative on the Allied Control Council, Vasily Sokolovsky, walked out of the meeting and never returned. Since the Council was required to reach unanimous agreement on all decisions that pertained to the whole of Germany, Sokolovsky’s action effectively shut down the Council. Soon thereafter, the Soviet blockaded West Berlin. The three Western Allies countered with the Berlin Airlift. A Cold War between East and West ensued that continued until the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Post-Allied Control Council Operations

Although the Allied Control Council effectively ceased all activity in 1948, it was not formally dissolved. The only four-power operations to continue were the management of the Berlin-Spandau Prison and that of the Berlin Air Safety Center. Germany remained under nominal military occupation until 15 March 1991, when the final ratification of the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany, also known as the Two Plus Four Treaty (Vertrag ueber die abschliessende Regelung in Bezug auf Deutschland or Zwei-Plus-Vier-Vertrag) was signed in 1990. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/two-plus-four-treaty As part of the treaty, the Allied Control Council was officially disbanded.

Tags: Allied Control Council, Allied High Commission, Allierte Hohe Kommission, Allierter Kontrollrat, European Advisory Commission, fall of the Berlin Wall, Potsdam conference, Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, Two Plus Four Treaty, Vertrag ueber die abschlissende Regelung in Bezug auf Deutschland, Zwei-Plus-Vier-Vertrag
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Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Prison – Part 2

Monday, November 16th, 2015

Last week I wrote about the history of the dreaded Stasi prison Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen http://walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/berlin-hohenschoenhausen-prison-part-1 Today I will share my personal impressions after touring the former prison buildings.

My impressions of Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to take one of these guided tours of the Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Memorial. Our guide was a West German woman who had been incarcerated here because of a romantic involvement with an East German man. Her account of the psychological intimidation methods employed by the Stasi was truly chilling. We were told that the overall goal of the Stasi was to destabilize prisoners and to make them feel powerless. To that end, prisoners were completely sealed off from the outside world and never even told where they were being held. They were strictly isolated from their fellow prisoners, and interrogations and manipulation to extract information were harsh. They involved isolation, sleep deprivation, water torture and threats to friends and family members.

Typical Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison interrogation room, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Walking through the prison, we came to realize that the cells had no windows. The only air exchange occurred through a few small holes in the bottom of the cell doors. These doors had a small, latched openings through which the guards observed the prisoners. Even the cell toilets could be viewed through these openings. We also visited a padded room that had neither windows nor corners. Its purpose was to play havoc with the prisoners’ sense of orientation.

Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen observation window into prison cell, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

The average prison stay at Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen was six months, although some prisoners were held captive without trial for years. Interrogators were trained psychologists who had been briefed on the prisoners and their families and used sophisticated methods to break down defenses. Their methods were so successful that a third of all Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prisoners were informants by the 1980s.

From personal recollections our guide added that lights were turned on and off at regular intervals throughout the night and that the guards awakened prisoners who did not maintain the “approved” sleep position. All prisoners were expected to sleep on their backs with their hands on top of the blanket. The Stasi did not allow any kind of contact between inmates. If a prisoner was lead through the corridor to an interrogation room and his path crossed that of another inmate, both were required to turn to the wall so that they could not get even a brief glimpse of each other. To reduce the chance of such encounters in the first place, a red and green signal on the ceiling indicated whether a prisoner was allowed to walk on or not.

Signal light at Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison indicating whether or not a prisoner was allowed to walk, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Signal light at Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison indicating whether not a prisoner was allowed to walk, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

The closing of Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen

Unlike many other government and military institutions in East Germany, demonstrators did not storm the Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In fact, prison authorities had time to destroy numerous pieces of evidence of the prison’s history. Therefore, today’s understanding of the methods employed at Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen comes mainly from eyewitness accounts and documents maintained by other East German institutions. It is estimated that more than 91,000 full-time Stasi employees and 189,000 unofficial collaborators maintained close, repressive surveillance over the East German populace until the Berlin Wall fell.

http://www.wired.com/2010/10/phillip-lohoefener/

Tags: Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison, fall of the Berlin Wall, German reunification, Stasi interrogation methods
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Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Prison- Part 1

Monday, November 9th, 2015

Between 1951 and 1989 East Germany’s deeply feared State Security, the Stasi, operated a notorious political prison in Hohenschoenhausen. Located in Berlin’s northeastern district of Lichtenberg, some 40,000 political prisoners passed through the sprawling compound’s gates during its 38-year operation. Few people actually knew of the prison’s existence because the prison was located within a large, restricted military area and hermetically sealed-off from the outside world. It never even appeared on any East Berlin map. http://www.visitberlin.de/en/spot/gedenkstaette-berlin-hohenschoenhausen

History of Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen

In 1939, the Hohenschoenhausen compound was built as a canteen. In June 1945, at the conclusion of World War II, the Soviet Secret Police took over the area, transformed it into a detainment camp and called it Special Camp No. 3. During the winter of 1946-1947, the Soviets turned the camp into a prison and converted the cafeteria into an underground prison area.

Original Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison building, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

In 1951, the Ministry of State Security (Mfs) – better known as the Stasi – reopened the prison. In the late 50s, using prisoner labor, they added an additional building. It included 200 prison cells and interrogation rooms. The Stasi also converted the existing cafeteria. It became known as the “U-Boot” (submarine) among inmates because the Stasi applied water torture in some of its cells. Employing predominantly psychological torture to break the prisoners’ resistance and will, Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen functioned as a prison until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Most of the prisoners had tried to flee or emigrate from East Germany or had been persecuted due to their political views. The compound officially closed on October 3, 1990, the day of German reunification.

Expanded Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison building, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Memorial

In 1995, the Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Memorial (Gedenkstaette Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen) opened on the site of the former East German political prison. On the initiative of its former Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen inmates, the compound has become a registered memorial site. To help us comprehend the extent and methods of political persecution in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany), former prisoners conduct guided tours. In 2013, a museum opened as well. It displays close to 500 objects that tell the stories of those who were imprisoned here. The Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Memorial is open year-round.

Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Memorial from the outside, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Read about my impressions of to Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen in next week’s blog. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/berlin-hohenschoenhausen-prison-part-2

Tags: Berlin, Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Memorial, Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison, East Germany, fall of the Berlin Wall, Gedenkstaette Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen, Special Camp No.3, Stasi, U-Boot
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Comrade Lenin is back

Monday, September 14th, 2015

Twenty-four years after the 62-foot statue of Communist leader Vladimir Lenin was buried outside of Berlin, Germany, its granite head was unearthed this month and placed in a Berlin museum. Just last year, in August 2014, the Berlin senate had claimed that the giant statue was lost. At that time, authorities had maintained that they knew the general location of its burial place but had no records of the precise location. Digging up the entire pit, long overgrown with shrubs, to unearth Lenin’s head had seemed too costly an undertaking. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/21/berlin-giant-lenin-statue-lost

Who was Comrade Lenin?

Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) was a Russian communist revolutionary and politician. He played a senior role in the October Revolution of 1917. Under his administration the Russian Empire was dissolved and replaced by the Soviet Union. His political theories are known as Leninism. Admirers view him as a champion of working people’s rights and welfare. Critics see him as a dictator responsible for civil war and massive human rights abuses. In East Germany, Lenin was held up as a model communist.

Where was Comrade Lenin’s statue located?

Designed by Nikolai Tomsky, Lenin’s giant sculpture was originally located in Leninplatz (Lenin Square) in the Friedrichshain district of former East Berlin. A gift from the Soviet Union to East Germany, the monument was carved from Ukrainian red Kapustino granite. Three days before the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s birth it was unveiled before 200,000 guests. The celebration took place on 19 April 1970. Subsequently, in 1992, the square was renamed Platz der Vereinten Nationen (United Nations Square).

Lenin statue at Leninplatz, Berlin,
photo Bundesarchiv, Germany

Why was Comrade Lenin’s statue removed?

The East German government had commissioned the statue to express East Germany’s reverence for and gratitude toward Lenin. But following the fall of the Berlin Wall, many Germans wanted to get rid of Soviet symbols, and Berlin’s then mayor Eberhard Diepgen ordered the statue to be removed. Critics argued that the monument was part of the history of the neighborhood and should remain. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/10/a-giant-lenin-head-was-unearthed-in-germany/ Nonetheless, two years after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, demolition took place.

Since 1994, a bubbling fountain has taken the place of Lenin’s sculpture in the Platz der Vereinten Nationen (United Nations Square). Now, water bubbles from five roughly hewn granite boulders in a group of fourteen that grace the square.

Where was Comrade Lenin’s statue buried?

The demolition of Lenin’s statue began in November 1991 and took several months. It was split in 129 sections and buried in a sand pit at Seddinberg in the district of Treptow-Koepenick, a southeastern suburb of Berlin. It seemed that Lenin’s statue would remain buried forever until historians started campaigning for its excavation last year. When the Berlin government claimed not to know where exactly it was buried, Rick Minnich, a Berlin-based US filmmaker, stepped up. He told the media that he knew its precise location because he had it partially unearthed a few years earlier for his 1990 film, Good-bye, Lenin.

Where is Comrade Lenin’s head now?

On 10 September 2015, Lenin’s 3.5-ton granite head was transported from the Seddinberg sand pit to Berlin’s Spandau Zitadelle museum. It is scheduled to be the showpiece in the Zitadelle’s exhibition, “Berlin and its Monuments,” which will display more than 100 original Berlin monuments from the 18th century to the fall of the Wall. According to Berlin officials, Lenin’s head will remain the only part of the statue to be excavated. All other sections will remain buried.

Tags: "Berlin and its Monuments", Berlin, Exhibition, fall of the Berlin Wall, Good-bye, Lenin, Leninplatz, Platz der Vereinten Nationen, Rick Minnich, Seddinberg, Soviet Union, Spandau Zitadelle, Vladimir Lenin
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Who really opened the Berlin Wall?

Monday, August 31st, 2015

On 9 November 1989, East German Politburo member, Guenter Schabowski, stated during press conference televised from Berlin that a new travel law was going into effect. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/schabowski-sparks-the-fall-of-the-wall The new law was to remove a longstanding restriction to travel West. The Central Committee’s intention had been to announce the change overnight and phase in the new ruling the following morning. Instead, Schabowski, blurted out the plans prematurely. When journalists Peter Brinkmann of the German Bild Zeitung and Riccardo Ehrman of the Italian news agency ANSA asked for an effective date, Schabowski compounded his error by adding that the new rules would go into effect “unverzueglich – immediately.”

Schaboswki’s statement together with Brinkmann and Ehrman’s queries changed history. They sparked the opening of the Berlin Wall. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/brinkmann-or-ehrman-the-crucial-question/ But it was a border guard who actually opened it.

Harald Jaeger opens the Berlin Wall

Upon hearing the news, people headed for the border. Quickly, their numbers grew to several hundred. Demands to open the gate became louder. The crowd continued to grow. Soon, several thousand people had amassed. The guards, under order to stop anyone from crossing the border, called headquarters for direction. Nothing. The standoff between armed guards and the people grew tenser by the minute. The tide seemed unstoppable. Twenty thousand people were demanding to cross checkpoint Bornholmer Strasse to the West.

Lieutenant Colonel Harald Jaeger, in charge of passport control at checkpoint Bornholmer Strasse that night, recalls almost choking on his dinner when he heard Schabowski’s statement on the guard’s cafeteria TV set. He was that surprised. He immediately rushed to his office to get clarification on what his border guards were supposed to do. To ease the tension, he was told to let some of the rowdier people through, but to stamp their passports invalid so that they could not return. But the departure of the few only fired up the crowd even more. Pressure from both sides mounted on Jaeger. http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/11/06/361785478/the-man-who-disobeyed-his-boss-and-opened-the-berlin-wall

At 11:30 p.m., Jaeger ordered his men, “Macht den Schlagbaum auf – Raise the barrier,” despite the strict orders from his superiors not to let more people through. With that command, Jaeger allowed East Germans to cross to the West. With that command, he opened the Berlin Wall that had been impervious for 28 years. http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/bornholmer-strasse-das-gute-an-der-boesebruecke/1623798.html

Disobedience can be a good thing

Lieutenant Colonel Harald Jaeger disobeyed his orders during those dramatic hours. That disobedience could have had serious consequences for him and for his family. We have to thank him, his men and also the people waiting at the border for their levelheadedness. Had just one shot been fired, the outcome might have been very different. By breaking all the rules, a potential bloodbath could be avoided.

Lieutenant Colonel Harald Jaeger apparently was not the only guard who had the presence of mind to make the critical decision to disobey orders. In 2009, a former East German Stasi officer, Heinz Schaefer, came forward and claimed to have ordered the opening of the Waltersdorf-Rudow border crossing hours before Jaeger opened the Bornholmer Strasse crossing. Schaefer stated that he began to allow crossings at 8:30 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. Since the Waltersdorf-Rudow crossing was only a small checkpoint without television coverage, Schaefer’s account cannot be verified. However, it would explain reports of the presence of East Berliners in West Berlin hours before the opening of the Bornholmer Strasse checkpoint by Harald Jaeger.

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: Historical or current events, people, places or food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall, and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

Tags: Bornholmer Strasse checkpoint, East German travel law, fall of the Berlin Wall, Guenter Schabowski, Harald Jaeger, Heinz Schaefer, Peter Brinkmann, Riccardo Ehrman, Waltersdorf-Rudow checkpoint
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Brinkmann or Ehrman – the crucial question

Monday, August 24th, 2015

To this day, two men claim to have asked the crucial question that led to the opening of the Berlin Wall: Peter Brinkmann and Riccardo Ehrman. Brinkmann represented the German tabloid, Bild Zeitung; Ehrman worked for the Italian news agency ANSA. In 2008, German President Horst Koehler awarded Ehrman the Federal Cross of Merit for having asked the question that tore down the Iron Curtain. But was it really Ehrman? Brinkmann says he asked the decisive question.

What happened on 9 November 1989

On that day, Guenter Schabowski, spokesman for the East German Communist Party Politburo, gave a press confererence in East Berlin. It covered many agenda items. The last was the East German travel law. The room was jam-packed with journalists representing domestic and International news services. Television covered the event. Schabowski was supposed to announce a temporary bureaucratic procedure that would make it easier for East Germans to travel abroad. In the face of mass demonstrations, the East German government was trying to appease its people with the new law.

An hour after the press conference had started journalists were given the opportunity to ask questions about the new travel law. Of course, they wanted to know when the law would go into effect and whether it would cover West Berlin. Schabowski looked through his notes and hesitantly replied, “Unverzueglich (Immediately).” http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/schabowski-sparks-fall-of-berlin-wall/

Schabowski’s answer spread like wildfire among the populace. The law was not supposed to become effective until the following morning – November 10 – to give border guards, police and security time to set up a system. But Schabowski hadn’t caught that. Within minutes of hearing the news that the new travel law was effective immediately, people raced to the border crossings. But the guards had no orders to let them cross to West Berlin. Soon, thousands had amassed at the Bornholmer Strasse crossing, the most popular checkpoint, ready to visit West Berlin. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/boesebruecke-a-bridge-with-history/ Unable to get hold of their superiors, the guards surrendered to the pressure from the crowd. Bornholmer was the first border checkpoint to open. The others followed. Unintentionally, the wall opened up for good.

So who asked the crucial question?

Ehrmann says it was he who brought up the subject of travel restrictions, and it was he who followed up by asking the crucial question as to when the new rule would become effective. Brinkmann agrees that Ehrman brought up the subject of the new travel law but insists that he, Brinkmann, asked the defining question. Who is right? According to Guenter Schabowski the crucial question came from Peter Brinkmann. As he puts it, “It’s like playing football. The one – here Riccardo Ehrman – shooting the ball from the side of the penalty area, and the other – Peter Brinkmann – then shooting the ball into the goal.” http://www.euractiv.de/wahlen-und-macht/artikel/die-mythen-des-riccardo-ehrmann-002269 To watch an excerpt from the press conference, click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8GzptqhT68/

Summing it up

On 13 August 1961 the Berlin Wall was raised to stabilize East Germany. On November 9, the unintentional demolition of the wall was meant to save East Germany. In the end, it was a communication error that tore the Iron Curtain apart. There is no doubt that the question, “as of when?” changed the course of history. But only one man asked it. Was it Brinkmann or was it Ehrman?

Tags: Boesebruecke, Bornholmer Strasse, fall of the Berlin Wall, Guenter Schabowski, Horst Koehler, Iron Curtain, Peter Brinkmann, Riccardo Ehrmann
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Boesebruecke – a bridge with history

Monday, August 3rd, 2015

Between 1961 and 1990, the Boesebruecke at the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing in Berlin, Germany, was one of seven former East/West crossings in Berlin. It made history when it became the first crossing to be opened during the events of 9 November 1989 – the day of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The riveted steel arch bridge spans crosses the tracks of long-distance and suburban trains and connects Berlin’s districts of Pankow and Gesundbrunnen. The actual border between East and West Berlin ran along the rail lines, crossed by the Boesebruecke. The checkpoint at Bornholmer Strasse was the most northern border crossing in the city and was to be used by West Germans crossing into East Berlin.

Boesebruecke – one of seven former border crossings in Berlin. It became the first crossing to be opened during the events of 9 November 1989
Photo © J. Elke Ertle

History of the Boesebruecke

The riveted steel arch bridge was opened in 1916 and originally named Hindenburgbruecke, after Paul von Hindenburg, the second President of Germany. In 1948, the bridge was renamed Boesebruecke in honor of Wilhelm Boese, who had fought against the Nazi regime and was executed by the Nazis in 1944 for his involvement.

Most of the Boesebruecke was located in the former East Berlin. Less than 100 feet were in West Berlin. When construction of the Berlin Wall began on 13 August 1961, bridge traffic came to a halt.

The Fall of the Wall

At 8:00 p,m. on 9 November 1989, East German politburo member Guenter Schabowski announced a change in travel regulations for East German citizens at a press conference. East and West German stations reported the announcement live. Within minutes a trickle of East Berliners arrived at the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing. They wanted to take advantage of their new right to travel. Soon their numbers increased to thousands. The guards were unable to contain the crowds and raised the barrier. Around 20,000 people crossed the Boesebruecke bridge into West Berlin that night. It was the beginning of the fall of the Berlin Wall. http://www.berlin.de/mauer/

Historic Reminders

On the north side of Bornholmer Strasse, you can still see a 650-foot-long section of the Hinterlandsicherungsmauer (inner security wall) that once marked the East/West boundary. Commemorative plaques at both ends of the Boesebruecke call attention to the former checkpoint, and information boards have been put up.

Tags: Berlin, Berlin Wall, Boesebruecke, fall of the Berlin Wall, Guenter Schabowski
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Stasi files online now

Thursday, January 22nd, 2015

“East German Stasi files open to public online for the first time,” states Justin Huggler’s in an article in the Telegraph on January 9, 2015.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11336288/East-German-Stasi-files-open-to-public-online-for-first-time.html

Who is the Stasi?

The term *Stasi” refers to the East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium fuer Staatssicherheit – MfS for short). The Stasi has been called the most repressive secret police agency ever. One of its tasks was to spy on its own population through agents but also through a vast network of citizen-informants. The Stasi countered opposition by overt and covert means, often involving psychological techniques.

Stasi files since German reunification

Following the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Stasi tried to destroy the almost 70 miles of documents it had on file. It was stopped by ordinary citizens who stormed and occupied the agency’s offices. As a result, the Stasi was able to destroy only about 5% of all documents. Following a declassification ruling by the new German government in 1992, the remaining files were opened. According to the Telegraph, almost 7 million applications to view these files have been registered since then.

What Stasi files are available online?

Available for viewing online are 161 documents, 29 photos, 6 audios and 18 videos. They include information on the 1953 East German uprising against communist rule, the 1960 execution of defected border officer Manfred Smolka, Stasi chief Erich Mielke’s comments on the shoot-to-kill policy (read also: http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/erich-mielke-master-of-fear/, the 1983 concert of West German rock star Udo Lindenberg and the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. For privacy reasons, the website does not include files on living individuals.

To access the online information, currently available only in German, go to http://www.stasi-mediathek.de/sammlungen/.

Tags: East German Ministry for State Security, Erich Mielke, fall of the Berlin Wall, Manfred Smolka, Stasi, Telegraph.co.uk, Udo Lindenberg
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The Skinny on Nude Bathers in Germany

Thursday, August 14th, 2014

For decades, summers in Germany have attracted scores of nude bathers to beaches, parks and lakes. Between eight and twelve million Germans enjoy clothes-free sunbathing, says French geographer Emmanuel Jaurand, author of “A comparative study on the naked cult in Germany.” One reason for the desire to go naked is that German summers tend to be short, and sun worshippers want to assure an all-over bronze tan. Another is the longing to reconnect with nature. Foreign tourists are often caught by surprise when they take a stroll through a park and suddenly bump into a man or a woman in the buff.

FKK- Freikoerperkultur

The first Freikoerperkultur club, FKK for short and literally translated “free body culture,” was established in Essen, Germany, as far back as 1898. Two years later, a number of Swedish bathhouses sprung up in Berlin and at the North and Baltic seas. The first nude beach in Germany was established in 1920 on the island of Sylt. Freikoerperkultur still endorses a naturalistic approach to sports and community living. Nude bathers enjoy the experience of reconnecting with nature without sexual connotation.

Declining FKK membership

Despite the German love for clothes-free sunbathing, membership in FKK clubs has decreased by about 2% per year since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The clubs’ largest contingent is currently 50 to 60 years old. Members under 25 have become rare. However, the decline in membership does not seem to connote a decrease in the German affinity for nude bathing in public. It only seems to indicate that nude bathers prefer to do so without the constraints of club membership. In fact, nude hiking is the newest wave. The first German “nude hiking trail” was established in 2010.

Expedia Study on Nude Bathers

The 2014 Expedia Flip Flop Report examines the most prevalent joys and anxieties among beachgoers worldwide. The study was conducted among 11,165 adults 18 years of age and older, across 24 countries on five continents. For the third year running, Germans were the likeliest to be nude bathers. However, this year – for the first time – Austrians tied their German peers.

Nude Bathers – Another Perspective

On a carriage ride through the Wadden Sea http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/wattwagenfahrt-endless-discovery/ our couch woman cautioned, “… at a FKK Beach, you’ll see the human body the way God created it and McDonald’s shaped it.” Keep that in mind!

Tags: Emmanuel Jaurant, fall of the Berlin Wall, Freikoerperkultur, nude bathing in Germany, nude hiking trail
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