Iron Curtain Sites

Notes on Stasi HQ, Hohenschönhausen prison and Karl Marx Allee

Karl Marx Allee

Construction began from 1949 under Ulbricht’s government.  Rubble was cleared away and a huge project undertaken.  It was first named Stalin Allee and in Stalinesque style it was to provide a grand showcase for the new GDR state.  It rolls down to Alexanderplatz and provided a stage set for the leaders of the GDR to hold march pasts and displays of military hardware.  The buildings were known as ‘People’s Palaces’ and contained shops and flats for the workers.  After the death, and challenge to the reputation, of Stalin it was renamed Karl Marx Allee.  The rest of the pre-war Gross-Frankfurter Strasse was more typical and much less grand 1960s/70s eastern European architecture. 

 

Stasi HQ, Berlin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opened as a museum with an exhibition and guided tours in November 1990.  It was set up by a private association, and not the state, after it became clear that there was not enough will or clarity of purpose to have a state museum at the time.  Visitor numbers in the early days were 10 000 pa and are now 50-60 000 pa.  The organisers feel very strongly they have an important message to present and they see themselves as countering the lies and saving diversity as they say one political party in Germany is currently dominating the way the state presents the GDR past.  The building itself is owned by the City of Berlin.     

 

15 000 of the total 35-36 000 Stasi bureaucrats worked in the HQ.  There were a total of 91 000 Stasi officers (cf 7 000 Gestapo) and an estimated 189 000 secret informers in 1989.  Added to this number were the head-teachers and personnel administrators who cooperated with the Stasi.  The GDR was thus more carefully surveyed than any other Eastern European country.  It is estimated that 1.6-1.8% of the GDR budget was spent on the Stasi.  On top of this they had the hard currency to spend from spy swaps /sales of prisoners (see below).

 

The Stasi were founded in 1950 as ‘The Sword and Shield of the Party’.  Therefore, most officials were members of the SED and outwith the law of the GDR, but party resolutions were as law to them.  The Stasi carried out a huge range of justice and policing tasks e.g. intelligence of all sorts, protection, anti-terrorism, security of the economy, armed forces work, deportations, control of the rest of society (churches, media etc).  It mirrored the rest of society and watched every part of it.  It is thought there were 100 Stasi in the West German government from 1950-89, and about 3000 people in the country as a whole, although only about 50 were ‘top sources’.  Stasi operatives were trained at the Stasi University in Potsdam; it was here they learnt their sophisticated psychological techniques.  The Stasi was one of the three guarantors of the existence of the GDR; another was the Wall and another Soviet Troops.  The latter is felt to be the most significant. 

 

There are 180+KM of documents remaining and it is estimated that 14 KM were destroyed.  17 000 bags of shredded documents are being re-pieced together.  There are 6 million dossiers (the population was 60 million – every 62^nd person had something to do with the Stasi) and the largest file of operation on 1 person amounts to 55 000 pages covering 20 years.  (Obert Havermann: a communist sentenced to death by the Gestapo, who was an informant for the Stasi, Soviets and GDR military BUT he had a rethink after 1956 and was proceeded against in the 1960s).  So, the Stasi spied on each other, spied at home and abroad.  They modelled themselves on the Cheka, founded by Lenin in Russia in 1917.  They believed ‘Security is more important than the law.’  ‘No one is above suspicion.’ ‘Comrades, we need to know everything!’

 

The high ranking Stasi could use shops with western goods.  Lower ranks stole from parcels from the West to the East, known in humour as ‘socialist redistribution’!  Also, the Stasi had more phone tapping equipment than there were phones in the GDR, but there was a shortage of tapes and so parcels from the West were raided and the tapes used.   

 

More black humour was evident in describing the street to the prison as “the longest street in the GDR”.  It took just a few steps to get in and years to come out!  The SED symbol of two hands shaking was meant to represent the Communist Party and SPD joining forces.  It’s was also said, in jest, to be a hold to ‘prevent them both shivering’. 

 

As the 1990 unification treaty stipulated that GDR law would be respected, only 3 of the 91 000 Stasi officials have served a jail term (and 1 of these was not for Stasi duties).  None of the 91 000 had worked for the Nazis, many were ex-concentration camp inmates, but some of their informants had.  There is not yet public remorse from the officials.  Many practice as private lawyers in Berlin; their Stasi University qualification counts as a diploma in law.  Most seem to have regarded themselves as obeying the law and deserving the power; ‘It was my job!’  In 2007 a conference of ex-Stasi officials was attempted, but they mostly spoke propaganda and would not answer questions.  For example, there was a paper at the conference about the last execution in the GDR in 1981 of a Stasi officer, Hesker, who had no contact with the West.  His execution is now viewed by many historians as a murder.  On hearing this, an ex-officer apparently jumped up and exclaimed that the man WAS a traitor, he’d seen his file (he hadn’t).  There was silence, then applause.  The man who exclaimed is now a lawyer who defended the judge who sentenced Hesker to death at his trial.  So, the conference failed; journalists loved it, but there was not much new material for historians.

 

The exhibition in the Stasi HQ includes a display of their propaganda and methods used to teach young Stasi, including evidence of Stasi humour.  The propaganda is very wordy and is in stark contrast to the skill evidenced in Goebbels visual appeals.  There is also a collection of field operatives’ surveillance equipment; cameras in Trabant doors, watering cans, bird boxes, cameras, ties etc.  The camera in the watering can was used to take pictures at the funeral of a ‘decadent’ teenager who had died in custody to see who turned up and was linked to him.  The bird box camera is an example of an obvious camera; on this occasion the Stasi wanted people to know they were being observed.  No permission was needed to observe citizens and no complaints were possible.  Civil Rights were entitlements not liberties in the GDR constitution; providing no protection from the state. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 In the early 1960s exchanges of prisoners for cash were started.  One of the most famous was the U2 pilot Gary Powers.  The flow of Deutschmarks into the GDR made this a lucrative trade, bringing in 3.4 billion DM of hard currency (much of it spent on more surveillance).  The border with the BRD was known as the ‘anti-fascist border of protection’.  For many expelled to the West the result was total separation from their family; their children were put up for adoption.    

 

All systems were costed.  For example, the cost of bullets and the cost of killing an escapee across the wall.  Each death cost money from wasted education to wasted bullets, so there were plans a foot to make the wall more impenetrable in 1989 to save the costs. 

 ‘The Lives of Others’ is regarded as ‘kitsch’ because music did not change Stasi officials’ minds.  Also, the Stasi did not spend hours on just the ‘dodgy’ characters; everyone and anyone could be treated like that.  The museum guides regard this point as being missed in the film, but ‘it’s better then “Goodbye Lenin”!’  H prison refused to allow filming of ‘Lives of Others’ in the prison because it was too unrealistic, but guides acknowledge that it has increased the interest of the young. 

 Anyone with western contacts was investigated.  Actions were also targeted at sub-cultures, for example teenagers listening to certain types of music regarded as western psychological warfare e.g. heavy metal.  However, after the wall was built and as time passed there was a settling down.  People became more accepting of the GDR as a reality and the Honecker’s GDR used carrots as well as sticks, raising living standards to keep loyalty. 

 There was a ‘poison shelf’ in libraries which included some of Einstein’s work, ‘Animal Farm’, ‘1984’, work by Freud and Kafka.  The shelf existed because the intent of people reading it was the concern, rather than the stuff itself.  (For more information on the arrest and imprisonment for such activities see ‘Human Rights Review’ Vol 6, July-Sept 2005 ‘Of Pigs and Poison shelves’ John Rodden.)  It is an interview with Bernd Lippmann who spoke to us on the day of our visit to Stasi HQ.  As a young student interested in politics and human rights, Mr Lippmann was spied on for about a year before his arrest, and again after his sale to the West for 46 000 DM in 1975 due to connections.  There was a plan to kidnap him in the 1980s.  His file contains 4000 pictures and is made up of 10 lever arch A4 files.  He describes the GDR based information as 90% correct, but that it was interesting what they didn’t know.  One of the informants was the brother of his fiancé!  He used much black humour and emotional distance while speaking to us through an interpreter despite understanding English. 

 

Hohenschönhausen prison (H in text)

This is described as a memorial site (opened 1994) whose purpose is to record the memories of ex-prisoners.  Some of the guides are ex-prisoners and being involved is therapeutic for some.  It is a problem for the interpretation of the site that many prisoners want to talk, but Stasi operatives will not. 

 H was a prison until October 1990.  From 1945-6 it was used by the Soviets as part of their purge of ‘hostile elements’.   100 000 East Germans were put into prisons or camps in this period, many of them women and adolescents.  Officially this was part of ‘denazification’.  Many died of cold, hunger and disease.  There were 900 deaths at H in one year alone.  In 1946 underground cells were built, known by the prisoners as the U-Boat.  Soviet interrogators targeted students, CDU, SPD, Christians and other ‘hostile’ groups.  The objective was to extract confessions as quickly as possible, via interrogation in Russian accompanied by torture if necessary and to despatch the prisoner to a labour camp in the Soviet Union.  96% of these people have now been declared innocent by the Russian government.  The total number of people who went through this system is unknown.  There is an estimate of 25 000 between 1945-51, but the majority of files were destroyed and others are still closed in Moscow.        

 

In the U-Boat there were hot and cold cells, no lights, up to 12 in 1 cell, just a wooden bed and bucket.  It was also very humid.  Prisoners were beaten if they tried to sit in the day time.  Lights were left on at night and interrogations took place at night to deprive prisoners of sleep.  There may also have been water tortures and close standing confinement.  As there are no records, the memorial site is relying on prisoner accounts and these may not always be accurate. 

 

After the founding of the GDR, H remained under the official control of the Soviets, but was run by the new state, with the Stasi taking over in the mid 1950s.  There were 250 000 prisoners in the GDR 1949-89 and H was their largest prison, never marked on maps and with a 1 KM exclusion zone around it.  Anyone who opposed the GDR, or who might have useful information, was brought in.  There were also kidnappings from West Berlin.  After the 1953 uprising there were show trials.  Ulbricht was triumphant and 13 000 were arrested, 1600 imprisoned and 18 executed. 

 

Even after 1956 the SED cracked down on reformists.  There were more kidnappings from West Berlin and H was expanded with 200 more cells and interrogation rooms.  Physical violence was replaced by psychological pressure as a means of interrogation.  The new prison was used from 1961.  The focus was upon gathering information and so the average remand was 6-7 months, with 3 years being the longest known time.  There was a veil of legality about the processes and a pretence that this was a humane state. 

 

By 1961 2.6 million people had left the GDR through West Berlin.  Show trials before the Wall went up were related to escapees.  They would be forced to confess that West Berlin was a Nazi stronghold and a refuge for western agents.  This belief was used as a justification for the Wall, the construction of which relieved tension between the two sides although. 

 

H was a remand prison.  The GDR penal code had a catch all paragraph which resulted in it being possible to totally intrude on a citizen’s privacy.  Specially and intensively trained operatives would be put onto surveillance work and compile a detailed picture before arrests.  An arrest could take place at any time and anywhere.  Stasi vehicles were often disguised as fruit and veg vans, people were picked up off the street and driven around, possibly for hours, in darkness.  By the time they were delivered to H they would be disorientated and not even know whether they were still in Berlin.  Some people only learnt form their Stasi files after 1989 where they had been held. 

 

When they arrived at H, prisoners were strip searched and given a number.  Prisoners were kept in isolation and nothing in their cells was in their control, not even the toilet flush.  A traffic light system was used on the corridors to prevent the prisoners from encountering each other as they were moved.  People never met, unless it was part of the process of wearing a prisoner down e.g. to let them see a friend had been picked up, or to make them share a cell with a violent person so they would do anything to get moved.  There were Stasi informers among the prisoners, so tapping on the walls to each other was dangerous.  Guards were changed often so links could not be built up.  Cells had little light and prisoners were deprived of noises, colours, conversation, proper light, nature etc.  Prisoners were woken up in the night if they did not sleep in a particular position.  There were no escape attempts.  Even if a prisoner had got away, as they did not know where they were, and as they were still in the East and the Stasi were so powerful, they would have been caught again. 

 

The only person prisoners were able to relate to was their (highly educated) interrogator(s); in the same room each time.  Many have described being glad to go for interrogation because of the window in the room and the contact.  Interrogations were frequent or not, it depended on the techniques being applied to that specific individual.  Interrogators could play the role of friendly confessor, and /or prisoners would be told that relatives had been picked up, loved ones were ill, other people had already confessed etc.  There is no evidence that any of the threats were carried out.  Thirty minutes a day was spent outside in the ‘tiger cages’; walled cells with mesh roofs open to the elements.  Prisoners could see the sky and many have said they would follow the rules for fear of this being withdrawn.     

A ‘tiger cage’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are allegations that prisoners were made to sit in a room and were subjected to X-Rays from a hidden camera to induce poor health, including leukaemia.  The building was used as an ordinary prison from November 1989 to October 1990 and then the building was empty from 1990-92, so it is possible that some things were removed.    

 

After the Stasi had extracted all that they wanted there were usually three possible outcomes 1) sale to the West, 2) join the Stasi as an informant, 3) prison sentence in jails with all types of prisoner.

 

At any one time there were 120 prisoners, 700 guards and interrogators and 10 000 other Stasi employees working in the restricted area.  Victims of this system have fought for compensation, but all that has been granted so far was in 2007.  250 Euros pcm is available to prisoners who were held for over 6 months who are no longer able to work because of their treatment.  There are no specific health programmes for the victims, many of whom feel they have been not sufficiently recognised as ‘victims’, particularly as ‘ostalgie’ has gained momentum.  There are currently more visitors from western than eastern Germany; so, more schoolchildren from Munich than from Berlin. 

 

 

(Written up August 2008 from notes made while visiting the sites in July 2008.  For other images of these sites see photo files on this website.)