Stasi files

Frank and I have worked together for a number of years on this exchange.  We work well together, but there is a bit more to the relationship we have created than just co-workers. I have always found our working relationship to be quite pleasant, in that we enjoy each other's company.  After we had discussed the troubles that semester conversion will bring, and how we will not be able to either come or host students in the foreseeable future (serious problems for sure), he made some yummy cappuccino, we started talking about the unlikelihood--25 years ago--of either of us even considering that we would some day be working together.  We talked about changes in politics (now called the peaceful revolution/Wende--the term political changes is gone).  He asked whether I had seen The Lives of Others (I teach it in the film course), and how intensely that film had affected him.  If you are not familiar with this film, please let me know and I'll get you a copy to watch.  It is one of the best films I have ever seen, and as Frank (and nearly every other fomer GDR citizen I know) reported, the accuracy of portrayal of life in the GDR is spot on.

He said that watching that film made him consider whether he had a Stasi (secret police) file, so he went to Berlin and asked to see his file.  Sure enough, he had one, but the most shocking part was when it was begun.  It started when he was 12 years old.  I asked why so early; had he been a trouble-maker?  On the contrary, at 12 he had to make (ok, probably his parents had a role in this decision) choice.  Would he go the sports specialty training and school (in Oberhof, where all the East German winter sports medal winners lived/trained--it's about 20 km from here), or would he go to college prep school.  He ended up in college prep, but noted that anyone who could consider this intense sport training was checked (along with neighbors, teachers and friends).  Why?  They were all considered possible deserters.  So most of his entries were about this topic. 

The other entries were tied to his work during his military service.  Since he had no relatives in the west, and since he was married, he was considered a low risk for desertion, and served in Potsdam, outside of Berlin, at the Glienicke Bridge over the Havel river.  If you have ever seen movies (the 1960s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold or even news articles about Cold War spy exchanges, where one spy stands at one end of a bridge, the other spy on the other side, and they silently walk past each other in the exchange to their "home" country, this is the bridge where that happened.  His memories of the time were troubling to him and to me.

So who kept tabs on him?  Turns out it was his best friend from school.  They met once after a longer absence, both in ther 20s, and during the conversation Frank noted that his friend was unable to answer some questions, and then admitted that he worked for the Stasi.

Frank's summation:  There was nothing glamorous about the GDR and anyone who wants that system again is nuts.  Of course, there are old and young communists here who want precisely that, just as there are strict conservatives who want no part of what they did.  It seems there is a middle ground emerging consisting of centrists, include the new "Pro Bockwurst," abbreviated PBW, a bit more on the left of center, who grew out of the university and want to incorporate reason and transparency into the process.  But more about them later...