Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte

EXHIBITION AN EXHIBITION ON CONTEMPORARY HISTORY SEPTEMBER 28 – NOVEMBER 29, 2019 GOETHE-INSTITUT MONTREAL Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte

Credits and References Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED Diktatur (Foundation for the Study of Communist Dictatorship in East ) www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de

Goethe-Institut Montreal www.goethe.de/montreal www.goethe.de/canada/wall Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte

ZONES OF OCCUPATION BLOCKADE The Rescue from on high At the Conference in July 1945, The confrontation between Western electricity supply and food deliveries the Big Three, British Prime Minister democracy and Soviet dictatorship is from the surrounding region are also Winston Churchill, US President Harry starkest in . In October 1946 cut off. The East German transitional Truman and Soviet dictator Joseph Berlin holds city-wide free elections – authority has checkpoints built around Stalin, affirm that they will jointly the first since 1932 and the last until Berlin and at the boundaries between govern the defeated German Reich. 1990. The voters express their clear East and West within the city. The three Germany is divided into zones of support for the well-established tradi- Western sectors of the city are not occupation and its capital, Berlin, is The situation particularly comes to a tion of social democracy and for the entirely cut off from the surrounding split into sectors. The victorious powers head in Berlin. The former capital of newly founded Christian Democratic area during the blockade; visits are are each to administer their respective the German Reich is divided into four Party. The Socialist Unity Party (SED), allowed. However, anyone caught by the territories singlehandedly; they agree sectors, forcing the three victors and composed of the Communist Party of East German police smuggling supplies to decide on questions concerning additionally France to work together Germany (KPD) and those parts of the into faces harsh penalties. Germany as a whole in an Allied Control especially closely in Berlin. But serious Social Democratic Party which have US Military Governor Lucius D. Clay Council in Berlin. As relations between conflicts emerge in Berlin even within been forced to merge with it, receives defies Soviet threats. Taking up the the Soviets and the Western Allies the first months of the four-power only a fifth of the votes. However, the daring suggestion of a British officer, rapidly deteriorate, however, so occupation. Beginning in spring 1946 Soviets refuse to confirm the June 1947 Clay arranges for the three Western does cooperation within the Council. the disputes escalate – both publicly election of Mayor Ernst Reuter. When sectors of Berlin to be supplied by air, The boundary between the British in the form of propaganda battles and introduces the German effective immediately. The airlift begins. and American zones on one side and behind the scenes in numerous covert Mark (DM) as its new currency a year Airplanes loaded with supplies are the Soviet zone on the other becomes operations. Hopes for cooperation later, the commander of the Soviet soon landing every few minutes. In May the line of demarcation between two among the victorious powers are quickly garrison in Berlin opposes resolving 1949, the Soviets sheepishly give in, opposed worldviews. Churchill has been dashed. Rather than peace reigning in the currency issue in Berlin. once again allowing access to roads to expecting this from early on. He first Europe and the world, the When the three Western sectors then and from West Berlin. described an “iron curtain” falling across now breaks out between East and West. begin using the DM, Stalin reacts with the middle of Europe to divide the a total blockade of all overland and continent in a telegram to Truman only water routes from the Western zones four days after the German surrender. of Germany to the Western sectors of Berlin. Millions are affected as the 02 03 Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte

CLASS WARFARE WESTWARD Party policies against the people Exodus from the GDR The Socialist Unity Party, the ruling The popular uprising comes as a shock With the ruling party governing against Nonetheless, the Marienfelde Refugee party of , decides in 1952 to the ruling party. The party leadership the interest of its own population and Centre in West Berlin is soon filled to implement socialism. In the years initially reacts with concessions, which living conditions decaying once more, beyond capacity. Some 12.000 refugees prior it has established its dictatorship are meant to defuse the situation and the number of people who defect to the arrive in West Berlin per month in 1959, in East Germany with Soviet backing. improve the supply system. At the same West rises sharply in the late 1950s. a number that rises by half in 1960. By Germany has been divided into two time, however, State Security (better Their destination is West Germany, the summer of 1961, up to 2400 men, states since 1949. As living conditions known as the ) is being built up. where freedom, democracy and the women and children per day are steadily improve in the West German By 1958 the party feels reinvigorated. West German “economic miracle” await venturing a new start in the West with Federal Republic, the ruling party in At the Fifth Party Congress it announces them. The decision to defect is especially no more than a few suitcases. the East wages class warfare against that it will continue implementing common among the young and the well Anyone who is recognized as a its own population. socialism in all sectors of society. educated. political refugee either receives a flat in Farmers are pressed into agricultural The party does not limit itself to But reaching the West has been difficult West Berlin or is flown to West Germany. collectives, private businesses are ideological campaigns. Agriculture is for quite a while. The intra-German Because the Western Allies handle brought to their knees through ever- forced to collectivize. Private business- border has been sealed with barbed civilian air transport, the flight to West rising taxes and Christians are people as well as trades people, bakers, wire since 1952; checkpoints are strictly Germany is a safe one for defectors from persecuted. When a ten percent increase butchers and many of the remaining monitored. East German border police the GDR. The demand by Soviet party in worker productivity is decreed in private merchants are dispossessed or have also closed off the border surroun- head Nikita Khrushchev and GDR party June 1953, construction workers take to forced into production cooperatives. ding Berlin. The border within the city, General Secretary to the streets of in protest. Christians are once again harassed in by contrast, though monitored, is not control air traffic to and from West On 17 June the protest spreads throughout the GDR. Agricultural production falls fully sealed thanks to the shared Berlin is a transparent attempt to close the GDR. Some one million people sharply and the supply situation comes responsibility of all four Allied powers this loophole. protest on the streets of more than to a head. By the early 1960s, the party for Berlin. Several underground and 700 cities and towns, calling for free has led the GDR into another crisis. city train lines cross the boundaries elections and an end to the dictatorship. between East and West Berlin. Communist party rule is on the brink Anyone who approaches the border of collapse. Soviet tanks roll in and clearly carrying luggage, however, risks crush the protests; at least 55 people being arrested. are killed. 04 05 Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte

CONSTRUCTION OF THE WALL REALPOLITIK 13 AUGUST 1961 The Allies‘ reaction The time comes in the middle of the From spring 1961 onward, the flood The West is caught unaware by the does not mention East Berlin. night between 12 and 13 August 1961: of refugees had posed an existential building of the Wall. But West Berlin’s The Germans, however, are not prepared the lights go out around 1.05 am. The threat to the GDR. This is the argument three protecting powers see no to accept the border closing. West brightly illuminated Gate, GDR party leader Walter Ulbricht has reason for severe retaliation. Western Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt writes to a symbol of the unresolved question of used to convince Nikita Khrushchev leaders react coolly: US President Washington: “Inactivity and pure Germany, suddenly plunges into the that West Berlin should be fully sealed John F. Kennedy goes sailing off defensiveness could elicit a crisis of darkness of a balmy summer night. off. Party security head Massachusetts, British Prime Minister confidence with regard to the Western Visible only as silhouettes, armoured perfectly disguises what is dubbed Harold MacMillan goes hunting in powers.” In response to Brandt’s vehicles roll through the Classicist gate “Operation Rose”. Although the opera- Scotland and French President Charles warning, Kennedy sends his vice- as uniformed soldiers form a cordon tion requires extensive preparation, de Gaulle relaxes in the Champagne president Lyndon B. Johnson to along the border between the central involving thousands of soldiers, police region. All three view the closed border Berlin, names Lucius D. Clay Special districts of Mitte and Tiergarten. In these officers and members of the “workers’ as no more than the embodiment of an Presidential Envoy to Berlin and adds moments armed GDR forces are militias”, not a single detail of the existing political reality. As Kennedy 1500 GIs to the US garrison in West deployed not only here but all around imminent action reaches the public succinctly puts it, “We’re going to do Berlin. The UK and France also send the three Western sectors of Berlin. ahead of time. Scattered rumours draw nothing now because there is no military reinforcements. Tanks demon- Dragging barbed wire across streets, the attention of the West German alternative except war.” strate the Allies’ protective presence. ruins and parks, they seal off the Intelligence Service. But political The Americans pay scrupulous attention The Allies begin to regain the trust of roughly 80 then existing official check- leaders in Bonn and West Berlin cannot to making sure their rights are not West Berliners, especially when Kennedy points. imagine that the GDR would actually infringed upon. In a televised speech visits the city in June 1963 and makes Germans in East Berlin and the GDR are dare to violate the city’s four-power rule on the Berlin crisis on 25 July 1961, his famous proclamation “Ich bin ein now permitted to cross the border to the by closing off the border between the before the Wall is built, Kennedy signals Berliner.” But the radical alteration in Western sectors only with a special pass Eastern and Western sectors of Berlin. to Khrushchev what the West would the legal status of Berlin due to the – for all intents and purposes, they are and would not accept. Indispensable for building of the Wall is not officially not allowed to cross it at all. By around the US President are the presence of laid down until the 1972 signing of the 1.45 am all of West Berlin has been the Western Allies in West Berlin, Four Power Agreement on Berlin. closed off and surrounded by armed unobstructed paths of access to and guard posts. from West Berlin and the right of self-determination for the people 06 of West Berlin. Kennedy’s speech 07 Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte

DESPAIR CLEARING SPACE Suffering and yearning Free line of fire The building of the Wall does not only soon cuts off this privilege because To prevent escapes, the GDR establishes police begin clearing the buildings along split Berlin – it also divides families and many East Germans are escaping the restricted zones on its side of the border. the Wall. Several thousand East Berliners friends. In the first days after 13 August GDR with smuggled West German IDs. A 500-metre-wide strip is cleared along lose their flats. Removal vans often pull there are still gaps in the barrier. For the next two and a half years almost all of the border between West up in front of the house door without Thousands of East Berliners seize this the people of East and West Berlin live and East Germany beginning in 1952; warning. The first areas affected opportunity. In the first twelve hours in almost total separation. Only letters residents are forced to resettle and their are Bernauer Straße in the Wedding alone, three dozen young people and telegrams still make it across the homes are torn down. The first mass district and Harzer Straße in the reach freedom in the West by swimming border, always strictly monitored and relocation of 11.000 people takes place Treptow district, places where the across the Landwehrkanal, the Heide- often days late. Until the autumn of 1961 at that time, referred to within the party outside walls of houses on the GDR kampgraben and the Britzer Zweigkanal. people crawl through sewer tunnels by the code name “Operation Vermin”. side form the boundaries between East In these early days, cemetery and to the West, bravely trudging through Such an extensive border zone is not and West. From 1964 onward, border factory walls along the border also offer faeces. As late as September 1961, possible within Berlin. In some places, guards systematically create a “free line relatively easy access to West Berlin. well-coordinated groups make it across only a narrow street and two pavements of fire”: cleared buildings near the Wall Escape becomes much more difficult the border in broad daylight in some lie between the houses of East and West are torn down. On Bernauer Straße only beginning on 15 August 1961, when a spots by squeezing through barbed wire Berlin – a total of little more than 15 remains of buildings’ ground floors with concrete-and-brick barricade replaces that has been cut. metres. Until September East Berliners walled-over doors are left; on Harzer the tangle of barbed wire in the city Harrowing scenes play out at the are able to escape by climbing down Straße entire rows of houses are soon centre. Several dozen bricklayers border: Young newlyweds in the West ropes from their windows or jumping completely levelled. Not only residences conscripted into building the Wall bid farewell to their parents in the East; into the nets of West Berlin fire fighters. but also churches are demolished. The manage to escape to freedom; numerous fathers who’ve escaped see their wives Several people die in the attempt, and systematic clearance of the area near border guards also desert. Until 23 and children for the last time for many others are seriously injured. the Wall continues through the 1980s. August 1961, West Berliners are able years; fiances and siblings must say In September 1961 the GDR border to drive into East Berlin if they show their good-byes. identification. But the GDR politburo

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BORDER REGIME FIRING ORDER Mine fields and Stalin’s lawn The dead and the injured The GDR leadership systematically border between East and West Germany Every person who tries to leave the in Humboldthafen near the Reichstag expands the fortifications surrounding practically impossible to cross; the GDR GDR without official permission is risking open fire on 24-year-old tailor’s apprentice West Berlin as well as on the border spends nearly 50 million marks on these death. The first of the estimated Günter Litfin, killing him. From this point between West and East Germany. weapons alone. Additional measures 1000 total casualties along the border forward the order to fire is in effect; Wherever space allows, a five-kilometre- include trip wires, signal wires, lanterns between East and West Germany occur the order is not grounded in any single wide no-access zone is created, which and carpets of ten-centimeter-long steel in 1949, three years before the border document, but rather exists in various can only be entered with a special spikes known as “Stalin’s lawn”. In the is sealed off with barbed wire and versions. An order issued to border identity card. Beginning in the autumn lingo of border guards these mats are made practically impassable. With the guards on 14 September 1961 proclaims: of 1961, border guard pioneers lay as called “surface obstacles”. They are often building of the , the last gap is “Shots aimed at defectors seeking to many as 1.3 million Soviet-built installed on river banks and other sites closed. No “ordinary” citizen of the GDR avoid arrest by fleeing to West Germany antipersonnel mines along the border “vulnerable to escape”. Even in heavy is aware that the weapons of the border are permitted after a warning shot has between East and West Germany. shoes it is impossible to walk over guards have no ammunition in the first been issued.” The GDR politburo’s The mines are designed to maim victims’ “Stalin’s lawn.” days after the Wall is built: The GDR Operations Unit stipulates shortly feet and legs without killing them in- One year after 13 August 1961, regime wants to avoid escalation as long thereafter: “Firearms are to be stantaneously. Special targeted frag- thousands of kilometres of barbed as the Western powers’ reaction to the used against traitors and border trans- mentation mines are added beginning wire and cinder block walls span the Wall remains uncertain. Nine days after gressors.” And Erich Honecker, Ulbricht’s in 1970. Attached to the last fence on 155 kilometre border around West the Wall goes up, GDR leader Walter successor as party head, issues an un- GDR territory, they are pointed east- Berlin, making escape virtually impossible. Ulbricht is confident that his wager has mistakable decree on 3 March 1974: wards. These automated weapons Ten years later, almost all of the barbed paid off and the West will not retaliate. “Firearms must continue to be used systems fire at anyone who triggers wire has been replaced by massive He announces in the politburo: “We will ruthlessly in the case of attempts ro them. According to a secret report, concrete slab barricades and sharp me- fire on Germans who represent German breach the border.” The firing order stays “SM-70 injuries exhibited by border tal fences. 60 percent of the border is imperialism. Anyone who provokes us in effect until early April 1989; the transgressors are either fatal or further reinforced with trenches. There will be fired upon!” The next morning, all lifting of it, however, remains a closely sufficiently grave to render said in- are more than 200 dog runs for special- border guards are issued live cartridges. guarded secret. dividuals incapable of traversing the ly trained guard dogs and nearly 250 A mere two days later, transport police security fence.” watchtowers. On Soviet orders, however, The presence of 60.000 of these deadly minefields and self-firing weapons automated weapons systems makes systems are not installed on the up to 440 kilometres of the 10 border to West Berlin. 11 Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte

LITTLE BERLIN ESCAPES Mödlareuth in Thuringia Bravery in desperation US soldiers stationed in Germany call Republic of Germany and the GDR, In violation of principles of human largest group of those who escape to this fifty-person village „Little Berlin“. Mödlareuth villagers are still allowed rights, the GDR regime does not permit the West are what the Stasi call the Like a tiny version of the German to cross the border. But in 1952 its citizens to leave the country for “remainers” – those who receive per- capital, it becomes a symbol in miniature everything changes: the rulers of the the West. Applications for exit visas to mission to visit the West but never of the division of Germany. The border GDR begin to fortify the border. The relocate to the West are often denied, return from their visits. between East and West Germany runs Eastern part of the village now lies in and the filing of such an application has Trying to escape is highly risky. right through this miniscule place. the “protective strip” – West Germans negative career repercussions and leads Far more attempts fail than succeed. The village of Mödlareuth am Tannbach are not allowed to enter it at all, and to Stasi harrassment. For many the only Those who are killed include Chris has been a border town for centuries – even East Germans only with special remaining option is to try to escape. Gueffroy, shot dead in February 1989, one part of it lies in the region of permission. Villagers deemed politically The motivations are multifarious: They and , whose Thuringia and the other part in unreliable are forceably relocated. Step include political repression, lack of improvised gas balloon crashes in March Bavaria. But this border was long of by step, the border in Mödlareuth is economic prospects, and the desire to 1989. They are the last to die attempting little consequence for the village’s in- built up into an insurmountable barrier. reunite with family. Just as varied are to cross from Germany to Germany. habitants. They lived like any other In the mid-1960s the wooden fence is the methods of escape. Aspiring German village commmunity, with a replaced by a 3.4 metre concrete wall defectors drive heavy vehicles straight school, a tavern and a men’s choir. similar to the one in Berlin. It serves not through border barricades, crawl On Sundays the villagers attended only as a barrier but also as a screen, as through laboriously dug tunnels, take church in the neighbouring Bavarian even waving to or greeting people on to the air in hot-air balloons or air- village of Töben. the other side of the border is forbidden. planes, and cross the Baltic Sea in The people of Mödlareuth will have to When Thuringia is occupied by the rubber dinghies on surf boards or even wait 37 years before they are no longer Soviets after the Second World War and by swimming. Many defect via neigh- separated by the Wall. When the Wall Bavaria by the Americans, life initially bouring countries with finally comes down, they joy is just as remains the same in the village, falsified passports or are smuggled great in “Little Berlin” as in Berlin itself. although one now needs to carry a pass. across the border in car boots. But the Even after the founding of the Federal

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TRADE IN HUMAN BEINGS Ransoming political prisoners More than a quarter of a million men German side the decision falls to the and women are imprisoned for political Federal Ministry for Intra-German reasons in the GDR between the building Relations. Ludwig Rehlinger, the respon- and the . Many sible State Secretary, later writes: “We serve lengthy sentences for attempts knew many names and stories through to flee to West Germany, for helping relatives and aid organizations. It was others flee or because of actual or always clear that the GDR would only alleged opposition to the government. release very few prisoners. It thus “NORMALIZATION” For one in every eight, a hope that was primarily fell to us to decide on whose Regulated co-existence long spoken about only in whispers behalf we would make a particular The issue of the divided Germany Internally, West German governments becomes a reality: West Germany buys effort. This was a very burdensome appears to fade in significance in the now pursue a policy of step-by-step their freedom. This “trade in human task.” 1970s. The outside world and ever more progress. This policy is intended to beings” begins in 1962 at the end By 1989 West Germany has purchased West Germans adjust to the country’s ameliorate the consequences of the of Adenauer’s term as West German the freedom of 33.755 prisoners from division. There is talk of “normalization”. division of Germany, improve the living Chancellor, while Rainer Barzel is Bautzen, Hoheneck and other notorious A number of treaties regulating conditions of East Germans and shore up serving as Federal Minister for GDR prisons. relations between East and West the cohesion of the nation. In 1973 more All-German Affairs. The Protestant Germany contribute to this trend. than 3.5 million West Germans travel churches in Germany play a vital role in Exchanging agents on These agreements culminate in the to East Berlin or elsewhere in the GDR, establishing contacts. The first prisoner the Basic Treaty, signed in December 1972, three times as many as in 1970. There ransom is agreed on Christmas 1962 The Glienicke Bridge is one of the best- which proclaims that both sides “respect are also early signs of improvement in after arduous talks, which the lawyer known symbols of the Cold War. Across the independence of each of the the other direction: 40.000 East Germans Wolfgang Vogel leads on the East Berlin the steel structure spanning the two countries in matters domestic and below the age of retirement are allowed side. Twenty political prisoners and the River between Berlin and Potsdam, foreign”. to visit the West in cases of “urgent same number of children are released. agents are exchanged three times, a family matters”. The number of The price of their freedom is three total of 38 people. They include Soviet With this de facto recognition, telephone conversations between East rail carriages of fertiliser. But soon nuclear spy ; Gary Powers, however, West Germany forsakes and West Germany, which was well thereafter East Berlin drives the price the U2 pilot shot down over the USSR; neither the demand for reunification below a million per year until 1970, up. While 40.000 DM per prisoner must and human rights activist Anatoly embedded in its Basic Law nor its call skyrockets to more than 23 million by be paid initially, the price per head rises Sharansky. Adding to the legend of for citizenship for all Germans. 1980. The GDR leadership, however, to almost 100.000 DM by the 1980s. what the GDR calls the “Bridge of Unity”, Nevertheless, the Basic Treaty marks the follows a policy of systematic ideological The rationale for the sum, which West the bridge is closed to private traffic: end of West Germany’s claim of the isolationism, not least due to the growing Germany often must pay in the form From 1953 on, only the four Allies’ sole right to represent all Germans. influence of Western television. West of delivery of goods, is the cost of the military vehicles are permitted to cross The GDR promptly receives worldwide German correspondents, whose presence education the prisoners have received in it. Today a small museum in the recognition. Both German states in East Berlin has been permitted since the GDR. Villa Schöningen on the Potsdam side simultaneously gain United Nations membership in 1974. the mid-1970s, are strictly monitored. The selection of prisoners for ransom is commemorates this period. problematic. While on the Eastern side Party General Secretary Honecker or Stasi head Erich Mielke decide per- sonally in many cases, on the West 14 15 Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte

LIVING WITH THE WALL REVOLUTION Living in the shadow of the border “We are the people!“ In the East, border guards block off police and defector” rather than cops Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s now become a beacon of hope. residents’ view of the Wall as much as and robbers. Their games mimic reality reforms change the world. In the Hundreds of thousands take to the possible with screens and no-access so closely that the “defector” is often West they awaken hope for an end to streets in Leipzig, Berlin and other cities. zones. Things are different in West “shot dead”. Children process the the arms race, in the East for demo- The slogan of this peaceful revolution Berlin, where the Wall is integrated into inhumanity unconsciously, adults cratization. But the GDR regime has a is “we are the people.” New political daily life. Graffiti artists use it as a often not at all. But people only appear low opinion of Gorbachev’s glasnost configurations form. Other political massive canvas, camping enthusiasts to have adjusted to the new reality. In and perestroika campaigns. A dispirited parties break away from the ruling SED, treat it as a weekend refuge and Kreuz- truth many of them suffer from what mood prevails in the economically which in turn removes Honecker from berg bars run improvised beer gardens psychiatrists and neurologists call “Wall depressed GDR. In May 1989 opposition power. But his successor Egon Krenz has beside it – all as if there were no Wall. sickness”. This is a condition marked forces prove that results of the recently little to offer in response to the momen- The perilous Wall running through the by psychosomatic disorders, often held local elections have been tampered tum of the unfolding events. To temper heart of this major city is soon of more accompanied by depression and the with. Government leaders respond with the growing pressure on them, the interest to tourists than to those who feeling of being “walled in”. After the wilful ignorance and repression. new state and party leadership decide live with it. The popular imagination of building of the Wall, West Berlin is The number of applications for exit to issue new regulations permitting West Berlin focuses on the death strip known for one of the highest suicide visas climbs. In the summer thousands travel to the West. only when news of another shooting rates of any city in the world. The rate decide to take a one-way holiday. Some comes. Because the actual barricades of suicide and attempted suicide is, travel to Hungary, where the Iron are set a few metres back into the however, even higher in East Berlin. Curtain has become permeable along the Eastern zone, there are lawless zones border with Austria, while others occupy in the middle of the city which West the West German embassies in Prague Berlin police are not permitted to and Warsaw. When they are allowed to enter. Numerous illegal buildings go travel onwards to the West as the East up in these areas – they will remain German Party leadership obliviously standing until 1990, and some of them celebrates the 40th anniversary of still exist today in a legalized form. the GDR, protests blossom into a mass Growing up in the shadow of the Wall, movement. The words of visiting West Berlin children play “border Head of State Mikhail Gorbachev, “Life punishes those who come too late,” 16 17 Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte

PROCESSING THE PAST Criminal trials and remembrance

As a matter of principle, injustices that head Erich Honecker and Stasi boss Erich have been committed in the GDR must be Mielke, are discontinued because the punished according to GDR criminal law. accused are deemed unfit to stand trial One of the most important principles of according to the criteria of a state based THE FALL OF THE WALL the rule of law is the prohibition against on the rule of law. 2005 marks the 9 November 1989 what is known as retroactive juris- conclusion of legal reckoning with the in- diction. But how is the reunited Germany justices of the GDR: At this point all At exactly 6.53 pm, at the international At the Bundestag in Bonn, MPs rise from to punish those who killed people at the crimes except for murder in the narrow press centre in East Berlin, politburo their seats and strike up the German intra-German border? They were not sense fall under the statute of limitations. member Günter Schabowski announces national anthem. The strains of “unity acting in violation of GDR law; on the “What we wanted was justice and what the decision of the GDR leadership “to and justice and freedom” have barely contrary, they were following clear we got was the rule of law,” the implement a regulation today that al- faded away when the first East Berliners orders. disillusioned GDR civil rights activist lows every citizen of the German receive permission to cross the Born- In order to hold the perpetrators of Bärbel Bohley remarks on the German Democratic Republic to leave through holmer Straße border. these crimes responsible for their legal system’s grappling with GDR border crossings of the GDR”. In One by one, the other border check- actions, the Federal Court of Justice injustices. But despite legitimate criticism, response to a journalist’s question points open, including the famed draws on a principle set forth by legal criminal trials have made an important about when the new travel regulation . Honecker’s successor scholar Gustav Radbruch. According to contribution to bringing to light the will go into effect, Schabowski leafs Egon Krenz will later say that the Radbruch, codified law is not applicable injustices of the GDR. through his papers and answers pressure was simply too great too with- when it fundamentally clashes with What now remains – along with the far erroneously, “immediately, without stand. principles of human rights – and the delay”. from concluded process of scholarly Normal life grinds to a halt in Berlin. violent destruction of a human life is research on the East German state and its With these words, party functionary Hundreds of thousands of people from the ultimate human rights violation. injustices – is remembrance. Numerous Schabowski opens the floodgates. both sides of the city celebrate at the More than 2000 investigations of deadly sites are devoted to the task of keeping As soon as Western news agencies have checkpoints, on the Kurfürstendamm and shootings at the intra-German border the memory of the inhumane East broadcast the surprising announcement, in front of the Brandenburg Gate, the are carried out. Some 300 people are German regime and its victims alive, countless East Berliners begin streaming symbol of the division of Germany. After convicted of crimes at the border, but and thereby educating the public about towards the border checkpoints. By 9 28 years, the Wall has fallen. only 30 perpetrators must actually serve political history. These include the Berlin pm, Trabants and Wartburgs are backed Only a year later, the GDR will no longer prison sentences. Wall Memorial on Bernauer Straße, the up along Bornholmer Straße. Having exist: Germany is reunited in peace and Memorial to the Division of Germany received no orders, the responsible Other than these border shootings, freedom. at the Helmstedt-Marienborn checkpoint, border officer does not know how to only ten people in total are sentenced to prison for the injustices of the GDR. the open-air border museum in Mödla- reply to the chorus of calls for the reuth and countless other large and small checkpoint to be opened. They include Egon Krenz, Heinz Keßler and Günter Schabowski, all of whom, as memorials and museums in Berlin and heads of the state and the party, bore along the onetime border between East a share of the responsibility for the and West Germany. shootings at the Wall. The trials of 18 many key figures, such as party 19 Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte Eine Austellung zur Zeitgeschichte

The exhibition “The Wall: A border through Germany”, was produced by the Foundation for the Study of the SED REMEMBERING Dictatorship and the newspapers A permanent end to dictatorship BILD and Die Welt. Axel Springer laid the foundations for The Axel Spring Verlag is dedicated Ralf Georg Reuth (BILD) and Sven Felix his publishing house directly on the to working to preserve these memories. Kellerhoff (Die Welt) were responsible border to the Soviet sector of Berlin. Also committed to this goal is the for research of images, text writing and A visionary thinker, Springer was deeply Foundation for the Study of the SED editing; Ulrich Mählert (Foundation for convinced that the unnatural division Dictatorship, which engages with the the Study of the SED Dictatorship) led the of Germany would not stand the test of history and consequences of communist project. time. The publisher stayed put two years dictatorships, the division of Germany Barbara Boettcher-Hillen (BILD) was later when building crews erected the and Europe as well as unification. responsible for project conception and Wall right at the edge of the publishing Founded by the German Bundestag in design, and Thomas Klemm (Agentur für house’s property. Axel Springer and 1998, it has since provided more than Gestaltung und Realisierung, Leipzig) for his publishing house’s editors, who 31 million euro in funding to some implementing the design. advocated for German unity for decades, 2200 projects throughout Germany Unless otherwise noted, photographs used were ultimately vindicated: After and thus played an important role in in the exhibition are from ullstein bild or 28 long years the Wall collapsed in combating the idealization of the GDR. from the BILD photographic the throes of a peaceful revolution. For the exhibition “The Wall”, the archives. Nearly a generation has passed since Foundation worked in partnership with Jim Dick produced the graphics and maps. that fateful day in 1989. The sufferings the newspapers BILD and Die Welt, Monika Gehrmann and Tanja Belli from the caused by the country’s division, the which share its devotion to the goal of BILD photographic editorial team helped story of how this division ended, the ensuring that dictatorship never returns. provide the images. joy that the fall of the Wall bestowed in the memorable November of 1989: all Accompanying educational material is these things are gradually fading from available free of charge from Germany’s consciousness. www.stiftung-aufarbeitung.de/DieMauer

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