Coming to Terms: Dealing with the Communist Past in United Germany
Bundesunmittelbare Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts Preface 5
I. The Post-Communist German Experience: Special Features 14 1. Securing and Opening the Files 15 2. Records and Lustrations 20 3. Elite Changes 24 4. Communist Injustice before the Courts 32 5. Restitution, Rehabilitation, Compensation 40
II. Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED-Dictatorship 44 1. Origins: Parliamentary Inquiry Commissions and Initiatives 45 2. Structure of the Foundation 48 3. Mandate and Scope: Services and Activities 52
III. Other German and International Institutions: A Brief Overview 56 1. Federal Institutions 58 2. Civic archives 72 3. Other Institutions, museums and memorial sites 74 4. Victims Associations 86 Coming to Terms: Dealing with the Communist Past in United Germany
This brochure is commissioned and published by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED-Dictatorship (Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur). Written in collaboration with the Foundation by Bernd Schaefer, Senior Research Scholar with the Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington D.C., it provides an overview of salient features and important institutions pertaining to processes of coming to terms with the communist past in Germany since 1990.
Berlin, October 2011
Dr. Anna Kaminsky
C oming tO Terms: Dealing with the Communist Past in United Germany
During the course of the 20th century Germany experienced two different dictatorships, the twelve years of fascist Nazi Germany’s “Third Reich” between 1933 and 1945 and the 40 years of communist rule in East Germany between 1949 and 1989 (the latter preceded by Soviet military occupation of Eastern Germany and East Berlin since 1945 when German communists were guided in building up dictatorial structures). Coming to t erms: 6 Dealing with the Communist Past in u niteD g ermany
Both periods of dictatorships had some structural How Germans came to terms with those two dictatorships elements in common while they also displayed obvious existing on their soil varied significantly, given the major contrasts. Both dictatorships started and ended very differently, differences in both international and national environments with Nazi Germany resorting to a global war of aggression after 1945 and from 1989. Meanwhile both experiences in resulting in millions of war dead and the genocide of European redressing injustices of the past have begun to reference Jewry. Respective crimes committed by the two German each other in public German discourse. They have led to a dictatorships differed vastly in scope and geographical range. convergence in the sense that obligations exist to face dictatorial pasts from the perspectives of victims rather than After the demise of Nazi Germany and the Second World those held by perpetrators. The process of how to come to War’s ending in Europe, Soviet military authorities used certain terms with various injustices and crimes committed during Nazi concentration camp sites in Eastern Germany between dictatorships also facilitated a scrutiny of the latter’s legacies. 1945 and 1950 for their ten “special internment camps” to They warrant a search for lessons applicable to post-dictatorial detain some real, and many alleged, national-socialists. democratic systems and corresponding societal structures. About 43,000 of them, i.e. 35 percent of individuals interned, perished during confinement. The German population in areas that became the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) experienced the differences and similarities of two succeeding dictatorships from 1933 to 1945 and 1945 to 1989. The GDR was established on 7 October 1949 and imposed on the population by German communists organized in the Socialist Unity Party (SED) with the vital assistance of the Soviet Union and without popular legitimization. A façade of “democratic” institutions was set up with the SED actually pulling all the strings by virtue of its There were about 250,000 political prisoners in the GDR over the course of 40 years Coming to t erms: 8 Dealing with the Communist Past in u niteD g ermany
self-assigned absolute unfettered power. Over the course of years, people living in this socialist state had to experience multiple features of repression. Opponents of the regime, or members of rival political parties during the early postwar years, were at any time subject to various forms of administrative repression or arbitrary arrests based on partisan definitions of criminal law. The judicial system was entirely subordinated to the SED’s respective political interests. Overall 250,000 people were arrested between 1945 and 1989 for political reasons (between 1961 and 1989 about 30,000 of them were released to the West after ransom was paid to GDR authorities by the West German government). Thousands were deported to Siberian camps by Soviet authorities after 1945 and during the 1950s. Until August 1961 alone, more than three million people fled the GDR through the still open borders with West Germany: Such constituted
soviet tanks terminate the massive east german popular revolt in June 1953 9
the largest refugee movement in Europe after the end of World War II. Traumatic experiences were created, for instance, by the violent Soviet crackdown on the massive East German popular revolt in June 1953, the 1956 defeat of the Hungarian uprising and subsequent repressive measures in the GDR, the August 1961 construction of the intra-Berlin border and the walling-in and fencing-in of 17 million people in the GDR now separated from their kin in West Germany, the 1968 Warsaw Pact military intervention in Czechoslovakia, or the 1981 martial law crackdown on the Solidarnosc labor and peasant union movement in neighboring Poland. All those events had in common that attempts by people in the GDR and Eastern Europe to attain democratic rights and freedoms were met by dictatorial regimes with a full force of repressive measures.
the Berlin w all in the 1970s Coming to t erms: 10 Dealing with the Communist Past in u niteD g ermany
The communist regime in the GDR remained in power as process of self-democratization began. Free elections on long as Moscow had a vested interest in and the power to 18 March 1990 resulted in an overwhelming majority for East maintain a division of Germany and the existence of a separate German political parties advocating rapid unification with the socialist German state. By 1989 at the latest, the USSR had Western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). By then the implicitly withdrawn its warranty of armed intervention to slogan from the beginning of the revolution had changed to maintain the survival of a socialist East Germany. In parallel “We are one people”. Ensuing negotiations between government developments, a refugee wave exiting the GDR to West representatives from both German states then culminated in Germany through Hungary and Czechoslovakia ultimately a currency, economic, and social union on 1 July 1990 and in toppled the SED regime in conjunction with unrest inside the a comprehensive Unification Treaty signed on 31 August 1990. GDR. There massive and After extensive multilateral and bilateral deliberations, the four persistent peaceful demonstrations victorious allied powers of World War II (USSR, USA, Great The slogan from held countrywide in small and big Britain, France) ratified on 12 September 1990 in Moscow with the beginning of cities took place. All this was both German states in a so-called “2+4 Treaty” upcoming the revolution had inspired by the huge path-breaking German unification and the status of united Germany as a changed to demonstration in the city of Leipzig member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) “We are one people” on 9 October 1989, which military alliance. Soviet armed forces in the GDR, which that ultimately forced the opening of at height of the Cold War in Europe had amounted to 400,000 the Berlin Wall and of the country’s sealed borders with the men, were to leave the Eastern part of united Germany by 1994. West by 9 November 1989. A “peaceful revolution” featuring the slogan “We are the people” gradually dismantled Back in 1945, Soviet military occupation authorities had communist state structures and established foundations for established on East German territory the five states of the emergence of a multi-party democracy. After the self- Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony- liberation of East Germans through a political revolution, a Anhalt and Thuringia. The city of Berlin was divided into four
Coming to t erms: 12 Dealing with the Communist Past in u niteD g ermany
sectors with the Soviet Union administering the largest of them individuals. Those activities occurred during the GDR’s last in the Eastern part. In 1952 the GDR had these five states year between November 1989 and October 1990 – and thus replaced with 14 districts and a separate 15th entity for East before Germany’s official unification. Important decisions in Berlin. With German unification on 3 October 1990, however, the context of democratization, like applying criminal law to the original five East German states from 1945 were re- perpetrators, compensating the victims, and opening the established. Together with the files, originated from the last GDR government (which also reunited city of Berlin, now figuring happened to be the only free and democratic one) after the Berlin was voted the as a state of its own, they joined the March 1990 elections. capital city by the existing eleven West German states German parliament to merge into one Federal Republic Subsequently taken up by the federal parliament of united of Germany. In 1991 united Berlin Germany and the five new states in its Eastern part, broad was voted the capital city by the German parliament and political majorities reached consensus about a public duty to ultimately became the seat of united Germany’s federal address, and possibly redress, the manifold issues of injustice government in 1999. and repression committed during GDR times. Comprehensive exploration and information about structures and methods of How to come to terms with the communist GDR past a dictatorial past, as well as the commemoration of acts of became a major feature of public discourse in united Germany civic courage, opposition, and resistance, were seen as almost immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November necessary preconditions for living in a healthy democracy. 1989. First steps in this regard initiated in East Germany by Since 1990, all German federal governments and parliaments multiple civic groups and local media now freed from censorship have been very clear in expressing the need for a reappraisal (and intensely supported by West German media); not the of the communist dictatorship. Wide-ranging and intense least, however, most initiatives were launched by courageous efforts by federal, state and local governments, the media, 13
and civic society dealt in multiple facets with the scope of Researchers working at Universities and elsewhere issues raised by the demise of the communist GDR. Hardly discovered a variety of new topics and published new any other democracy during the course of the 20th century knowledge which enlightened the past reality of the East took more initiatives and steps, both quantitatively and German Dictatorship. More than 2.000 research projects qualitatively, to come to terms with the lasting legacy of were accomplished since 1990. Especially the field of injustice from a past dictatorship than united Germany did opposition and resistance against the regime as well as since 1990 in the case of communist East Germany. repression and political persecution came into the centre of historical interest. I. ThE POST-COmmUnIST GERmAn EXPERIEnCE: SPECIAl FEATURES 1. Securing and Opening the Files
When communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe gradually lost their political power and were overthrown in the second half of 1989 by peaceful revolutions, a unique feature was on display in East Germany during the first days of December: Democracy activists and concerned citizens spontaneously forced their entrance into district and county headquarters of the feared and hated Ministry for State Security (MfS, or Stasi; established in 1950). t he Post-Communist g erman e x P erienC e: sPe C ial Features 16 s e C uring anD oPening the Files
The Stasi, the clandestine arm of the SED with 95,000 By early December 1989, the Stasi did not put up fights employees and roughly 180,000 unofficial informers in 1989, for its properties in district and county seats affected. It had spied on every segment of the GDR population for almost ceded under peaceful pressure without resorting to violence 40 years. All in all, nearly 600,000 unofficial informers and since its long-time political principal had just ceased its own 250,000 Stasi employees monitored the people during the existence: The entire Politburo and Central Committee of the existence of the GDR. This constituted the perhaps highest SED in Berlin had resigned on 4 December 1989, and thus de country ratio between intelligence operatives and a population facto terminated the existence of a communist party in East anywhere in the world. Germany (its post-communist successor parties were to mark a break from Marxist-Leninist patterns of the past). While the The scenario of December 1989 unfolded in major cities founding mission of the Stasi as the “sword and shield of the like Erfurt, Leipzig, Dresden, Magdeburg, Halle, and Rostock, party” vanished, some regional Stasi commanders gave but also in many other seats of district or county governments: instructions to destroy its incriminating files. Smoke from Activists seized the buildings and sealed and secured millions chimneys of Stasi buildings, and the rapid countrywide spread of remaining surveillance files with the help of state prosecutors of such news, triggered a popular movement to seize the assisted by the police. The massive Stasi headquarters in Berlin, buildings and stop the destruction of records. Activist East however, where major resistance was expected, remained German citizens succeeded in this regard to large extent. untouched until 15 January 1990 before it shared a fate They thus laid the groundwork for a special feature of East identical to Stasi compounds in other East German cities. Germany’s coming to terms with the communist past by providing necessary tools and sources for comprehensive Nearly 600,000 unoffi cial informers and 250,000 Stasi employees monitored the people during the existence of the GDR t he Post-Communist g erman e x P erienC e: sPe C ial Features 18 s e C uring anD oPening the Files
lustration of tainted individuals. Securing the Stasi files Federal Archive located in West Germany was met by a massive established a major pillar of transitional justice in Germany to outcry in East Germany. A sit-in in Berlin’s former Stasi be established and implemented during the following decade headquarters, and a subsequent hunger strike by prominent of the 1990s. activists, eventually rendered any relocation plans moot. On 18 September 1990 a clause was added to the Unification In the months to follow the takeovers of December 1989 Treaty between the two German states, according to which and January 1990, Stasi records remained under seal and the future parliament of united Germany was commissioned were guarded on site by local groups of civic activists. The to draft a law based on provisions from the August 1990 freely elected GDR parliament took model passed by the East German parliament. With German up on 22 July 1990 its first reading Unification day on 3 October 1990 the Stasi records then In December 1991 the of a draft on “securing and came under supervision of a special commissioner and his German parliament opening” the files for victims of staff who turned into a Federal Commissioner in 1991: This ultimately passed the surveillance as well as for was East German Joachim Gauck, a Protestant pastor from final draft of the researchers. On 24 August deputies Rostock and activist who had also chaired the last GDR Stasi Records Law passed nearly unanimously a law parliament’s committee in charge of dealing with the Stasi providing for a comprehensive legacy. After much legal wrangling, preceded by media lustration of all East German parliamentarians as a first step. revelations from Stasi files circulating in public, in December A relocation and potential closure plan floated by the West 1991 the German parliament ultimately passed the final draft German Ministry of Interior to move the Stasi records into the of the Stasi Records Law (or “StUG”, as the German acronym 19
goes). It established a Federal Agency headed by a Federal Commissioner for Stasi records (“BStU” by the German acronym) and regulated in detail how to access and make use of altogether 180 kilometers (120 miles) of saved and preserved files assembled by the former GDR Ministry for State Security over the course of almost 40 years. Joachim Gauck headed the BStU until 2000 when, due to legal term limitations, Marianne Birthler succeeded him in the office of Federal Commissioner till March 2011. Roland Jahn is the third Federal Commissioner by now.
the s tasi collected not only information on files, but also various it ems of their victims like olfactory samples 2. cd Re or s and Lustrations
The December 1991 StUG came into effect on 1 January 1992 and formally established the BStU as a federal agency. Its main tasks stipulated by this law were the following: 21
• Individuals were granted the right of access to, and In combination, those provisions stimulated a very lively complimentary copies of, any personalized records the debate in the media, the interested public, and among Stasi might have created and filed on them. Also, they academics. All in all, since 1991 more than 6.5 million obtained the right to make public any content of their requests for access to Stasi records were filed (including personal files and to receive, upon request, names of those by media and researchers). 1.7 million individuals informers who had spied on them. (So far, the BStU asked to see their personal Stasi files. agency has received more than two million individual inquiries since 1991). Following the path-breaking opening of these files created • The agency provided documentation and interpretation by the GDR security apparatus, records from all central, assistance for the vetting of present and prospective regional, and local branches of the GDR party and state employees of Germany’s federal and state civil service. complex were subsequently opened and made accessible to • In order to fulfill the need for publicly available research the public, to researchers, and to the media. With the single results, the StUG also regulated overall generous access exception of the East Germany Ministry of Foreign Affairs rights for journalists, as well as for academic and where files came under authority of united Germany’s Foreign individual researchers. Office, the otherwise common 30-years-rule for German • The BStU was tasked to contribute to public education archival records was waived for all GDR-related files. In essence, about Stasi methods, structures, and activities; it did so they became available for the entire historical period between through outreach, public events, documentations, 1945 and 1990. The 42 kilometers (26 miles) of records from publications, and exhibits. the vast former multi-branch East German state apparatus t he Post-Communist g erman e x P erienC e: sPe C ial Features 22 r e C orD s anD l ustrations
were transferred to the authority of the German Federal Archive. They are open to the public in their current location in Berlin-Lichterfelde. The same archival compound also hosts the likewise accessible archives of the communist party SED and its affiliated mass organizations (Trade Unions, Youth Associations, National Front). Since 1991 those files are organized in a separate foundation embedded in the Federal Archive. Archives of the so- Archives of the so- called “bloc parties” aligned with the SED during GDR times called “bloc parties” were moved to their West aligned with the SED German patron parties in 1990. during GDR times were There they became accessible moved to their West somewhat later at the archives German patron parties of the Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) in St. Augustin near Bonn and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in Gummersbach east of Cologne. Based on this wide range of opened files and documents of the communist dictatorship in the GDR, since 1990 more than 16,000 publications appeared, among them over 6,000 books and academic monographs. 23
The vast documentation record available, in particular commissions. However, overall more or less comparable from the comparatively well-organized Stasi archives, was rules were applied to validate, or dismiss, quests by after 3 October 1990 also used as a basis for comprehensive individuals to remain in, respectively join, Germany’s vast lustration of members and applicants for civil service, as well civil service. Background checks remained in effect and as for various affiliated sectors of this service in united mandatory until 31 December 2006. After that date, they Germany on the federal, state, and local level. Scope of became applicable in limited cases only, and pertaining to screenings and individual regulations varied with regard to higher-ranking positions. states, professional sectors, and respective lustration 3. Elite Changes
During GDR times, the SED exerted its constitutionally guaranteed and self-declared “leading role” in state and society not just in theory. By 1989, the communist party had 2.3 million members (out of an entire population of 16 million). 25
Party membership was mandatory for basically every Pact member states in Eastern and Central Europe: Beyond leading position in sectors like public administration, the the obvious search for politically untainted indigenous elites, state-run economy, police, security, and the military, the the five new East German states in united Germany had at judicial system, or education in schools and at universities. their disposal resources of trained administrative personnel After the peaceful revolution of 1989, the SED renamed itself from West German partner states. Also, there existed a certain in PDS (“Party of Democratic Socialism”) and its membership stock of emigrated former East Germans now living in West dropped to about 200,000 by the end of 1990. The GDR Germany who were willing to “come over”, or return, to the gradually ceased to exist, following the free East German East to take over positions vacated by old communist and election of 18 March 1990 that overwhelmingly expressed a ideologically affiliated elites. Whereas some Eastern European popular will to pursue rapid unification and adoption of the states had as well numbers of emigrants living in ethnic West German political and economic system. The question communities in Western Europe, the United States, and now loomed who would form the new East German elites in Canada who considered to return to their now post-communist state and society; and what role, if any, might be played by countries of birth, those numbers paled in quantitative terms the millions of former SED members. to the large West German-based pool of untainted personnel available to East Germany. For those reasons, nowhere in As far as the process of replacement of communist elites previously socialist countries of Eastern and Central Europe in former East Germany is concerned, the period since 1990 elite change, i.e. the replacement of politically compromised was another rather unique experience displaying various personnel, became as sweeping and profound as it did in the German specifics. With regard to an exchange of old former GDR. In basically all major areas of the civil service it administrative elites, East Germans had one particular option was far-reaching, deep, and permanent. that set them apart from other transforming former Warsaw t he Post-Communist g erman e x P erienC e: sPe C ial Features 26 e lite Changes
Overall, the elite change during the 1990s in East Germany meanwhile become more attractive and offered perspectives had significantly more to rely on Western imports than on in both parts of united Germany. indigenous potential. From 1990 onwards, reformist political circles and civic activists in East Germany set the pace for Thus imports from West Germany turned out as the fallback purging old elites from the sectors of public administration option for elite change in East Germany. With unification, the and from the educational system (the latter traditionally being West German political, economic, legal and administrative a part of civil service in Germany). Initially, they hoped to draw system replicated and reproduced itself in the newly formed mostly on indigenous resources: During communist times East German states. This entailed certain parts of GDR academic elites not affiliated with the a large-scale dismantling of former During communist SED had largely stayed away from politics. They “hibernated” GDR institutional structures while times certain parts of in comparatively non-ideological academic professions like at the same time administrative GDR academic elites medicine, the natural sciences, engineering, or in the Christian bodies and bureaucracies based not affiliated with the churches. After the fall of communism, they where now on West German models were expected to figure as a potential “counter-elite” and to serve SED had largely stayed established. For East Germans, as an indigenous reservoir for the replacement of old elites. away from politics former communists or anti- Some of them subsequently indeed emerged in political communists alike, this was an office on state and county level. However, in the end only a entirely new experience that required substantial adaptation. fraction of such individuals actually wanted to join the With that experience came the urgent need to learn almost remodeled sectors of public administration in the five new overnight about laws, regulations, and the actual functioning East German states. The “counter-elite” option failed to of the West German system. Hence the import of West German- emerge as a realistic alternative when the majority of targeted based temporary experts and numerous advisers for political, individuals stayed within their old professions; those had administrative, and educational leadership positions across the public sector was inevitable and ultimately indispensable. Walter Ulbricht: “Nobody has the intention to erect a wall.” 15 June 1961 at a press conference in East Berlin t he Post-Communist g erman e x P erienC e: sPe C ial Features 28 e lite Changes
After German unification, those personnel imports were to ministries and public administration, especially in the sectors spearhead in the five East German states the implementation of finance, justice, interior, and economic regulation. Since of all aspects of the transferred West German system for also mostly Western imports were in charge of recruiting new many years to come. personnel, they usually called and tapped into people they knew from their familiar Western professional networks. The West German imports encountered a more or less blank slate and struggled to fill vacancies across the board in Eastern top administrative positions. Some old GDR-specific institutions were downsized, yet many of them were dissolved. Numerous new administrative structures had to be built from scratch. The five new state governments established in East Germany after the West German model had no equivalent in the GDR where the territory had been subdivided into 15 districts. After unification, public administration in East Germany had to shift gears and speedily implement West German law and regulations with all their subtleties. Thus there was a constant need of importing specialists from the West for all higher levels of civil service. Soon this resulted in West German dominance in almost all higher ranks of East German state
rainer e ppelmann, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Foundation for the r eappraisal of the seD Dictatorship 29
Initially, Western state governments were reluctant to had to be financially subsidized by Western partners. Thus overwhelm the Eastern states with their personnel. A the latter considered export of administrative personnel as temporary or permanent transfer of Western civil servants to an active contribution to oversee and direct the investment the East was a costly undertaking which Western states were and spending of money in the East. They also hoped for a eager to scale down as soon as possible. Soon they realized, speedy economic recovery of the East with the help of however, that there was no other alternative if they wanted to Western specialists. Though this recovery took significantly build a functioning administration to apply and implement longer than initially expected, it ultimately increased living Western laws and regulations. In the early years after 1990, standards in the former GDR and led to partial economic almost fifty percent of the budgets of East German states self-sufficiency of Eastern Germany; thereby in turn gradually
now and then: l othar de m aizière, the last and only democratically elected Prime m inister and markus m eckel, penultimate foreign minister of the gDr signing the coalition agreement in 1990 and in discussion with h ermann r udolph, publisher of “Der t agesspiegel” in 2010 t he Post-Communist g erman e x P erienC e: sPe C ial Features 30 e lite Changes
decreasing the amount of needed Western personnel increased from indigenous resources. While the police was imports, financial assistance, and other forms of aid. sometimes overwhelmed after unification, the public school system and its bureaucracy were overstaffed due to sinking In public administration, Western imports initially occupied enrollment. Much tainted personnel was thus dismissed but many top positions in newly formed state administration others were retained, as the interest of Western imports to structures, albeit much less so in continuing structures on work in East German schools was comparatively low. University county and local levels. Numerically the main body of all faculty positions in the former GDR, in contrast, were attrac- state administrations con- tive to West German academics who pushed into vacancies sisted of politically untainted created by dismissals of politically and otherwise compromised Central structures of the Easterners, yet mostly in East German professors. Structures of the GDR economy vast GDR state apparatus subordinate positions. The were substantially transformed, with the huge former all- were dismantled, the justice system and the public sector broken up into individual pieces and sold to large SED party apparatus courts saw a heavy influx of Western companies. Yet many East German elite economic disappeared. The 95,000 Western imports into various professionals made their way even under new conditions and force of the State Security top positions, again with a despite West German leadership at the top; their networks was dissolved without strong numerical Eastern and expertise were much in demand. Other former GDR replacement, the 165,000 base in lower echelons. In sectors all but disappeared: Central structures of the vast GDR military demobilized contrast, police forces in GDR state apparatus were dismantled, the large SED party East Germany were to grow apparatus disappeared. The 95,000 force of the State Security rapidly after unification due was dissolved without replacement, the 165,000 GDR military to an increase in crime and safety-related needs. Despite demobilized and incorporated into the West German army some Western imports installed at the very top, many former (Bundeswehr) with ultimately 11,000 men retained. GDR police personnel had to be retained and its numbers 31
Processes of elite change and the role of Western imports to East Germany were anything but uncontroversial during most of the first decade after German unification. Yet a constant training, education, and qualification of East German specialists during the following years not only shrank the above-mentioned dominance of imported Western personnel. It also fomented an ever growing and meanwhile substantial “indigenization” of all sectors within East German civil service; and led to many East Germans now occupying leading political, economic, educational, and administrative elite positions in their own regions.
angela m erkel, current Chancellor of g ermany, was the deputy spokesperson of the last gDr government under l othar de m aizière 4. o C mmunist Injustice before the Courts
Beginning with the last two months of 1989, the now reformist GDR made considerable efforts to prosecute, weigh, and judge almost every aspect of criminal activity in the former GDR. 33
During the following decade of the 1990s, German • Political instructions and military actions pertaining to courts applied GDR laws in effect during actual commitment shoot-to-kill orders against East German refugees between of crimes in communist times, but also current jurisdiction of 1961 and 1989 at the Berlin Wall (so far 126 confirmed united Germany where applicable, and, in the case of executed deadly incidents) and the intra-German border (deaths shoot-to-kill-orders at the Berlin Wall and the intra-German are numbering between many hundreds up to 1,000 and border between 1961 and 1989, universal human rights law. are still subject to exact confirmation); defendants were In continuation of legal prosecutorial efforts initiated during former members of highest GDR decision-making political the last year of the GDR, the judiciary in united Germany bodies (SED Politburo, National Defense Council), as well acted further upon “electoral fraud”, i.e. the manipulation of as individual border guards who executed political guidelines election results in times of communist rule, as well as upon resulting in the deaths of refugees issues concerning “abuse of privileges” and corruption • Arbitrary and politicized application of GDR laws resulting among former leading GDR officials. After unification, the in disproportionate prison or death sentences courts of united Germany defined the categories listed below • Denunciations of individuals resulting in their politically as manifest expressions of “communist injustice” during GDR motivated arrest or in other forms of retribution or times. There were therefore considered as subject to punishment prosecution, including the obligation to investigate and act • Illegal actions according to GDR law by the former GDR on potential “severe human rights violations” in any of the Ministry for State Security like kidnappings from West following categories: Berlin or Western Germany to East Germany (more than t he Post-Communist g erman e x P erienC e: sPe C ial Features 34 Communist i n J ustiC e B e F ore the Courts
400 cases in 40 years), intended or actual assassination allowing only for future persecution of crimes of extremely attempts, secret eavesdropping, interrupting postal severe nature, German legal efforts to address communist communication, clandestine apartment searches, and injustice have basically come to a conclusion. various kinds of blackmailing • Mistreatment, death and torture in GDR prisons Results of these efforts allow for the following • Organized secret doping of GDR athletes, including assessments: minors, causing lasting physical and psychological damage or disability • Initial prosecution during the last year of the GDR was • GDR-organized espionage against the Federal Republic of mostly concerned with party leader corruption, electoral Germany up to 1989 fraud, and embezzlement. It began in November 1989 and • West German technology exports into the GDR violating lasted until German unification day of 3 October 1990. existing Western COCOM (“Coordinating Committee for Charges were filed in 180 cases and resulted in the East-West Trade Policy”) trade embargos investigation of 124 accused individuals. At least 42 of them were held under temporary arrest. Ultimately 41 By the end of the 1990s, German lower as well as higher cases were brought to trial, and GDR courts sentenced courts established a largely consistent system pertaining to 26 individuals before October 1990. applications of past and contemporary law. After about 15 • In continuing this process for cases still unresolved, and years of prosecutorial efforts, trials, verdicts, and acquittals, through a substantial expansion of the scope of the most recent court decision on GDR-era injustice was investigations as outlined above, federal and state issued in 2005. Given the low probability of discovering authorities in united Germany centralized the prosecution further cases of communist injustice after more than a in Berlin with a specially assigned team of prosecutors to decade of intensive scrutiny, and German amnesty laws adjudicate state-sponsored crime during GDR times. One-time compensation payments of about 430 U.S. dollars per month were granted to those who served in prison for political reasons t he Post-Communist g erman e x P erienC e: sPe C ial Features 36 Communist i n J ustiC e B e F ore the Courts
• With exact numbers difficult to determine given the involvement of various regional courts systems all over Germany, the approximate overall estimate for legal investigations conducted amounts to roughly 75,000 cases involving about 100,000 individuals under initial suspicion. In the end, however, only 1,021 cases against altogether 1,737 defendants were actually slated for trial. 14 percent (143) of those cases were withdrawn by the prosecution or dismissed by the courts and subsequently left untried. All in all, charges were filed and tried in court only in cases concerning about 1,400 individuals (1.4 percent) out of those 100,000 originally under investigation. • Only about 54 percent (about 756 in absolute numbers) of defendants charged were ultimately sentenced, 24 percent (about 336) were acquitted. The remaining 22 percent (about 308) were released when proceedings got terminated without any sentences issued. Only in seven percent of cases prison sentences of two or more years were issued. 53 percent of sentences amounted to one to two years of prison time while 47 percent of those were verdicts over less than one year. In 92 percent of all those 37
cases prison sentences were suspended. Defendants were placed on probation and subsequently released. • A major cause for these numbers was the high average age of defendants: It amounted to 58 years, with one third of the accused being 64 and older. Many of those were declared unfit to stand trial or serve prison time for reasons of health. • About 37 percent of cases brought to trial concerned “perversion of justice” in GDR times through arbitrary application of existing laws, 24 percent concerned the use of force at the Berlin Wall and the intra-German border, and 14 percent were crimes committed by the former Ministry of State Security. • The comparatively harshest sentences, in part amounting to five years of prison time or more, were issued against former West German citizens convicted of espionage for the GDR according to West German law, which explicitly sanctions espionage against the Federal Republic of Germany. Sentences of former GDR citizens committing espionage against the FRG, however, were commuted since they did not fall under the jurisdiction of pre-1990 West German law. t he Post-Communist g erman e x P erienC e: sPe C ial Features 38 Communist i n J ustiC e B e F ore the Courts
Those pure figures seemingly indicated for many observers repeatedly adopted and re-confirmed the shoot-to-kill order in Germany an underperformance of the legal system in in their respective meetings, the German Federal Constitutional providing justice after 40 years of state-sponsored criminal Court emphasized the relevance of universally applicable acts in the GDR. However, in many cases prosecutorial hands international law and its superseding effects over any national were tied by respective stipulations of the 1990 Unification legal constructions which severely violated human rights. Treaty between the two German states. According to those, only such crimes were supposed to be subject to legal sanctions Notwithstanding the severity or lenience of sentences that were committed before 1990 in violation of then-existing issued, the symbolic and factual impact of bringing cases to GDR laws. court, and arriving at impartial verdicts with various outcomes, made substantial contributions towards exploring the historical Still, such did not apply to cases of severe violations of truth about communist injustice committed in the past. The human rights, like the use of deadly force against refugees legal process in united Germany was characterized by attempting to leave the GDR through the Berlin Wall or the comprehensiveness and thorough heavily fortified intra-German border. According to GDR laws professionalism. It stood in continu- “We wanted and regulations, it was illegal to leave the country without ance of a process of legal reckoning justice, and we got authorization, and therefore legal to hinder those defying state initiated in the GDR since November the rule of law” orders by force. In this case, however, the courts of united 1989; and it demonstrated through Germany took recourse in superseding international human overall measured results that it hardly rights law. They completely reversed the terms of “legality” represented any vindictive post-unification “victors’ justice”. and “illegality” with regard to the use of force along the intra- The public verdict on these results was mixed, though, encap- German border. In upholding prison sentences issued against sulated in a statement by Bärbel Bohley, a major protagonist GDR officials from the SED Politburo, the National Defense of the East German anti-communist dissident movement: Council, and the higher echelons of military border units who “We wanted justice, and we got the rule of law”.
5. Rehabilitation, Compensation, Restitution
Communist injustice in the GDR could become very personal: Overall, hundreds of thousands of people were either arrested, sentenced, expropriated, deported, or discriminated against and wronged for political reasons. 41
An unknown number of people were killed or died in A major area of redressing past injustice in communist camps or prisons. According to estimates, there were about East Germany is represented by cases of individual 250,000 political prisoners in the GDR over the course of 40 rehabilitation and compensation. This feature initiated in early years, and somewhat over 105,000 verifiable cases where 1990 already when first measures were undertaken by the people suffered professional discrimination for political GDR’s last nominal socialist-led government. Back then a reasons. Since the first 1992 Indemnification Law, and as of decree was issued to rehabilitate convicted or otherwise 2005, about 170,000 individuals were rehabilitated. Also, the penalized former communist party dissidents and ordinary German Foreign Ministry negotiated with authorities in members. Ideologically charged verdicts from communist territories of the former Soviet Union cancellations of court times were nullified dating back to the aftermath of the 1956 decisions and respective rehabilitations for so far about Hungarian uprising. This rather narrow concentration on former 13,500 Germans who were sentenced after 1945 on Soviet communists was superseded by more comprehensive and territory for political reasons. inclusive concepts introduced through a Rehabilitation Law passed on 6 September 1990 by the freely elected GDR One-time financial compensations paid to individuals for parliament four weeks before German unification. It remained GDR prison terms violating the rule of law, as well as for a in effect until 4 November 1992 when united Germany’s denial of access to education and professions, have so far parliament adopted the first so-called “Communist Injustice exceeded the overall amount of 1.0 billion U.S. dollars. Indemnification Law”. It officially rehabilitated victims Compensations had already surpassed that level, when in sentenced on political provisions of GDR criminal law. All 2007 an additional law offered the option of permanent monthly East German court decisions between 8 May 1945 and financial compensation to a certain number of qualifying 2 October 1990 that “violated the rule of law” were nullified. former prisoners. t he Post-Communist g erman e x P erienC e: sPe C ial Features 42 r ehaB ilitation, ComP ensation, r estitution
On 1 July 1994 a second parliamentary “Communist Following public controversies and amendments during Injustice Amending Law” stipulated the rehabilitation, and subsequent years that questioned the actual financial possible financial compensation, of victims who suffered in commensurability of the 1994 stipulations, the German GDR times from administrative acts of political persecution parliament passed on 23 June 2007 a third bill to increase based on ideological or political discrimination over the course compensations for victims of political persecution during of their education (high school and/or university admission) GDR times. Provisions now offered a permanent monthly or professional careers. Compen- payment of 250 Euro (about 340 U.S. dollars) to those former sation was offered from 1994 to political prisoners who had to serve jail times in the GDR of About 25 percent indemnify all validated claimants at least 6 months and are currently suffering from low income. of roughly 40,000 for corresponding lower payments motions filed in this after retirement. One-time compen- Another form of compensation for past injustice regard were granted sation payments of about 430 U.S. consisted in material restitution. It was granted to former dollars per month were granted to GDR citizens in cases of forced property loss or sale, and it those who served in prison for political reasons. About 100,000 was applied to expropriated businesses as well as to private applications for this type of rehabilitation and compensation homes changing ownerships. The special case of former Jewish were filed, and roughly half of them granted. Another type of property nationalized during GDR times was exempted from rehabilitation offered by the 1994 law concerned the nullifi- statute of limitations in 1991 when the parliament of united cation of GDR administrative measures leading to health German granted the right to file restitution claims for this problems, loss of assets, or political discrimination with type of property. Only material restitution claims for Soviet consequences persisting to the present. About 25 percent of property expropriation executed during the period of military roughly 40,000 motions filed in this regard were granted. The occupation between 1945 and 1949 were exempted by burden of proof for physical or psychological damages and other parliamentary law. This move barely survived various court detriments suffered was lying with the victims of persecution. challenges, but on 23 March 2005 the European Court for 43
Human Rights in Strasbourg upheld German court decisions subsequent administrative and court battles over property validating this law and thus settled this controversial matter returns. Both the 1990 settlement and law stipulated material for good. restitution but denied financial compensation for loss of property: “Restitution overrules Compensation” saved strained The actual process of property return was initiated by a government budgets all over Germany from large-scale decree issued by the last non-elected GDR government before payments, but it also opened a plethora of legal claims from East Germany’s first free elections of 18 March 1990. A few people who, forcibly or voluntarily, left property behind when months later, with a freely elected GDR government in place, they emigrated or fled from the Soviet Occupation Zone or the a joint West German-East German settlement on “open GDR between 1945 and 1989. As most claims were able to property questions” was signed in July 1990. Ultimately, a law prove and validate the existence of former property rights, a codified with West German legal expertise on 23 September large number of cases of material restitution were implemented 1990 and representing one of the last acts of GDR parliament in complex and drawn-out processes stretching over many before unification, set the stage for many years of claims and years.
Bernd n eumann, m inister of s tate and representative of the Federal g overnment for Culture, winner of the student’s competition »geschichts-codes« and rainer e ppelmann
Director a nna Kaminsky opens an exhibition at the arD (g erman association of public broadcasters) headquarters in Berlin II. FEDERAl FOUnDATIOn FOR ThE REAPPRAISAl OF COmmUnIST DICTATORShIP (BUnDESSTIFTUnG zUR AUFARBEITUnG DER SED-DIKTATUR) 1. Origins: Parliamentary Inquiry Commissions and Initiatives
Between 1992 and 1998 two Enquete (inquiry) Commissions established by parliamentary mandate in two subsequent session periods of the German federal parliament (Bundestag) investigated the history of the SED dictatorship and its effects on German unity. The commission in session between 1992 and 1994 was assigned to deal with “Coming to Terms with History and Consequences of the SED Dictatorship in Germany”. FeD eral FounD ation F or the r eaPPraisal oF Communist DiC tatorshiP 46 o rigins: Parliamentary i nquiry Commissions anD i nitiatives
Its successor commission running from 1995 to 1998 was By its mandate received from a wide majority of parties tasked with addressing “Overcoming the Consequences of represented in German parliament, the foundation stands for the SED Dictatorship within the Process of German Unity”. an active and pluralistic discussion of the SED dictatorship Altogether, both commissions published 34 volumes with and its lasting effects on reunited Germany. It functions as more than 30,000 pages containing complete transcripts of both a mediator and intermediary between academic and public hearings and numerous commissioned expert analyses private research, politics, the media, and the public pertaining on a wide range of historical and current subjects. to the reappraisal of the SED dictatorship. The foundation’s library with its 45,000 items and unique archive with their On recommendation by the second commission of inquiry, collections of material on repressed literature and oppositional the German federal parliament enacted on 5 June 1998 a law activities in the GDR provides documentary material to aid on the establishment of a federal “Federal Foundation for the researchers. Since 1998 the foundation has supported more Reappraisal of the SED-Dictatorship” (Bundesstiftung zur than 2,000 research, documentation and exhibition projects Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur). The foundation started its in Germany and various countries of Central and Eastern work in fall of 1998, and thus a public-funded institutional Europe, spending altogether more than 26 million U.S. dollars clearinghouse was created to raise public awareness and for these projects. continue discussions about the second German dictatorship. The Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship contributed towards the realization of more than 2,200 exhibitions, publications, conferences, workshops and documentary fi lms 2. Structure of the Foundation
The Board of Trustees (Stiftungsrat) comprises of 16 members elected for a five-year term. It serves as the central decision-making body of the Foundation. 49
It consists of members of the German parliament The Board of Directors (Stiftungsvorstand), working on a representing all its factions, members appointed by ministries honorary basis, guides the more concrete tasks of the of the German federal and the Berlin city government, as well foundation. It consists of five members: Rainer Eppelmann as of five individuals nominated by federal parliamentary (chairman), Bernd Faulenbach (vice-chairman), Annemarie factions who are especially committed to deal with challenges Franke, Gerd Poppe, and Gerry Kley. The board is supported and questions of coming to terms with the SED dictatorship. and advised by three advisory committees on academic, The Chairman of the Board is Markus Meckel, vice-chairman societal reappraisal, and archival issues. Those committees the member of German parliament Hartmut Koschyk. The consist of altogether 32 individuals. Board of Trustees decides on all fundamental questions concerning the foundation’s general objectives and activities. FeD eral FounD ation F or the r eaPPraisal oF Communist DiC tatorshiP 50 s truC ture oF the FounD ation
The Office of the Foundation is directed by Dr. Anna Kaminsky and currently employs a staff of 22. It is in charge of all issues and questions concerning the activities of the foundation, including the funding of projects, allocation of scholarships, and the organization of conferences and other events. The foundation’s office serves as a mediator between various organizations and institutions in Germany committed to research, document and investigate the history of the SED dictatorship and its consequences; in this context the office also provides information and advice about professional development. The foundation raises public awareness and continues discussions about the second German dictatorship 3. Mandate and Scope: Services and Activities
The Foundation contributes, in cooperation with other institutions, to a comprehensive reappraisal of origins and causes, history and impact of the communist dictatorship in East Germany between 1945 and 1989. 53
It aims to provide testimony to injustices committed by Currently the foundation has an annual budget of about the SED regime and to recognize victims, to further the anti- 7.6 million U.S. dollars supplied by the German Federal totalitarian consensus within Germany, and to strengthen Government on mandate of the German parliament. It has an democracy and German unity. The foundation was established endowment of about 120 million U.S. dollars, mostly derived to serve the following aims: from assets formerly held by the East German Communist Party SED and allocated to the foundation by decision of the • to promote and support projects dealing with exploring German parliament. GDR society, private archives and victim’s organizations, academic research, and political education; • to contribute to the maintenance, collection and documentation of materials with regard to opposition to the SED dictatorship; • to provide psychological and legal assistance for victims of political persecution; • to advance international cooperation on the reappraisal of dictatorships worldwide; • to contribute to public discourse with its own publications and events; • to award prizes and scholarships. FeD eral FounD ation F or the r eaPPraisal oF Communist DiC tatorshiP 54 m anD ate anD sCo P e: s erviC es anD aCtivities
Since its establishment in 1998, the foundation commemorate the communist dictatorship and keep its memory alive; also featured special documentations • contributed towards the realization of more than 2,200 concerning repression in other nations in the former exhibitions, publications, conferences, workshops and communist bloc like, for example, the Great Terror in documentary films Russia, Holodomor in Ukraine, Belarus, the Prague • awarded more than 31 million U.S. dollars in grants Spring, or the Hungarian Uprising 1956. • awarded more than 75 dissertation scholarships • established partnerships with more than • built its own library and archives with more than 45,000 300 institutions worldwide books, 40,000 copies of un-published underground literature, 40,000 photographs, and 3,700 pieces of art • undertakes and publishes continuously documentations featuring memorials and commemorative sites of more Contact: than 800 larger and smaller German memorial sites to Bundesstiftung zur aufarbeitung der seD-Diktatur Kronenstraße 5 | D-10117 Berlin Phone: +49 (0)30 31 98 95 0 Fax: +49 (0)30 31 98 95 210 Mail: [email protected] www.stiftung-aufarbeitung.de Comprehensive exploration about structures of a dictatorial past, as well as the commemoration of acts of civic courage and resistance, were seen as necessary preconditions for living in a healthy democracy III. OThER GERmAn AnD InTERnATIOnAl InSTITUTIOnS: A BRIEF OVERVIEw Since 1990 all over Germany, and particularly so in the five new federal states on former East German communist territory, a wide range of publicly and privately funded institutions were established. Regional and local initiatives emerged, and victims associations and NGOs were formed. All of them contribute actively to a coming to terms with the legacy of the communist dictatorship and the crimes it committed. A significant number of museums and memorials were opened on historic sites of repression and of German division. Without claiming to be exhaustive, the following overview will introduce some important institutions. o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 58 FeD eral i nstitutions
1. Federal inStitutiOnS postal address Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 31–33 | D -10178 Berlin contact information Phone: +49 30 2324-0 — FEDERAl COmmISSIOnER FOR STASI E-mail: [email protected] RECORDS OF ThE FORmER GDR (BSTU) Website Der Bundesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen www.bstu.de des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der english version ehemaligen DDR (BStU) www.bstu.bund.de/nn_715182/EN/Home/ homepage__node.html__nnn=true__nnn=true Short description The Office of the Federal Commissioner for Stasi Records (Bundesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicher- — STATE COmmISSIOnER FOR STASI RECORDS heitsdienstes) preserves the records of the Ministry for Die Landesbeauftragten für die Unterlagen des State Security (MfS) of the GDR in its archives. It makes Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen DDR them available for various purposes to private individuals, institutions, and the public in accordance with access Short description rules stipulated by Germany’s Stasi Records Law (StUG). All six former eastern federal States has appointed a It also helps to create public awareness of the vast scope State Commissioner for Stasi records (LStU). The LStU of Stasi operations during GDR times through exhibitions, are supposed to support the Federal Commissioner for events, publications, and public outreach. Stasi Records (BStU) in its mission, though the LStU acts 59
the Federal Commissioner for s tasi records (Bstu ): Joachim g auck (1990–2000), m arianne Birthler (2000–2011) with a nna Kaminsky and r oland Jahn (assigned in 2011) talking to the journalist h a-Jo l orenz
independently on the state level and does not report to from impacts of operations conducted by the Ministry for the BStU. The LStU advise citizens from their state to apply State Security. Also, the LStU help to create public for access to their Stasi files. They offer psychological awareness of Stasi operations during GDR times through help and consultations on legal options for rehabilitation exhibitions, events, publications, and public outreach. and compensation to those who suffered in GDR times o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 60 FeD eral i nstitutions
• State Commissioner for Stasi Records Berlin • State Commissioner for Stasi Records Der Berliner Landesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen mecklenburg-Vorpommern des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen DDR Die Landesbeauftragte für Mecklenburg-Vorpommern postal address für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes Scharrenstraße 17 | D -10178 Berlin der ehemaligen DDR contact information postal address Phone: +49 30 240 792 0 Jägerweg 2 | D-19053 Schwerin E-mail: [email protected] contact information Website Phone: +49 385 734006 www.berlin.de/lstu E-mail: [email protected] Website • State Commissioner in Brandenburg for Coming to www.landesbeauftragter.de Terms with Consequences of Communist Dictatorship Die Landesbeauftragte zur Aufarbeitung der Folgen der • State Commissioner for Stasi Records Saxony kommunistischen Diktatur des Landes Brandenburg Der sächsische Landesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen postal address des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen DDR Hegelallee 3 | D-14467 Potsdam postal address contact information Unterer Kreuzweg 1 | D-01097 Dresden Phone: +49 331 2372920 contact information E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +49 351 65 681 0 Website Fax: +49 351 65 681-20 www.aufarbeitung.brandenburg.de/sixcms/detail. E-mail: [email protected] php?template=start_aufarbeitung Website www.justiz.sachsen.de/lstu
61
• State Commissioner for Stasi Records contact information Saxony-Anhalt Phone: +49 361 37 71 95 1 Der Landesbeauftragte Sachsen-Anhalt für die Fax: +49 361 37 71 95 2 Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der E-mail: [email protected] ehemaligen DDR Website postal address www.thueringen.de/de/tlstu Klewitzstraße 4 | D - 39112 Magdeburg contact information Phone: +49 391 567 50 51 — FEDERAl AGEnCy FOR CIVIC EDUCATIOn Fax: +49 391 567 50 60 Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb) E-mail: [email protected] Website Short description www.sachsen-anhalt.de/LPSA/index.php?id=5750 The Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb) is a public institution that • State Commissioner for Stasi Records Thuringia promotes democratic awareness and political participation. Die Landesbeauftragte des Freistaats Thüringen Its various print publications, dossiers, and DVDs cover a für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes broad range of current and historical issues in the field of der ehemaligen DDR politics, economy, and society. Further, the bpb offers postal address seminars, conferences, cultural events, study trips, Jürgen-Fuchs-Straße 1 | D-99096 Erfurt exhibitions and competitions, and provides support for o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 62 FeD eral i nstitutions
partner institutions working in civic education. The portfolio — FEDERAl STATE ARChIV BERlIn – KOBlEnz includes special offers for teachers, civic education Bundesarchiv Koblenz practitioners, journalists, and young people. All the bpb’s postal address activities aim to motivate people and encourage them to Potsdamer Straße 1 | D-56075 Koblenz reflect on political and social issues. contact information postal address Phone: +49 261 50 50 Adenauerallee 86 | D - 53113 Bonn Fax: +49 261 50 52 26 contact information E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +49 228 995 15 200 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.bpb.de information in english www.bpb.de/die_bpb/PE8IKY (about bpb), www.bpb.de/nece (the bpb’s European program)
Federal s tate a rchiv Koblenz 63
Website • Bayrisches hauptstaatsarchiv www.bundesarchiv.de/index.html.de postal address information in english Schönfeldstraße 5–11 | D-80539 München www.bundesarchiv.de/index.html.en contact information Phone: +49 89 286 38 25 96 Fax: +49 89 286 38 29 54 — STATE ARChIVES E-mail: [email protected] Landesarchive Website www.gda.bayern.de/index.php • landesarchiv Baden-württemberg information in english postal address www.gda.bayern.de/enp1.htm Eugenstraße 7 | D-70182 Stuttgart contact information • landesarchiv Berlin Phone: +49 711 212 42 72 postal address Fax: +49 711 212 42 83 Eichborndamm 115–121 | D-13403 Berlin E-mail: [email protected] contact information Website Phone: +49 30 90 26 40 www.landesarchiv-bw.de/web/ Fax: +49 30 90 26 42 01 information in english E-mail: [email protected] www.landesarchiv-bw.de/web/49435 Website www.landesarchiv-berlin.de/lab-neu/start.html o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 64 FeD eral i nstitutions
• Brandenburgisches landeshauptarchiv • Staatsarchiv hamburg postal address postal address Zum Windmühlenberg | D-14469 Potsdam Kattunbleiche 19 | D-22041 Hamburg contact information contact information Phone: +49 331 567 40 Phone: +49 40 428 31 32 00 Fax: +49 331 567 42 12 Fax: +49 40 428 31 32 01 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Website Website www.landeshauptarchiv-brandenburg.de www.hamburg.de/staatsarchiv information in english www.landeshauptarchiv-brandenburg.de/ • hessisches hauptstaatsarchiv netCmsFrames.aspx?URL=english_0.aspx postal address Mosbacher Straße 55 | D-65187 Wiesbaden • Staatsarchiv Bremen contact information postal address Phone: +49 611 88 10 Am Staatsarchiv 1 | D-28203 Bremen Fax: +49 611 88 11 45 contact information E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +49 421 361 62 21 Website Fax: +49 421 36 11 02 47 www.hauptstaatsarchiv.hessen.de E-mail: [email protected] Website www.staatsarchiv.bremen.de/sixcms/detail. php?gsid=bremen02.c.730.de 65
• landeshauptarchiv mecklenburg-Vorpommern Website postal address www.staatsarchive.niedersachsen.de/live/live. Graf-Schack-Allee 2 | D-19053 Schwerin php?navigation_id=24756&_psmand=187 contact information Phone: +49 385 58 87 94 10 • landesarchiv nordrhein-westfalen Fax: +49 385 58 87 94 12 postal address E-mail: [email protected] Graf-Adolf-Straße 67 | D-40210 Düsseldorf Website contact information www.kulturwerte-mv.de/cms2/LAKD_prod/LAKD/ Phone: +49 211 159 23 80 content/de/Landesarchiv/Landeshauptarchiv_ Fax: +49 211 159 23 81 11 Schwerin/index.jsp E-mail: [email protected] information in english Website www.kulturwerte-mv.de/cms2/LAKD_prod/LAKD/ www.archive.nrw.de/LandesarchivNRW/ content/de/Landesarchiv/The_archives_in_English/ index.jsp • landeshauptarchiv Rheinland-Pfalz postal address • niedersächsisches landesarchiv Karmeliterstraße 1/3 | D-56068 Koblenz postal address contact information Am Archiv 1 | D -30169 Hannover Phone: +49 261 912 90 contact information Fax: +49 261 912 91 12 Phone: +49 511 120 66 01 E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +49 511 120 66 39 Website E-mail: [email protected] www.landeshauptarchiv.de o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 66 FeD eral i nstitutions
• Archiv des Saarlandes • landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt postal address (Abt. magdeburg) Dudweilerstraße 1 | D-66133 Saarbrücken postal address contact information Hegelstraße 25 | D-39104 Magdeburg Phone: +49 681 501 00 contact information Fax: +49 681 501 19 33 Phone: +49 391 566 43 E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +49 391 566 44 40 Website E-mail: [email protected] www.saarland.de/SID-3E724395-7E2E639A/ Website landesarchiv.htm www.sachsen-anhalt.de/LPSA/index.php?id=32023
• Sächsisches Staatsarchiv • landesarchiv Schleswig-holstein postal address postal address Wilhelm-Buck-Straße 4 | D-01097 Dresden Prinzenpalais | D-24837 Schleswig contact information contact information Phone: +49 351 564 37 40 Phone: +49 4621 86 18 00 Fax: +49 351 564 37 39 Fax: +49 4621 86 18 01 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Website Website www.staatsarchiv.sachsen.de www.schleswig-holstein.de/LA/DE/LA_node.html 67
• Thüringisches hauptstaatsarchiv Website postal address www.lpb-bw.de/lpb_index.html Marstallstraße 2 | D-99423 Weimar contact information • landeszentrale für politische Bildung Bayern Phone: +49 3643 87 00 postal address Fax: +49 3643 87 01 00 Praterinsel 2 | D-80538 München E-mail: [email protected] contact information Website Phone: +49 89 21 86 21 72 www.thueringen.de/de/staatsarchive/weimar/ Fax: +49 89 21 86 21 80 content.html E-mail: [email protected] Website www.km.bayern.de/blz — STATE AGEnCIES FOR CIVIC EDUCATIOn Landeszentralen für politische Bildung • landeszentrale für politische Bildung Berlin postal address • landeszentrale für politische Bildung An der Urania 4–10 | D-10787 Berlin Baden-württemberg contact information postal address Phone: +49 30 90 16 25 52 Stafflenbergstraße 38 | D-70184 Stuttgart Fax: +49 30 90 16 25 38 contact information E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +49 711 164 09 90 Website Fax: +49 711 16 40 99 77 www.berlin.de/lzpb/index.html E-mail: [email protected] o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 68 FeD eral i nstitutions
• landeszentrale für politische Bildung Brandenburg • landeszentrale für politische Bildung hamburg postal address postal address Heinrich-Mann-Allee 107 | D-14473 Potsdam Dammtorstraße 14 | D-20354 Hamburg contact information contact information Phone: +49 331 866 35 41 Phone: +49 40 428 23 48 26 Fax: +49 331 866 35 44 Fax: +49 40 428 23 48 13 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Website Website www.politische-bildung-brandenburg.de/index.html www.hamburg.de/politische-bildung/
• landeszentrale für politische Bildung Bremen • landeszentrale für politische Bildung hessen postal address postal address Osterdeich 6 | D-28203 Bremen Taunusstraße 4–6 | D-65183 Wiesbaden contact information contact information Phone: +49 421 361 29 22 Phone: +49 611 32 40 51 Fax: +49 421 361 44 53 Fax: +49 611 32 40 77 E-mail: [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] Website Website www.lzpb-bremen.de/sixcms/detail. www.hlz.hessen.de php?gsid=bremen02.c.730.de 69
• landeszentrale für politische Bildung • landeszentrale für politische Bildung mecklenburg-Vorpommern Rheinland-Pfalz postal address postal address Jägerweg 2 | D-19053 Schwerin Am Kronberger Hof 6 | D - 55116 Mainz contact information contact information Phone: +49 385 302 09 10 Phone: +49 6131 16 29 70 Fax: +49 385 302 09 22 Fax: +49 6131 16 29 80 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Website Website www.lpb-mv.de/cms2/LfpB_prod/LfpB/de/start/ www.politische-bildung-rlp.de index.jsp • landeszentrale für politische Bildung Saarland • landeszentrale für politische Bildung postal address nordrhein-westfalen Beethovenstraße 26/Pavillon | D -66125 Saarbrücken postal address contact information Horionplatz 1 | D-40213 Düsseldorf Phone: +49 6897 790 81 44 contact information Fax: +49 6897 790 81 77 Phone: +49 211 86 18 46 15 E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +49 211 86 18 46 75 Website E-mail: [email protected] www.lpm.uni-sb.de/typo3/index.php?id=978 Website www.politische-bildung.nrw.de o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 70 FeD eral i nstitutions
• landeszentrale für politische Bildung Sachsen • landeszentrale für politische Bildung postal address Schleswig-holstein Schützenhofstraße 36 | D - 01129 Dresden postal address contact information Kehdenstraße 27 | D-24103 Kiel Phone: +49 351 85 31 80 contact information Fax: +49 351 85 31 855 Phone: +49 431 988 59 37 E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +49 431 988 59 42 Website E-mail: [email protected] www.slpb.de Website www.schleswig-holstein.de/LPB/DE/LPB_node.html • landeszentrale für politische Bildung information in english Sachsen-Anhalt www.schleswig-holstein.de/LPB/EN/LPB_node.html postal address Schleinufer 12 | D-39104 Magdeburg • landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen contact information postal address Phone: +49 391 567 64 63 Regierungsstraße 73 | D-99084 Erfurt Fax: +49 391 567 64 64 contact information E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +49 361 379 27 01 Website Fax: +49 361 379 27 02 www.sachsen-anhalt.de/LPSA/index.php?id=5752 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.thueringen.de/de/lzt/content.html information in english www.thueringen.de/de/lzt/ec/ 71
— COnTEmPORARy hISTORy FORUm lEIPzIG Zeitgeschichtliches Forum Leipzig
Short description The Contemporary History Forum (Zeitgeschichtliches Forum) is the most important museum commemorating the history of GDR repression, opposition, resistance and peaceful revolution before the background of German division. Situated in Leipzig’s city center where in fall of 1989 the massive path-breaking demonstrations against the dictatorial regime took place, it also documents every- day life under communist dictatorship and the process of reunification after 1990. The Forum is the Leipzig branch of the History Museum of the Federal Republic of Germany located in West Germany’s former federal capital in Bonn. postal address Grimmaische Straße 6 | D-04109 Leipzig contact information Phone: +49 341 2220-0 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.hdg.de/leipzig Contemporary h istory Forum l eipzig o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 72 CiviC ar C hives
2. civic archiveS
Besides the State Federal Archive and the Archive of the Federal Commissioner of Stasi-records several civic archives resulting from the civic opposition movement are working:
— ROBERT-hAVEmAnn-GESEllSChAFT E. V. postal address Schliemannstraße 23 | D-10437 Berlin contact information Phone: +49 30 44 71 08 13 Fax: +49 30 44 71 08 19 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.havemann-gesellschaft.de 73
— ARChIV BüRGERBEwEGUnG lEIPzIG E. V. — ThüRInGER ARChIV FüR zEITGESChIChTE postal address postal address Katharinenstraße 11 (Fregehaus) | D-04109 Leipzig Camsdorfer Ufer 17 | D-07749 Jena contact information contact information Phone: +49 341 861 16 26 Phone: +49 3641 22 86 05 Fax: +49 341 861 16 26 Fax: +49 3641 22 97 43 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Website Website www.archiv-buergerbewegung.de www.thueraz.de
— UmwElTBIBlIOThEK GROSShEnnERSDORF postal address Am Sportplatz 3 | D-02747 Großhennersdorf contact information Phone: +49 35873 405 03 Fax: +49 35873 309 21 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.umweltbibliothek.org o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 74 o ther i nstitutions, museums anD memorial sites
3. Other inStitutiOnS, postal address muSeumS and Ruschestraße 103, Haus 1 | D-10365 Berlin contact information memOrial SiteS Phone: +49 30 553 68 54 Fax: + 49 30 553 68 53 — STASI mUSEUm BERlIn E-mail: [email protected] Website Short description www.stasimuseum.de The Stasi Museum Berlin (Forschungs- und Gedenkstätte english version Normannenstraße/Haus I) is a private initiative located in www.stasimuseum.de/en/enindex.htm “House 1” of the former GDR Ministry for State Security’s headquarters complex in the East Berlin district of Lichtenberg. At that very location long-time GDR Stasi — “ROUnD CORnER” Minister Erich Mielke (1957–1989) had his offices. STASI mEmORIAl mUSEUm lEIPzIG They are preserved in its original condition and open to Museum in der “Runden Ecke” Leipzig visitors. Further parts of the exhibit deal with State Security technology and various objects, as well as with Short description opposition and resistance in the GDR. The Citizens Committee of Leipzig (Bürgerkomitee Leipzig), originating in 1989, opened this subsequently developed exhibit in 1990 already in the authentic site of former Stasi district headquarters (referred to as “round 75
corner” due to building’s peculiar shape). Today the Citizens Committee educates about history, structure, and methods of the Stasi. It actively participates in public debates about dictatorships and lessons applicable to discourses on civil liberties and human rights. postal address Dittrichring 24 | D-04109 Leipzig contact information Phone: +49 341 96 12 44 3 Fax: +49 341 96 12 49 9 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.runde-ecke-leipzig.de/cms english version www.runde-ecke-leipzig.de/cms/index.php?id=76&L=1
“round Corner” s tasi m emorial m useum l eipzig o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 76 o ther i nstitutions, museums anD memorial sites
— FORmER SOVIET SPECIAl • Buchenwald memorial InTERnmEnT CAmPS Gedenkstätte Buchenwald postal address After the demise of Nazi Germany and the Second World D-99427 Weimar-Buchenwald War’s ending in Europe, Soviet military authorities used in contact information part Nazi concentration camp sites in Eastern Germany Phone: +49 3643 43 00 between 1945 and 1950 for their ten “special internment Fax: +49 3643 43 01 00 camps” to detain some real, and many alleged, national- E-mail: [email protected] socialists. About 43,000, i.e. 35 percent of individuals Website interned, perished during their confinement. The ten www.buchenwald.de camps, listed in the sequence of numbering assigned by english version Soviet authorities, were: Mühlberg, Buchenwald, www.buchenwald.de/english Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, Bautzen, Ketschendorf/ Fürstenwalde, Frankfurt/Oder and later Jamlitz, Weesow • mittelbau-Dora memorial and later Sachsenhausen, Torgau/Fort Zinna, Fünfeichen, KZ-Gedenkstätte Mittelbau-Dora Torgau/Seydlitz Barracks. postal address Kohnsteinweg 20 | D-99734 Nordhausen In the following locations permanent exhibitions, contact information gravesites, and memorials commemorate these camps Phone: +49 3631 495 80 and the plight of their inmates: Fax: +49 3631 495 813 E-mail: [email protected] 77
Website www.dora.de english version www.dora.de/index_cten.html
• Initiativgruppe Internierungslager Ketschendorf e. V. postal address Frankfurter Straße 4 | D -15517 Fürstenwalde contact information memorial and m useum s achsenhausen Phone: +49-33 61-30 78 73 E-mail: [email protected] • memorial and museum Sachsenhausen Website Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen www.uokg.de/Text2/Mit-Ketsch01.htm postal address Straße der Nationen 22 | D -16515 Oranienburg • Initiativgruppe Internierungslager Jamlitz e. V. contact information postal address Phone: +49 3301 81 09 12 Bergmannsweg 9 | D-03159 Groß-Kölzig Fax: +49 3301 81 09 28 contact information E-mail: info@gedenkstätte-sachsenhausen.de Phone: +49 35600 65 52 Website E-mail: [email protected] www.stiftung-bg.de/gums/de/index.htm Website english version www.uokg.de/Text2/Mit-Jamlitz01.htm www.stiftung-bg.de/gums/en/index.htm o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 78 o ther i nstitutions, museums anD memorial sites
• Documentation and Information Centre (DIz) Torgau Dokumentations- und Informationszentrum (DIZ) Torgau postal address Schloss Hartenfels, Schlossstraße 27 | D-04860 Torgau contact information Phone: +49 3421 71 34 68 Fax: +49 3421 71 49 32 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.stsg.de/cms/torgau/startseite english version en.stsg.de/cms/node/876/
• memorial neubrandenburg Gedenkstätte Neubrandenburg (Fünfeichen) postal address Rosenstraße 13–15 | D -17033 Neubrandenburg contact information Phone: +49 395 555 18 00 Fax: +49 395 555 18 61 E-mail: [email protected] Website memorial n eubrandenburg www.neubrandenburg.de/index.php?option=com_ content&task=view&id=103 79
— mEmORIAl SITES In FORmER GDR PRISOnS
The following former prison sites, run during communist times by the former GDR Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of State Security, held numerous political prisoners. Today they serve as permanent public memorials, feature guided tours and exhibitions, and hold events to commemorate victims of political persecution and repression.
• Bautzen memorial Gedenkstätte Bautzen postal address Weigangstraße 8 A | D-02625 Bautzen contact information Phone: +49 3591 404 74 Fax: +49 3591 404 75 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.stsg.de/cms/bautzen/startseite english version en.stsg.de/cms/node/977/
Bautzen m emorial o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 80 o ther i nstitutions, museums anD memorial sites
contact information Phone: +49 30 98 60 82 30 Fax: +49 30 98 60 82 464 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.stiftung-hsh.de english version en.stiftung-hsh.de/document.php?cat_ id=CAT_231&special=0
• Andreasstrasse memorial Gedenkstätte Andreasstraße Freiheit e. V. Förderverein Gedenkstätte Andreasstraße postal address Bechtheimer Straße 2 | D-99084 Erfurt contact information Berlin-hohenschönhausen m emorial Phone: +49 177 597 27 23 E-mail: [email protected] • Berlin-hohenschönhausen memorial Website Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen www.andreasstrasse-erfurt.de postal address Genslerstraße 66 | D-13055 Berlin 81
• memorial “Red Ox” halle • memorial lindenstrasse 54/55 Potsdam Gedenkstätte ‘Roter Ochse’ Halle Gedenkstätte Lindenstraße 54/55 postal address postal address Am Kirchtor 20 B | D-06108 Halle Benkertstraße 3 | D-14467 Potsdam contact information contact information Phone: +49 345 220 13 37 Phone: +49 331 289 68 03 Fax: +49 345 220 13 39 Fax: +49 331 289 68 08 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Website Website www.sachsen-anhalt.de/LPSA/index.php?id=31471 www.potsdam.de/cms/beitrag/10028894/34714/
• memorial magdeburg moritzplatz Gedenkstätte Moritzplatz Magdeburg postal address Umfassungsstraße 76 | D -39124 Magdeburg contact information Phone: +49 391 244 55 90 Fax: +49 391 244 55 999 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.sachsen-anhalt.de/LPSA/index.php?id=31585
memorial l indenstrasse 54/55 Potsdam o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 82 o ther i nstitutions, museums anD memorial sites
• Documentation Center mecklenburg-Vorpommern — BORDER mEmORIAlS AnD mUSEUmS for Victims of Dictatorship in Germany Dokumentationszentrum des Landes Memorials and museums listed below were built or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern für die Opfer established at certain sites or crossing points near the der Diktaturen in Deutschland former border installations in Berlin or between East and postal address West Germany. Obotritenring 106 | D-19055 Schwerin contact information • Berlin wall memorial Phone: +49 385 74 52 99 11 Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer Fax: +49 385 777 88 47 postal address E-mail: [email protected] Bernauer Straße 111/119 | D-13355 Berlin Website contact information www.lpb-mv.de/cms2/LfpB_prod/LfpB/de/dz/index. Phone: +49 30 467 98 66 66 jsp Fax: +49 30 467 98 66 77 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.berliner-mauer-dokumentationszentrum.de/de/ english version www.berliner-mauer-dokumentationszentrum.de/en/ index.html 83 o ther g erman i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 84 o ther i nstitutions, museums anD memorial sites
• marienfelde Refugee Centre memorial Erinnerungsstätte Notaufnahmelager Marienfelde postal address Marienfelder Allee 66/80 | D -12277 Berlin contact information Phone: +49 30 75 00 84 00 Fax: +49 30 75 44 66 34 E-mail: [email protected] Website memorial of g erman Division at m arienborn www.notaufnahmelager-berlin.de/de/ english version • wall museum/house at Checkpoint Charlie www.notaufnahmelager-berlin.de/en/ Mauermuseum/Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie postal address • memorial of German Division at marienborn Postfach 61 02 26 | D-10923 Berlin Gedenkstätte Marienborn contact information postal address Phone: +49 30 253 72 50 An der BAB 2 | D-39365 Marienborn Fax: +49 30 251 20 75 contact information E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +49 39406 920 90 Website Fax: +49 39406 920 99 www.mauermuseum.de E-mail: [email protected] english version Website www.mauermuseum.de/english/frame-index-mauer. www.sachsen-anhalt.de/LPSA/index.php?id=31581 html 85
• German-German museum mödlareuth • Borderland museum Eichsfeld (“little Berlin”) Grenzlandmuseum Eichsfeld Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth postal address postal address Duderstädter Straße 5 | D-37339 Teistungen Mödlareuth 13 | D-95183 Töpen contact information contact information Phone: +49 36071 971 12 Phone: +49 9295 13 34 Fax: +49 36071 979 98 Fax: : +49 9295 13 19 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Website Website www.grenzlandmuseum.de/museum/index.html www.moedlareuth.de
• memorial Point Alpha Gedenkstätte Point Alpha postal address Platz der deutschen Einheit 1 | D-36419 Geisa contact information Phone: +49 6651 91 90 30 Fax: +49 6651 91 90 31 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.pointalpha.com/gedenkstaette Borderland m useum e ichsfeld o ther international i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 86 v i C tims a ssoC iations
4. victimS aSSOciatiOnS currently resides in the Federal Republic of Germany; the association itself has so far organized 17 international congresses in various European cities and comprises of Since 1990 numerous associations and interest groups of member organizations from 17 different countries (Albania, former victims of political persecution in the GDR were formed. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, They joined existing institutions in West Germany like the Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Union of Victims Associations of Communist Dictatorship Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine). (Union der Opferverbände kommunistischer Gewaltherrschaft), whose members represent almost the entire scope of mechanisms of communist repression between 1945 and — UOKG 1989. Respective associations were either established by postal address former inmates held in certain camps or prisons (like Bautzen, Ruschestraße 103, Haus 14 | D-10365 Berlin Buchenwald, Cottbus, Sachsenhausen, et cetera), or by victims contact information of particular forms of repression, like forced evacuations Phone: +49 30 55 77 93 51 from GDR border areas in 1952 and 1961, forced adoptions, Fax: +49 30 55 77 93 40 or Stasi repression in general. The Union of Victims Associations E-mail: [email protected] of Communist Dictatorship serves as an umbrella organization Website for currently 32 individual associations and victims groups in www.uokg.de Western and Eastern parts of united Germany (website in German only: www.uokg.de/cms). The executive office of the International Association of Former Political Prisoners and Victims of Communism (Internationale Assoziation ehemaliger politischer Gefangener und Opfer des Kommunismus) 87
— VOS – Vereinigung der Opfer des Stalinismus • BUlGARIEn postal address Union of the Repressed People Hardenbergplatz 2, Zoobogen | D-10623 Berlin postal address contact information BG Sofia Phone: +49 30 26552380 contact information Fax: +49 30 26552382 Phone: +359 2 9879473 E-mail: [email protected] Website • DEUTSChlAnD www.vos-ev.de Union der Opferverbände Kommunistischer Gewaltherrschaft e. V. postal address — International Association Ruschestraße 103, Raum 419 D-10365 Berlin-Lichtenberg • AlBAnIEn contact information Shoqata Antikomuniste e ish-te Phone: +49 030 55 77 93 54 Pëmdjekurve Politike Demokratë postal address • ESTlAnD Bulevardi “Dëshmorët” Karshi Kryeministrisë Board of South Estonian Assoziation AL Tiranë | Albania of Political Prisoners contact information postal address Phone: +355 42 23287 Tahe 74-6 | EE 2400 Tartu contact information Phone: +372 7 o ther international i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 88 v i C tims a ssoC iations
• lETTlAnD latvijas Politiski Represeto Apvienida postal address Skunu iela 15 | LV 1050 Riga contact information Phone: +371 7 222368 Website www.vip.latnet.lv/LPRA
• lITAUEn lithuanian Political Prisoners and Deportees Association postal address international a ssociation Laisves al. 39, Kaunas 3000 | Lithuania contact information • KROATIEn Phone: +370 2 (8 37) 32 32 14 hrvatsko Drustvo Politickih (hDPz) Website postal address www.lpkts.lt Masarykowa 22/IV | HR 10000 Zagreb contact information Phone: +385 1 4222879 Website www.hdpz.htnet.hr 89
• mOlDAwIEn • RUSSlAnD AVRC-VRAR Rm Assoziation der ehem. politischen “memorial” häftlinge aus der Republik moldau postal address postal address Vitebskij pr. 41-3-25 | Sankt Petersburg, Russland Str. N. Iorgia 8 | MD 2009 Chisinau contact information contact information Phone: +7 812 2995579 Phone: +373 2 240077 Website www.memo.ru • POlEn zwiazek wiezniow Polityccznych Okresu • SlOwAKEI Stalinowskiego Konfederacia Politickych Vaznov Slovenska postal address postal address Zarzad Glowny ul. 11- go Listopada 17/19 PL 00-987 Leskova 3 | SK- 811 04 Bratislava Warszawa 4 contact information Phone: +42 7 31800700 • RUmänIEn Asociata Fostilor Detinuti Politici din Romania • SlOwEnIEn postal address zdruzenje zrtev Komunisticnega nasilja Mantuleasa Nr. 10 Sect. 3 | Ro 7070387 Bucuresti postal address Izanska 206 a | Slo 1000 Ljubljana contact information Phone: +386 61 1274059 o ther international i nstitutions: a BrieF o verview 90 v i C tims a ssoC iations
• TSChEChIEn • UnGARn Konfederace Politických Veznu CR magyar Politikai Foglyok Szövetsege (POFOSz) postal address postal address Skretova 6 | CZ 12000 Praha Nador u. 36. IV | H 1051 Budapest contact information contact information Phone: +42 2 24230536 Phone: +366 1 311 6746, +366 1 311 7550 Website Website www.kpv.kozakov.cz www.1956.mti.hu/Pages/Gallery.aspx?GalleryID=1 www.gulag.hu • UKRAInE nationale Vereinigung der politischen Gefangenen in der Ukraine postal address ul. Mejygirska, 7/16 | 252071 Kiew 71, Ukraina Credits/Imprint S. 13: 1, 2 Bundesregierung/Klaus Lehnartz; 3 Bundesregierung/Heiko Specht editor: Dr. Anna Kaminsky, S. 11: Archiv Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung/Bestand Klaus Mehner, Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur Bild 21_89_1104_POL-Demo_67 author: Dr. Bernd Schäfer S. 14: Archiv Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung/Bestand Klaus Mehner photo editor: Dietrich Wolf Fenner S. 15: Bundesregierung/Arne Schambeck design: ultramarinrot, Berlin S. 20: Bundesregierung/Arne Schambeck Second Edition 2011 S. 23/1: Bundesregierung/Klaus Lehnartz S. 24: Bundesregierung/Sieghard Liebe picture credits: S. 29/1: Bundesarchiv, 183-1990-0412-019, Oberst Cover: Bundesregierung/Engelbert Reineke; Bundesregierung; S. 35: Bundesarchiv Bild 175 -15451 Bild 4–7 Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung; Bundesregierung/Klaus S. 39; S. 54; S. 55: Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung/ Lehnartz Thomas Trutschel/photothek.net S. 4: Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung/Bestand Klaus Mehner, S. 40: Bundesregierung/Julia Fassbender Bild 72_0325_POL_Mauer_05 S. 43; S. 51; S. 53: Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung/Birgit Meixner S. 3; S. 5; S. 6; S. 17; S. 22; S. 23/2; S. 27; S. 28; S.29/2; S. 44: Bundesregierung/Engelbert Reineke S. 31; S. 32; S. 36; S. 37; S. 45; S. 47; S. 48; S. 49; S. 50 1/2; S. 56: Bundesregierung/Engelbert Reineke S. 52; S. 57; S. 58 1–3; S. 71; S. 72; S. 75; S. 76; S. 77; S. 78; S. 59/1: Bundesregierung/Steffen Kugler S. 79; S. 80; S. 81: Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung S. 62: Bundesregierung/Torsten Krause S. 83 Flix „Da war mal was…“, S.84; S. 85; S. 88: Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung head Office: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur S. 7: Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung, Bestand Klaus Mehner, Kronenstraße 5 | D -10117 Berlin | Germany 89_1110_ausreise01 S. 8: Bundesregierung/Perlia-Archiv © Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur 2011 S. 9: Archiv Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung/Bestand Klaus Mehner, Bild 77_1205_POL-Mauer_05 Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur Kronenstraße 5 D-10117 Berlin Germany www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de