The Stasi and the Berlin Wall | DW Documentary

the

stasi

records archive in

berlin

the remains of the former east german state security ministry are still stored here millions of files reports photos files a particular relic of the past was left by the head of the ministry himself a red photo album that documents some of the most decisive moments of his career the construction of the

berlin

wall

declared as an anti-fascist protective

wall

this photo album records what happened on august 13, 1961 and the following days the state of the book reveals how often it has been reviewed in the life of milka eyes the tail of the berlin wall was a story of triumph the situation that developed after august 13 shows that building an anti-fascist protective wall was the good and correct decision for the people of east germany the class worker took power to never allow it Go again, this is erich milke's office, where he started each day every morning at seven o'clock as minister of security of the state of east germany. the minister would call first thing in the morning and ask what was new if something had happened overnight, what was happening at the border and passport checkpoints, what about the people we were tracking?

Every day something new emerged and he always wanted to know that everything had only one goal: to monitor everything that happens in the country and on the border, to keep everything under control to deter all enemies. and traitors, the Minister highly valued being informed immediately to ensure the appropriate response so that we could coordinate all necessary measures and when the time came, he was relentless. erich milke dedicated more than 28 years of his career to ensuring that the berlin wall was insurmountable for him and his ministry this was a never ending challenge to milk the wall it was what ensured that his party and the state security apparatus remained in the power saw his ministry as the shield and sword of the party of socialist unity the thirst we who serve the ministry of state security is ready to unconditionally fulfill any mission that the party and the government assign to us the ministry of state security gained importance when the wall was built his responsibilities grew and so surveillance became more total the entire intelligence apparatus expanded dramatically milka's conference In the room where normally the East German offices would hang a portrait of the state leader at the head of the table , but Mielke had an oil painting hung from the Berlin Wall.

Instead, it depicts the Brandenburg Gate protected forever with the state and party firmly secured behind it on August 13, 1961 in images from Berlin that shook the world more than two million people had fled East Germany the country isolated was on the brink of collapse the leaders of the sed party were convinced that closing the border crossing to west berlin would solve the problem once and for all two days in advance milka had informed his closest collaborators of the planned measures the operation of the Stasi received the code name uploaded the minutes of the top secret meeting read today we enter a new phase of our control work Measures are being taken to end the defection from the republic as battle groups and border patrols visibly took a position to seal off the East German sector the

stasi

operated in the shadows at the top secret operation rose meeting it was further decided that the enemy forces must be arrested immediately without problems and by any means necessary these were preventive measures for an uprising like the one in June 17, 1953 could not be allowed to happen again.

At that time, state security had failed and the Soviet army had had to intervene. The construction of the wall was an unlimited test for Erich Milke and his ministry. His photo album too. documents the call to arms on august 23 was a demonstration of power in east berlin party leader valda ulbricht followed by erihanika the mastermind behind the berlin wall the minister was also on stage relegated at that time to the second row it seemed tense the rush of refugees towards west berlin was endless despite orders to shoot, people still found holes in barbed wire fences or windows along the border to jump off the border, border police She was overwhelmed and, therefore, Mielke took action as minister, I need to be the best, I am responsible for maintaining security in this country.

For me, everything the party decides is written in stone and I must apply it with rigor and severity after discussing the matter with Erihanika, the party's security secretary and Milka's direct superior, Destazi, organized the evacuation of the border houses. and took charge of the security of the sewage system. If everything was banned, the ministry targeted anyone trying to flee and anyone suspected of it, our job was to keep things calm and uneventful, we couldn't do that in the years before 1961 because the borders were still open now that the problem had been taken seriously. and any attempt to cross the border or flee had to be stopped at the end of 1961 the stasi had arrested 3,000 people suspected of planning an escape or who opposed the wall many were prosecuted a fact was particularly embarrassing in the first months of the wall a border officer hired to prevent escapes managed to flee before my eyes those were all miserable scoundrels regardless of their motive, whether political or economic, nothing justified fleeing the country who is who tamil this was the decisive question and only the stasi was soon able to find the In response, his ministry began inspecting and spying on anyone working at border crossings.

Each border patrol was assigned a full-time ministry employee as a supervisor. Each barracks had to have its own informant, so the Stasi took full control over all patrolling officers. the border a few months after the construction of the wall erich milke moved to his new headquarters at the entrance his great idol felix jaczynski head of the soviet secret police organization the inspector despite his success Honeyke demanded that his staff remain vigilant deserters of the republic have essentially been wiped out, but it would be a mistake to assume that means our enemy has become less active. Instead, in response to these measures, the Bonn ultras and NATO agents have employed even more cunning tactics to achieve their criminal objectives bit by bit like the wall. was fortified, escape across the border became increasingly difficult, so refugees resorted to evading the SED regime and milking its ministry in daring escape tunnels under the wall.

The task of eliminating the moles was entrusted to a special unit within the ministry. They used their intelligence to shoot down the leak. tunnels that they learned to create trenches and countertunnels or install microphones and motion detectors. milk estasi was eager to recruit spies from both the east and the west and infiltrate groups trying to help people escape. That's what we think the war was like, it was always a defeat. When people left somewhere, the border was not properly secured and it was not known that people wanted to leave and the more there were or the more active they were, the greater our defeat and our failure.

Stasi surveillance footage of a house in West Berlin recorded on June 28, 1962 The secret operation topos maulvofe had been underway for several weeks when an undercover agent codenamed Panko discovered plans for an escape tunnel, the Stasi decided to set a trap for the diggers while the border patrol sealed off what they assumed was an entrance to the tunnel. with sand, Stasi agents were waiting for the tunnel builders underground, as soon as the escape helpers entered the tunnel, the Stasi fired one helper, Zigfriednovka, who was trying to take his wife and son to West Berlin, was murdered to save face, the informant was also arrested, he later received a medal for his duplicity, but despite these efforts Honeyke's henchmen were unable to handle the situation that was falling apart in early October 1964 57 people managed escape to West Berlin through a tunnel in Banawastrasa.

It was the largest mass flight in the known history of the wall. To date, the tunnel was discovered just as the escape aides were leaving, shots were exchanged and East German border police officer Egon Schultz was killed, the Stasi launched investigations and secured items left behind in the tunnel, including a woman's purse, gas masks and the alleged murder weapon, a pistol belonging to one of the escape aides. The internal reports of the Stazi murder investigation committee, as they called it, reconstructed the course of the events and concluded that Egon Schultz had been hit by a bullet from the gun found at the scene, but it was a Kalashnikov belonging to a comrade that killed him.

The official story we reported was that the tunnel builders had shot and killed Aegon Schultz alone. i heard the other version of the story years later and unofficially according to that version of events aegon schultz was accidentally shot by one of our own, someone who got nervous and reacted too frantically, but the truth couldn't be allowed to come out. light, so the top secret report was kept secret until the demise of East Germany, with good reason it was stated and in light of your mother's death. tears that she cries for you her dear son we denounce before the whole world your murderers the shooters and their instigators in west berlin and the bombs one of the guests present that day was the right hand of erich milke hanukkah it was his idea to portray the tunnel builders As the assassins and their plan worked in the west, public support for the escape helpers decreased step by step.

Honeyke was given the reins to secure the border. The Stasi took responsibility for the bolt holes under and above the ground. The checkpoints were federal citizens, diplomats, military personnel and people with special permission were particularly vulnerable with a wall in place and ensured escaping from east germany was more successful at border crossings, especially with falsified documents in 1964 the stasi took full charge of passport control and searches for people wanted by the intelligence agency the bottlenecks created during the cold war were a gold mine for information gathering, everyone who crossed the border now They were subject to inspection by the Stasi, which included the more than four and a half million West Berliners who crossed into East Berlin on vacation to visit relatives in the 1960s.

Their documents were processed by staff friendly border patrol, undercover stasi inspectors dressed as East German border troops, but the border remained closed to East German citizens. However, people still tried to slip through any cracks they could discover every time the border was penetrated. through an analysis, so the state security ministry formed working groups to design technologically improved facilities that were then tested the test site was kept top secret here the stasi examined the effectiveness of various barrier systems that they prepared for all Possible contingencies there were even blockades that could stop a tank and personnel were trained on how to respond to hostage situations and armed attempts to cross the border.

Guys who took a hostage were never supposed to succeed; that was our main priority if there was no time to negotiate or the captor was not willing to do so. negotiate then there was only one thing left to do shoot to kill an internal stasi training video on operational psychology what it means to act wisely and bravely as an inspector what it means to live by the laws of war in peacetime this film will show you how it was fought a dangerous enemy and made harmless thanks to the intelligent and brave actions of a collective of Czechs here at Checkpoint Charlie on Friedrichstrasse.

East German riot police officer Bocad demanded entry into West Berlin by taking a kneeling border control officer hostage. They shot dead four Stasi members, including the killer, who were later interviewed on camera. In addition to the fact that we all felt uncomfortable and our knees trembled, we were also overcome with a feeling of pride for having fulfilled our combat mission, as the inspectors on the border of imperialism later discovered. that Niring had described his mandatory military service as an infringement of his right to freedom that had been imposed on him the report concludes that the body was cremated the burial in the urn is pending meanwhile traffic on the border continued as if nothing had happened with up toseven thousand one hundred employees the passport control and people tracking department of the stasi grew to become the largest of the ministry's operations it was the perfect disguise for a secret mission checking passports was just our cover our real job was to gather intelligence on the checkpoints we needed to know who was entering the country what kind of people they were where they were going that was a job that only the shazi could do travelers often mistook these encounters for harmless chat but for the stasi agents this was a tactical method of filtering inconsistencies of incoming traffic in someone's travel documents were reason enough to remove him from the queue and talk to him, if that person was politically relevant, corresponding reports were prepared and sent to the relevant departments within the ministry, this is how millions of people found their way into the stasis filing system were scanned for any possible clues and could even be tricked into accidentally providing evidence against someone close to them some are recorded as potential informants every time the friendly border guard was approaching to check his passport the stazi was watching eric milke delivered he took advantage of the opportunities offered by the berlin wall his employer the ubiquitous sed party was happy honeyelke's most important ally irihanika quickly rose through the ranks to become boss of the party and the state good prospects for its prime minister the 1970s marked the cold period of Dayton The war for Stasi officers meant a wide range of new responsibilities.

Germany recognized East Germany as a sovereign nation in the basic treaty of 1972 and therefore recognized its territorial integrity. The goal was to reestablish good neighborly relations. On the one hand, the wall had to remain. Psychologically and physically intact, on the other hand, we wanted to present ourselves to the world with an open mind, which meant an increasing amount of work for us. Anything related to Dayton politics was extremely dangerous for us. Transit. The agreement was aimed at facilitating travel between East and West Germany, but also improved the chances that East German citizens could enter West Germany hidden inside departing cars despite being denounced as drug traffickers. people.

The number of those who helped the fugitives increased once again. These are these gangs. They were dedicated to people smuggling using all kinds of different tactics, violating customs seals, installing secret hatches in their trucks, falsifying personalized seals or, simply, smuggling people in the trunks of passenger cars, so As soon as anyone suspected of being a smuggler came in from the west, the moment he crossed our border, we didn't let him, of course, we had staff and cameras monitoring all the highway service areas and rest stops until the end of 1989. We wrote down the license plate numbers of every car in West Berlin.

We saw every paranoia of a secret service agency every frustrated escape attempt was meticulously reconstructed refugees captured escape helpers or people suspected of being one were sent to ministry detention centers approximately three quarters of people detained by the stasi in the 1980s they were charged with immigration or escape crimes officially east germany had no political prisoners whoever they locked up was a criminal these were all citizens who had violated east german law all citizens knew east germany law so that if I know that the border is closed and I cannot cross it then I must act accordingly because the Stasi crossing the border illegally was a particularly serious crime.

The accused had to be categorized as such. If you knew that a defendant had done everything possible to penetrate the border by hook or by crook, then of course you had to do it. I assume they were also trying to escape arrest. The prisoners were never informed when their hearings would be scheduled and those presiding over their trials were members of the Stasi. Milke had seen to it that his ministry remained completely in charge of handling his enemies. There was a desk. In the back, by the window, the defendant in the trial was supposed to face the daylight so that observers could better study his facial expressions.

By simply studying his characters you could learn about their intellect, how they responded to certain things, and how to approach them. We ask them about everything, even the smallest details, and of course we also use psychology. The ministry's interrogators were well trained and ruthless. His job was to extract confessions. The defendants were not allowed to see anyone. They were never called by their first names, but only by their cell phone. The subjects were instructed to keep their hands on the blankets during the night while they slept and at least every 20 minutes the light was turned on briefly and then turned off when the videos began.

Milken knew that he could rely on his loyal followers. The director was surrounded by like-minded comrades. I did not find it burdensome at all nor did the staff members who served there in the line of duty, which was the job entrusted to them as members of the Ministry of State Security and as Such was never the case. We found the celebrations of the 15th anniversary of the Berlin Wall in August 1976 annoying. This time the people were called to stand up and fight. Eric Milke was in the front row, looking publicly pleased and confident. East Germany was following a damaging policy, but this whole policy is what triggered the massive expansion of the stasi into a total surveillance regime between 1970 and 1980 the number of ministry employees more than doubled to 80,000 we need to coordinate with so effective that there is no security-relevant process area that we are not informed in time everywhere we go we need patriots and volunteer confidants and contacts to support us in our fight there can be no space where at least one of our agencies is not was active many ordinary citizens helped keep an eye on who was leaning west, who might be thinking of leaving, who was in contact, every lead, no matter how small or insignificant it seemed, was followed up by phone lines and mail, was monitored.

More thoroughly, everything was examined and evaluated, everything that had been successfully used to plan or execute an escape was immediately captured, people tried to use diving equipment to swim across the Spray River or the Baltic Sea, things like that, some even tried to use tethered balloons or hot air balloons so anything that could be used to build one was also confiscated in more than 90 of all escape attempts were discovered and thwarted beforehand almost no refugees made it to the death strip as did the wall milka's imperium had become indispensable to keeping the SED regime in power an internal recording of the ministry's 30th anniversary in 1980 milke was at the height of his power when Eric Honika promoted him to army general.

Outwardly, the SED leader and his loyal minister seemed like like-minded compatriots, but in private they were far from friends. It was clear that Milka was the servant, the loyal foot soldier, and Hanukkah was the one. In giving the orders, nothing was allowed to interfere with his policies, especially his foreign policy, and the Stasi continued to receive additional responsibilities. In my opinion, this was one of the biggest mistakes of the Ministry of State Security as an intelligence service and security agency to make up for the shortfalls. of the party leadership in 1975, East Germany was a signatory to the Helsinki Accords, which included recognition of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms such as freedom of movement, but for all intents and purposes, these exact rights were virtually non-existent within of the regime, however, An increasing number of East German citizens submitted formal requests to leave the country, and the Stasi handled all of them.

We cannot allow these powers to take us by surprise. We must always maintain the advantage in this situation, which especially applies to recognizing potential applicants in advance. we can increase preventive measures milka's main efforts were aimed at forcing applicants to withdraw their application if they did not do so they risked discrimination and criminalization, which was the ministry's deterrent, but east germany was falling into a crisis economic hanukkah needed a solid currency and goodwill from the west to obtain credits worth billions the stasi distrusted the pine that would put them in hanzo it was on a sunday in 1984 i received a call in the morning with orders to immediately contact hundreds of applicants that they wanted to leave and inform them that they could relocate the next day we knew that was as stupid as possible, but it was just another of those lonely hanukkah decisions that had to be carried out to the letter regardless of the disastrous consequences we foresaw, who To think that would reduce the number of relocation requests was obviously naive;

In fact, the opposite happened after the first applicants crossed, creating a pull effect and inspiring thousands more to follow suit. One of those relocation applicants in 1984 was 23 years old. michael bitner from east berlin the stasi file morgenthau or morningdew tells his story contains three handwritten applications each rejected an internal note adds that there is no need for relocation at this time the stazi still believed it could convince bitner to he had completed his military service without any objection to staying in east germany they made a mistake on november 24, 1986 michael bitner tried to cross the death strip 32 shots were fired when he reached the top of the stairs bittner is hit and dies the incident put milka in an awkward position for three days before two refugees had been shot dead along the wall the celebration of berlin's 750th anniversary in the east german capital was just around the corner honika and milka feared international condemnation of the execution orders and that is why they decided that Bitner's death had to be kept secret at all costs and that is why the stasi falsified an arrest warrant for the deceased, stating that a criminal gang of human traffickers had smuggled him out of east germany the truth about michael bitner's death became a state secret the whereabouts of his remains are unknown to this day thanks to their cover-up festivities for the 750th anniversary of berlin they were not disturbed one of the main attractions a float commemorating the construction of the berlin wall working class combat groups secured the brandenburg gate this image spread around the world in 1989 milka had served as minister for 31 years, but still had no time to rest in the private rooms adjacent to his office, now other images were traveling around the world.

In Hungary, the Iron Curtain was fraying. Thousands of East German citizens fled to Prague, where they occupied West Germany. embassy until they were allowed to continue to west germany on trains passing through east germany an increasing number of east germans were submitting applications requesting relocation by early november 1989 almost 200,000 applications had been received everyone could see the ship was was sinking and we had no room left to maneuver, we didn't have a leg to stand on, there was nowhere to turn, of course, everything had been different in 1961, then slowly but surely doubts began to arise , a feeling of helplessness began to spread, it also came from top to bottom. and little by little we became more and more aware of it at first the growing crisis could be set aside and ignored in october 1989 the sed leaders celebrated 40 years of east germany while thousands of protesters marched through east berlin to the palace of Mielke's worst nightmare in the republic was that they would continue to the Brandenburg Gate and march towards the wall.

I don't know what he felt or sensed. All I know is that he thought he could still save this even if it meant we had to shoot. I am convinced that we would have opened fire at the Brandenburg Gate festival, but the protesters did not march to the gate in the following weeks. However, more and more people took to the streets demanding change, free elections and the freedom to travel through the SED and Stasi. to control the spiraling situation by publishing a new ordinance allowing travel and immigration upon request, a small misunderstanding that had a groundbreaking effect, untilAs far as I know, this will come into effect immediately, without delay, on the night of November 9th, increasingly.

People flocked to the border crossing at Bon Holmastrasse to test out this new potential freedom to travel. Open the door. People demand that Stasi Lieutenant Colonel Harald Yega was alone that night. He finally ordered the border crossing to open. There were no superiors around. to give instructions, a quasi-colonel in the ministry would never have been able to order the border to be opened under normal circumstances, which could never have been the case, so there was no need to train for this case, opening the border crossing would have been considered high. betrayal the thousands of people who were in front of us were the ones who opened the border if they had not been there it would never have been opened to this day no one knows where erich milke was that night four days after the fall of the iron curtain he pronounced his first and last speech in the people's parliament i love all people truly, that's what i stand for in 1992 erich milke was accused of being partially responsible for the murders at the wall, but the trial was abandoned due to his fragile health. died in may 2000 erich milke's victory photo album was not the only legacy found in state security warehouses after the fall of the wall, there were also all the nondescript things that state security took from the fugitives arrested and also from the walls dead and filed none of this was going to be made public everything was going to remain forever in the dark so you can