Oliver Stone made a movie about Edward Snowden. I haven’t seen it, and I’m not sure if I ever
will. While he was making the rounds of
the media to promote his new movie, he made a statement that compared our
country’s surveillance capabilities with that of the Stasi, East Germany’s
Ministry of State Security. Mention of
the word “Stasi” brought back memories from long ago, when the Berlin Wall came
down and East Germans stormed Stasi headquarters. When they got inside the building, they found
the millions of files the Stasi kept on the East German citizenry. What they brought to light was a security
apparatus that used a huge network of informants to help spy on their own
people. My interest in the Stasi
rekindled, I found a documentary on Amazon titled Enemy Engagement, the story of an East German dissident and the
“friend” who informed on him. What
followed was recollections as told by each man to the cameraman. Then both men met face to face and discuss
with each other what happened over forty years ago. When they weren’t engaged in conversation,
they read from the dissident’s Stasi case file [it was rather large]. This makes for some compelling viewing.
Peter Wulkau was a student at the Karl Marx University in
Leipzig, East Germany in the late 1960s, around the time of the Prague Spring. He thought the ideals of Prague Spring
[“Socialism with a human face”] would be a good thing for East Germany. He was about 20 years ahead of Gorbachev in
wanting to reform the system from within.
But he was the kind of student who, when presented with something he
knew to be false, would not hesitate to raise the “Bullshit flag.” For instance, he wanted to buy a pair of
pants but was told he could not because there was not enough raw textile
material to make pants. And yet the East
German government propaganda said that textile production had increased by 20
percent. So, do you believe what you
have seen and heard in your own experience, or what the government tells you? In East Germany, of course you believe what
the government and the party tells you, without question. He always found that life experience always
contradicted ideology in East Germany. Peter
Wulkau was the sort of person who was intellectually curious – he questioned
things. If one wants to get ahead in
East Germany, being “intellectually curious” was not the way to do it. He was an angry young man because he was
constantly being fed propaganda that didn’t jive with reality.
In May 1969, the Stasi wanted to open an “investigation”
on Wulkau. He was the son of an ex-GDR
Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs, who “betrayed the GDR and now resides in
West Germany.” Because of who he was
related to, he already had a target painted on him. At university, he was suspected of “forming
groups hostile to the state.” One of
Wulkau’s professors noted Wulkau questioned the working class’ leading role in
society, and that he read decadent bourgeois literature. He was intelligent and very well-read,
intellectually superior to most students in his group, but that he was unable
to approach all subjects and questions from a class perspective. He intimidated younger members of his group who
had not developed a “fixed class perspective.”
He had an “extremely individualistic perspective” who has “positioned
himself outside the collective he despises.”
For these sins Wulkau was expelled from university and not allowed to
continue his education. Wulkau wanted to
teach Marxism in high school, but without qualification from the university he
would be unable to fulfill that dream. He
could no longer live in Leipzig and had to find “practical work” that would
enable him to help build socialism. He
relocated to Magdeburg in 1974 and took work in the Fahlberg-List Chemical
Works, because he was allowed only to perform manual labor so he couldn’t do
any “political damage.”
Compared to Leipzig, Magdeburg was very boring for
Wulkau. To alleviate the boredom, he joined
a Protestant Students’ Group [PSG]. The
group had “Open Evenings” where they would debate literature, philosophy and
theology. This group was under
surveillance by the Stasi. There was a
suspected ‘Berlin Scene’ within the group that made “negative comments.” This group is where Wulkau met a guy named
Hartmut Rosinger. Rosinger had been
investigated by the Stasi in 1972 and was given an ideological clean bill of
health. He was true believer in
Marxism. He didn’t see East Germany as
an iron-fisted dictatorship, and as for the rules and restrictions placed on
society, he agreed with them. As a loyal
Marxist, he was okay with working for an organization like the Stasi to
maintain the status quo. He was quite
thrilled and honored to be recruited by the Stasi. He became what is known as a “Volunteer
Operative” [their phrase for ‘informant’] for the Stasi and was given the code
name ‘Hans Zimmer’. Rosinger’s first
meeting with the Stasi took place in February 1974 at the Fröbel Special School in
Magdeburg. Rosinger was able to establish
a good relationship with the priest where the PSG held its meetings, so the
Stasi determined it would be easy for him to penetrate the PSG and introduce
“defensive measures of a corrosive nature”.
Shortly after he became a “VO”, he met Peter Wulkau.
We see both Wulkau and Rosinger in the present day
reading aloud Wulkau’s Stasi case file, which is filled with reports Rosinger
made to the Stasi about Wulkau. What
amazed me during this whole exercise was the manner of both men. They are both so “matter of fact” when
reading from the file. There is no anger
from Wulkau, but there is regret from Rosinger.
Both are dispassionate when reading from the text, as if they were
reading to one another from a novel. But
every so often, Wulkau would interject a question. When Rosinger reported that Wulkau expressed
“negative thoughts” during a PSG meeting, Wulkau asked Rosinger what he thought
was negative. Rosinger replied that he
thought Wulkau was well-read on the subject of Marxism, but that Wulkau also
questioned the very legitimacy of socialism.
That struck him as being “negative.”
Rosinger reported to his case officer that Wulkau would talk to the PSG
about his past in Leipzig. He also found
out that Wulkau planned to write a book that could never be published in the
GDR.
In
May 1974, Wulkau formed a “Working Circle for Marxism” within the PSG. The group’s interest was in reading Marx’s
works in their original text instead of what the GDR government said was in
them. Wulkau attended the Working Circle
meetings until November 1974. In March
1975, the Stasi asked Rosinger to find out why Wulkau stopped going to the
Working Circle meetings. His attendance
dropped off sharply because he had work, his wife worked in Shönebeck,
and he and his wife had a little girl to look after. Rosinger also found out the subject of
Wulkau’s book – youth problems in the GDR.
The Stasi recorded that Wulkau was hostile to socialism, had stopped
going to meetings watched by VOs [yes, plural], and seemed content to receive
few visitors. Rosinger told the
cameraman that he and Wulkau would do something unheard of – they would debate
political and ideological topics. In
East Germany, you weren’t supposed to have an opinion – there was only the
party line. That was the only thing that
was permitted in the press – nothing else.
On a subsequent visit to Wulkau’s home, Wulkau loaned Rosinger two books
– How Communists Educate Children by
Gerhard Möbus, and another work titled Marxist
Sociology in Action. The books were
provided to Wulkau by his father, who was living in West Berlin. The books were smuggled to him somehow, but
the Stasi never mentioned the method. Of
course, Rosinger passed the books along to his case officer. Both books were written in the West and
displayed “anti-communist tendencies”. Wulkau
didn’t force the books on Rosinger.
Rosinger was genuinely interested in them. Wulkau expressed anti-socialist thoughts,
read subversive literature, and was about to publish a book the State would
like very much to suppress. What was in
this book? It was a satirical look at
the Stasi. Wulkau read a passage from
the book to Rosinger. In this passage,
the main character [named Hubert] is taking a walk while smoking his pipe. After he crossed a bridge he stopped at a
post that had a picture [of what he doesn’t say]. Hubert fell to his knees and began to pray [a
spoof of the Lord’s Prayer]:
Our Father in
Moscow, blessed be thy name anyway.
The Kingdom come,
from Moscow to Washington and in Heaven.
Give us this day
our daily Work.
And forgive us our
doubts, as we forgive our leaders.
And lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from oddballs of all kinds,
Heretics and
collaborators.
As yours is the
money, the army, and the press, forever and ever…no longer.
The Stasi feared Wulkau would deliver his finished
manuscript to his father in West Berlin, so that he could have it published in
West Germany. In his own mind, Rosinger
thought if Wulkau was going to publish his book, he ought to find a way to do
it at home in East Germany for an East German audience. That’s how Russian dissidents would do. Publish it at home and let the chips fall
where they may. It upset Rosinger that
such a thing would be published in the West for a western audience to consume
as anti-East German propaganda.
Wulkau felt he was being watched. He wasn’t wrong. He was allowed to move to a different
apartment. The Stasi became involved in
the decision about where he could live so that he can be watched more easily. Unknown to Wulkau, his new neighborhood was
filled with Stasi operatives. He was
being watched and photographed.
Direction microphones were pointed at his residence. While he and his family were away for
whatever reason, Stasi agents would break into their home and photograph
everything. In July 1975, he told
Rosinger to limit his contacts with the PSG because some of the people seemed
like they weren’t as they presented themselves.
Rosinger went into a mild panic because he thought Wulkau was talking
about him. But Wulkau didn’t suspect
Rosinger. There were others he
suspected, just not Rosinger. Rosinger
had a good poker face, which his Stasi masters liked about him. His cover wasn’t blown, but he was concerned
that soon Wulkau would soon know who the real mole was. During a visit Wulkau left Rosinger alone in
the room for 20 minutes. In this time
Rosinger found the typed manuscript of Wulkau’s book. Wulkau also talked of applying for the
position of assistant director of the Meininger Theatre. He did apply, but in September 1975 Wulkau
got a rejection letter from the theatre.
After he was rejected by the theatre, he did something extraordinary –
he wrote a letter to Erich Honecker. He
saw no way out of his current situation and asked Honecker what it would take
for him to realize his potential instead of wasting away his intellect in a
menial job. He told Honecker he wanted
to use his abilities for the service of the GDR, but wondered why the state
insisted on keeping him away from even the slightest of intellectual work. Shortly thereafter he quit his work at the
chemical works and took a job as a waiter at a place called the “Green-Red”
Wine Studio.
Rosinger talked about how he would go about meeting with
his case officer when he had something to report. The meetings were always at a location that
was neither his own apartment nor Stasi headquarters. He and his case officer would meet in an apartment
that was rented by an elderly couple.
The only time Rosinger saw them was if either he or his case worker
wanted coffee or tea. He described how
he had to avoid being seen by people he knew to maintain his cover. He was quite enthused about the whole
cloak-and-dagger thing. The Stasi wanted
a typing sample from Wulkau’s typewriter so they could match it to Wulkau’s manuscript. Rosinger went to Wulkau’s place and asked to
use the typewriter so that he could write an application for a telephone. It was as hard to get a telephone in East
Germany as it was to get a car. He
really did want a phone, but he was creative enough to use it as an excuse to
get the typewriter sample. Wulkau also
had a friend from Indonesia. This friend
could come and go to West Berlin because he also worked in an embassy. Since he worked in an embassy, his Indonesian
friend was never searched by East German authorities. Wulkau loaned his book to his friend. The Indonesian friend turned out to be a
Stasi informant [“VO Anton”]. VO Anton
took the book to the Stasi and they photographed it. Both he and Rosinger continued to gather
information on Wulkau. The Stasi finally
arrested him in March 1978. He was taken
to the Moritzplatz Detention Center in Magdeburg. He had no idea why he was detained, because
he had no idea Rosinger and VO Anton reported on him.
Wulkau’s interrogators tried to get him to confess to his
“crimes,” but Wulkau didn’t want to play their game. During one of his interrogations, Wulkau was
asked what he meant with the Lord’s Prayer spoof. He replied that Marxism-Leninism was not a
science but a belief, like a religion.
It was comparable to medieval Christian structures. The Stasi then put him on trial six months
later, where Rosinger was called as a witness.
The two men came face-to-face in court, still “friends.” Rosinger walked over to Wulkau, patted him on
the shoulder and told him “hang in there, old boy.” It was during Wulkau’s trial that it finally
occurred to him that Wulkau was in his predicament because he had informed on
him. He began to have second thought
about being a Stasi informant. It
finally dawned on him that he had done personal harm to someone. The Stasi didn’t blow Rosinger’s cover, and
had him continue to spy on Wulkau’s family while he was imprisoned. The Stasi wanted to know how Wulkau’s wife
would react to her husband’s detention.
Would she contact somebody in West Germany, or get in touch with a
lawyer? The Stasi tried to get her to
sign false statements, and when she wouldn’t they threatened to take her
daughter away from her. When she asked
the Stasi why her husband was arrested, they told her it was possible espionage
committed with his father. They told
that story to Wulkau as well, probably in order to get him to confess to
writing his book because an espionage conviction meant the death penalty. But despite the death penalty threat, Wulkau
still wouldn’t confess.
Wulkau
was convicted of committing “acts of incitement against the State” and
sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
Next we see Wulkau showing Rosinger his “accommodations.” His exercise area in the detention center was
an outdoor 8x10 cell, with stucco walls and a chain-linked ceiling that exposed
him to the outdoor elements. Wulkau
referred to his exercise area as a “tiger cage.” It is an apt description. He was not allowed to make any kind of sound
– no sneezing, coughing, singing, talking or whistling. The Visiting Room was small, barely large
enough to hold three chairs and a table for Wulkau, his wife, and a guard who
would always be present during monthly visits.
They couldn’t talk about his case or the prison conditions – just
“neutral subjects.” As for his own cell,
it looks like it’s 6x8, big enough to hold two beds and a desk. Rosinger sat at the desk and asked Wulkau to
shut the door so that he can get a feeling of what is what it was like inside
the cell. Wulkau did so, and for good
measure he locked it. Wulkau turned
Rosinger’s attention to the peephole in the door, mentioning that the peephole
was quite irritating, especially in the beginning of one’s experience in
jail. Rosinger appeared shaken by the
experience [especially by the locking of the door], imagining how hard it must
have been for Wulkau.
According to Stasi reporting, Rosinger was beginning to
have his own doubts about Marxism-Leninism.
He didn’t want to incriminate people who expressed legitimate criticisms
of particular social issues. He asked
his Stasi case officer if Marxism-Leninism was the absolute truth. Per Rosinger, “the moment you ask yourself
that question for the first time, everything collapses.” The two men continued their field trip. The next stop was the abandoned criminal
prison in Cottbus, to where Wulkau was transferred in December 1978. Wulkau’s cell was like an open bay barracks
which held twelve men. Bunk beds were
stacked four high, and there was one toilet.
There was solitary confinement [“the Slammer”], which held a wooden bed
to which the prisoner would be chained. There
wasn’t very much room to move around. If
you pissed or crapped on yourself, you would be punished – called a pig and be
beaten up. Then you were marked as
having missed your “educational target.”
Wulkau was released from prison in December 1979. He and his wife were disappointed that he
wasn’t deported to West Berlin, but at least he was happy to be out of
prison. Rosinger visited Wulkau upon his
release. He sensed Wulkau was more
cautious and distrustful. That’s what
prion had done to him. But, he still
hadn’t suspected Rosinger was his informant.
He never mentioned any suspicion of Rosinger about his arrest. But he reported on the Wulkau’s until they
left East Germany for Hannover in March 1980.
Rosinger: I must say, I am sorry, that really wasn’t
me…That cannot be me. This is, yes,
really stupid, idiotic, isn’t it.
After emigrating to West Germany, Peter Wulkau got to
read and study what he wanted. He liked
his work [he didn’t say what his work was], but he noticed his marriage wasn’t
working anymore. For that he blamed the
Stasi – the strains had broken he and his wife apart. In January 1982, Hartmut Rosinger ended his
relationship with the Stasi and relocated to Bad Tennstedt. He knew he betrayed a trust and wanted to get
a fresh start somewhere else.
Rosinger: Yes, the details are always the hardest
part. The details are what hurt
you. And which I need to piece back
together to spell ‘that was you!’ That
wasn’t anyone but my own self. That’s
the hardest part. And you have to
reconnect time and again that it was a part of my life. That’s the biggest problem. And now
I’m in this situation here, right now, at this table with Peter and it’s even
harder for me to take in, to understand.
Very difficult, very difficult. I
am really very, very sorry.
Wulkau: I know that.
I’ve worked out that I had 39 informers.
All of whom were working to ‘corrode’ me, to send me to prison,
ultimately. 39. Men and women. You are the only one to have owned up to it,
and early on too. The only one to
sincerely regret what you did, and early, this is worth something. You creditably decided, early on, to face
your past and show remorse. This is
really worth something.
Rosinger: But it’s unfortunately impossible to wind
back.
Wulkau: Yes, but I believe that is the tragedy of life,
that we cannot take back anything we have done.
That’s just the way it is.
Rosinger: I’m sorry.
Wulkau: That’s normal. [Cue the subtle, sad
music]
The Stasi had 91,000 full time employees, with 189,000
volunteers to help them watch everybody.
Around 250,000 people in East Germany were imprisoned for “political
crimes.” In 1989 the Stasi left enough
paper that if stacked together would be almost 100 miles of paper. They left behind over 15,000 bags of shredded
files, of which only 390 bags have been reconstructed.
Such is the price for living in a “workers’ paradise.”
