East German children to learn evils of secret police

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | December 28 2006 | Allan Hall in Berlin

[fishhound]

CHILDREN in formerly communist eastern Germany are to be given lessons next year about the dreaded Stasi secret police amid fears that their horrors have been forgotten.

Feelgood films like Goodbye Lenin!, TV shows, books and a soon-to-open theme park dedicated to the lost socialist state of the German Democratic Republic have had an impact on children who were not born when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

Some fear a rose-tinted view of what was a hideous tyranny has warped the entire German perspective of the state that was Moscow's most fervent eastern bloc ally in the Cold War.

Now people whose lives were destroyed by the Stasi will visit classrooms, and children will even be given edited versions of secret police reports and classes in the argot used by informers and spies.

The Stasi turned one in three of East Germany's 17 million inhabitants into informers. They wrecked families, stole children to give to high-ranking politicians and party bureaucrats, and imprisoned, tortured and murdered state enemies.

When East Germany collapsed in 1989, the Stasi had 91,000 employees and 300,000 informants.

"Stasi studies" will be introduced as a compulsory part of the history curriculum in the eastern German state of Saxony next year for children aged from 12 to 15, and across the rest of what was East Germany later in the year.

Children will also learn about the Stasi in their religious education lessons, ethics and citizenship classes, and even the German language and literature curriculum.

Officials at the German Department for Stasi Affairs have been preparing extracts of Stasi files, with names and personal details removed, to give children an idea of how citizens were spied upon.

[fishhound]

They have ethics classes, citizenship classes, religious education classes...in public schools. Does anyone know if public schools now here in the USA have these?

I would think the stasi content would not be acceptably touchy feely for our public schools.

This is great. I visited an exhibit on how the telecom was redundant back to the stasi for listening purposes.............geeesh!

The had camera's filming mailboxes to see who was mailing letters.

What an FN nightmare that place was. Good for them for teaching thier kids.

[kinoxi]

Some fear a rose-tinted view of what was a hideous tyranny has warped the entire German perspective of the state that was Moscow's most fervent eastern bloc ally in the Cold War.

Sounds accurate.

[rawcatslyentist]

Some fear a rose-tinted view of what was a hideous tyranny

Kinda like what we are about to be exposed to by the enemedia about the late beloved leader of Koobah!

[Brad’s Gramma]

I like this...I sure wish we could get hold of some of their curriculum. For grandparents such as I to teach of evil like this...

[wodinoneeye]

I read somewhere recently that East Germany had something like 1 in every 250 people working for the Police system versus 1 in 2000 in Nazi Germany.

[farmer18th]

a soon-to-open theme park dedicated to the lost socialist state

What would that be? All lines and no rides?

[oyez]

Prinz-Albrecht-Str-8, in Berlin was leveled along with it occupants at the end of the war, but the Soviets continued its work under new management.

[oyez]

You could make a living spying on you neighbors.

[SoCalPol]

I was in several cities in East Germany in 1983 and words can't describe the oppression.

[oyez]

All lines and no rides?Right, everybody waiting for toilet paper.

The mental hospital ride would be popular.

[oyez]

By the Soviets, East Germany, was considered real estate to separate Russia form the West. The Germans left were nonpersons because they were considered responsible for the war. Much of the population was felt to be politically unmanageable.

[kinoxi]

So you say.

[kinoxi]

Speak some more oh 'wise one'.
:)

[YaYa123]

Good morning fishhound, and thanks for this article. My daughter, with her husband and two children live in what was formerly Eastern Germany, where they work with a University Christian organization. I sent the article to my son-in-law, to get his take on it, and thought I would add his comments to the conversation. Here goes:

"Nana
That was a great article. Now that we have been here for 1.5 years, we have heard many stories about the STASI. The most interesting are:

1) Our staff member Thomas lived in Gera and his parents were strong Christians. In the DDR/GDR, being a Christian sometimes excluded you from opportunities in jobs and university. Thomas’ family home phone was tapped and it was fairly obvious. One time his father was talking and someone broke in and asked them to hold the conversation while they changed the tape.

2) One of Deanna’s language tutor’s father worked for the STASI. After the wall came down, people who worked for them lost all pension possibilities from the state. Her father is well in his 60s now and will have to work his entire life, as the government will give him no help.

3) One students’ father was not allowed to go to the University because he was a Christian. He served in the Military as required by law, but somehow managed to make the authorities upset and had to serve one or two extra stints. He now still gets upset whenever someone mentions the DDR army.

Thanks for the article. Our friends from Plauen live in Saxony and we go there to visit friends and college often."

[Mark was here]

We sure haven't learned anything from their experience either.

Cops driving around in in unmarked cars, are just aping their hero's in the Stasi, and similar organizations.

Whenever I see a cop in an unmarked car, I see the connection with the Secret Police of the socialist regimes, and I have little respect for the cop in the car. I see a person who missed his calling in the SS.

Wonder if they will teach that the Secret Police, were just doing their job, and that if you did not break the law, you would no have anything to fear from them.

For the record, cops in marked cars are just fine with me.

[mkjessup]

When East Germany collapsed in 1989, the Stasi had 91,000 employees and 300,000 informants.

Most of them now working for the 'Hillary 2008' campaign. ;)

[Gunny P]

...perhaps it all started with the vindictive 1919 Treaty of Versailles.
It gave Herr Schickelgruber a cause and a leg up.
Enough Volken signed on for the cruise.
One thing to another...different sides of the same coin...and we got "STASI".
Do wonder how many "STASI" were recycled "Geheime Staatspolizei"
A lesson or two to be studied..
Unintended consequences....

[tired&retired]

The stories I have heard of how fearful the East Germans were are unreal.

I visited former East Germany this past August with a woman who grew up there. I had been dating her for over a year and wanted to visit her parents. She came to the US in 1993 with her ex husband, an engineering professor at Penn State University. Formerly, she was a translator between East German and Russian businesses traveling often between Russia and East Germany. Her father, a former Panzer soldier under Hitler, was captured by the Russians after the war was over in 1945 and shipped to Siberia where he was held prisoner till 1951 when the Russians returned him to Germany as an officer in the police. Yes, captured after the war was over and held prisoner for six years. He was one of approximately 5,000 prisoners who survived out of the 95,000 taken prisoner by the Russians. I spent several days with him. The stories were unreal. It gave me a whole new understanding of what it was like to grow up in a fear based society.

At one family gathering they were singing a beautiful Christian hymn. He emotionally told us that this hymn, pledging his allegiance to Jesus, was the hymn he sung at his induction into Hitler's army. Hitler promoted the war as a Christian war. When the Russians took over it made it easy to be anti Christian after Hitler's abuse of their religion. Under Russia, people who attended church or were openly religious were not allowed government jobs or allowed to attend any university as people who pledged allegiance to "God" were deemed as unable to pledge allegiance to the government. You had to be an atheist.

My girlfriend told me how fearful she was as a teenager in the 1960's, hiding under the blankets in her bed to listen to music on a West German radio station. The government told them that they could monitor all radios and knew who was listening to prohibited stations.

Everyone in the city areas was afraid to speak to their neighbors. The concept of community was non existant at the local level in order to keep centralized control. It is a good case study of how to destroy a society.

No comments here about the after effects on a person(my girlfriend) who was raised in that environment.

Tis a sad part of history.

[oyez]

If you don't like my crap then don't read it.

[Brad’s Gramma]

That's why I'd like Brad to learn...how NOT to do things!!!