Forty Autumns

by Nina Willner

  Most Stasi officers were never charged. Today they live among the general population, many having gone on to find other jobs and becoming active members of society in a reunited Germany. After the fall, some 85,000 full-time Stasi officers lost their jobs virtually overnight.

  The VoPo, the People’s Police

  Following reunification, the East German police were required to fill out questionnaires concerning their political and professional history before being accepted into the reunified police force. Those accepted were retrained and paid a fraction of what their Western counterparts received. As was the case for many employers considering former East Germans for jobs in a reunified Germany, the German police faced challenges about how to teach the principles of democratic rule of law to officers trained in an autocratic police state.

  Border Guards

  After 1973, border guard duty was voluntary. Of those who volunteered, most were never charged or held accountable for their actions, asserting that, under East German law, their conduct had been lawful and they therefore could not be held to criminal responsibility. At the trial of the East German border guard who shot and killed Chris Gueffroy, the last to die at the Wall, the guard told the court “at that time I was following the laws and commands of the German Democratic Republic.” He was, however, convicted, the judge declaring, “Not everything that is legal is right.”

  The NVA, National People’s Army, or East Germany Army

  The NVA was disbanded in 1990. Most facilities were closed, the equipment sold to other countries. Most of the NVA’s 36,000 enlisted and noncommissioned officers were let go, including all officers above the rank of lieutenant colonel. Only 3,200 were retained by the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, after a demotion of at least one rank.

  Retired NVA soldiers and officers received minimal pensions after reunification, which left many former NVA officers bitter about their post-reunification treatment. Few were able to find jobs and they were prohibited from appending their NVA rank to their name as a professional title.

  The Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, GSFG, Soviet Army in East Germany

  August 1994 marked the end of Soviet military presence on German soil, whereby the last of the Soviet soldiers returned to Russia. In 1994, Karlshorst’s Sixth Independent Motor Rifle Brigade deactivated and withdrew to Kursk.

  The Athletes

  Some athletes continued participating and competing in reunited Germany’s sports establishment. Some became coaches and trainers. Some athletes filed lawsuits against the German Olympic Committee, and a compensation fund was established for victims of doping. Between 1950 and 1989, some 615 athletes defected to the West.

  Escapees and Those Who Attempted

  There are no certain statistics about how many people attempted escape, how many were successful, how many were killed or sent to prison.

  Because the East German government covered up so many deaths, there are no definitive statistics on how many were killed, but it is believed that approximately 140 people were killed trying to cross the border in Berlin between 1961 and 1989, and some 1,000 others while trying to cross the border elsewhere or by drowning in the Baltic Sea or in Berlin’s Spree River. Some 5,000 others managed to flee, using creative means to make the voyage successfully.

  Those who helped escapees were also subject to punishment, facing prison terms or expulsion. Some 50,000 East Germans suffered this fate between 1952 and 1989.

  In some cases, would-be escapees were executed in the Soviet Union.

  Only a fraction of deaths due to attempted escape have ever been prosecuted or investigated. Today responsibility for the great majority of those deaths remains unaccounted for.

  Political Prisoners

  All were released.

  Some former political prisoners of the Hoheneck Castle are outspoken advocates for former political prisoner victimization, rights, and compensation. Some have written books about their ordeals. The women of Hoheneck face their futures with the support of their unique prison sisterhood, and the women still regularly get together to support one another in Stollberg, in the valley below the prison.

  The Dissidents

  Ulrike Poppe, Bärbel Bohley, and others like them are credited with helping to lay the intellectual foundation for what was called the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall.

  Major Nicholson

  At the age of thirty-seven, Major Arthur Nicholson became the last casualty of the Cold War. He was promoted posthumously to lieutenant colonel and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 7A, Lot 171, not far from the Tomb of the Unknowns.

  President Ronald Reagan

  Ronald Reagan will be remembered for his hard-line stance against communism and his uncompromising conviction to defeat it. His initiatives on nuclear disarmament and his insistence that the Soviet Union could be defeated rather than simply negotiated with contributed significantly to communism’s collapse in Europe. Scholars agree, however, that it was his antinuclear campaign and his leadership and skills as a negotiator that proved pivotal in reaching a negotiated end to the Cold War.

  General Secretary of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev

  In 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the Cold War. Time magazine named him Man of the Year and Man of the Decade. Gorbachev continued to serve as general secretary until he resigned as the last head of state of the Soviet Union.

  In 1992, he founded the Gorbachev Foundation. Headquartered in San Francisco, the organization aims to contribute to the strengthening and spread of democracy throughout the world. That same year, President Reagan awarded Gorbachev the first-ever Ronald Reagan Freedom Award.

  In Germany, Gorbachev remains a hero, where most credit him with laying the foundation that eventually enabled East and West Germany to reunite.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Throughout East Germany there were tens of thousands, if not millions of people like my relatives, trying to raise a family, work, preserve their dignity, and live life as best they could under the circumstances they were handed. This is the story of just one family, but in some ways it is the story of millions.

  The human side of this story is a critical part of East Germany’s historical narrative. Depravations at the hands of the system caused many people to rise above and call forth the best of the human spirit. Controlled by a regime with a secret police that manipulated their lives, and devoid of free will, it was often their own spirit and strength of family that helped sustain them. Despite authoritarian rule, lives under repression were ameliorated to a great extent by the love and trust of others in the same situation and, in the end, it was humanity that guided many.

  The chronicle of East Germany and the story I tell here is not distant history. It is living memory for millions who lived and experienced it, who are alive today and have their own accounts. Many former East Germans will have had different experiences than those of my family members. They have their stories. This is ours.

  And finally, history is rarely black and white. Perspectives vary and the story is often more complicated and nuanced than one can address in a single book. There are some who long for the old days in East Germany, in which, though they were not free, some saw life as simpler, less complicated, devoid of commercialism, and in which low crime rates and cradle-to-grave benefits were guaranteed.

  A Note on Research

  Research for this book utilized a variety of resources, including archives, fact-finding trips, and interviews. The dates and sequence of events are based on my research and on the best recollections of interviewees over a sixty-five-year period.

  Archives and Print Documents

  Thanks to a variety of organizations, there is a wealth of publicly available archive material today that helps document the history of the Cold War and East Germany.

  These archives include Open Society Archives, RFE/RFL, National Security Archive, Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security, Chro
nik der Mauer, Imperial War Museum Archives, Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Wilson Archives at George Washington University, and the Stasi archives.

  I gathered information from family memoirs, letters, and diaries, and reviewed a variety of propaganda materials, including that which the regime forced upon the East German population, including my relatives, to cement ideological perspectives and alter their thinking of world and national events.

  Fact-Finding Trips

  While living and working in Europe and Eastern Europe, I made research trips to the locations mentioned in the book, often several times, in order to get the lay of the land, and learn more about the region and events that occurred during the Cold War, speaking with residents, historians, and former government officials.

  I walked through the village of Schwaneberg, spent time in the tiny but well-cared-for village museum, and spoke to residents who lived there during the Cold War. I saw the schoolhouse where my mother’s family lived and where Opa served as teacher and headmaster, and the church where the family went to services before the Soviets occupied the East.

  I visited remote Klein Apenburg and saw the house where my grandparents had lived, the yard where Oma had had her garden, and the little church, and even sat on “Opa’s resting place” bench.

  In Seebenau, I looked over Kallehn’s farmstead and walked through what was once his farm fields. Later I went to see the area that had been the East–West border, where a Soviet border guard shot at my mother as she tried to escape, and where a watchtower still stands.

  In Stollberg, I toured the Hoheneck Castle and spoke to former political prisoners who were incarcerated there. I also toured the Heidelberg Castle, which is blessed with a much more fortunate legacy.

  In Trabitz, I spoke with elderly villagers and saw the schoolhouse where my mother was born and where the family lived when Opa was just beginning his career as a schoolteacher.

  Chemnitz today is a vibrant, thriving modern city with few remnants of its communist past, when it was known as Karl Marx City, except for the forty-ton bust of Karl Marx and the former Stasi headquarters building.

  Paradise Bungalow is vibrant and alive, and has grown. Today it resembles a small Italian vineyard, with grapevine trellises, a blanket of flowers, and an abundance of vegetables and fruits. The modest patch of land that was once given to Heidi and Reinhard to help grow food for themselves and others is still every bit the powerful symbol of freedom and ingenuity that it was during the Cold War.

  I have been to Berlin several times since the fall, once with Cordula. Everything has changed since the Wall fell. We visited the Brandenburg Gate, and Checkpoint Charlie, where little remains from the Cold War days beyond the warning sign telling visitors they are leaving the American sector. The cold, gray passage of entry into the East, which once consisted of border guards and watchtowers, has been replaced with a mockup MP shed, a museum, trinket shops, and vendors who sell communist pins and border guard hats.

  I went back to Karlshorst, Unter den Linden, Karl Marx Allee, and other areas our intelligence teams traveled in the East. Leipzigerstrasse today is filled with coffee shops, clothing stores, and life energy, no longer the near-abandoned gray stretch of road that we used to race down, trying to lose our surveillance.

  I went back to Potsdam, where the USMLM Mission House was located, to Marzahn, where Cordula trained in the velodrome, and to Clay Headquarters, where I worked in the basement.

  Along the way, while living and working in Europe and Eastern Europe, I was also fortunate enough to have been able to engage in many activities that supplemented my research in unexpected ways.

  In May 2003, while living in Moscow, I celebrated alongside Russians in Red Square when Paul McCartney gave a historic concert, marking the first time one of the Beatles had played in the former Soviet Union after the band was prohibited from performing there during the Cold War. In 2007 and 2008, on the occasion of the anniversary of German reunification, while living in Prague, I attended receptions at the West German Embassy, where I viewed the lawn on which East Germans fled and took refuge in the last chaotic days before the fall.

  Interviews

  Living in Central and Eastern Europe gave me excellent access to research for this manuscript. Besides extensive interviews with the family, I spoke with many who lived under communist rule in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, including diplomats from Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Russia. In Moscow, I spent time with former Soviets who shared their experiences serving in the Red Army, or who lived as common citizens in the Soviet Union or in East Germany.

  Throughout the mid-1980s and after the fall of the Wall, I spoke with dozens of American, British, and French soldiers and civilians who served in Berlin during the Cold War, including USMLM and BRIXMIS staff. I interviewed a dozen former women political prisoners about their experiences at the Hoheneck Castle Women’s Prison, and one man who was born and lived in the prison with his mother.

  My absolute favorite chats and interviews were with Heidi, Reinhard, and Cordula over fresh-baked bread with homemade jam at Paradise Bungalow.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to thank those who did not hesitate in helping me to tell this story and bring this book to life.

  To treasured friends and consummate professionals for their generous reviews and edits, but especially for their friendship:

  In the United Kingdom, Major General (Ret.) Peter Williams, former head of the NATO Military Liaison Mission in Moscow, and British Commanders’-in-Chief Mission (BRIXMIS) Tour Officer during the Cold War.

  In Canada, Dr. Douglas Parker, Research Professor, Carleton University, and Emeritus Professor of English Literature, Laurentian University, Ontario.

  In the United States and in Belarus, Anne Grawemeyer, and in New Zealand and Belarus, Juliet Campbell.

  To my friends in the Northern Virginia Writers Group who helped critique the very first draft of this book, especially George Vercessi, Clyde Linsley, Valery Garrett, and Mary Wuest.

  A special thank-you to my family for their support throughout the making of this book. To my brother Dr. Albert Willner, who reviewed and gave suggestions to improve both the historical and personal aspects of the story, to my brother Michael for his helpful edits, and to Marcel, Maggy, and Sachi. Special thanks go to my children, Alex, Kim, and Michael, for their support over the years, and especially to Michael for his design and technical guidance.

  My mother, Hanna Willner, was my right hand in this process, assisting me every step of the way. Without her support for this project, assistance in translating, deciphering information, and giving me perspective, this work could not have been completed. I am indebted to her for many things, not the least of which is her courage in breaking from the thing she loved most, her family, in order to find and make a better life for her children.

  To my father, Eddie Willner, for his wisdom, courage, indomitable spirit, and perseverance to become an American citizen.

  I am profoundly grateful to my former East German relatives for helping me to re-create this story. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, through conversations over bonfires, family parties, walks in the woods, and chats in their homes—it is through their recollections and the places they took me that I came to understand the fuller story. I owe a great debt to my aunts, uncles, cousins—to all my relatives—for their willingness and transparency in sharing their stories, which was not always easy to relive in retelling. Their stories, memories, and personal insights provided a sound foundation on which this story could be built. A special thank-you to those who allowed me to use photos, personal letters and papers, diaries, and memoirs.

  I would like to thank Dr. Hope Harrison, Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor of History and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, one of the first Weste
rn academics to have access to and translate Cold War documents from Soviet archives in Moscow, who provided a historical review of my manuscript.

  I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to the entire William Morrow team at HarperCollins, and most especially to my editors, Emily Krump and Kelly O’Connor, who understood my vision and so professionally ushered this story to the reader. To my German editor, Tanja Ruzicska at Ullstein Propyläen for her assistance and guidance.

  I am very fortunate to have an excellent agent in Mackenzie Brady Watson, who took a chance on an unknown author with an unknown story, and then guided and advocated for me brilliantly every step of the way.

  Thanks also to the Sülzetal Regional Government and to the village of Schwaneberg, especially Rudolf Wenzel, chairman of the Association for Schwaneberg History, who allowed me to sift through the cherished artifacts and treasures of the village museum and sink into Schwaneberg’s Cold War past.

  My appreciation to those who aided in my archival and photographic research:

  Dagmar Hovestädt and the research team including Marieke Notarp at the BStU Stasi Records Collection and Archives.

  To the researchers at the Police History Collection (Polizeihistorische Sammlung), Chronik der Mauer, Berlin Wall Foundation (Stiftung Berliner Mauer), Oxford’s Bodleian Library, Harvard’s Fung Library, Library of Congress, Sachsen Memorial Foundation (Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten), and Federal Archives in Berlin (Bundesarchiv).

  My appreciation to U.S. Army and USMLM personnel, for their fact checking.

  I am grateful to others who aided in my research and discovery. While living and working in Germany and in diplomatic posts in Russia, Belarus, and the Czech Republic, I interviewed dozens of diplomats and acquaintances who lived through the Cold War in Eastern European countries.

  To Günter Wetzel, who flew his balloon over the border to freedom, and to the many others like him who had the courage to risk it all to have a chance at freedom, and generously shared their stories and provided personal photos. Appreciation also goes to the Czech, German, British, Swiss, and Dutch photographers who documented the Cold War and made their photographs and information available to me, without hesitation and free of charge, in particular Ed and Louise Sijmons, Bettina Rüegger, Ondřej Klauda, Rüdiger Stehn, Reinhard Wolf, Roger Wollstadt, and Mathias Donderer.