Coming to Terms: Dealing with the Communist Past in United Germany

Coming to Terms: Dealing with the Communist Past in United Germany

Bundesunmittelbare Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts

Preface I. The Post-Communist German Experience: Special Features 1. Securing and Opening the Files 2. Records and Lustrations 3. Elite Changes 4. Communist Injustice before the Courts 5. Restitution, Rehabilitation, Compensation

14 15 20 24 32 40

II. 1. 2. 3.

44 45 48 52

III. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED-Dictatorship Origins: Parliamentary Inquiry Commissions and Initiatives Structure of the Foundation Mandate and Scope: Services and Activities Other German and International Institutions: A Brief Overview Federal Institutions Civic archives Other Institutions, museums and memorial sites Victims Associations

5

56 58 72 74 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

Coming 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).

6

Coming to terms: D e a l i n g w i t h t h e Co m m u n i st Pa st i n u n i t e D g e r m a n y

Both periods of dictatorships had some structural elements in common while they also displayed obvious contrasts. Both dictatorships started and ended very differently, with Nazi Germany resorting to a global war of aggression resulting in millions of war dead and the genocide of European Jewry. Respective crimes committed by the two German dictatorships differed vastly in scope and geographical range. After the demise of Nazi Germany and the Second World War’s ending in Europe, Soviet military authorities used certain Nazi concentration camp sites in Eastern Germany between 1945 and 1950 for their ten “special internment camps” to detain some real, and many alleged, national-socialists. About 43,000 of them, i.e. 35 percent of individuals interned, perished during confinement.

How Germans came to terms with those two dictatorships existing on their soil varied significantly, given the major differences in both international and national environments after 1945 and from 1989. Meanwhile both experiences in redressing injustices of the past have begun to reference each other in public German discourse. They have led to a convergence in the sense that obligations exist to face dictatorial pasts from the perspectives of victims rather than those held by perpetrators. The process of how to come to terms with various injustices and crimes committed during dictatorships also facilitated a scrutiny of the latter’s legacies. They warrant a search for lessons applicable to post-dictatorial democratic systems and corresponding societal structures. 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

8

Coming to terms: D e a l i n g w i t h t h e Co m m u n i st Pa st i n u n i t e D g e r m a n y

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

s ov i et t a n ks te r m i n a te the m a ssi ve e a st g e r m a n po pu l a r r evo l t i n J u n e 1 9 5 3

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.

th e B er l i n wa l l i n the 1 9 7 0 s

10

Coming to terms: D e a l i n g w i t h t h e Co m m u n i st Pa st i n u n i t e D g e r m a n y

The communist regime in the GDR remained in power as long as Moscow had a vested interest in and the power to maintain a division of Germany and the existence of a separate socialist German state. By 1989 at the latest, the USSR had implicitly withdrawn its warranty of armed intervention to maintain the survival of a socialist East Germany. In parallel developments, a refugee wave exiting the GDR to West Germany through Hungary and Czechoslovakia ultimately toppled the SED regime in conjunction with unrest inside the GDR. There massive and persistent peaceful demonstrations The slogan from held countrywide in small and big the beginning of cities took place. All this was the revolution had inspired by the huge path-breaking changed to demonstration in the city of Leipzig “We are one people” on 9 October 1989, which ultimately forced the opening of the Berlin Wall and of the country’s sealed borders with the West by 9 November 1989. A “peaceful revolution” featuring the slogan “We are the people” gradually dismantled communist state structures and established foundations for the emergence of a multi-party democracy. After the selfliberation of East Germans through a political revolution, a

process of self-democratization began. Free elections on 18 March 1990 resulted in an overwhelming majority for East German political parties advocating rapid unification with the Western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). By then the slogan from the beginning of the revolution had changed to “We are one people”. Ensuing negotiations between government representatives from both German states then culminated in a currency, economic, and social union on 1 July 1990 and in a comprehensive Unification Treaty signed on 31 August 1990. After extensive multilateral and bilateral deliberations, the four victorious allied powers of World War II (USSR, USA, Great Britain, France) ratified on 12 September 1990 in Moscow with both German states in a so-called “2+4 Treaty” upcoming German unification and the status of united Germany as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance. Soviet armed forces in the GDR, which that at height of the Cold War in Europe had amounted to 400,000 men, were to leave the Eastern part of united Germany by 1994. Back in 1945, Soviet military occupation authorities had established on East German territory the five states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, SaxonyAnhalt and Thuringia. The city of Berlin was divided into four

12

Coming to terms: D e a l i n g w i t h t h e Co m m u n i st Pa st i n u n i t e D g e r m a n y

sectors with the Soviet Union administering the largest of them in the Eastern part. In 1952 the GDR had these five states replaced with 14 districts and a separate 15th entity for East Berlin. With German unification on 3 October 1990, however, the original five East German states from 1945 were reestablished. Together with the reunited city of Berlin, now figuring Berlin was voted the as a state of its own, they joined the capital city by the existing eleven West German states German parliament to merge into one Federal Republic of Germany. In 1991 united Berlin was voted the capital city by the German parliament and ultimately became the seat of united Germany’s federal government in 1999. How to come to terms with the communist GDR past became a major feature of public discourse in united Germany almost immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. First steps in this regard initiated in East Germany by multiple civic groups and local media now freed from censorship (and intensely supported by West German media); not the least, however, most initiatives were launched by courageous

individuals. Those activities occurred during the GDR’s last year between November 1989 and October 1990 – and thus before Germany’s official unification. Important decisions in the context of democratization, like applying criminal law to perpetrators, compensating the victims, and opening the files, originated from the last GDR government (which also happened to be the only free and democratic one) after the March 1990 elections. Subsequently taken up by the federal parliament of united Germany and the five new states in its Eastern part, broad political majorities reached consensus about a public duty to address, and possibly redress, the manifold issues of injustice and repression committed during GDR times. Comprehensive exploration and information about structures and methods of a dictatorial past, as well as the commemoration of acts of civic courage, opposition, and resistance, were seen as necessary preconditions for living in a healthy democracy. Since 1990, all German federal governments and parliaments have been very clear in expressing the need for a reappraisal of the communist dictatorship. Wide-ranging and intense efforts by federal, state and local governments, the media,

13

and civic society dealt in multiple facets with the scope of issues raised by the demise of the communist GDR. Hardly any other democracy during the course of the 20th century took more initiatives and steps, both quantitatively and qualitatively, to come to terms with the lasting legacy of injustice from a past dictatorship than united Germany did since 1990 in the case of communist East Germany.

Researchers working at Universities and elsewhere discovered a variety of new topics and published new knowledge which enlightened the past reality of the East German Dictatorship. More than 2.000 research projects were accomplished since 1990. Especially the field of opposition and resistance against the regime as well as 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).

16

t h e P o s t - C o m m u n i s t g e r m a n e x P e r i e n C e : s P e C i a l F e at u r e s seCuring anD oPening the Files

The Stasi, the clandestine arm of the SED with 95,000 employees and roughly 180,000 unofficial informers in 1989, had spied on every segment of the GDR population for almost 40 years. All in all, nearly 600,000 unofficial informers and 250,000 Stasi employees monitored the people during the existence of the GDR. This constituted the perhaps highest country ratio between intelligence operatives and a population anywhere in the world. The scenario of December 1989 unfolded in major cities like Erfurt, Leipzig, Dresden, Magdeburg, Halle, and Rostock, but also in many other seats of district or county governments: Activists seized the buildings and sealed and secured millions of remaining surveillance files with the help of state prosecutors assisted by the police. The massive Stasi headquarters in Berlin, however, where major resistance was expected, remained untouched until 15 January 1990 before it shared a fate identical to Stasi compounds in other East German cities.

By early December 1989, the Stasi did not put up fights for its properties in district and county seats affected. It ceded under peaceful pressure without resorting to violence since its long-time political principal had just ceased its own existence: The entire Politburo and Central Committee of the SED in Berlin had resigned on 4 December 1989, and thus de facto terminated the existence of a communist party in East Germany (its post-communist successor parties were to mark a break from Marxist-Leninist patterns of the past). While the founding mission of the Stasi as the “sword and shield of the party” vanished, some regional Stasi commanders gave instructions to destroy its incriminating files. Smoke from chimneys of Stasi buildings, and the rapid countrywide spread of such news, triggered a popular movement to seize the buildings and stop the destruction of records. Activist East German citizens succeeded in this regard to large extent. They thus laid the groundwork for a special feature of East Germany’s coming to terms with the communist past by providing necessary tools and sources for comprehensive

Nearly 600,000 unofficial informers and 250,000 Stasi employees monitored the people during the existence of the GDR

18

t h e P o s t - C o m m u n i s t g e r m a n e x P e r i e n C e : s P e C i a l F e at u r e s seCuring anD oPening the Files

lustration of tainted individuals. Securing the Stasi files established a major pillar of transitional justice in Germany to be established and implemented during the following decade of the 1990s. In the months to follow the takeovers of December 1989 and January 1990, Stasi records remained under seal and were guarded on site by local groups of civic activists. The freely elected GDR parliament took up on 22 July 1990 its first reading In December 1991 the of a draft on “securing and German parliament opening” the files for victims of ultimately passed the surveillance as well as for final draft of the researchers. On 24 August deputies Stasi Records Law passed nearly unanimously a law providing for a comprehensive lustration of all East German parliamentarians as a first step. A relocation and potential closure plan floated by the West German Ministry of Interior to move the Stasi records into the

Federal Archive located in West Germany was met by a massive outcry in East Germany. A sit-in in Berlin’s former Stasi headquarters, and a subsequent hunger strike by prominent activists, eventually rendered any relocation plans moot. On 18 September 1990 a clause was added to the Unification Treaty between the two German states, according to which the future parliament of united Germany was commissioned to draft a law based on provisions from the August 1990 model passed by the East German parliament. With German Unification day on 3 October 1990 the Stasi records then came under supervision of a special commissioner and his staff who turned into a Federal Commissioner in 1991: This was East German Joachim Gauck, a Protestant pastor from Rostock and activist who had also chaired the last GDR parliament’s committee in charge of dealing with the Stasi legacy. After much legal wrangling, preceded by media revelations from Stasi files circulating in public, in December 1991 the German parliament ultimately passed the final draft 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.

th e st a s i c ol l ec ted not only in fo r m a t i o n on f i l es , b u t a l s o va r i ou s i t e m s o f the i r vi c t i ms l i ke ol fa c to r y sa mpl e s

2. Records 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 complimentary copies of, any personalized records the Stasi might have created and filed on them. Also, they obtained the right to make public any content of their personal files and to receive, upon request, names of informers who had spied on them. (So far, the BStU agency has received more than two million individual inquiries since 1991). • The agency provided documentation and interpretation assistance for the vetting of present and prospective employees of Germany’s federal and state civil service. • In order to fulfill the need for publicly available research results, the StUG also regulated overall generous access rights for journalists, as well as for academic and individual researchers. • The BStU was tasked to contribute to public education about Stasi methods, structures, and activities; it did so through outreach, public events, documentations, publications, and exhibits.

In combination, those provisions stimulated a very lively debate in the media, the interested public, and among academics. All in all, since 1991 more than 6.5 million requests for access to Stasi records were filed (including those by media and researchers). 1.7 million individuals asked to see their personal Stasi files. Following the path-breaking opening of these files created by the GDR security apparatus, records from all central, regional, and local branches of the GDR party and state complex were subsequently opened and made accessible to the public, to researchers, and to the media. With the single exception of the East Germany Ministry of Foreign Affairs where files came under authority of united Germany’s Foreign Office, the otherwise common 30-years-rule for German archival records was waived for all GDR-related files. In essence, they became available for the entire historical period between 1945 and 1990. The 42 kilometers (26 miles) of records from the vast former multi-branch East German state apparatus

22

t h e P o s t - C o m m u n i s t g e r m a n e x P e r i e n C e : s P e C i a l F e at u r e s r e C o r D s a n D lu s t r at i o n s

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 socalled “bloc parties” aligned Archives of the sowith 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 from the comparatively well-organized Stasi archives, was after 3 October 1990 also used as a basis for comprehensive lustration of members and applicants for civil service, as well as for various affiliated sectors of this service in united Germany on the federal, state, and local level. Scope of screenings and individual regulations varied with regard to states, professional sectors, and respective lustration

commissions. However, overall more or less comparable rules were applied to validate, or dismiss, quests by individuals to remain in, respectively join, Germany’s vast civil service. Background checks remained in effect and mandatory until 31 December 2006. After that date, they became applicable in limited cases only, and pertaining to higher-ranking positions.

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 leading position in sectors like public administration, the state-run economy, police, security, and the military, the judicial system, or education in schools and at universities. After the peaceful revolution of 1989, the SED renamed itself in PDS (“Party of Democratic Socialism”) and its membership dropped to about 200,000 by the end of 1990. The GDR gradually ceased to exist, following the free East German election of 18 March 1990 that overwhelmingly expressed a popular will to pursue rapid unification and adoption of the West German political and economic system. The question now loomed who would form the new East German elites in state and society; and what role, if any, might be played by the millions of former SED members. As far as the process of replacement of communist elites in former East Germany is concerned, the period since 1990 was another rather unique experience displaying various German specifics. With regard to an exchange of old administrative elites, East Germans had one particular option that set them apart from other transforming former Warsaw

Pact member states in Eastern and Central Europe: Beyond the obvious search for politically untainted indigenous elites, the five new East German states in united Germany had at their disposal resources of trained administrative personnel from West German partner states. Also, there existed a certain stock of emigrated former East Germans now living in West Germany who were willing to “come over”, or return, to the East to take over positions vacated by old communist and ideologically affiliated elites. Whereas some Eastern European states had as well numbers of emigrants living in ethnic communities in Western Europe, the United States, and Canada who considered to return to their now post-communist countries of birth, those numbers paled in quantitative terms to the large West German-based pool of untainted personnel available to East Germany. For those reasons, nowhere in previously socialist countries of Eastern and Central Europe elite change, i.e. the replacement of politically compromised personnel, became as sweeping and profound as it did in the former GDR. In basically all major areas of the civil service it was far-reaching, deep, and permanent.

26

t h e P o s t - C o m m u n i s t g e r m a n e x P e r i e n C e : s P e C i a l F e at u r e s elite Changes

Overall, the elite change during the 1990s in East Germany had significantly more to rely on Western imports than on indigenous potential. From 1990 onwards, reformist political circles and civic activists in East Germany set the pace for purging old elites from the sectors of public administration and from the educational system (the latter traditionally being a part of civil service in Germany). Initially, they hoped to draw mostly on indigenous resources: During communist times certain parts of GDR academic elites not affiliated with the SED had largely stayed away from politics. They “hibernated” in comparatively non-ideological academic professions like medicine, the natural sciences, engineering, or in the Christian churches. After the fall of communism, they where now expected to figure as a potential “counter-elite” and to serve as an indigenous reservoir for the replacement of old elites. Some of them subsequently indeed emerged in political office on state and county level. However, in the end only a fraction of such individuals actually wanted to join the remodeled sectors of public administration in the five new East German states. The “counter-elite” option failed to emerge as a realistic alternative when the majority of targeted individuals stayed within their old professions; those had

meanwhile become more attractive and offered perspectives in both parts of united Germany. Thus imports from West Germany turned out as the fallback option for elite change in East Germany. With unification, the West German political, economic, legal and administrative system replicated and reproduced itself in the newly formed East German states. This entailed a large-scale dismantling of former During communist GDR institutional structures while times certain parts of at the same time administrative GDR academic elites bodies and bureaucracies based not affiliated with the on West German models were SED had largely stayed established. For East Germans, away from politics former communists or anticommunists alike, this was an entirely new experience that required substantial adaptation. With that experience came the urgent need to learn almost overnight about laws, regulations, and the actual functioning of the West German system. Hence the import of West Germanbased temporary experts and numerous advisers for political, 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

28

t h e P o s t - C o m m u n i s t g e r m a n e x P e r i e n C e : s P e C i a l F e at u r e s elite Changes

After German unification, those personnel imports were to spearhead in the five East German states the implementation of all aspects of the transferred West German system for many years to come. 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 p p el ma nn, C h a i r ma n of th e B o a r d o f D i r ec tor s of th e Fed er a l Fou nda t i o n for the rea p p r a i s a l of th e se D D i c t a to r shi p

ministries and public administration, especially in the sectors of finance, justice, interior, and economic regulation. Since also mostly Western imports were in charge of recruiting new personnel, they usually called and tapped into people they knew from their familiar Western professional networks.

29

Initially, Western state governments were reluctant to overwhelm the Eastern states with their personnel. A temporary or permanent transfer of Western civil servants to the East was a costly undertaking which Western states were eager to scale down as soon as possible. Soon they realized, however, that there was no other alternative if they wanted to build a functioning administration to apply and implement Western laws and regulations. In the early years after 1990, almost fifty percent of the budgets of East German states

had to be financially subsidized by Western partners. Thus the latter considered export of administrative personnel as an active contribution to oversee and direct the investment and spending of money in the East. They also hoped for a speedy economic recovery of the East with the help of Western specialists. Though this recovery took significantly longer than initially expected, it ultimately increased living standards in the former GDR and led to partial economic self-sufficiency of Eastern Germany; thereby in turn gradually

n ow and then: l oth a r d e m a i z i èr e, th e l a st a nd on ly de m o cr a t i ca l ly e l e cte d Pr i m e m i n i ste r a n d m ar kus m eckel, pe nu l t i ma te for ei gn mi ni ster of the g D r si g n i n g the co a l i t i o n a g r e e m e n t i n 1 9 9 0 a nd in discussion wi th h er ma nn ru d ol p h , p u b l i s h e r o f “ De r ta ge sspi e ge l ” i n 2 0 1 0

30

t h e P o s t - C o m m u n i s t g e r m a n e x P e r i e n C e : s P e C i a l F e at u r e s elite Changes

decreasing the amount of needed Western personnel imports, financial assistance, and other forms of aid. In public administration, Western imports initially occupied many top positions in newly formed state administration structures, albeit much less so in continuing structures on county and local levels. Numerically the main body of all state administrations consisted of politically untainted Central structures of the Easterners, yet mostly in vast GDR state apparatus subordinate positions. The were dismantled, the justice system and the large SED party apparatus courts saw a heavy influx of Western imports into various disappeared. The 95,000 force of the State Security top positions, again with a strong numerical Eastern was dissolved without base in lower echelons. In replacement, the 165,000 contrast, police forces in GDR military demobilized East Germany were to grow rapidly after unification due to an increase in crime and safety-related needs. Despite some Western imports installed at the very top, many former GDR police personnel had to be retained and its numbers

i ncreased from indigenous resources. While the police was sometimes overwhelmed after unification, the public school system and its bureaucracy were overstaffed due to sinking enrollment. Much tainted personnel was thus dismissed but others were retained, as the interest of Western imports to work in East German schools was comparatively low. University faculty positions in the former GDR, in contrast, were attractive to West German academics who pushed into vacancies created by dismissals of politically and otherwise compromised East German professors. Structures of the GDR economy were substantially transformed, with the huge former all- public sector broken up into individual pieces and sold to Western companies. Yet many East German elite economic professionals made their way even under new conditions and despite West German leadership at the top; their networks and expertise were much in demand. Other former GDR sectors all but disappeared: Central structures of the vast GDR state apparatus were dismantled, the large SED party apparatus disappeared. The 95,000 force of the State Security was dissolved without replacement, the 165,000 GDR military demobilized and incorporated into the West German army (Bundeswehr) with ultimately 11,000 men retained.

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.

a ngel a mer ke l , cu r r e n t C h a nc el l or of ger m a ny, wa s th e d ep u t y s p o ke spe r so n of th e l a st g D r g ove r n m e n t u nd er l oth a r de ma i zi è r e

4. Communist 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 courts applied GDR laws in effect during actual commitment of crimes in communist times, but also current jurisdiction of united Germany where applicable, and, in the case of executed shoot-to-kill-orders at the Berlin Wall and the intra-German border between 1961 and 1989, universal human rights law. In continuation of legal prosecutorial efforts initiated during the last year of the GDR, the judiciary in united Germany acted further upon “electoral fraud”, i.e. the manipulation of election results in times of communist rule, as well as upon issues concerning “abuse of privileges” and corruption among former leading GDR officials. After unification, the courts of united Germany defined the categories listed below as manifest expressions of “communist injustice” during GDR times. There were therefore considered as subject to prosecution, including the obligation to investigate and act on potential “severe human rights violations” in any of the following categories:

• Political instructions and military actions pertaining to shoot-to-kill orders against East German refugees between 1961 and 1989 at the Berlin Wall (so far 126 confirmed deadly incidents) and the intra-German border (deaths are numbering between many hundreds up to 1,000 and are still subject to exact confirmation); defendants were former members of highest GDR decision-making political bodies (SED Politburo, National Defense Council), as well as individual border guards who executed political guidelines resulting in the deaths of refugees • Arbitrary and politicized application of GDR laws resulting in disproportionate prison or death sentences • Denunciations of individuals resulting in their politically motivated arrest or in other forms of retribution or punishment • Illegal actions according to GDR law by the former GDR Ministry for State Security like kidnappings from West Berlin or Western Germany to East Germany (more than

34

• •

• •

t h e P o s t - C o m m u n i s t g e r m a n e x P e r i e n C e : s P e C i a l F e at u r e s Communist inJustiCe BeFore the Courts

400 cases in 40 years), intended or actual assassination attempts, secret eavesdropping, interrupting postal communication, clandestine apartment searches, and various kinds of blackmailing Mistreatment, death and torture in GDR prisons Organized secret doping of GDR athletes, including minors, causing lasting physical and psychological damage or disability GDR-organized espionage against the Federal Republic of Germany up to 1989 West German technology exports into the GDR violating existing Western COCOM (“Coordinating Committee for East-West Trade Policy”) trade embargos

By the end of the 1990s, German lower as well as higher courts established a largely consistent system pertaining to applications of past and contemporary law. After about 15 years of prosecutorial efforts, trials, verdicts, and acquittals, the most recent court decision on GDR-era injustice was issued in 2005. Given the low probability of discovering further cases of communist injustice after more than a decade of intensive scrutiny, and German amnesty laws

allowing only for future persecution of crimes of extremely severe nature, German legal efforts to address communist injustice have basically come to a conclusion. Results of these efforts allow for the following assessments: • Initial prosecution during the last year of the GDR was mostly concerned with party leader corruption, electoral fraud, and embezzlement. It began in November 1989 and lasted until German unification day of 3 October 1990. Charges were filed in 180 cases and resulted in the investigation of 124 accused individuals. At least 42 of them were held under temporary arrest. Ultimately 41 cases were brought to trial, and GDR courts sentenced 26 individuals before October 1990. • In continuing this process for cases still unresolved, and through a substantial expansion of the scope of investigations as outlined above, federal and state authorities in united Germany centralized the prosecution in Berlin with a specially assigned team of prosecutors to 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

36

t h e P o s t - C o m m u n i s t g e r m a n e x P e r i e n C e : s P e C i a l F e at u r e s Communist inJustiCe BeFore 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.

38

t h e P o s t - C o m m u n i s t g e r m a n e x P e r i e n C e : s P e C i a l F e at u r e s Communist inJustiCe BeFore the Courts

Those pure figures seemingly indicated for many observers in Germany an underperformance of the legal system in providing justice after 40 years of state-sponsored criminal acts in the GDR. However, in many cases prosecutorial hands were tied by respective stipulations of the 1990 Unification Treaty between the two German states. According to those, only such crimes were supposed to be subject to legal sanctions that were committed before 1990 in violation of then-existing GDR laws. Still, such did not apply to cases of severe violations of human rights, like the use of deadly force against refugees attempting to leave the GDR through the Berlin Wall or the heavily fortified intra-German border. According to GDR laws and regulations, it was illegal to leave the country without authorization, and therefore legal to hinder those defying state orders by force. In this case, however, the courts of united Germany took recourse in superseding international human rights law. They completely reversed the terms of “legality” and “illegality” with regard to the use of force along the intraGerman border. In upholding prison sentences issued against GDR officials from the SED Politburo, the National Defense Council, and the higher echelons of military border units who

repeatedly adopted and re-confirmed the shoot-to-kill order in their respective meetings, the German Federal Constitutional Court emphasized the relevance of universally applicable international law and its superseding effects over any national legal constructions which severely violated human rights. Notwithstanding the severity or lenience of sentences i ssued, the symbolic and factual impact of bringing cases to court, and arriving at impartial verdicts with various outcomes, made substantial contributions towards exploring the historical truth about communist injustice committed in the past. The legal process in united Germany was characterized by comprehensiveness and thorough professionalism. It stood in continu“We wanted ance of a process of legal reckoning justice, and we got initiated in the GDR since November the rule of law” 1989; and it demonstrated through overall measured results that it hardly represented any vindictive post-unification “victors’ justice”. The public verdict on these results was mixed, though, encapsulated in a statement by Bärbel Bohley, a major protagonist of the East German anti-communist dissident movement: “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 camps or prisons. According to estimates, there were about 250,000 political prisoners in the GDR over the course of 40 years, and somewhat over 105,000 verifiable cases where people suffered professional discrimination for political reasons. Since the first 1992 Indemnification Law, and as of 2005, about 170,000 individuals were rehabilitated. Also, the German Foreign Ministry negotiated with authorities in territories of the former Soviet Union cancellations of court decisions and respective rehabilitations for so far about 13,500 Germans who were sentenced after 1945 on Soviet territory for political reasons. One-time financial compensations paid to individuals for GDR prison terms violating the rule of law, as well as for a denial of access to education and professions, have so far exceeded the overall amount of 1.0 billion U.S. dollars. Compensations had already surpassed that level, when in 2007 an additional law offered the option of permanent monthly financial compensation to a certain number of qualifying former prisoners.

A major area of redressing past injustice in communist East Germany is represented by cases of individual rehabilitation and compensation. This feature initiated in early 1990 already when first measures were undertaken by the GDR’s last nominal socialist-led government. Back then a decree was issued to rehabilitate convicted or otherwise penalized former communist party dissidents and ordinary members. Ideologically charged verdicts from communist times were nullified dating back to the aftermath of the 1956 Hungarian uprising. This rather narrow concentration on former communists was superseded by more comprehensive and inclusive concepts introduced through a Rehabilitation Law passed on 6 September 1990 by the freely elected GDR parliament four weeks before German unification. It remained in effect until 4 November 1992 when united Germany’s parliament adopted the first so-called “Communist Injustice Indemnification Law”. It officially rehabilitated victims sentenced on political provisions of GDR criminal law. All East German court decisions between 8 May 1945 and 2 October 1990 that “violated the rule of law” were nullified.

42

t h e P o s t - C o m m u n i s t g e r m a n e x P e r i e n C e : s P e C i a l F e at u r e s r e h a B i l i tat i o n , C o m P e n s at i o n , r e s t i t u t i o n

On 1 July 1994 a second parliamentary “Communist I njustice Amending Law” stipulated the rehabilitation, and possible financial compensation, of victims who suffered in GDR times from administrative acts of political persecution based on ideological or political discrimination over the course of their education (high school and/or university admission) or professional careers. Compensation was offered from 1994 to About 25 percent indemnify all validated claimants of roughly 40,000 for corresponding lower payments motions filed in this after retirement. One-time compenregard were granted sation payments of about 430 U.S. dollars per month were granted to those who served in prison for political reasons. About 100,000 applications for this type of rehabilitation and compensation were filed, and roughly half of them granted. Another type of rehabilitation offered by the 1994 law concerned the nullification of GDR administrative measures leading to health problems, loss of assets, or political discrimination with consequences persisting to the present. About 25 percent of roughly 40,000 motions filed in this regard were granted. The burden of proof for physical or psychological damages and other detriments suffered was lying with the victims of persecution.

Following public controversies and amendments during subsequent years that questioned the actual financial commensurability of the 1994 stipulations, the German parliament passed on 23 June 2007 a third bill to increase compensations for victims of political persecution during GDR times. Provisions now offered a permanent monthly payment of 250 Euro (about 340 U.S. dollars) to those former political prisoners who had to serve jail times in the GDR of at least 6 months and are currently suffering from low income. Another form of compensation for past injustice consisted in material restitution. It was granted to former GDR citizens in cases of forced property loss or sale, and it was applied to expropriated businesses as well as to private homes changing ownerships. The special case of former Jewish property nationalized during GDR times was exempted from statute of limitations in 1991 when the parliament of united German granted the right to file restitution claims for this type of property. Only material restitution claims for Soviet property expropriation executed during the period of military occupation between 1945 and 1949 were exempted by parliamentary law. This move barely survived various court challenges, but on 23 March 2005 the European Court for

43

Human Rights in Strasbourg upheld German court decisions validating this law and thus settled this controversial matter for good. The actual process of property return was initiated by a decree issued by the last non-elected GDR government before East Germany’s first free elections of 18 March 1990. A few months later, with a freely elected GDR government in place, a joint West German-East German settlement on “open property questions” was signed in July 1990. Ultimately, a law codified with West German legal expertise on 23 September 1990 and representing one of the last acts of GDR parliament before unification, set the stage for many years of claims and

subsequent administrative and court battles over property returns. Both the 1990 settlement and law stipulated material restitution but denied financial compensation for loss of property: “Restitution overrules Compensation” saved strained government budgets all over Germany from large-scale payments, but it also opened a plethora of legal claims from people who, forcibly or voluntarily, left property behind when they emigrated or fled from the Soviet Occupation Zone or the GDR between 1945 and 1989. As most claims were able to prove and validate the existence of former property rights, a large number of cases of material restitution were implemented in complex and drawn-out processes stretching over many years.

B e r n d n e u m a n n , m i n i ste r o f st ate and re pr e se n t a t i ve o f the Fe de r a l g over nment fo r C u l t u r e , w i n n e r o f the st u d ent ’s co mpet i t i o n » ge schi cht s- co de s« and ra i n e r e ppe l m a n n Di r e cto r a n n a Ka m i n sk y o pe n s an exhi bi t i o n a t the ar D ( g e r m a n a sso ci a t i o n o f pu bl i c bro a dca ster s) he a dqu a r te r s i n B e r l i n

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”.

46

F e D e r a l F o u n Dat i o n F o r t h e r e a P P r a i s a l o F C o m m u n i s t D i C tato r s h i P o r i g i n s : Pa r l i a m e n ta ry i n q u i ry C o m m i s s i o n s a n D i n i t i at i v e s

Its successor commission running from 1995 to 1998 was tasked with addressing “Overcoming the Consequences of the SED Dictatorship within the Process of German Unity”. Altogether, both commissions published 34 volumes with more than 30,000 pages containing complete transcripts of public hearings and numerous commissioned expert analyses on a wide range of historical and current subjects. On recommendation by the second commission of inquiry, the German federal parliament enacted on 5 June 1998 a law on the establishment of a federal “Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED-Dictatorship” (Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur). The foundation started its work in fall of 1998, and thus a public-funded institutional clearinghouse was created to raise public awareness and continue discussions about the second German dictatorship.

By its mandate received from a wide majority of parties represented in German parliament, the foundation stands for an active and pluralistic discussion of the SED dictatorship and its lasting effects on reunited Germany. It functions as both a mediator and intermediary between academic and private research, politics, the media, and the public pertaining to the reappraisal of the SED dictatorship. The foundation’s library with its 45,000 items and unique archive with their collections of material on repressed literature and oppositional activities in the GDR provides documentary material to aid researchers. Since 1998 the foundation has supported more than 2,000 research, documentation and exhibition projects in Germany and various countries of Central and Eastern Europe, spending altogether more than 26 million U.S. dollars for these projects.

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 films

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 representing all its factions, members appointed by ministries of the German federal and the Berlin city government, as well as of five individuals nominated by federal parliamentary factions who are especially committed to deal with challenges and questions of coming to terms with the SED dictatorship. The Chairman of the Board is Markus Meckel, vice-chairman the member of German parliament Hartmut Koschyk. The Board of Trustees decides on all fundamental questions concerning the foundation’s general objectives and activities.

The Board of Directors (Stiftungsvorstand), working on a honorary basis, guides the more concrete tasks of the foundation. It consists of five members: Rainer Eppelmann (chairman), Bernd Faulenbach (vice-chairman), Annemarie Franke, Gerd Poppe, and Gerry Kley. The board is supported and advised by three advisory committees on academic, societal reappraisal, and archival issues. Those committees consist of altogether 32 individuals.

50

F e D e r a l F o u n Dat i o n F o r t h e r e a P P r a i s a l o F C o m m u n i s t D i C tato r s h i P s t r u C t u r e o F t h e F o u n Dat i o n

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 the SED regime and to recognize victims, to further the antitotalitarian consensus within Germany, and to strengthen democracy and German unity. The foundation was established to serve the following aims: • to promote and support projects dealing with exploring 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.

Currently the foundation has an annual budget of about 7.6 million U.S. dollars supplied by the German Federal Government on mandate of the German parliament. It has an endowment of about 120 million U.S. dollars, mostly derived from assets formerly held by the East German Communist Party SED and allocated to the foundation by decision of the German parliament.

54

F e D e r a l F o u n Dat i o n F o r t h e r e a P P r a i s a l o F C o m m u n i s t D i C tato r s h i P m a n Dat e a n D s C o P e : s e r v i C e s a n D aC t i v i t i e s

Since its establishment in 1998, the foundation • contributed towards the realization of more than 2,200 exhibitions, publications, conferences, workshops and documentary films • awarded more than 31 million U.S. dollars in grants • awarded more than 75 dissertation scholarships • built its own library and archives with more than 45,000 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 than 800 larger and smaller German memorial sites to

commemorate the communist dictatorship and keep its memory alive; also featured special documentations concerning repression in other nations in the former communist bloc like, for example, the Great Terror in Russia, Holodomor in Ukraine, Belarus, the Prague Spring, or the Hungarian Uprising 1956. • established partnerships with more than 300 institutions worldwide

Contact: 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.

58

other german institutions: a BrieF overview FeDeral institutions

1. Federal inStitutiOnS

— FEDER Al COmmISSIOnER FOR STASI RECORDS OF ThE FORmER GDR ( BSTU ) Der Bundesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen DDR (BStU) Short description The Office of the Federal Commissioner for Stasi Records (Bundesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes) preserves the records of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR in its archives. It makes them available for various purposes to private individuals, institutions, and the public in accordance with access rules stipulated by Germany’s Stasi Records Law (StUG). It also helps to create public awareness of the vast scope of Stasi operations during GDR times through exhibitions, events, publications, and public outreach.

postal address Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 31–33 | D-10178 Berlin contact information Phone: +49 30 2324-0 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.bstu.de english version www.bstu.bund.de/nn_715182/EN/Home/ homepage__node.html__nnn=true__nnn=true

— STATE COmmISSIOnER FOR STASI RECORDS Die Landesbeauftragten für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen DDR Short description All six former eastern federal States has appointed a State Commissioner for Stasi records (LStU). The LStU are supposed to support the Federal Commissioner for Stasi Records (BStU) in its mission, though the LStU acts

59

t he Feder al Co mmi s s i oner for st a s i r ec or d s ( B st u) : J o a chi m g a u ck ( 1 9 9 0 – 2 0 0 0 ) , ma r i a n n e B i r thl e r ( 2 0 0 0 – 2 0 1 1) with a nna Kami ns k y a nd rol a nd J a h n ( a s s i gned i n 2 0 1 1 ) t a l k i n g to the j o u r n a l i st h a - J o lo r e n z

independently on the state level and does not report to the BStU. The LStU advise citizens from their state to apply for access to their Stasi files. They offer psychological help and consultations on legal options for rehabilitation and compensation to those who suffered in GDR times

from impacts of operations conducted by the Ministry for State Security. Also, the LStU help to create public awareness of Stasi operations during GDR times through exhibitions, events, publications, and public outreach.

60

other german institutions: a BrieF overview FeDeral institutions

• State Commissioner for Stasi Records Berlin Der Berliner Landesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen DDR postal address Scharrenstraße 17 | D-10178 Berlin contact information Phone: +49 30 240 792 0 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.berlin.de/lstu • State Commissioner in Brandenburg for Coming to Terms with Consequences of Communist Dictatorship Die Landesbeauftragte zur Aufarbeitung der Folgen der kommunistischen Diktatur des Landes Brandenburg postal address Hegelallee 3 | D-14467 Potsdam contact information Phone: +49 331 2372920 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.aufarbeitung.brandenburg.de/sixcms/detail. php?template=start_aufarbeitung

• State Commissioner for Stasi Records mecklenburg-Vorpommern Die Landesbeauftragte für Mecklenburg-Vorpommern für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen DDR postal address Jägerweg 2 | D-19053 Schwerin contact information Phone: +49 385 734006 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.landesbeauftragter.de • State Commissioner for Stasi Records Saxony Der sächsische Landesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen DDR postal address Unterer Kreuzweg 1 | D-01097 Dresden contact information Phone: +49 351 65 681 0 Fax: +49 351 65 681-20 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.justiz.sachsen.de/lstu

61

• State Commissioner for Stasi Records Saxony-Anhalt Der Landesbeauftragte Sachsen-Anhalt für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen DDR postal address Klewitzstraße 4 | D-39112 Magdeburg contact information Phone: +49 391 567 50 51 Fax: +49 391 567 50 60 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.sachsen-anhalt.de/LPSA/index.php?id=5750 • State Commissioner for Stasi Records Thuringia Die Landesbeauftragte des Freistaats Thüringen für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen DDR postal address Jürgen-Fuchs-Straße 1 | D-99096 Erfurt

contact information Phone: +49 361 37 71 95 1 Fax: +49 361 37 71 95 2 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.thueringen.de/de/tlstu

— FEDER Al AGEnCy FOR CIVIC EDUCATIOn Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb) Short description The Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb) is a public institution that promotes democratic awareness and political participation. Its various print publications, dossiers, and DVDs cover a broad range of current and historical issues in the field of politics, economy, and society. Further, the bpb offers seminars, conferences, cultural events, study trips, exhibitions and competitions, and provides support for

62

other german institutions: a BrieF overview FeDeral institutions

partner institutions working in civic education. The portfolio includes special offers for teachers, civic education practitioners, journalists, and young people. All the bpb’s activities aim to motivate people and encourage them to reflect on political and social issues. postal address Adenauerallee 86 | D-53113 Bonn contact information 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)

— FEDER Al STATE ARChIV BERlIn – KOBlEnz Bundesarchiv Koblenz postal address Potsdamer Straße 1 | D-56075 Koblenz contact information Phone: +49 261 50 50 Fax: +49 261 50 52 26 E-mail: [email protected]



Fe de r a l st a te ar chi v Ko bl e n z

63

Website www.bundesarchiv.de/index.html.de information in english www.bundesarchiv.de/index.html.en

— STATE ARChIVES Landesarchive • landesarchiv Baden-württemberg postal address Eugenstraße 7 | D-70182 Stuttgart contact information Phone: +49 711 212 42 72 Fax: +49 711 212 42 83 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.landesarchiv-bw.de/web/ information in english www.landesarchiv-bw.de/web/49435

• Bayrisches hauptstaatsarchiv postal address Schönfeldstraße 5–11 | D-80539 München contact information Phone: +49 89 286 38 25 96 Fax: +49 89 286 38 29 54 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.gda.bayern.de/index.php information in english www.gda.bayern.de/enp1.htm • landesarchiv Berlin postal address Eichborndamm 115–121 | D-13403 Berlin contact information Phone: +49 30 90 26 40 Fax: +49 30 90 26 42 01 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.landesarchiv-berlin.de/lab-neu/start.html

64

other german institutions: a BrieF overview FeDeral institutions

• Brandenburgisches landeshauptarchiv postal address Zum Windmühlenberg | D-14469 Potsdam contact information Phone: +49 331 567 40 Fax: +49 331 567 42 12 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.landeshauptarchiv-brandenburg.de information in english www.landeshauptarchiv-brandenburg.de/ netCmsFrames.aspx?URL=english_0.aspx • Staatsarchiv Bremen postal address Am Staatsarchiv 1 | D-28203 Bremen contact information Phone: +49 421 361 62 21 Fax: +49 421 36 11 02 47 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.staatsarchiv.bremen.de/sixcms/detail. php?gsid=bremen02.c.730.de

• Staatsarchiv hamburg postal address Kattunbleiche 19 | D-22041 Hamburg contact information Phone: +49 40 428 31 32 00 Fax: +49 40 428 31 32 01 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.hamburg.de/staatsarchiv • hessisches hauptstaatsarchiv postal address Mosbacher Straße 55 | D-65187 Wiesbaden contact information Phone: +49 611 88 10 Fax: +49 611 88 11 45 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.hauptstaatsarchiv.hessen.de

65

• landeshauptarchiv mecklenburg-Vorpommern postal address Graf-Schack-Allee 2 | D-19053 Schwerin contact information Phone: +49 385 58 87 94 10 Fax: +49 385 58 87 94 12 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.kulturwerte-mv.de/cms2/LAKD_prod/LAKD/ content/de/Landesarchiv/Landeshauptarchiv_ Schwerin/index.jsp information in english www.kulturwerte-mv.de/cms2/LAKD_prod/LAKD/ content/de/Landesarchiv/The_archives_in_English/ index.jsp • niedersächsisches landesarchiv postal address Am Archiv 1 | D-30169 Hannover contact information Phone: +49 511 120 66 01 Fax: +49 511 120 66 39 E-mail: [email protected]

Website www.staatsarchive.niedersachsen.de/live/live. php?navigation_id=24756&_psmand=187 • landesarchiv nordrhein-westfalen postal address Graf-Adolf-Straße 67 | D-40210 Düsseldorf contact information Phone: +49 211 159 23 80 Fax: +49 211 159 23 81 11 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.archive.nrw.de/LandesarchivNRW/ • landeshauptarchiv Rheinland-Pfalz postal address Karmeliterstraße 1/3 | D-56068 Koblenz contact information Phone: +49 261 912 90 Fax: +49 261 912 91 12 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.landeshauptarchiv.de

66

other german institutions: a BrieF overview FeDeral institutions

• Archiv des Saarlandes postal address Dudweilerstraße 1 | D-66133 Saarbrücken contact information Phone: +49 681 501 00 Fax: +49 681 501 19 33 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.saarland.de/SID-3E724395-7E2E639A/ landesarchiv.htm

• landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt (Abt. magdeburg) postal address Hegelstraße 25 | D-39104 Magdeburg contact information Phone: +49 391 566 43 Fax: +49 391 566 44 40 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.sachsen-anhalt.de/LPSA/index.php?id=32023

• Sächsisches Staatsarchiv postal address Wilhelm-Buck-Straße 4 | D-01097 Dresden contact information Phone: +49 351 564 37 40 Fax: +49 351 564 37 39 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.staatsarchiv.sachsen.de

• landesarchiv Schleswig-holstein postal address Prinzenpalais | D-24837 Schleswig contact information Phone: +49 4621 86 18 00 Fax: +49 4621 86 18 01 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.schleswig-holstein.de/LA/DE/LA_node.html

67

• Thüringisches hauptstaatsarchiv postal address Marstallstraße 2 | D-99423 Weimar contact information Phone: +49 3643 87 00 Fax: +49 3643 87 01 00 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.thueringen.de/de/staatsarchive/weimar/ content.html

— STATE AGEnCIES FOR CIVIC EDUCATIOn Landeszentralen für politische Bildung • landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-württemberg postal address Stafflenbergstraße 38 | D-70184 Stuttgart contact information Phone: +49 711 164 09 90 Fax: +49 711 16 40 99 77 E-mail: [email protected]

Website www.lpb-bw.de/lpb_index.html • landeszentrale für politische Bildung Bayern postal address Praterinsel 2 | D-80538 München contact information Phone: +49 89 21 86 21 72 Fax: +49 89 21 86 21 80 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.km.bayern.de/blz • landeszentrale für politische Bildung Berlin postal address An der Urania 4–10 | D-10787 Berlin contact information Phone: +49 30 90 16 25 52 Fax: +49 30 90 16 25 38 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.berlin.de/lzpb/index.html

68

other german institutions: a BrieF overview FeDeral institutions

• landeszentrale für politische Bildung Brandenburg postal address Heinrich-Mann-Allee 107 | D-14473 Potsdam contact information Phone: +49 331 866 35 41 Fax: +49 331 866 35 44 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.politische-bildung-brandenburg.de/index.html

• landeszentrale für politische Bildung hamburg postal address Dammtorstraße 14 | D-20354 Hamburg contact information Phone: +49 40 428 23 48 26 Fax: +49 40 428 23 48 13 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.hamburg.de/politische-bildung/

• landeszentrale für politische Bildung Bremen postal address Osterdeich 6 | D-28203 Bremen contact information Phone: +49 421 361 29 22 Fax: +49 421 361 44 53 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.lzpb-bremen.de/sixcms/detail. php?gsid=bremen02.c.730.de

• landeszentrale für politische Bildung hessen postal address Taunusstraße 4–6 | D-65183 Wiesbaden contact information Phone: +49 611 32 40 51 Fax: +49 611 32 40 77 E-Mail: [email protected] Website www.hlz.hessen.de

69

• landeszentrale für politische Bildung mecklenburg-Vorpommern postal address Jägerweg 2 | D-19053 Schwerin contact information Phone: +49 385 302 09 10 Fax: +49 385 302 09 22 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.lpb-mv.de/cms2/LfpB_prod/LfpB/de/start/ index.jsp • landeszentrale für politische Bildung nordrhein-westfalen postal address Horionplatz 1 | D-40213 Düsseldorf contact information Phone: +49 211 86 18 46 15 Fax: +49 211 86 18 46 75 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.politische-bildung.nrw.de

• landeszentrale für politische Bildung Rheinland-Pfalz postal address Am Kronberger Hof 6 | D-55116 Mainz contact information Phone: +49 6131 16 29 70 Fax: +49 6131 16 29 80 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.politische-bildung-rlp.de • landeszentrale für politische Bildung Saarland postal address Beethovenstraße 26/Pavillon | D-66125 Saarbrücken contact information Phone: +49 6897 790 81 44 Fax: +49 6897 790 81 77 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.lpm.uni-sb.de/typo3/index.php?id=978

70

other german institutions: a BrieF overview FeDeral institutions

• landeszentrale für politische Bildung Sachsen postal address Schützenhofstraße 36 | D-01129 Dresden contact information Phone: +49 351 85 31 80 Fax: +49 351 85 31 855 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.slpb.de • landeszentrale für politische Bildung Sachsen-Anhalt postal address Schleinufer 12 | D-39104 Magdeburg contact information Phone: +49 391 567 64 63 Fax: +49 391 567 64 64 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.sachsen-anhalt.de/LPSA/index.php?id=5752

• landeszentrale für politische Bildung Schleswig-holstein postal address Kehdenstraße 27 | D-24103 Kiel contact information Phone: +49 431 988 59 37 Fax: +49 431 988 59 42 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.schleswig-holstein.de/LPB/DE/LPB_node.html information in english www.schleswig-holstein.de/LPB/EN/LPB_node.html • landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen postal address Regierungsstraße 73 | D-99084 Erfurt contact information Phone: +49 361 379 27 01 Fax: +49 361 379 27 02 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.thueringen.de/de/lzt/content.html information in english www.thueringen.de/de/lzt/ec/

71

— COnTEmPOR ARy 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 everyday 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 C o n te mpo r a r y hi sto r y Fo r u m l e i pzi g

72

other german institutions: a BrieF overview CiviC arChives

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. postal address Katharinenstraße 11 (Fregehaus) | D-04109 Leipzig contact information Phone: +49 341 861 16 26 Fax: +49 341 861 16 26 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.archiv-buergerbewegung.de

— ThüRInGER ARChIV FüR zEITGESChIChTE postal address Camsdorfer Ufer 17 | D-07749 Jena contact information Phone: +49 3641 22 86 05 Fax: +49 3641 22 97 43 E-mail: [email protected] Website 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

74

other german institutions: a BrieF overview other institutions, museums anD memorial sites

3. Other inStitutiOnS, muSeumS and memOrial SiteS — STASI mUSEUm BERlIn Short description The Stasi Museum Berlin (Forschungs- und Gedenkstätte Normannenstraße/Haus I) is a private initiative located in “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 Minister Erich Mielke (1957–1989) had his offices. They are preserved in its original condition and open to visitors. Further parts of the exhibit deal with State Security technology and various objects, as well as with opposition and resistance in the GDR.

postal address Ruschestraße 103, Haus 1 | D-10365 Berlin contact information Phone: +49 30 553 68 54 Fax: + 49 30 553 68 53 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.stasimuseum.de english version www.stasimuseum.de/en/enindex.htm

— “ROUnD CORnER” STASI mEmORIAl mUSEUm lEIPzIG Museum in der “Runden Ecke” Leipzig Short description 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 C or ner” st a s i memor i a l mu s e u m le i pzi g

76

other german institutions: a BrieF overview other institutions, museums anD memorial sites

— FORmER SOVIET SPECIAl InTERnmEnT CAmPS After the demise of Nazi Germany and the Second World War’s ending in Europe, Soviet military authorities used in part Nazi concentration camp sites in Eastern Germany between 1945 and 1950 for their ten “special internment camps” to detain some real, and many alleged, nationalsocialists. About 43,000, i.e. 35 percent of individuals interned, perished during their confinement. The ten camps, listed in the sequence of numbering assigned by Soviet authorities, were: Mühlberg, Buchenwald, Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, Bautzen, Ketschendorf/ Fürstenwalde, Frankfurt/Oder and later Jamlitz, Weesow and later Sachsenhausen, Torgau/Fort Zinna, Fünfeichen, Torgau/Seydlitz Barracks. In the following locations permanent exhibitions, gravesites, and memorials commemorate these camps and the plight of their inmates:

• Buchenwald memorial Gedenkstätte Buchenwald postal address D-99427 Weimar-Buchenwald contact information Phone: +49 3643 43 00 Fax: +49 3643 43 01 00 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.buchenwald.de english version www.buchenwald.de/english • mittelbau-Dora memorial KZ-Gedenkstätte Mittelbau-Dora postal address Kohnsteinweg 20 | D-99734 Nordhausen contact information Phone: +49 3631 495 80 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 Phone: +49-33 61-30 78 73 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.uokg.de/Text2/Mit-Ketsch01.htm • Initiativgruppe Internierungslager Jamlitz e. V. postal address Bergmannsweg 9 | D-03159 Groß-Kölzig contact information Phone: +49 35600 65 52 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.uokg.de/Text2/Mit-Jamlitz01.htm

me m o r i a l a n d m u se u m sa chse n ha u se n

• memorial and museum Sachsenhausen Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen postal address Straße der Nationen 22 | D-16515 Oranienburg contact information Phone: +49 3301 81 09 12 Fax: +49 3301 81 09 28 E-mail: info@gedenkstätte-sachsenhausen.de Website www.stiftung-bg.de/gums/de/index.htm english version www.stiftung-bg.de/gums/en/index.htm

78

other german institutions: a BrieF overview other institutions, 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/

m e m o r ial neub r andenb u r g

• 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 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/ B a u t ze n me m o r i a l

80

other german institutions: a BrieF overview other institutions, 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

Be r lin -h ohenschönhausen m emor i a l

• Berlin-hohenschönhausen memorial Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen postal address Genslerstraße 66 | D-13055 Berlin

• Andreasstrasse memorial Gedenkstätte Andreasstraße Freiheit e. V. Förderverein Gedenkstätte Andreasstraße postal address Bechtheimer Straße 2 | D-99084 Erfurt contact information Phone: +49 177 597 27 23 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.andreasstrasse-erfurt.de

81

• memorial “Red Ox” halle Gedenkstätte ‘Roter Ochse’ Halle postal address Am Kirchtor 20 B | D-06108 Halle contact information Phone: +49 345 220 13 37 Fax: +49 345 220 13 39 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.sachsen-anhalt.de/LPSA/index.php?id=31471

• memorial lindenstrasse 54/55 Potsdam Gedenkstätte Lindenstraße 54/55 postal address Benkertstraße 3 | D-14467 Potsdam contact information Phone: +49 331 289 68 03 Fax: +49 331 289 68 08 E-mail: [email protected] Website 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

me m o r i a l l i n de n st r a sse 5 4 / 5 5 Pot sda m

82

other german institutions: a BrieF overview other institutions, museums anD memorial sites

• Documentation Center mecklenburg-Vorpommern for Victims of Dictatorship in Germany Dokumentationszentrum des Landes Mecklenburg-Vorpommern für die Opfer der Diktaturen in Deutschland postal address Obotritenring 106 | D-19055 Schwerin contact information Phone: +49 385 74 52 99 11 Fax: +49 385 777 88 47 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.lpb-mv.de/cms2/LfpB_prod/LfpB/de/dz/index. jsp

— BORDER mEmORIAlS AnD mUSEUmS Memorials and museums listed below were built or established at certain sites or crossing points near the former border installations in Berlin or between East and West Germany. • Berlin wall memorial Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer postal address Bernauer Straße 111/119 | D-13355 Berlin contact information Phone: +49 30 467 98 66 66 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

84

other german institutions: a BrieF overview other institutions, museums anD memorial sites

m e m o r ial of ger man Divi s i on a t ma r i enb or n

• wall museum/house at Checkpoint Charlie Mauermuseum/Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie postal address Postfach 61 02 26 | D-10923 Berlin contact information Phone: +49 30 253 72 50 Fax: +49 30 251 20 75 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.mauermuseum.de english version www.mauermuseum.de/english/frame-index-mauer. html

• 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 www.notaufnahmelager-berlin.de/de/ english version www.notaufnahmelager-berlin.de/en/ • memorial of German Division at marienborn Gedenkstätte Marienborn postal address An der BAB 2 | D-39365 Marienborn contact information Phone: +49 39406 920 90 Fax: +49 39406 920 99 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.sachsen-anhalt.de/LPSA/index.php?id=31581

85

• German-German museum mödlareuth (“little Berlin”) Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth postal address Mödlareuth 13 | D-95183 Töpen contact information Phone: +49 9295 13 34 Fax: : +49 9295 13 19 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.moedlareuth.de

• Borderland museum Eichsfeld Grenzlandmuseum Eichsfeld postal address Duderstädter Straße 5 | D-37339 Teistungen contact information Phone: +49 36071 971 12 Fax: +49 36071 979 98 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.grenzlandmuseum.de/museum/index.html

• 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 B o r de r l a n d m u se u m ei chsfe l d

86

ot h e r i n t e r n at i o n a l i n s t i t u t i o n s : a B r i e F ov e r v i e w v i C t i m s a s s o C i at i o n s

4. victimS aSSOciatiOnS Since 1990 numerous associations and interest groups of former victims of political persecution in the GDR were formed. They joined existing institutions in West Germany like the Union of Victims Associations of Communist Dictatorship (Union der Opferverbände kommunistischer Gewaltherrschaft), whose members represent almost the entire scope of mechanisms of communist repression between 1945 and 1989. Respective associations were either established by former inmates held in certain camps or prisons (like Bautzen, Buchenwald, Cottbus, Sachsenhausen, et cetera), or by victims of particular forms of repression, like forced evacuations from GDR border areas in 1952 and 1961, forced adoptions, or Stasi repression in general. The Union of Victims Associations of Communist Dictatorship serves as an umbrella organization for currently 32 individual associations and victims groups in 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)

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 member organizations from 17 different countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine).

— UOKG postal address Ruschestraße 103, Haus 14 | D-10365 Berlin contact information Phone: +49 30 55 77 93 51 Fax: +49 30 55 77 93 40 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.uokg.de

87

— VOS – Vereinigung der Opfer des Stalinismus postal address Hardenbergplatz 2, Zoobogen | D-10623 Berlin contact information Phone: +49 30 26552380 Fax: +49 30 26552382 E-mail: [email protected] Website www.vos-ev.de

— International Association • AlBAnIEn Shoqata Antikomuniste e ish-te Pëmdjekurve Politike Demokratë postal address Bulevardi “Dëshmorët” Karshi Kryeministrisë AL Tiranë | Albania contact information Phone: +355 42 23287

• BUlGARIEn Union of the Repressed People postal address BG Sofia contact information Phone: +359 2 9879473 • DEUTSChlAnD Union der Opferverbände Kommunistischer Gewaltherrschaft e. V. postal address Ruschestraße 103, Raum 419 D-10365 Berlin-Lichtenberg contact information Phone: +49 030 55 77 93 54 • ESTlAnD Board of South Estonian Assoziation of Political Prisoners postal address Tahe 74-6 | EE 2400 Tartu contact information Phone: +372 7

88

ot h e r i n t e r n at i o n a l i n s t i t u t i o n s : a B r i e F ov e r v i e w v i C t i m s a s s o C i at i o n s

• 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

i nte r n ational a ssociatio n

• KROATIEn hrvatsko Drustvo Politickih (hDPz) postal address Masarykowa 22/IV | HR 10000 Zagreb contact information Phone: +385 1 4222879 Website www.hdpz.htnet.hr

• lITAUEn lithuanian Political Prisoners and Deportees Association postal address Laisves al. 39, Kaunas 3000 | Lithuania contact information Phone: +370 2 (8 37) 32 32 14 Website www.lpkts.lt

89

• mOlDAwIEn AVRC-VRAR Rm Assoziation der ehem. politischen häftlinge aus der Republik moldau postal address Str. N. Iorgia 8 | MD 2009 Chisinau contact information Phone: +373 2 240077 • POlEn zwiazek wiezniow Polityccznych Okresu Stalinowskiego postal address Zarzad Glowny ul. 11-go Listopada 17/19 PL 00-987 Warszawa 4 • RUmänIEn Asociata Fostilor Detinuti Politici din Romania postal address Mantuleasa Nr. 10 Sect. 3 | Ro 7070387 Bucuresti

• RUSSlAnD “memorial” postal address Vitebskij pr. 41-3-25 | Sankt Petersburg, Russland contact information Phone: +7 812 2995579 Website www.memo.ru • SlOwAKEI Konfederacia Politickych Vaznov Slovenska postal address Leskova 3 | SK-811 04 Bratislava contact information Phone: +42 7 31800700 • SlOwEnIEn zdruzenje zrtev Komunisticnega nasilja postal address Izanska 206 a | Slo 1000 Ljubljana contact information Phone: +386 61 1274059

90

ot h e r i n t e r n at i o n a l i n s t i t u t i o n s : a B r i e F ov e r v i e w v i C t i m s a s s o C i at i o n s

• TSChEChIEn Konfederace Politických Veznu CR postal address Skretova 6 | CZ 12000 Praha contact information Phone: +42 2 24230536 Website www.kpv.kozakov.cz • UKRAInE nationale Vereinigung der politischen Gefangenen in der Ukraine postal address ul. Mejygirska, 7/16 | 252071 Kiew 71, Ukraina

• UnGARn magyar Politikai Foglyok Szövetsege (POFOSz) postal address Nador u. 36. IV | H 1051 Budapest contact information Phone: +366 1 311 6746, +366 1 311 7550 Website www.1956.mti.hu/Pages/Gallery.aspx?GalleryID=1 www.gulag.hu

Credits/Imprint editor: Dr. Anna Kaminsky, Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED -Diktatur author: Dr. Bernd Schäfer photo editor: Dietrich Wolf Fenner design: ultramarinrot, Berlin Second Edition 2011 picture credits: Cover: Bundesregierung/Engelbert Reineke; Bundesregierung; Bild 4–7 Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung; Bundesregierung/Klaus Lehnartz S. 4: Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung/Bestand Klaus Mehner, Bild 72_0325_POL_Mauer_05 S. 3; S. 5; S. 6; S. 17; S. 22; S. 23/2; S. 27; S. 28; S.29/2; S. 31; S. 32; S. 36; S. 37; S. 45; S. 47; S. 48; S. 49; S. 50 1/2; S. 52; S. 57; S. 58 1–3; S. 71; S. 72; S. 75; S. 76; S. 77; S. 78; S. 79; S. 80; S. 81: Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung S. 83 Flix „Da war mal was…“, S.84; S. 85; S. 88: Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung S. 7: Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung, Bestand Klaus Mehner, 89_1110_ausreise01 S. 8: Bundesregierung/Perlia-Archiv S. 9: Archiv Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung/Bestand Klaus Mehner, Bild 77_1205_POL-Mauer_05

S. 13: 1, 2 Bundesregierung/Klaus Lehnartz; 3 Bundesregierung/Heiko Specht S. 11: Archiv Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung/Bestand Klaus Mehner, Bild 21_89_1104_POL-Demo_67 S. 14: Archiv Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung/Bestand Klaus Mehner S. 15: Bundesregierung/Arne Schambeck S. 20: Bundesregierung/Arne Schambeck S. 23/1: Bundesregierung/Klaus Lehnartz S. 24: Bundesregierung/Sieghard Liebe S. 29/1: Bundesarchiv, 183-1990 - 0412- 019, Oberst S. 35: Bundesarchiv Bild 175 -15451 S. 39; S. 54; S. 55: Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung/ Thomas Trutschel/photothek.net S. 40: Bundesregierung/Julia Fassbender S. 43; S. 51; S. 53: Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung/Birgit Meixner S. 44: Bundesregierung/Engelbert Reineke S. 56: Bundesregierung/Engelbert Reineke S. 59/1: Bundesregierung/Steffen Kugler S. 62: Bundesregierung/Torsten Krause head Office: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED -Diktatur Kronenstraße 5 | D -10117 Berlin | Germany © Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED -Diktatur 2011

Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur Kronenstraße 5 D-10117 Berlin Germany www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de