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DATE=11/8/1999 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=BERLIN WALL ANNIVERSARY-STASI INFORMERS NUMBER=5-44721 BYLINE=GIL BUTLER DATELINE=BERLIN INTERNET=YES CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: In November 1989 (11/09/89), the foremost symbol of Communism, the Berlin Wall, came down. It marked the end of the Cold War and the unification of Germany. Ten years later, VOA's Gil Butler returned to Berlin to see what changes have occurred since the joyful celebration that marked the occasion a decade ago. (In the fifth of a series of reports,) he focuses on the old Communist Secret Police and the East Germans who collaborated. /// OPT. CHORAL ODE TO JOY UP AND OUT /// TEXT: Over the forty year history of the German Democratic Republic, the Stasi-- the state security police - terrorized and dominated two entire generations. But not without help. There were 90- thousand Stasi policemen and --- according to students of the era --a half million civilian collaborators. The old Stasi headquarters in East Berlin is a complex of prisons, barracks, and offices. Since the fall of the Berlin wall and the demise of the German Democratic Republic, this outwardly innocent looking compound has been a museum devoted to publicizing the crimes of a police state. The Stasi kept files on six million East Germans. In the past ten years, many have examined their own personal files and have found the names of those who were spying on them. Jorg Driesselmann is the director of the Stasi museum. He talks about forgiveness for those who worked for the repressive state. /// ACT. DRIESSELMANN (GERMAN/TRANSLATION) /// There were thousands of the people who served it and worked for it, especially the Stasi. And some of them might actually say: OK, I admit that was my fault. Next question, is we say, if you can recognize your guilt, we recognize you did it. We accept your statement, and we move on to the next thing. On the other hand, we in Germany are a long way from admitting that first Part . that this was a socialist dictatorship. Just look at what happened on Sunday. /// END ACT /// He referred to a recent local election in which 40 per cent of East Berliners voted for the former Communists. The Stasi's reach extended far beyond Berlin. The University of Leipzig, about 150 kilometers south of Berlin is where the pro-democracy meetings and demonstrations began. Stasi informers were reporting on the activities of professors at the school of theology. Christoph Kahler is rector of the school. He says it is hard to blame informers directly for sending people to jail. /// ACT. KAHLER (GERMAN/TRANSLATION) /// Ninety-five per cent of the cases weren't that clear. We had to learn to read the documents between the lines to find out what really happened, because as in so many state enterprises, the Stasi exaggerated. They did 130 per cent of what they were asked to do and fulfilled the plan 130 per cent. You don't really know what happened. /// END ACT /// Back in Berlin, another theologian, Berndt Albany, talked about how the Stasi responded to pro-democracy demonstrators in Berlin. As the end came, there were real concerns that Erich Honecker and the Communist government would crack down hard. /// ACT. FATHER ALBANY (GERMAN/TRANSLATION)/// We were simply scared, worried that the authorities might adopt what they called the "Tiananmen" solution. Chinese suppression of democracy demonstrators in June of 1989 was fresh in everyone's mind. /// END ACT /// As it turned out, they were right to worry. Stasi files show a plan to send more than 100 thousand people considered politically unreliable to internment camps. Jorg Driesselmann thinks it is extremely important for Germans to remember the repression of the 40 year-long German Democratic Republic. And the Stasi museum is an important educational tool. /// Act. Driesselmann (German/translation) /// You often hear people say there is no interest now and it's all in the past and nobody cares anymore. In fact, that's not true. The interest in our exhibition has been growing. /// END ACT /// Every year about 75-thousand Germans from both the western and eastern part, come to this museum to see the evidence of what the Stasi did in the former East Germany. The museum director hopes this educational process will end the support that former totalitarian parties have enjoyed in recent elections. (Signed) /// OPT. MUSIC UP AND OUT /// NEB/MGB/SP/KL 08-Nov-1999 16:45 PM EDT (08-Nov-1999 2145 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .