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Anderen.’188

‘16.07 hours – “246816” was taken up for observation after leaving the Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse frontier crossing. The person to be observed went to the newspaper stand in the upper station concourse and bought a Freie Welt, a Neues Deutschland and a Berliner Zeitung.’ The observation continued for several hours and finished at 23.55 hours.189

From Timothy Garton Ash’s Stasi file

Timothy Garton Ash was not the only journalist who caught the attention of the East German State Security Service. The so-called Stasi (short for Ministerium für Staatssicherheit/Ministry of State Security) was generally interested in Western journalists. Mark Brayne even compared his experience in the GDR with the events seen in the popular 2006 movie Das Leben der Anderen which depicts the surveillance and control of East German artists by the State Security Service. This section will show several examples which confirm the Security Service’s interest in Western journalists. However, it will also suggest that the comparison with the movie, in particular the level of interference by the State Security into the lives of East Germans, cannot really be applied to foreign journalists working for British newspapers and news agencies.

188

Interview with Mark Brayne. 189

Timothy Garton Ash published parts of his Stasi file. The book contains an around the clock

surveillance protocol which shows impressively the State Security’s interest in his person and the tight surveillance of the British journalist and researcher. In: Garton Ash, The File, pp. 6ff.

Moreover, it will be shown that the State Security did not represent the biggest obstacle for Western journalists in the GDR.

In March 1974, in response to the growing number of foreign journalists in the country, the State Security Service issued order 17/74 which dealt with the question of

how to deal with Western journalists.190 It opened files on all Western journalists and

often monitored them in a very detailed manner.191 Together with the focus on

potential violations against existing laws, these reports also contained extensive information regarding the journalists’ professional and private lives. A research paper by the State Security’s own university reveals that the ministry was observing in some cases up to 70 % of all known contacts between Western journalists and East German

citizens.192 The journalist Michael Simmons recounted an incident which demonstrates

the extent to which foreign journalists were surrounded by the State Security. He had once asked one of his former interpreters if he had worked for the Stasi. The former

interpreter answered: ‘Of course, everybody did.’193 Along with the ‘army of part time

spies’, as Garton Ash called the unofficial informers,194 and secret observation, total

control was to have been achieved by the searching of flats, the close monitoring of

border traffic, mail and telephone surveillance.195 A report by the State Security’s main

department II explains the motivation for these close investigations: ‘Die Vorgänge in der Zionskirche [...] und darüber hinaus in Dresden und Leipzig zeigen, daß die Wirksamkeit innerer Feinde wesentlich abhängig ist von der Art und dem Umfang ihrer Zusammenarbeit mit Korrespondenten und Journalisten sowie von der gezielten

hetzerischen Publizierungen in westlichen Massenmedien.‘196 Unsurprisingly, the State

Security Service actively tried to restrict contact between foreign journalists and East

German citizens.197

Most of the former journalists I have interviewed talked about the overall surveillance they had encountered. In 1999, former Reuters journalist Mark Brayne

190 _{Befehl 17/74 zur politisch-operativen Sicherung der in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik} akkreditierten Publikationsorgane anderer Staaten, deren ständigen Korrespondenten sowie von Reise- Korrespondenten aus anderen Staaten vom 12.8.1974, in BStU, ZA, DSt 100802.

191

Interview with Mark Brayne. 192

BStU, MfS, JHS, nr. 21949, p. 140. 193

Interview with Michael Simmons.

194 _{Timothy Garton Ash, ‘Und willst du nicht mein Bruder sein…’: Die DDR heute (Hamburg: Rowohlt}

Taschenbuch Verlag, 1981), p. 20. 195 BStU, MfS, JHS, nr. 21949, p. 249. 196 _{BStU, MfS, ZAIG, nr. 15694, p. 6.} 197 BStU, MfS, JHS, nr. 21949, p. 176.

discovered that the State Security had meticulously written down every detail about

his time in the GDR, totalling 2573 pages.198 After the fall of the Wall, suspicions that

his office had been bugged were confirmed when he found 29 microphones, some

even in the bedroom.199 Other Reuters journalists confirmed the extensive observation

(a camera across the road and the flat next to the office occupied by the State

Security).200 The Stasi files contained a detailed layout of the news agency’s office in

Schönhauser Allee in Berlin which had the alias Insel.201 Peter Millar noted that ‘for up

to ten days at a time, teams of watchers would follow us from before dawn to long

after dusk.’202 The Stasi file of one particular British journalist contained, for example,

detailed information about close personal meetings with East Germans and foreigners, provided information about their common activities and even speculation about the

journalist’s future plans.203 Sometimes, the State Security Service’s surveillance did not

even stop when a journalist left the country, but rather, as in one case, tried to secure

continued monitoring during a trip into the neighbouring ČSSR.204 After accessing his

file, Peter Millar discovered that he even ‘inherited’ some unofficial informants from his predecessor. Other journalists experienced more intrusive and obvious interference from the Stasi. Patricia Clough, for example, remembers, ‘Several times I was spoken to in the streets and I realised afterwards that was Stasi people trying to

sort of destabilise me.’205

Despite Mark Brayne’s comparison to the movie Das Leben der Anderen and the apparent similarities between its representation of life in the GDR and his own experience, the life and work of British journalists were not really comparable to those of the characters in the film. Journalists did experience a great deal of observation from the Security Service; however, this represented no real personal threat, as both their Stasi files and their own statements confirm. Manfred Pagel’s recollection that

198 _{‘What the Stasi knew on our man’, in BBC news}

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/536598.stm> [accessed 24/06/2013].

199 _{Millar, 1989 The Wall, p. 103; Mark Brayne also talked about it. In: Interview with Mark Brayne.} 200

Interview with Paul Bolding; Interview with Mark Brayne; Interview with Manfred Pagel. 201

BStU, MfS, HA II / 13, nr. 1324, pp. 11, 14. 202

Millar, 1989 The Wall, p. 107. Mark Brayne also confirmed that he was closely followed. In: Interview with Mark Brayne. Michael Simmons reflected in his book how he was followed during a visit in Erfurt. In: Simmons, The Unloved Country, p.18.

203

BStU, MfS, HA II, nr. 30138, p. 13. 204 _{BStU, MfS, AP, nr. 5229/89, p. 3.} 205

journalists sometimes even made fun of the constant observation is a further sign that

the Stasi did not pose a real threat to them.206 Nevertheless, the Security Service was

able to indirectly affect the way journalists reported; it also manipulated and intimidated sources and even, as demonstrated previously, influenced the legislation for journalists in the GDR. Several journalists, for example, felt the consequences of the East German legislation and the constant observation of the State Security

surveillance and recalled difficulties in making any contact with ‘normal people’.207

Patricia Clough remembered that ‘it was very, very difficult even to ask the way sometimes in East Berlin. [...] People would [...] pretend they did not know the name

of the street for fear of talking to what was obviously a westerner.’208 East German

citizens suspected that Western journalists were under constant surveillance and

therefore avoided them for their own safety.209 On the contrary, other journalists

interviewed spoke about their close contacts and even friendships in East Germany. Paul Bolding also described the East German citizens as ‘very warm, very willing to let

me into their lives and their homes.’210 However, especially after the introduction of

the new regulations in 1979, to be associated with Western journalists was a ‘heikle

Sache’211 and could in certain cases cause reprisals for the East Germans involved. Paul

Bolding reflected on the situation, stating that he ‘was aware of that [restriction for East German citizens to talk to Western journalists] and I think it reflected itself in a general feeling that one had to be very careful on both sides. Mostly it was the East

Germans I saw and dealt with who I was more worried about.’212 The concern for their

East German information sources was not unjustified as a report by the State Security’s main department XX demonstrated. Under the headline ‘Über die Ergebnisse der Überprüfung zu einem Artikel der britischen Zeitung Guardian [...]’, the report stated that immediately after the article became known, the main department XX initiated an investigation which resulted in the State Security obtaining further

206

Interview with Manfred Pagel. 207 _{Interview with Patricia Clough.} 208

Ibid. 209

Joachim Krause, ‘Westliche Journalisten in den Staaten des Ostblocks: Eine Bilanz zwei Jahre nach Helsinki’, das parlament, 40 (1977), p. 28.

210 _{Interview with Paul Bolding.} 211

Manfred Pagel talked about contacts between members of the opposition and Reuters journalists and stressed how precarious a meeting in the Reuters office could have been, particularly for the East Germans as the office was under constant surveillance. In: Interview with Manfred Pagel.

212

details, including the names of the East German citizens involved.213 The Stasi regularly checked East Germans who came into contact with Western journalists, as the following report shows: ‘Am 12.05.1987 stellte ich um 9.50 Uhr vor dem Eingang zum Reuter-Büro drei männliche Personen fest, die offensichtlich auf das Eintreffen des Korrespondenten der Nachrichtenagentur warteten. Nach Vorlage entsprechenden Bildmaterials konnte durch Unterzeichner eine dieser Personen als [name blacked out] identifiziert werden.’214

The following section will further demonstrate the journalists’ awareness of the State Security and their lack of ability to intimidate them. However, it will also show that although the Stasi did not represent a real threat to them, it was able to affect British journalists to a certain degree. It will further show that journalists were often not fully aware of the Stasi’s indirect influence on them.