Jutta Fleck

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Jutta Fleck (born October 19, 1946 in Dresden ; divorced Jutta Gallus , née Jutta Kessel ) is a victim of the SED dictatorship and became internationally known as " The Woman from Checkpoint Charlie ". She is the head of the priority project Political and Historical Processing of the SED dictatorship in Hesse.

Life

The events surrounding Jutta Gallus caused an international stir in the media in the 1980s and became a symbol of the injustice in the GDR . Gallus was legally divorced and had sole custody of their daughters. In the summer of 1982 she turned to an escape aid organization that was supposed to bring her, her daughters and her partner Günther S. to the Federal Republic via Romania and Yugoslavia in August 1982 . After the papers were lost, they received replacement papers at the German embassy in Bucharest, posing as the Lindner family from Bad Oeynhausen . After examination by the Romanian secret police Securitate , however, the arrest took place. On December 1, 1982, they were transferred to the GDR on a special Interflug flight and immediately separated.

Jutta Gallus was taken to the Stasi remand prison at Bautzner Strasse in Dresden. Her two daughters were brought to the children's home for difficult-to- educate people in Munzig for six months , and then handed over to their biological father, a socialist loyal to the line, from whom Jutta Gallus had been divorced since September 1981, in Dresden.

Both daughters had appearances on GDR television: Claudia played the role of "Birgit" in the television series Stories over the Garden Fence (first broadcast on November 5, 1982). Further episodes were also filmed after the escape attempt. Her name was not mentioned this second season. Beate attended the Palucca Ballet School and performed dancing on the children's television show Bridge Men .

Jutta Gallus was sentenced on January 4, 1983 to three and a half years in prison for a "serious case of illegal border crossing " , which she had to spend in the Hoheneck women's prison . Her brother Klaus Kessel was allowed to have the only contact here. She received letters from her daughters and was allowed to reply to each of them three times a month.

After 22 months of detention, she was from the federal government on placement of GDR lawyer Wolfgang Vogel ransomed . In order to leave the country, she had to give up the right to bring up her two daughters in writing. Jutta Gallus was transferred to Giessen together with her partner .

After Jutta Gallus moved to the Federal Republic of Germany, the daughters Claudia and Beate continued to live with their father, who had been granted custody. Jutta Gallus wrote letters to cover addresses in order to maintain the connection. Most of the letters were intercepted by the GDR authorities. Jutta Gallus found her when she was able to see her Stasi files after German reunification. Jutta Gallus went on a hunger strike from 1984 , then with a visit to Pope John Paul II in Rome and finally in Vienna in May 1985 after she had chained herself to a railing during a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the CSCE conference. in a conversation with Federal Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher drew attention to themselves and their demands for the children to leave the Federal Republic of Germany.

Among other things, she distributed leaflets in front of the GDR Tourist Office in Vienna. On December 12, 1984 she made an appearance in ZDF magazine . On August 13, 1986, she managed to appeal to Helmut Kohl and Willy Brandt from the lectern at an official memorial event in the Reichstag .

The Dresden resident contacted the International Society for Human Rights , from October 1984 she repeatedly demonstrated at Checkpoint Charlie for several days, even in adverse weather conditions, alone with a large sign.

“Our children
Claudia • Beate Gallus
Silvio Schmidt
- forcibly adopted
-
forcibly committed to GDR television
and now from Staasi
- abducted!
Help us!"

- Inscription on one of Jutta Gallus' posters at Checkpoint Charlie

In 1986 the relationship between Jutta Gallus and her partner broke up; after the separation, he was able to reunite with his son, who lived in the GDR.

Two years later, Gallus saw her daughters again after the girls, who were now 17 and 15, had submitted their own application to leave the country and the GDR leadership granted it, although the law did not allow minors to apply for their own. With the support of Wolfgang Vogel, the two daughters succeeded in transferring the right of upbringing from their biological father to their mother, who lives in the Federal Republic of Germany. This process was unique in the history of the GDR. On August 25, 1988, Wolfgang Vogel brought the two sisters to West Berlin .

Jutta Fleck later explained that it was not the negotiations at the highest political level but the vigils , hunger strikes and petitions that made it possible for her daughters to leave the country.

Jutta Fleck has lived in Wiesbaden since September 2007. She regularly appears in schools as a contemporary witness .

Political and historical reappraisal of the SED dictatorship

Fleck is the head of the priority project Political and Historical Processing of the SED dictatorship , which was set up in September 2009 at the Hessian State Center for Political Education . There

Life story as a book and film

The story of Jutta Gallus was immortalized by the author Ines Veith in the book "Jutta Gallus: Die Frau vom Checkpoint Charlie (A mother's desperate struggle for her daughters)", published in 2006. With Veronica Ferres in the lead role, the UFA television production directed by Miguel Alexandre produced the two-part film Die Frau vom Checkpoint Charlie , based on the book by Ines Veith, based on scripts by Annette Hess for ARD . This was first broadcast in Arte on September 28, 2007 in connection with an MDR documentary of the same name (director: Peter Adler) about the story of Jutta Gallus .

Honors

Jutta Fleck became a symbol of the peaceful resistance against the GDR dictatorship. She has received several awards for her commitment:

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Child abduction, Frauenknast, murder plot - How the GDR regime tormented this woman in Focus from November 9, 2014
  2. ↑ http://www.allgemeine-zeitung.de/vermischtes/vermischtes/die-frau-vom-checkpoint-charlie-aufhaben-war-fuer-sie-keine-option-interview-mit-jutta-fleck_14757506.htm
  3. ↑ Peter Zander: Mother Courage and the Stasi. In: welt.de . September 22, 2007, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Berliner Morgenpost: Mother Courage and her signs (link subject to payment)
  5. ↑ http://www.kas.de/hessen/de/publications/30750/
  6. ↑ http://www.igfm.de/eMail-Rundbrief-Jutta-Gallus.990.0.html
  7. ↑ Focus 39/2007 of September 24, 2007, illus. P. 169
  8. ↑ Peter Adler: Die Frau vom Checkpoint Charlie - The Documentation , television documentary, March 21, 2008, 9:45 pm, MDR television .
  9. ^ Political and historical reappraisal of the SED dictatorship
  10. ↑ Awarded: District Administrator Matthias Wilkes gives the laudation to Jutta Fleck, the 22nd holder of the Bürstädter Courage Order  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Südhessen Morgen on January 21, 2008, accessed on September 28, 2012@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / rathaus-buerstadt.de  
  11. ↑ http://www.hlz.tu-darmstadt.de/index.php?id=th_sed
personal data
SURNAME Fleck, Jutta
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gallus, Jutta
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German victim of the SED dictatorship
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden