Political detention (GDR)

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Detention order from 1955 against Karl Wilhelm Fricke , signed by Erich Mielke

As Political detention (DDR) politically motivated detentions are in the GDR called. Almost all politically motivated convictions by the GDR judiciary resulted in imprisonment. The judgments were justified, among other things, with “ illegal border crossing ”, espionage , “public degradation”, eviction or refusal to serve. Political prisoners in the GDR also include those people who were in pre-trial detention for political reasons without a final conviction . The number of people politically imprisoned in the GDR is estimated at around 200,000–250,000. Nearly 34,000 of them were by the Federal Republic of Germany from 1962 ransomed .

Definition of political imprisonment

The definition of political imprisonment in the GDR turns out to be extremely difficult due to the underlying legal, political, moral and ideological dimensions. Establishing an operationalizable definition of political imprisonment in the GDR is made even more difficult by the complexity of the system of exercise of power in the GDR.

In general, the term political prisoner in the GDR describes people who were "arrested or convicted because of their convictions and the resulting behavior, because of their belonging to a social class or because of their politically or religiously justified opposition to communism" In addition, there may have been political prisoners in the GDR who did not commit any criminal offenses that could be classified as political within the meaning of the GDR Criminal Code, but were convicted on the basis of general criminal offenses. The determining criteria for the political quality of general criminal offenses are "the guilty consciousness and motive of the agent on the one hand, the conditionality of the detention due to the political and social conditions in the GDR on the other hand to be considered"

In the Prisoner Assistance Act of 1955, the Federal Republic of Germany defined political prisoners in the GDR as persons who were “taken into custody for political reasons and for reasons beyond their control”. According to the principles of the Federal Administrative Court of 1959 and 1961, the person is considered to be “ political prisoner "who was taken into custody in the GDR" for political reasons "and whose detention was" due to the cause and duration of the political situation [...] ". Political reasons for detention are those "which can be traced back to the special domestic political development that the Soviet occupation zone took in the post-war period in contrast to the domestic political developments in the western occupation areas", especially if the behavior was based on the principles recognized in the liberal democracies of the prisoner would not have justified the imprisonment ”.

GDR authorities did not use the term political detention , but officially denied the existence of political prisoners in the GDR. According to an order by the GDR Justice Minister Max Fechner , the term political prisoner was only allowed to be used for victims of National Socialism; According to the SED leadership, people imprisoned for political reasons in the GDR were criminals who were directed against the "anti-fascist-democratic" order of the GDR. In reporting on an amnesty on the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of the GDR, however, the central organ of the SED Neues Deutschland first spoke of “political and criminal offenders”. In 1981, Erich Honecker used the term “political prisoner in the” in an interview with the British publisher Robert Maxwell GDR ”: “ Since the last amnesty in 1979 there have been no more political prisoners here! ” The 1979 amnesty released 21,928 people. It is not known how many political prisoners were among them, but of the approximately 80 convicted prisoners who were under Amnesty International care or whose cases were being investigated at the time, more than 55 were released. Around 1,500 of the amnestied people were released to the Federal Republic.

Amnesty International uses the term internationally in its concern and calls for the release of “prisoners of conscience, that is men and women who are imprisoned anywhere in the world because of their beliefs, skin color, ethnic origin, language, belief or gender Have neither used violence nor called for it to be used ”With regard to the GDR, Amnesty International has repeatedly criticized specific examples of political imprisonment.

Legal basis

The Law on the Rehabilitation and Compensation of Victims of Unlawful Prosecution Measures in the Accession Area ( Criminal Law Rehabilitation Act - StrRehaG) lists a number of norms of GDR criminal law that were generally used for political persecution. This catalog of rules includes from the GDR Criminal Code :

as well as " boycott agitation " according to Article 6 Paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the German Democratic Republic of October 7, 1949.

In addition, there were other norms of the GDR criminal law that served political persecution. Articles § 20 ("Defamation of the State"), § 107 ("Unconstitutional Association"), § 214 ("Impairment of State or Social Activity"), § 215 ("Hooliganism"), § 216 ("Serious Cases." "), § 217 (" Gathering "), § 218 (" Association for the pursuit of illegal goals "), § 225 (" Failure to report ") and § 249 (" Anti-social behavior "). The Ministry for State Security (MfS) tried in some cases to deliberately criminalize individuals. For example, Wolf Biermann targeted minors with the aim of being able to prosecute him later.

In particular, § 215 "Hooliganism" as a rubber paragraph was formulated so vaguely that it was often used for political condemnations and thus criminalized. "The classic case was the massive arrest and prosecution of riots on October 7, 1977 ( GDR national holiday )" ( Wilhelm Heinz Schröder, Jürgen Wilke :) on Alexanderplatz in Berlin, where state power was "inappropriately" on a minor occasion "Overreacted". Here, after a rock concert , the young customers were suddenly faced with massive police violence of an unknown extent and - not informed about the reason for the operation - began to defend themselves initially only with politically non-conformist chanting, which eventually turned into counter violence. There were innumerable badly injured teenagers. Many hundreds were brought in and 468 (source: Hauptabteilung IX, investigative body of the MfS ) had to accept disproportionately harsh sentences for their rebellion from today's perspective (between six weeks imprisonment for participating in the choruses - which is free expression under the rule of law - and up to three years for Throwing stones etc.). The majority of those convicted were between 16 and 18 years old. The background to this largest youth protest in the GDR was u. a. the restrictive policy of the SED government in the context of Biermann's expatriation and the subsequent exodus of many popular sympathizers and artists.

Amnesty International summarizes in its 1989 annual report:

“However, there were concerns that far more people have been imprisoned on the basis of laws that severely restrict freedom of expression , association and assembly, and freedom of movement . The authorities increasingly made use of short-term detention to harass members of peace and environmental groups, church and human rights associations , and those wishing to leave the country. "

- Amnesty International, 1989 Annual Report

Number of political prisoners in the GDR

There are various estimates of the number of political prisoners in the GDR, the results of which mostly differ depending on the sources, definition of terms, estimation method and period of study. On the one hand, there is no consistent data on the number of people detained for political reasons; Statistics in this regard were not kept continuously within the GDR. In addition, it is not always possible to determine the real reason for a conviction afterwards. Many people were (wrongly) convicted of allegedly apolitical offenses for political reasons. In addition, political prisoners in the GDR are not only counted as legally convicted persons, but also remand prisoners .

The Central Registration Office in Salzgitter registered a total of 30,752 political convictions between 1962 and 1990, but was only able to record some of the convictions due to its working method and its temporary existence.

In 1993, the historian Brigitte Oleschinski estimated the number of political prisoners at around 200,000 on the basis of the Central Release Index of prisoners of the former prison administration of the GDR. The Federal Ministry of Justice assumed 180,000 political prisoners in 1994, but explicitly excluded the camp internees of the Soviet occupation forces from this number. In 1998, Klaus Schroeder named the number of 200,000 political prisoners. In the same year, Falco Werkentin assumed at least 250,000 victims of political criminal justice and stated that this number does not include the approximately 100,000 people who were convicted of white-collar criminals in the 1950s due to their class background. In 2009, Jens Gieseke limited the number of political prisoners to between 170,000 and 280,000.

history

During the first ten years of the GDR, political opposition was fought primarily as incitement to war and boycott with methods of criminal law . As a result, most of the political prisoners were sentenced in the 1950s. Among them were above all the victims of internal party “purges”, including Walter Janka , Erich Loest , Wolfgang Harich and Paul Merker, as well as the victims of the “ Waldheim Trials ”. After the suppressed workers' uprising on June 17, 1953 , around 8,000 people were imprisoned for an alleged "fascist attempted coup". Occasionally, people like the journalist Karl Wilhelm Fricke were kidnapped from the Federal Republic of Germany by the Ministry of State Security and then imprisoned in the GDR. The GDR judiciary also proceeded with draconian severity against young oppositionists such as Hermann Flade , Werzeit Oberschüler and the Eisenberger Kreis . In order to enable expropriations in the course of the forced collectivization of agriculture and trade, numerous self-employed farmers as well as small and medium-sized businesses were arrested for alleged economic crimes.

GDR trial against escape helper Harry Seidel , 1962

As a result of the construction of the Wall in 1961, the number of failed escape attempts from the GDR rose . The people caught in attempted "illegal border crossing" and their escape helpers such as B. Harry Seidel were arrested (if they could be gotten). People placed on the western borders of other Eastern Bloc countries were also arrested at the request of the GDR authorities and usually transferred to the GDR after two to three weeks.

With the introduction of general conscription in the GDR in 1962, the political criminal offense of conscientious objection was added. The SED leadership did make concessions to church objectors by accepting a conscientious objection and instead enabling unarmed (but not civilian) service as a construction soldier . Nevertheless, despite imprisonment, some opted for a total refusal .

With the internal isolation of the GDR as a result of the construction of the Wall, judicial terror was given up in 1963. Especially since the beginning of the Honecker era in 1971, the SED leadership intensified its efforts to sanction oppositional behavior without the application of criminal law. Important reasons for this were the GDR's striving for international recognition and the German-German rapprochement from the end of the 1960s. The GDR committed itself to respect for human rights both in the basic treaty with the Federal Republic of Germany and by joining the UN Charter and signing the CSCE Final Act . As a result, the SED regime tried to reduce the number of political prisoners and to compensate for the promised concessions with repression practices below the threshold of arrest and conviction. For this purpose, the MfS increasingly resorted to decomposition measures. Nevertheless, the political opposition continued to be arrested, particularly in connection with internal social crises (Prague Spring 1968, Biermann expatriation in 1976). But even without becoming politically active, many GDR citizens were arrested. For example, applicants for emigration were often deliberately criminalized and imprisoned.

From the end of the 1970s, the SED regime forced imprisonment for political reasons, as the release of prisoners operated by the Federal Republic ( see section on the release of prisoners ) developed into an important source of income.

With the political change in the GDR and the reunification of Germany , many victims of politically motivated criminal prosecution were rehabilitated under criminal law and, in some cases, financially compensated ( see section on rehabilitation ).

Custody

Political detention in the GDR was usually initiated by the Ministry for State Security. Unlike prisons, pre- trial detention centers were under the supervision of the Ministry of State Security. In addition to the central pre-trial detention centers I ( Berlin-Hohenschönhausen ) and II (Magdalenenstraße, Berlin-Lichtenberg ), each of the 15 district administrations of the State Security had its own pre-trial detention center. Pretrial detention within the MfS was carried out by Department XIV of the MfS headquarters or the respective district administration; members of the Feliks E. Dzierzynski guard regiment were also used as guards. The conduct of the investigation (interrogation) was the responsibility of Line IX (Main Department IX and Departments IX of the District Administrations) of the Ministry for State Security. In accordance with Section 88 of the GDR's Code of Criminal Procedure, in addition to the police and customs authorities, it performed the task of the “investigative body”. The organs of the MfS were supported above all by the political department 1A within the criminal police of the MdI.

In the case of politically motivated arrests, pre-trial detention generally did not pursue the aim of an impartial investigation. Rather, the fundamental guilt of the prisoner on remand was already established before his arrest due to the information obtained through conspiratorial means. Instead, the pre-trial detention served almost exclusively the purpose of obtaining incriminating statements from the pre-trial detainee, since the information previously obtained illegally could usually not be used in court.

While the penal system was regulated by the penal system, there was no corresponding law on the enforcement of pre-trial detention; this was regulated by the “house rules” of the respective detention center. Erich Mielke , Minister for State Security, clarified the nature of pre-trial detention at an internal service conference in 1979:

“But it must also be clear, always only cautiously, cautiously and again cautiously - out of fear and fear that the people concerned could harm themselves that nothing happens - that must finally be put to an end. [...] And if a criminal, a depraved subject, does something to himself because he realizes that we have recognized him and we take action against him with all consistency, then that is a thousand times better than if he succeeds in realizing his criminal intentions realize or continue to harm others. [...] Strictly enforcing socialist legality, fully exploiting all possibilities, this is especially true with regard to enemies who continue to be treated like enemies. "

- Erich Mielke, 1979

The Federal Agency for Civic Education stated: “The MfS maintained its own pre-trial detention centers, in which physical and psychological abuse of political prisoners was no exception. Even after their release, political prisoners had to expect restrictions, e. B. Professional bans. "

Penal system

Political prisoners were not kept separately in the GDR, but instead imprisoned in the penal system (in the GDR: "penal system"), thus being treated on an equal footing with criminals (criminalized). Many politicians were brought to prison labor camps (HAL) or prison detention centers (STVK). In reality, however, political prisoners were treated and treated worse off than criminal prisoners from the start. The guard was carried out (except in Bautzen II ) by employees of the prison service of the People's Police . These were subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior.

Conditions of detention and consequences of detention

The years 1949 to 1953 were marked by increased deaths among prisoners - mainly from hunger and secondary diseases. Between 1954 and 1970 these extreme prison conditions were improved. Since 1971, prison officials , now known as “educators,” have been prohibited from using force , but some have not complied. The hygienic conditions improved. During the entire period, however, the period of pre-trial detention was characterized by harassment such as solitary confinement , interrogations at night, the associated sleep deprivation or lack of sleep, as well as isolation and information barriers for prisoners, i.e. any contact with the outside world was prohibited. The consequences of imprisonment for many former prisoners include fears and depression, as well as physical illnesses, as well as sleep and concentration disorders . There are also professional disadvantages due to missing or insufficient training due to imprisonment .

Rehabilitation

After the political change in the GDR, the Supreme Court of the GDR tried to repeal politically justified court decisions. The People's Chamber of the GDR passed a law on September 6, 1990, which provided for the rehabilitation of persons who had been prosecuted under criminal or administrative law for an act with which they had exercised constitutionally guaranteed basic rights. However, following the accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany, the law no longer acquired any practical significance. The Federal Republic of Germany fulfilled the obligation contained in the Unification Treaty to create a rehabilitation option for victims of politically motivated criminal prosecution, including appropriate compensation regulations, when the First SED Injustice Laws came into force on November 4, 1992. This contains a criminal rehabilitation act (StrRehaG), according to which victims of criminal injustice and unlawful deprivation of liberty in the Soviet Zone / GDR are entitled to legal and social reparation upon application and under certain conditions . For example, political prisoners in the GDR who are socially needy receive a monthly victim pension of 250 euros if they can be proven to have been detained for 180 days or more . According to the Bundestag resolution of December 4, 2014, it was increased to EUR 300 with the consent of the Federal Council on December 19, 2014.

Release of prisoners

From 1962 the Federal Republic of Germany tried to buy political prisoners out of the GDR. Freed prisoners were then released and expatriated to the Federal Republic. The release of prisoners continued until the fall of the Berlin Wall . Between 1963 and 1989 a total of 33,755 prisoners were ransomed for foreign currency and goods worth a total of around DM 3.5 billion. In this way, the release of prisoners developed into an important source of income for the GDR and led to a large number of political imprisonments from the late 1970s.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Political prisoners of the German Democratic Republic  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Schröder / Wilke: Political prisoners in the GDR. P. 5.
  2. ^ Fricke: Politics and Justice in the GDR. P. 8.
  3. ↑ See Karl Wilhelm Fricke: On the human and fundamental rights situation of political prisoners in the GDR - analysis and documentation . Cologne 1988, p. 19.
  4. ↑ Law on relief measures for people who were taken into custody for political reasons in areas outside of the Federal Republic of Germany and Berlin (West) (prisoner aid law ) of August 6, 1955 in the version of September 29, 1969.
  5. ↑ Leading sentence on the judgment of the Federal Administrative Court of September 9, 1959 (BVerwG Volume 12, p. 132), cited above. n. Schröder / Wilke: Political prisoners in the GDR. P. 4.
  6. ↑ Guiding principle on the judgment of the Federal Administrative Court of May 10, 1961 (BVerwG Volume 12, p. 236), cited above. n. Schröder / Wilke: Political prisoners in the GDR. P. 4.
  7. ↑ a b See Federal Agency for Civic Education : On the trail of a dictatorship: "Political detention" .
  8. ↑ See circular order no. 125/51 of the Minister of the MdJ of September 5, 1951: “Use of the designation 'Political prisoners'” , BArch, SAPMO , DP1-VA-7311.
  9. ^ New Germany of October 7, 1971, quoted in n. Finn / Fricke: Political prison system in the GDR. P. 10.
  10. ↑ Interview E. Honecker with R. Maxwell on the autobiography 1981 .
  11. ↑ See Amnesty International: Annual Report 1980 .
  12. ^ Amnesty International: Concern .
  13. ↑ See Amnesty International: 1978 Annual Report .
  14. ↑ See Amnesty International: 1983 Annual Report .
  15. ↑ § 1 No. 1 StrRehaG
  16. ↑ See Werkentin: Law and Justice in the SED State. P. 102f., Ansgar Borbe: The number of victims of the SED regime (PDF file; 691 kB) , Erfurt 2010, p. 14 as well as Anja Mihr: Amnesty International in the GDR - The Stasi ' s aim for human rights , Berlin 2002, p. 39 note 48.
  17. ↑ Cf. Jens Gieseke : The Mielke Group - The History of the Stasi 1950–1989 / 90 . Munich 2006, pp. 195f.
  18. ^ Political prisoners in the GDR. Attempt at a statistical description. P. 22
  19. ↑ Karl Winkler: To clarify a situation. Aufbau-Verlag, 1990, ISBN 3-351-01796-0 .
  20. ↑ Stasi investigation report (original final report of the MfS) on the protests on Alexanderplatz on http://www.bstu.bund.de/ viewed on November 15, 2013.
  21. ↑ Amnesty International: Annual Report 1989 .
  22. ↑ See Schröder / Wilke: Political prisoners in the GDR. P. 4.
  23. ↑ a b see Ansgar Borbe: The number of victims of the SED regime (PDF file; 691 kB) , Erfurt 2010, p. 16.
  24. ↑ See Michael Heinatz: Ten years of criminal rehabilitation in Germany. In: NJW 53 (41/2000), pp. 3022-3031.
  25. ↑ See Schröder / Wilke: Political prisoners in the GDR, p. 5.
  26. ↑ Cf. Brigitte Oleschinski: "Only for official use"? The taboo penal system in the GDR. In: Rolf Hanusch (Hrsg.): Locked Times - From Silence to Prisons in the GDR. Tutzing 1993, p. 7.
  27. ↑ See Federal Ministry of Justice (ed.): "In the name of the people". Scientific companion volume for the exhibition of the same name, Leipzig 1994.
  28. ↑ See Klaus Schroeder: The SED State - History and Structures of the GDR. Bavarian State Center for Political Education , Munich 1998.
  29. ↑ Cf. Falco Werkentin: The extent of political criminal justice in the GDR. In: Baumann / Kury: Politically motivated persecution: Victims of SED injustice. Pp. 49–74, here pp. 73f.
  30. ↑ Cf. Jens Gieseke: German Democratic Republic . In Lukasz Kaminski / Krzysztof Persak / Jens Gieseke (eds.): Handbook of Communist Secret Services in Eastern Europe 1944–1991 - Analyzes and Documents. Scientific series of the BStU Volume 33, Göttingen 2009, p. 248.
  31. ^ Rainer Schröder: History of GDR Law: Criminal and Administrative Law ( Memento of March 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , forum historiae iuris, April 6, 2004.
  32. ↑ Cf. Werkentin: Political criminal justice in the Ulbricht era. Pp. 405-408.
  33. ↑ See Hermann Weber : Die DDR 1945–1990 , Oldenburg 2000, p. 42f.
  34. ↑ See Werkentin: Law and Justice in the SED State. P. 67.
  35. ↑ Sandra Pingel-Schliemann: Destruction of Biographies. Decomposition as a phenomenon of the Honecker era. In: Eckart Conze / Katharina Gajdukowa / Sigrid Koch-Baumgarten (eds.): The democratic revolution in 1989 in the GDR . Cologne 2009, pp. 78–91.
  36. ↑ Art. 2 of the contract on the basis of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic of December 21, 1972. Doc. In: Matthias Judt (Ed.): GDR history in documents - resolutions, reports, internal materials and Everyday testimonials . Federal Agency for Civic Education Volume 350, Bonn 1998, p. 517.
  37. ↑ Art. 1 Para. 3 UN Charter. Doc. In: German Bundestag: Materials of the Enquete Commission on the processing of the history and consequences of the SED dictatorship in Germany , Volume 4, p. 547.
  38. ^ Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Final Act, Helsinki 1975, p. 11.
  39. ^ Johannes Raschka: "State crimes are not mentioned" - On the number of political prisoners during Honecker's term in office. In: Germany Archive , Volume 30 (1/1997), p. 196.
  40. ↑ Jens Raschka: Intimidation, exclusion, persecution - on political repression during Honecker's term in office . Reports and Studies, Volume 14, Dresden 1998, p. 15.
  41. ↑ See Werkentin: Law and Justice in the SED State. Pp. 70-79.
  42. ↑ a b c Cf. Beleites: Department XIV: Detention Center. P. 3.
  43. ↑ See Herbert Reinke: State Security and Justice. In: Federal Ministry of Justice (Ed.): In the name of the people? About the judiciary in the state of the SED . Scientific volume accompanying the exhibition, Leipzig 1994, pp. 240–242.
  44. ↑ Presentation by Erich Mielkes at the Central Service Conference of May 24, 1979, GVS MfS 0008 11/79, p. 89ff., Quoted. n. Johannes Beleites: The role of the MfS in the area of ​​pre-trial detention and the prison system in the GDR . In: Horch and Guck 24/1998, p. 50.
  45. ↑ Cf. Fricke: Politics and Justice in the GDR .
  46. ↑ See Bayern Radio: As a public enemy in GDR custody ( memento from September 1, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) .
  47. ^ Fifth law to improve rehabilitation regulations for victims of political persecution in the former GDR ( Federal Law Gazette 2014 I p. 2408 )
  48. ↑ See Anja Mihr: Amnesty International in the GDR. P. 41 and Ludwig A. Rehlinger : Freikauf - The GDR's business with politically persecuted people . Frankfurt am Main 1991.