Tatjana Sterneberg

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Tatjana Sterneberg (born March 14, 1952 in Berlin-Lichtenberg ) is a former German forced laborer in the GDR . She is the founder and chairwoman of the “Friends of the meeting and memorial Hoheneck e. V. ". In May 1974 she was sentenced to three years and eight months imprisonment for "establishing contacts against the state and preparing to illegally cross the border". Sterneberg works to come to terms with the SED dictatorship .

Life

Sterneberg completed an apprenticeship as a restaurant specialist in East Berlin from 1968 to 1970 ; afterwards she worked in the hotel “Stadt Berlin”, today's “Park Inn”. Due to a love affair with the West Berlin- based Italian Antonio Borzachiello, she applied for an exit visa ; this was rejected. Star mountain then decided to leave the country illegally. Her escape plans were revealed by a colleague in her work environment who served as an informant for the Ministry of State Security ; this informant acted as a decoy and allegedly wanted to put Sterneberg in touch with escape helpers. On November 7, 1973, Sterneberg was arrested by the GDR State Security in her apartment in Berlin-Lichtenberg, her friend Antonio at Checkpoint Charlie . For almost a year she spent in Stasi investigation by way of the Stasi prison in Kissingen street in Berlin-Pankow . On May 13, 1974, she was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison for "engaging in subversive liaison and preparing to illegally cross the border " and her boyfriend to five years; until 1976 she was in the Hoheneck women's prison in Stollberg / Erzgeb. imprisoned. During her imprisonment, she had to do forced labor in the GDR. She was there as inmate number 6317 in the “work detachment”. For Sterneberg “work to the limit” was ordered. She worked for VEB Planet; For this company she sewed, among other things, bed linen and pillow cases (sewn code number 18), which were offered in catalogs of the mail order companies Quelle and Neckermann . In October 1976, Sterneberg was ransomed for DM 40,000 and deported to the Federal Republic of Germany . In 1977 he married her Italian friend Antonio in Naples ; he died in 2006 of the long-term effects of his imprisonment. The marriage produced a son.

Sterneberg's partner is the political activist and former GDR resistance activist Carl-Wolfgang Holzapfel . Tatjana Sterneberg lives in Berlin-Charlottenburg .

Coming to terms with the GDR dictatorship

Sterneberg has been working intensively since the 2000s to come to terms with the GDR dictatorship. In 2004 she opened a counseling center for SED / GDR victims in Berlin at the Social Association of Germany (SoVD), LV Berlin. In 2009 she left the SoVD after protesting against the employment of a former Stasi officer in the counseling center. From 2006 to 2008, Sterneberg was deputy chairwoman of the women's group of former Hohenecker women. She was responsible for initiating and organizing the visit of the then Federal President Christian Wulff in 2011 to Hoheneck; as a result, the fate of the forced laborers in the Hoheneck women's prison was brought back to the public eye for the first time. Sterneberg spoke to Wulff in October 2010 in the Reichstag in Berlin and drew attention to the Hoheneck women's prison.

In September 2011, Sterneberg founded the "Friends of the meeting and memorial Hoheneck eV"

She is a member of the Association June 17, 1953 eV; since 2010 she has been a member of the board (treasurer, acting manager).

Sterneberg completed numerous appearances, interviews (press, radio, television) and lectures in schools and memorials (e.g. Lindenstrasse Potsdam ). In 2008 she planned, organized and led a three-week event with Holzapfel in Barnim under the motto "The Bernauer - Historical Conflicts on the Doorstep". She was involved in the exposure of the IM (Stasi) activity of the medical director in the GDR prison Hoheneck, Peter Janata.

reception

Aspects of the life story of Sterneberg were filmed in the ARD television film It's not over (screenplay: Kristin Derfler ). The film tells the story of a former inmate of the Hoheneck women's prison who was imprisoned in the GDR because of an attempt to escape in Hoheneck.

Anja Kling played the main female role ; her partners were Tobias Oertel (as her husband) and Ulrich Noethen (as a prison doctor who works for the Stasi). In particular, the administration of health-damaging psychotropic drugs and sedatives such as Prothazin, Faustan, Rudotel and Radepur, medical tests and the cooperation of doctors with the Ministry for State Security of the GDR were discussed.

Sterneberg is considered a role model for the film character Carola Weber. On the occasion of the film, the Gauck authorities presented the fate of Tatjana Sterneberg as an example on the topic of doctors and the Stasi. Sterneberg suffered the fate of the film character Carola Weber in real life. She was mistreated in the Hoheneck women's prison. Sterneberg explained in an interview with the Bild newspaper: “I suffered a lot of what happened to the woman in the film. I have been given psychotropic drugs against my will and without my knowledge. I still suffer from the consequences of imprisonment today. And the doctor who did this to me on behalf of the Stasi is now a respected man who runs a general practitioner practice. "In an interview with the Berliner Kurier , Sterneberg said:" He [the film] reflects that [sic], what we women went through in Hoheneck ”.

Sterneberg was involved in the television film as a contemporary witness, consultant and extra ; she had conversations about her fate and the like. a. with the actress Anja Kling.

literature

  • Dirk von Nayhaus, Maggi Riepl: The Dark Place , Bebra-Verlag Berlin, ISBN 3-937233-99-7
  • Tobias Wunschik: prison goods for the class enemy - prisoner work in the GDR, east-west trade and state security (1970-1989) , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, ISBN 978-3-525-35080-5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e forced laborer for Quelle and Neckermann in: Handelsblatt, May 4, 2012.
  2. ↑ a b c d My horror years in the Stasi women's barracks in: Berliner Kurier from November 7, 2011.
  3. ^ GDR forced labor allegedly for other West companies ( memento from April 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ http://www.n-tv.de/politik/Nicht-nur-Ikea-profitierte-article6186446.html
  5. ↑ http://www.bstu.bund.de/DE/InDerRegion/Schwerin/Notizen/20130415_frauen_von_hoheneck.html
  6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20131018014808/http://www.mdr.de/exakt/zwangsarbeiter102-download.pdf
  7. ↑ a b c d e Tatjana Sterneberg wanted to marry an Italian and ended up in prison for three years in: Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung of September 17, 2011.
  8. ↑ a b c d It's like a birthday: 28 years ago today, Tatjana Sterneberg from Hoheneck was bought free in: BZ of October 24, 2004.
  9. ↑ a b c Working for the West in: Der Tagesspiegel from May 6, 2012.
  10. ↑ a b c Deutschlandradio: Förderkreis Hoheneck should fix it report; Deutschlandradio Kultur from April 23, 2012 (accessed on the official website of the Association June 17, 1953 eV)
  11. ↑ "It is not over" ( Memento of the original from January 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Official website of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic, accessed on May 10, 2012 (link invalid) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bstu.bund.de
  12. ↑ Why is he still allowed to practice? in Berliner Kurier on November 10, 2011.
  13. ↑ a b c d The real story behind the TV drama: Anja Kling, what did you know about the Stasi women's prison? Interview in: picture from November 10, 2011.
  14. ↑ http://www.zeitzeugenbuero.de/index.php?id=615&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=48&cHash=41311a8aebcdccefc17861e93a38672d
  15. ↑ http://www.vr.de/de/title-1-1/knastware_fuer_den_klassenfeind-1011509/
personal data
SURNAME Sterneberg, Tatjana
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German forced laborer and founder of an association
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin-Lichtenberg