Stasi headquarters: How civil rights activists received admission without violence

Stasi headquarters: How civil rights activists received admission without violence

In a historical moment 35 years ago, the Stasi headquarters in Erfurt experienced an unexpected turn: civil rights activists occupied the building and demanded transparency and freedom! Thilo Günther, an expert from the Federal Archives for Stasi documents, describes how these brave activists were in contact and the occupation took place without violence. "It was crucial that the Stasi did not use firearms against the demonstrators," he emphasizes.

Jürgen Wagner, who served as a Stasi Oberst in Erfurt until the end of the GDR, remembers the dramatic scenes: "We asked the citizens up to speak to them." But the Situation quickly escalated when more and more people tried to penetrate the secret headquarters. Wagner and his colleagues faced the choice: confrontation or dialogue? "We decided not to allow a confrontation and the first office in the GDR gave the citizens to admission," he explains.

secret instructions of the Stasi

The Stasi even had specific instructions for dealing with the demonstrators. According to Günther, the most absurd details were recorded on how to communicate with the civil rights activists. "There were real texts that were specified from the headquarters to talk to people in the territorial dialect," he reports. This bizarre strategy shows how much the Stasi tried to keep control while the citizens rose against the regime.