Former Stasi prison still casts its shadow

The neon light in the corridors is the only bright thing about the gloomy building that symbolizes like nothing else the history of political persecution in the former East Germany. Sparsely furnished cells and interrogation rooms with padded doors add to the sense of chill felt by visitors as they walk through the complex in the Berlin suburb of Hohenschoenhausen. Thousands of people offering resistance or trying to flee the communist country were detained in the remand prison operated by the dreaded Ministry of State Security, or Stasi. One of them was Peter-Michael Wulkau, a writer and lecturer on politics who occasionally acts as a tour guide of the complex that was turned into a memorial after German unification in 1990. "We weren't permitted to make a sound that could be interpreted by our guards as a sign of communication with fellow prisoners," the 60-year old said of the psychological torture he experienced. The Stasi called this "operative psychology" - the process by which prisoners were kept in solitary confinement and totally isolated until their resistance was broken. "There was no radio, television or newspapers. You weren't even allowed to have a photograph of your family," Wulkau told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Sleep deprivation was also common. There were traffic lights in the corridors. If they turned to red the prisoner had to stop and face the wall so that he could not see who passed. Failure to do so resulted in punishment. Wulkau first ran afoul of the authorities in 1971 when he was accused of "revanchism" and expelled from Leipzig University shortly before taking his final exams for a degree in philosophy. He earned a living as a chemical factory worker and waiter while writing a satirical novel about life in the so-called worker's state, which he hoped to have published in the West. He also wrote a letter to East German leader Erich Honecker, outlining what he believed was wrong with the system and putting forward his case to leave. "I had no intention of fleeing because I did not want to be shot," he said in reference to the automatic shooting devices on the inner- German border. "I wanted to leave with my head held high." When he finished his book he gave the manuscript to a diplomat friend who promised to take it to West Berlin. Instead, he promptly handed it over to the Stasi. "It turned out he was a paid informant," said Wulkau. Wulkau was picked up by the Stasi and spent seven months in Hohenschoenhausen before being tried and sentenced to four and a half years in prison for "agitation against the state." He was released early as part of an amnesty and later allowed to settle in West Berlin with his wife and daughter. The manuscript was returned to him in the 1990s, but by then publishers were no longer interested. Wulkau hopes there might still be chance of it getting into print because of renewed interest in the Stasi generated by this year's Oscar-winning German movie drama The Lives of Others. The author says he no longer feels emotions welling up inside him when he shows visitors around the place of his incarceration. "You can look back, but it's best to look ahead," he said. The Stasi was the most important instrument in maintaining the communist dictatorship in East Germany. Until the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, some 91,000 full-time Stasi employees and 180,000 unofficial collaborators ensured the blanket surveillance of the population. In a touch of irony, Stasi minister Erich Mielke was briefly imprisoned in Hohenschoenhausen in the early 1990s, but was transferred to West Berlin's Moabit prison after he complained about the poor conditions. Every year, around 170,000 tourists visit the remand prison, which has been a memorial site since 1994. The German and Berlin city governments this year earmarked 16 million euros (23 million dollars) to expand and refurbish facilities for visitors.