An older delightful man of at least age 80 can make your heart melt!
Today we hopped on a bus to tour Hohenschonhausen Memorial which is a former Stasi Prison. Members of the Stasi were the official "Secret Police of East Germany." They were made up of both men and women and were "master interrogators."
The Stasi police were paid quite well for their work. Most of their families had know idea what they really did for a living though!
The Stasi was known as one of the most effective intelligence and secret police agencies in the world. The MFS stands for "Ministerium fur Staatssicherheit" or Ministry of State Security and was connected to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany or SED; which is basically equivalent to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
The goal of the Stasi was to keep the communist dictatorship in East Germany. Thousands were imprisoned here including Mr. Eberhard Zahn; who was thrown into jail at age 23 for writing three political articles. Zahn explained that the Stasi told him "he endangered the peace of Germany and the whole world including the U.S." He stayed at the Stasi prison for seven years between 1953-1960, and was confined to one very small cell for the first ten months. Then he was taken out and moved, after being interrogated.
During interrogation, prisoners were transported to special rooms in another building and the way Mr. Zahn explained it, he was almost anxious to talk just to have some kind of interaction with another human being! I would go nuts if I had nothing to do but sit and stare at an empty room 24/7. It was awful to think about the mind games one must play with themselves going through that type of torture. These camps were essentially "silence camps.' Prisoners weren't physically tortured or forced to work, they were crammed into overfilled barracks.
But to bide time in the close confines of his cell, Mr. Zahn says he would recite math problems over and over again in his head or his favorite lines of Shakespeare so he wouldn't go completely crazy being by himself almost the entire time.
Tears started pouring from the pockets of my eyes as Mr. Zahn began reciting his favorite Shakespearean poem to us in his very own jail cell. At first, I didn't understand why someone would want to return to a place filled with such painful memories, but then I got it. Mr. Zahn explained how triumphant it felt for him to be back here; completely free and giving museum tours to those of us who wanted to know about his past and the way he was treated here. He was the most delightful, happy, energetic senior citizen I have ever met and it seemed very therapeutic for him to talk about his horrendous past inside the walls of this former Stasi prison.
The other cells were extremely small as well, and sometimes people were stuffed in like animals! It was heart breaking to see how cold and creepy these tiny rooms were. According to a brochure on this particular Stasi camp, about 3,000 people died here. The emotions I felt here were as heartfelt as they were at the Nazi concentration camp, although here I really appreciated the fact we had an actual former prisoner as our tour guide!
When Mr. Zahn was arrested he had something like $64,000 marks on him and members of the Stasi believed he was a spy. He claims those accusations were totally unfounded and false! I felt bad for him but I also realized Mr. Zahn made this time in his life a part of who he is today. And he seems to be the most gracious, wonderful person one could ever meet.
I really enjoyed my time spent at the old Stasi prison. We also learned 200,000 visitors toured this prison last year and they hope to get 50,000 more people this year.
Oh by the way, there were 17 Stasi prisons in all.
After visiting the Stasi prison - we met up with Dr. Wolfgang Lutterbach. He is the head of the International and European Union Policy at the Federation of Trade Unions. DGB presents future related ideas for a social market economy.
There are 8 branch unions in Germany with 6.3 million members total. It was interesting to learn that Germany does not have a minimum wage. 19 out of 27 countries within the European Union have a minimum wage. I liked hearing that Unions in Germany don't pay a dime to any political coffers associated with political parties. I never understood why some of the Unions in the U.S. come out in support of one candidate over another.
Dr. Lutterbach also discussed the social and economical challenges of globalization and how the Union can handle it.
Friday was an extremely busy day. After our Union meeting we were off to a radio station called RS2. This station is an extension of RIAS (Radio In the American Sector) which was designed to broadcast the truth in East Germany. RIAS was based in West Berlin but broadcast into East Germany. People were thrown in jail for listening to RIAS radio broadcasting. I can't even comprehend that! It's a basic right to listen to whatever radio or television program you want and to take that away from someone is insane to me!
There weren't any commercials played on the RIAS station and when the East and West united, the amount of radio stations doubled. Here in Germany groups of radio stations compete with each other to get listeners.
Radio in Germany not only informed but it entertained as well. It was very popular but with the RS2 or RIAS 2 - before it became privatized everything was paid for by tax dollars.
Rick DeLisle is a famous American radio host in Berlin at RS2. He came here in the 70's with the United States Air Force and never left. He met his wife and raised his children here as well. DeLisle was quite the opinionated, outspoken character and I really enjoyed our conversation.
He says he sort of fell into radio (being in the right place, at the right time) and loved the "gig" so much he decided to stay! He's retired now but does a one hour show from 7-8 p.m. every night and he still loves it. DeLisle says he comes in and records his shows ahead of time in bulk so he's not at the station that often. He doesn't pick his playlist, but has the final say over the tone and mood of his program! From what I understand, DeLisle is a legend here in Berlin.
He's known as the "Ami" on air which is short for American. He talked about the most successful radio station being the one that gets closest to its listeners.
He also taught us about the Ebinghaust Curve from Klaus Ebinghaust's book in 1898 called "About Memory." The concept is simple; "The faster you learn something, the quicker you forget it." And "If it takes you a long time to learn something, it'll take you a long time to forget it as well." I find these statements completely accurate.
DeLisle said German radio is far advanced from stations in the U.S. because the stations here deliver what the people want!
DeLisle also told us he's often interviewed by local television stations about issues concerning America or his opinion on other ideas as well. He was a very animated, enjoyable host.
Finally the last stop of the day, might've been the most exciting part of the day. After rushing back from the Radio Station we raced up to our hotels rooms to get ready for dinner. Tonight we were meeting former German RIAS fellows who had already spent a month in the states with the same program.
I was paired up with Dr. Herdin Wipper. He's a Sports Broadcaster/Manager at Deutsche Welle Television here in Berlin. What a wonderful host he was! Dr. Herdin Wipper was raised in West Germany but came to Berlin to go to University and never left. It took him six years to earn his doctorate in sports but you can tell he really loves his job.
At first, Dr. Herdin and I exchanged small gifts from our stations with each other. He brought me a stuffed animal polar bear with the Deutsche Welle logo on it. It's modeled after the famous Berlin Polar Bear named Knut. I brought him an Interactive t-shirt from WYOU-TV and a coffee mug from WBRE-TV. He seemed to like his gifts a lot! Then he asked me what type of food I was interested in eating and of course it was to have an authentic german meal!
But before that he took me to Deutsche Welle TV, which is an international television station based in Germany, Moscow and Washington. The station was massive! We arrived just in time to see an English language show called "Journal," which focuses on International news.
The lead story was an interview with George Bush and the financial crises in the states. I had the opportunity to also tour the station and meet many German employees as well as a few Americans (the two hosts of the show "Journal" and some Aussies and Irish people who work there too). It was interesting to hear the hosts speak English and everyone in the control center speaking back to them in German.
The format of the show was a little different than what you would watch in America. The Anchors don't announce who the reporter is covering the story because it's usually someone who translated the German version of the story in English and then re-voiced it! That's a very different concept to me, almost like handing your work off to someone else who takes all the credit for it. But not really I guess, because they put the German journalists name on a line at the very beginning of the story.
So after watching the show we went to this old-school style German restaurant and I had a roast roll of beef filled with vegetables, red cabbage and two potato dumplings. I ate every last lick of my plate and also enjoyed some good german wine as well. I noticed though the waiter didn't really even address me at all. I'm not sure why, but he only spoke to Dr. Hardin. I'm not even sure if it was just the language barrier. Interesting.
Then it was off to another restaurant/bar known as "Blaus Band!" It was a beautiful quaint Italian restaurant. We had another drink there and discussed life here in Germany versus life in the States. Dr. Hardin is excited to be getting married for the first time this June. His fiance's name is Anna and she's a 32 year-old lawyer. I didn't get the opportunity to meet her because she was on vacation with her Mother for the week near the Sea.
Dr. Hardin is currently remodeling his "flat" that he and Anna will live in when they are married. Apparently, it's not unusual for a tenant to renovate the apartment they're living in. Sometime the landlord will split the cost with his or her tenant. Speaking of which, did you know 87% of Berliners rent apartments in the city while just 13% own? I was amazed by this statistic.
Dr. Hardin has had his place for 13 years and the rent has stayed the same the entire time! Lucky man. I wish I could say the same, although back in Wilkes-Barre, PA rent has been very reasonable and I really cannot complain. We talked about so many things Dr. Hardin and I. The biggest one being about how all eyes around the world seem to watch every move made by the United States of America. It really is astonishing and I guess it took flying half way around the globe to realize that!
Finally our last stop of the night was to an underground nightclub called "Icon." It's owned by Dr. Hardin's close friend Pamela (pronounced Pah-Mee-Lah) and her boyfriend Lars. Pamela was such a warm wonderful person. Here's her interesting story. She and Lars opened the club about 12 years ago and today it's doing quite well. That night they even flew in this well known D.J. "Benga" from London.
Pamela and Dr. Hardin work together at Deutsche Welle and have been great friends over the years. Pamela explained the club is open 'till the early morning hours and the place gets packed between 3-4 o'clock in the morning. We weren't out that late, so I didn't get the chance to see but there were plenty of people coming in while we were there. I actually ran into two 18-year-olds from outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Their names were Alex and Jack and they had just graduated high school and were back packing around Europe for a few months. I was very jealous of them both and wishing I was as adventurous at that age. Oh Well - I guess it's never too late to start. The night ended around 1:45 that morning and I tell ya' I was tired. Great day though, aside from the first day with all the sightseeing this day ranks second.
I caught up with a few other fellows at the hotel who were arriving home at about the same time I was and we all caught up and found out how each others' nights went. Everyone seemed to have a blast. Next time though, I really need to see someone's apartment. Maybe I'll meet and make new friends during my extension and then it will happen.
Off to bed - goodnight from Germany for now!
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